I make my living writing software, but honestly this is not my passion. I truly love history, particularly from the period of 1918 - 1945. Once upon a time, I started building models because the subjects were oftentimes "cool looking". Now when I build something, I like to find out as much as I can about the subject while I am building it.
The Vindicator is a seemingly insignificant warbird, relegated to the ash heap of history's failed and largely forgotten relics. But I can trace my fascination with this aircraft back to 1976 when the movie Midway burst onto theater screens. My dad took me to see that movie at the old Tower Theater in mid-town Houston, Texas, with a long line that snaked around buildings. And what a movie that was for 9-year-old me! There were several sequences depicting Vindicator attacks on the Japanese in that movie, and since then I had been a fan of the Vindicator. Yet I had never before built a model of this warbird.
When I saw the Accurate Miniatures kit, it immediately found its way to my stash. It languished there for many years, watching as I pulled other kits out for construction. I wonder if its feelings were ever hurt ... nah, just kidding. As I have been out of work for the last five months, I have had to select kits to build based largely on the supplies I have on hand. I had plenty of USN colors, so out came, at long last, the Vindicator. (There will be Wildcats coming out soon).
So the aircraft I have built is a Marine Corps bomber belonging to VMSB-241 based on Midway Island. I chose to build aircraft #6, which was piloted by Captain Richard E. Fleming. On the morning of June 5, 1942, a squadron of SB2U's and a squadron of SBD Dauntless dive bombers headed out to find the Japanese heavy cruiser Mikuma, reportedly afire somewhere northwest of the islands. Upon locating the cruiser, the Americans split up their attack, with the Dauntless's coming in from up high while the Vindicators attacked near water level.
Fleming took an approach pattern roughly 400 feet off the water during his bombing run. He was hit, his engine caught fire, but he was able to release his bomb, which missed amidships. What happened next is a bit of controversy. The Japanese have claimed that Fleming dove his Vindicator into the Mikuma on a suicide run, whereas trailing American birds claim to have witnessed two parachutes after Fleming's Vindicator slammed into the ocean. Regardless, Fleming died on that bombing run (as well as his gunner, whose name I have not been able to uncover). Fleming received the Congressional Medal of Honor posthumously for his actions on that morning.
A photo of Fleming's Vindicator as he was lifting away from Midway Island.
The kit.
Accurate Miniatures is known for the way they box their kits, with a separate section for clear parts, instructions, decals, etc. Here is the artwork adorning that interior part of the boxing.
So now on to my build. Paint is Tamiya, Aircraft Colors, and Model Master. Weathering comes from Tamiya weathering compounds, ground-up pastel chalk, and Flory Dark Dirt wash. I also bought a bottle of Stynlyrez gray primer. This stuff is actually dark gray, but it works like a charm. I have had lots of problems on recent builds with paint pulling up under Tamiya tape, and traced that back to lack of primer combined with Model Master acrylic paint. The only place I saw any lifted paint was on the prop, which I did not prime. I cannot recommend this stuff enough.
The white bands represent 4" tape that was applied to repair tears in the fabric that covered the rear parts of the fuselage. They then put a coat of dope over the tape, which I was able to replicate by spraying a light band of Tamiya smoke over the white. I was pleased with how this effect turned out although I did not do a great job of maintain "eye-ball" scale with the two rearward bands.
The bomb was not the one included with the kit. The kit provided a 1000 lb bomb, but per research I did, the Marines never loaded anything heavier than a 500 lb bomb on the Vindicators due to the low power of its engine. I had a left-over 500 lb bomb from one of the P-39s I recently completed.
The kit itself is actually not as good as other Accurate Miniature offerings. There are sink marks on various parts where some are visible. When I dry fit everything, I saw only one, one an O2 tank, that might be visible, so I simply ignored them, but they are prevalent.
Now regarding the canopy. It is absolute junk. Heck, the kit even includes a mask for all those panes, and after applying 3-4 of them, I noted that none of them fit at all. I ended up trashing the mask and custom masking the lateral frames followed by the vertical frames. The kit includes 2 canopies, one fully enclosed and the other in pieces so that it can be displayed open. I was originally going to go with the fully enclosed version, but dry fitting revealed a horrible mis-match between the rear part of the canopy and the mounting area. No amount of putty, shims, or half-hearted effort was going to fix this, so I ditched that and went with the open version. But even that did not fit worth anything. You might note the hood sticking out of the rear-most part of the canopy, right in front of the gunner's station. There is an entire section of canopy that slid into the adjoining part, and the hood then slid under that one. The parts were simply too thick to allow for that, so I left the one section off completely.
The only other complaint, minor at that, is the wing insignia. Per research, these are actually too large for what was on the Vindicators. I searched through my spares box but could not find any that appeared correct per some of the photos I was able to find.
Aside from that, the Accurate Miniatures Vindicator goes together quite well. I needed hardly any filler - mostly around the join of the forward wind screen to the fuselage. The landing gear seems a bit fiddly but I think they are stronger than they look.
In my display case I have a row of Grumman cats, a row of P-40s and P-38s, and now am starting a Battle of Midway row. Looks like I will actually add to two of those rows when I do my 4 Wildcats, soon. Add a Devastator and I believe I'll have my Midway USN warbirds done.