1/48 Accurate Miniatures SBD-3 Dauntless (FINISHED)...

Great to see this one finished.

Fantastic finish, and great tutorial.

Joe you just turn out the greatest looking planes and you just turned out one of my all time favorite Pacific War planes. Looks fantastic Joe

You 'da man, Joe, another fine build.

Let me echo Greg, your accompanying text to detail the progress of your builds is always so helpful. I have learned a great deal from your build information writing, I've been building for many decades, but just never stepped out of my range of experience and modeling habits.

This has created new challenges and rewards for me, I'm much happier with my finished kits, now that I know more about detailing than I did before. Big thanks to you and all the other guys, that share so much about your building techniques and equipment.

Patrick  

Another beauty indeed, Joe.

You know I always enjoy your WIP threads. Impossible not to learn something. Hope you keep 'em coming.

Just gorgeous, and the decking really makes it pop!

Groot

Congrats on a fantastic build all the way thru! Weathering is wonderful!!

Just lovely, mate.  And on the strength of your outstanding pics, I bought one.

Can't wait to start it.

Thanks for sharing, man.  You've made a beautiful model.

Joe,

I am so stoked you got this one done. Another OUTSTANDING build. I want to build mine so bad I can't stand it. Hmmm....perhaps it's time. Great job my friend, stunning!!!  

Another nice one, Joe!

I was able to get a few nights at the bench recently.  I got it decaled and Flory washed.  The decals for this edition were horrible and the insignias refused to "unwrinkle".  The white was sort of transparent too.  Since this is the second kit in a row with decal mishap(s), perhaps it's operator error?  I ended up drenching them in Micro Sol until they were good enough. .     

............and I finally finish this guy.  Its in the markings of Paul "Lefty" Holmberg's VB-3 mount in the Battle of Midway from carrier Yorktown.  On June 4th 1942, Holmberg put his 1000 pounder through the elevator deck of the Carrier "Soryu".  Dauntless bombers from the Yorktown and Enterprise would sink three Japanese carriers in a matter of minutes on that day, which essentially spelled doom for the Japanese Navy.  Thank you for your valiant service.

Reference the kit, I learned an important lesson........don't buy kits from Ebay that have been started.  Aside from the gun deck issue, the kit was missing several parts from the "A" sprue.  I had to buy a donor kit which replaced what was missing.  This was a nicely detailed kit and I have no real complaints.  It wasn't a shake and bake, but not particularly challenging either.  I did rewire the engine and added Quickboost 50's in the front and then 30's in the rear.  For the base I used the el cheapo Verlinden deck (printed on cardboard) to represent the Yorktown (Essex class) carriers which were left in  natural wood color in 1942. 

Thanks for following and I invite critique.....

Joe 

Thanks guys...and your welcome Jay

Joe

Joe, it's always nice to see you paint!  =]

Very nicely done. The execution of the painted over stripes is well thought out and implemented. And your overall paint and weathering is remarkable. Sweet action Joe.

I'm really glad to see this one back up and running.  You're doing an amazing job on her.

Looking mighty fine!

Mike

Looking very realistic there Lawdog.  Your posts  are an inspiration and ty so much for sharing.

 I'm working on a Academy p-40 and I'm definately going to apply the weathering i see here to it.  BTW, the office came out great thanks to your tutorial .

Thanks all.  I'm glad to get going on this one again too and I'm making some progress too.  Last night I painted and weathered the upper.  These Midway Dauntless ships originally had red dots and red and white rudders, which were hastenly painted over for battle.  I wanted to replicate this with the rudder stripes still visible under the paint.  I painted the rudder XF-24 Dark Grey then taped off the stripe pattern. 

I dug out the instructions from my Tamiya Wildcat and used their recommendation for the USN Blue Grey.  This was XF-18 Medium Blue and a couple of drops of XF-2 Flat White.  I added few drops of XF-82 Ocean Grey to well......grey it up a bit more. 

I added more white then added condensation streaks and lightened the control surfaces.  I also dusted the rudder with the mixture so the grey stripes were only slightly seen.  I then added diltued XF-64 Red Brown and XF-69 NATO Black as a post shade for weathering.  I think this is about right, but it could possibly use more.  I added a tad more XF-64 for the exhaust streak along the fuselage.     

It's on to the wheels, gears, flaps and prop. 

Joe 

Sure glad to see you getting back to the Dauntless Joe. I've been waiting patiently for you to get this going again and see how you finish it out. Appears that you are off to a marvelous start.

This is a great read so far, I'll be following.  Thanks for all the info on products and techniques and the like, I'm learning lots here!

-Blake

Glad to see this one rolling through the assembly line once again. Looking good.

Great to see this one get going again.

Back in this saddle.  I first have to say that I'm glad I decided on just getting a donor kit for this project because I keep finding more missing parts as I go.  The top portion to the cowl (A83) was found to be missing,  Lesson learned...dont buy kits that had been started.   Anyways, Its funny how far you can get when you have the proper parts.  It took me no time at all to get here.  The engine and cowl were test fitted and I'm pleased with the fit.

The carb intake was deformed badly on this kit.  I had to do some filling and I added a strip of syrene to replace lost detail.   

The wing/fuselage joint fit poorly on this kit. It left huge gaps (see green putty).  I ended up filling the trenches, sanding, then rescribing the panel lines. 

It was then primed for paint.

The panel lines were then pre shaded with XF-1.

I decided on Lefty Holmberg's B-2 here, Although a great artist rendering, I wont go this weathered, 

I started with XF-66 Light Grey but it seemed too blue to me.  I ultimately decided on XF-19 Sky Grey underneath, which looked better to me. 

It was then grunged up with a postshade of XF-69 NATO Black and XF-64 Red Brown heavily diluted with 91% Isoprophyl Alcohol.  I then added a touch more of the XF-69 to my mixture and made streaks along the engine and centerline. 

Thats where I left off.  The Blue Grey is next, as soon as I figure out the Tamiya formula for it.

Joe 

Me 2 U2!

Can't wait!!!!!!!!!

I'm happy to report that I got a Dash-3 off ebay for 20 bucks and now that I finished Detroit Miss, I will resume operations on this turkey later this week.  

Joe

My holiday wish is that Joe gets his replacement parts and continues this terrific tutorial.

I'll be referring to this often as I start my own SBD-3.

Thanks Jay!

Greg

Hey Joe, back on page 1 about 3/4 way down you describe putting the clear barrier down prior to the Detailer wash.

You typed Testers Dullcoat, did you mean to type "Glosscoat". ??

Probably a typo.  The gloss is the carrier between before the washer.  I'm not sure its absolutely necessary but it works for me.  I'll go back and fix it.

Joe

Fixed...good catch Greg...

Joe

Hey Joe, back on page 1 about 3/4 way down you describe putting the clear barrier down prior to the Detailer wash.

You typed Testers Dullcoat, did you mean to type "Glosscoat". ??

woody, here ya go

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