1/48 Douglas TBD-1 Devastator VT-8 "Midway" (Finished)

Well crap. Guess I'll just go ahead and sell my kit now, because it will never look this good. Holy cow, Joe, what an amazing looking kit. Excellent.

BK

Beautiful finish Lawdog. I’m looking forward to that Yellow Wings TBD. Which squadron are you planning for that one?

One small critique, and that would be the base- USN aircraft carrier flight decks were stained blue before December 7th. Before that they had a red mahogany stain.

Great looking airplane and excellent workmanship. Really nice paint job.

Fantastic work. I love the detail and weathering.

Shipwreck

Joe, I am glade you are happy with your build because there just is not much room for improvement here; great job! Now I am looking forward to your pre-war build because that will be very similar to my April '42 Hornet build. BTW, I do have a Monogram TBD-1 in my stash; I need to decide if it is worth $50 to upgrade to the GWM kit!

 

Thanks ship. I’ll only be posting finished pics of that one. I’ve already started painting it And I’m about to start on the yellow wings.  

$50.00? Well.....Lets just day it’s only worth it if you truly love the Devastator....

tempestjohnny

Joe you did it again. What a beauty in an ugly TBD kind of way

 

Thanks Johnny

Rambo

She looks really good lawdog I'm like you not a fan of vacuformed anything, but you made them look good. I look forward to your next build.

 

Thanks Clint

I think I'm finally done.  To recap, it's the recent Great Wall Battle of Midway boxing.  I did John Waldron's T-16 from VT-8. Overall the kit was quite good.  I've never built the Monogram kit, so I cannot compare the two (if I'm being honest the TBD isn't particularly high on my to-build list).  The main weakness of this kit is the multi-part canopies which are comical at best fit-wise, particularly towards the rear sections.  They are too thick and aren't even shaped right. I supplemented a few pieces of rear section with the beyond crappy Squadron vacuform designed for the Monogram kit.  I'd rather put my tongue in a garbage disposal that deal with vacuform.  In the end, I think it turned out fairly decent.  Note that of you use the closed canopy, the fit is good...........but fun would that be?  It's also a good idea to reinforce the inside of the wings if you display them in the down position.  

Other than Montex paint masks, which were challenging due to the corrugated wings, it's pretty much out of the box.  I did add the distinctive aerial wire with smoke colored invisible thread and brass tubing for insulators.  It's probably not accurate but I'm happy with it. 

Now I have to go full speed on the pre-war version to end my Devastator adventure.  Fortunately it will be getting the closed canopy.

Here is my tribute to those brave men on that June day. 

You’re welcome! :D

John 3:16 KJV

Great model, lawdog!!! Nice detailing!

 

Thanks John

tempestjohnny

Geez. Snap your fingers and its almost done

 

Not quite, I still have to do those canopies...lol.  Thanks for stopping in Johnny  

Great model, lawdog!!! Nice detailing!

mustang1989

I forgot how fast you work Joe. Paint work and weathering so far are first class.

 

Thanks Mustang...

Shipwreck

Joe, it seems that in order to represent a VT-8 TBD-1 in April 1942, I will need a red dot on the star an a single .30 cal. gun (thanks stikpusher). My question for you is, does it look feasible to hack the dual guns on your set down to a single without making too much of a mess of it? I know that I could get the GWH VT-6 version of the same kit. It comes wit a single .30 and pre-midway insignia, but not VT-8 pilot codes!

 

I’m not sure shipwreck, I see the single gun in there but I haven’t seen the mount. I’m building a pre-war version as well that requires a single mount. I’ll let you know when I get there.

It probably wouldn’t be too hard to fabricate one. 

I forgot how fast you work Joe. Paint work and weathering so far are first class.

According to this review, the kit should have the option for the single or twin MG mount.  The decals will be different, but the review shows a source for aftermarket Coral Sea decals.

https://modelingmadness.com/review/preww2/tc/tmctbd.htm

Greatmaker

Looks like anorher fantastic finish. Love the weathering

 

Thanks Robert 

Looks like anorher fantastic finish. Love the weathering

BrandonK

Looks great, Joe. I think you nailed the light blue grey look. That faded washed out look is very hard to do. Well done.

