1/48 Douglas TBD-1 Devastator (VT-2 Lexington)

Tom Hering

Excellent. I really like pre-war colors and markings.

 

Thanks Tom

Tickmagnet

Very nice build.

 

Thanks Tick

Shipwreck

 

 

lawdog114

stikpusher

the Baron

That's a great finish!

I can't help thinking, though, that the poor plane captain is going to get a chewing-out for the state of that TBD

 I agree wholeheartedly with the above. A beautiful artistic finish, but not so realistic. Pre war TBDs in most every photo look to be very well maintained and cleaned. The peacetime Navy op tempo allowed for such niceties. 

One critique that I would add is that the tail color for the Lexinton’s Air Group was Lemon Yellow, a lighter and distinctly different shade than the wing top Chrome Yellow.

Thanks Stik. I‘ll go ahead and disagree about the dirty part. Just because there are no pictures of them dirty doesn’t necessarily mean it never happened on occasion. These tend to look like toys without weathering so I sought to avoid this. 

Thanks for the info about the tail. I never even thought of it. This turkey was way out of my comfort zone. 

 

 

 

 

Stik and Joe,  Regarding the camouflage/weathering question; I think you are both right. It just depends. For example, how many pre war marked aircraft turned blue on December 7th? It had to take time to repaint the entire fleet of aircraft. From what I understand, the war disrupted many things. It seems perfectly reasonable to me if a pretty pre war marked plan were to get dirty before it got blue! Just a thought.

 

Excellent point. All passes still revoked!

Shipwreck

 

 

lawdog114

stikpusher

the Baron

That's a great finish!

I can't help thinking, though, that the poor plane captain is going to get a chewing-out for the state of that TBD

 I agree wholeheartedly with the above. A beautiful artistic finish, but not so realistic. Pre war TBDs in most every photo look to be very well maintained and cleaned. The peacetime Navy op tempo allowed for such niceties. 

One critique that I would add is that the tail color for the Lexinton’s Air Group was Lemon Yellow, a lighter and distinctly different shade than the wing top Chrome Yellow.

Thanks Stik. I‘ll go ahead and disagree about the dirty part. Just because there are no pictures of them dirty doesn’t necessarily mean it never happened on occasion. These tend to look like toys without weathering so I sought to avoid this. 

Thanks for the info about the tail. I never even thought of it. This turkey was way out of my comfort zone. 

 

 

 

 

Stik and Joe,  Regarding the camouflage/weathering question; I think you are both right. It just depends. For example, how many pre war marked aircraft turned blue on December 7th? It had to take time to repaint the entire fleet of aircraft. From what I understand, the war disrupted many things. It seems perfectly reasonable to me if a pretty pre war marked plan were to get dirty before it got blue! Just a thought.

 

Oh the run up to the war disrupted many things. Op tempo increased. Alerts and patrols as the war clouds gathered. But there was another paint scheme worn between the Yellow Wings scheme, and the Blue Gray over Gray, overall Light Gray, which began to be applied in early 1941. The Blue Gray over Gray did not take effect until October of 1941 and priority went to shipboard Aircraft. There are photos showing land based USN/USMC aircraft in the overall light gray at Pearl Harbor and on Oahu immediately after the attack.

stikpusher

 

 

Shipwreck

 

 

lawdog114

stikpusher

the Baron

That's a great finish!

I can't help thinking, though, that the poor plane captain is going to get a chewing-out for the state of that TBD

 I agree wholeheartedly with the above. A beautiful artistic finish, but not so realistic. Pre war TBDs in most every photo look to be very well maintained and cleaned. The peacetime Navy op tempo allowed for such niceties. 

One critique that I would add is that the tail color for the Lexinton’s Air Group was Lemon Yellow, a lighter and distinctly different shade than the wing top Chrome Yellow.

Thanks Stik. I‘ll go ahead and disagree about the dirty part. Just because there are no pictures of them dirty doesn’t necessarily mean it never happened on occasion. These tend to look like toys without weathering so I sought to avoid this. 

Thanks for the info about the tail. I never even thought of it. This turkey was way out of my comfort zone. 

 

 

 

 

Stik and Joe,  Regarding the camouflage/weathering question; I think you are both right. It just depends. For example, how many pre war marked aircraft turned blue on December 7th? It had to take time to repaint the entire fleet of aircraft. From what I understand, the war disrupted many things. It seems perfectly reasonable to me if a pretty pre war marked plan were to get dirty before it got blue! Just a thought.

 

 

 

 

Oh the run up to the war disrupted many things. Op tempo increased. Alerts and patrols as the war clouds gathered. But there was another paint scheme worn between the Yellow Wings scheme, and the Blue Gray over Gray, overall Light Gray, which began to be applied in early 1941. The Blue Gray over Gray did not take effect until October of 1941 and priority went to shipboard Aircraft. There are photos showing land based USN/USMC aircraft in the overall light gray at Pearl Harbor and on Oahu immediately after the attack.

 

Great discussion!  I do recall the light grey scheme from when I built the SBD-1 back when I first got back into the hobby. It was the second kit I built when I return and I used model master light gull grey if I remember correctly. 

Marine SB2U in the overall light gray burning at MCAS Ewa after the Pearl Harbor Attack.

Both the Army and Navy/Marine Corps were trying to get aircraft repainted into War colors but had not completely dome so in both Hawaii and the Phillipines when the war started for US forces.