BK

 

Thanks Brandon

Looks great, Joe. I think you nailed the light blue grey look. That faded washed out look is very hard to do. Well done.

BK

Oh...Thanks for your input Stik. I’m glad I didn’t have to source a single gun somewhere. 

Got in some painting last night and I'm surprised how far I got with the assistance of Indiana Jones on Netflix.  I started by preshading the panel lines. Then I sprayed the insignias and added the Montex Masks.  I was having trouble getting the thick masks into the corrigated wings (cussing to ensue later). I sprayed the light grey with custom mix of XF-19 Sky Grey and XF-2 White.

My normal mix of Intermediate Blue is half XF-18 Medium Blue and half XF-2 White, or 60% blue 40% white.  I'm not sure what I used my XF-18 on, but it was almost empty?  I ended up running out before finishing.  Fortunately I remembered I had Intermediate Blue in Mission Models that I used on a Corsair. I feathered it in.  With some fading I liked the results. I also painted in the upper black wig root walks and taped them off before paint. A side note, I don't know what happened, but I really don't like this paint anymore.  It's too thick. Perhaps I forgot how to thin it correcty. I was having trouble getting it to spray well.      

The underside wingtips are straight Mission Intermediate Blue.  I think my Tamiya concoction was darn close.

I removed the Montex masks from the wing insignias to find that the blue had leached onto the white star a bit.  It was because couldn't get a tight seal with the Montex material into each groove. I even tried to take precaution by spraying straight at it.  It looked sloppy. I went for plan B.  I used Tamiya tape and outlined each star then resprayed the white again.  This worked much better. 

I had no issues with the fuselage stars. Montex works great on smooth surfaces.  Corrigation, not so much.   

I added some slight postshading then used some pictures to simulate the exhaust staining.  I'm pretty happy with how they turned out. 

I crudded up the underside a bit too.  

Now I have to turn my attention to the canopies.  For S#$!s and giggles I was playing around with them to see if they could be used.  I found than not only do they not fit, the middle ones don't seem to be shaped right?  I'm not sure what they were thinking.  That's assuming I had them in the right spot (the instuctions diagram kind of sucked).  I figure I'll use the windscreen and the sliding pilot canopy portion, then get vaccuform for the rest.  Did I mention I hate these?   I read that I can leave the last two off as they were apparently removed on the real one.  This could be wishful thinking........The least amount of cutting the better .  I figure I'll get those ordered then turn my attention to the pre war TBD for a bit.  I haven't decided on a thread for that one or not.  

Shipwreck

Excellent work, Joe. I have plans to build a 1/48 TBD, SBD, F4F, and B-25 to set beside my 1/350 USS Hornet representing the Doolittle raid on April 18, 1942. In your research, do you remember coming across any changes to the SBD from April to to Midway in June; and, did your kit come the VT-8 decals that you plan on using?

 

The SBDs likely had the single .30 gun mount for the gunner in April 1942. The switch to twin .30 mounts occurred just before Midway. There is a snippet on this situation in “Icredible Victory” how Cdr Waldron was able to cajole some of those twin mounts for his TBDs on the eve of the battle.

Love the work, Joe. The interior looks great. And thanks for the heads up on the wings, I think I'll build mine folded up. Besides I'm running out of space and the folded wings just gives me more room.

BK

Shipwreck

Excellent work, Joe. I have plans to build a 1/48 TBD, SBD, F4F, and B-25 to set beside my 1/350 USS Hornet representing the Doolittle raid on April 18, 1942. In your research, do you remember coming across any changes to the SBD from April to to Midway in June; and, did your kit come the VT-8 decals that you plan on using?

 

Thanks ship. No idea about the SBD. I think they used the Dash 3 if I remember correctly. I plan to paint the markings, but yes this boxing comes with Gay‘s and Waldron’s VT-8 markings.