Battle of Midway Aircraft Group Build

now now Daniel - no need to frighten him off yet, you saw inthe Aussie GB that Kremps is off hiking in Tibet right now... so no need to worry!

That is a great IP Daniel! overall a flat out nice cockpit!!! but I especially was drawn to the IP...

as far as being a Dauntless freak -- who could help it? The aircraft sank more tonnage of Japanese ships than ALL OTHER AC types combined!!! There are numerous Zero kills to both rear gunner and pilot that you have to add in... (on an aircraft with 1/2 the speed of a Zero) exceedingly survivable in a downing etc... and plus.. it's so ugly you can't help but love it!!! (actually I like the design of it... just not a sleak fighter design so many shun it)

Well fellas, I finally got around to taking some pics of my painted interior. Twas a fun interior to work on, all that detail is fun to pick out. I should have taken more pics before I closed the fuselage up, because now it is hard to get pics of.

First off is the cockpit floor.


And the pilots seat. I tried something different on this one, masking tape seatbelts. Much cheaper than PE, and more realistic than decals. The buckles are some old bits of PE I had lying around, and they happened to look like buckles, so that's what they became.


BTW, I'll put my hand up as a dauntless freak (or is that a freak who's not easily daunted? either one....). Anyone who saw the thread blackwolf started a few months ago would know that.

an finally.... Welcome to the group build traintrak. How's that Hasegawa kit look? I had my eye on one a few months ago, but bought the AM kit instead. You'll have fun around here, especially if kremps pops her ugly head in.

Wow! a flurry of movement today!

Traintrak - welcome abourd shipmate! I am ex-Navy as well. Was a HM from 84 to 94. I can't remember if we put a end date on this build... quite a few of us are streched pretty thin so no rush on starting... although I have to agree with the dive right in thing! Whever you are ready to start is fine, otherwise feel free to hang around and chat!

Bob - studying for the test all this weekend, took tomorrow as vacation to get some extra studying done. I took a couple of routers and a switch home to set up a mini network fromthere and practice some hands on. This will be a tough test mainly because of the breadth of info covered in it. I am taking the consolidated version of the test, usually it is divided into two separate tests... wish me luck because I will need it!!!

I agree about the Dauntless freak thing... it was refreshing to come here and find I was not a wierdo... everyone lives those fast mean looking fighters... it surprised me how many people showed up with a real appreciation of the fine plane the Dauntless was! So I say: Freaks Unite!!! haha

I may go ahead and start on mine tomorrow... I dropped the typhoon fgrom the Aussie build and am waiting on my mosquito to arrive and will do that instead... almost to the point for paint on my P-47 for the 201 suadron from Mexico so will be some drying time involved there I can get the interior done in...

I'll post as I go pics Traintrak... I take the pics regardless as I can spot SO much more that needs touching up that way... and I am a bit unashamed at posting pics of my meager offerings, with unresolved glitches and all! (I figure it makes my finished product look that much better) haha

Hey Bob your really tempting me man! The one I've got waiting in the wings is Hasegawa's "Midway" edition SBD. Its a sweet looking kit and I want to get one or two more builds under my belt so as not to screw it up too bad-ha!
Appreciate you guys replying so promptly and all the encourgagement. I've been lucky today at work with rare access to a pc w/internet connection & fast connection during lunch and breaks.
I'm going to really enjoy watching this GB as it progresses & I hope to jump in down the road.

Phil

Tom-Not really subject related, but how did the test go or how is it going? Good I hope.

Traintrak-thanks for the comment regarding the interior.

Open up the box and dive in. I've only been back building for about a year-warmed up on a couple of Monogram kits. The Accurate Min. looks a bit overwhelming, but between the Acc. Min. web-site 'on-line' build and the help of the folks on this and various group builds, it can be done. Come on in...the waters fine!

Thanks Jeeves, that answers a lot, glad I wasn't missing anything. Did you say Dauntless freaks - Oh yeah, got to be my all time favorite aircraft, so add one more "feak" to your list ! Got one saved away in the box, waiting till I get my confidence up a little more. Saw bobbailey's fine looking interior, that accurate minatures kit looks impressive, can't wait to see more.

traintrak...

I think the reason for there not being much progress pics is because most of us are in a few other builds so progress is spread out and we haven't just had that many posted here yet...

I am just about finished with the interior on my SBD-3...but it's nothing too outstanding so I probably won't post pics right away....the cool thing about this GB in particular is there are a few of us here who are Dauntless freaks...which is not common as there is a definite affinity for Mustangs, Spitfires, and the Luftwaffe planes in most forums....

Tom, I'm very interested in this GB. As a new forum member can you tell me where the pics are for the on going builds, i don't see many posted just looking thru the subj threads. As an old Navy man i'm interested plus the Battle of Midway is one of my favorite studies. This was a great idea guys & it looks like many of you are spread thin with all the on-going GB's your involved in. I'm just getting back into modeling after 40 years, getting my feet wet again with an old Corsair. If this stays open ended for awhile I may want to join in the fun with an SBD or F4F, I'm not as skilled as many of you and mine would just be an OOB kit. Keep up the good work, & thanks for all the tips & history. Tom, your uncle bio was outstanding(i'm into genealogy also). Any help/advice ya'll can give is appreciated.

Worked a little on the cockpit of the SBD2 last night. Also got half of a PE seat belt onto the pilots seat. Don't think I'll go the PE route next time. Maybe a resin seat....maybe.
Still impressed with the detail of the interior but disappointed with the detail of the instructions.

Thanks for the heads up on the SBD-2 Im just about at that point in my build

Thad

Unfortunately I'm already past the gluing stage. I built according to the instructions and in retrospect, should have checked the on line build before getting too far along. Jumped in with two feet. Actually I forgot about it until it was too late. I'll take a look in a day or two and try to work it some more.

Pete - Daniel ... I had the same prob and am in the process of backtracking my thoughts on how I got it in and flush.. so dont glue just yet... you might want to read that online build thing as I think it addresses some of that... not sure. Let me get back with yall in the morning after I rethink my build...

It's a bit the same on my SBD-3 build. From test fitting, it looks like that join might be a bit messy. Before I stick mine together, I'm going to do some sanding and test fitting to get it as clean as I can without filler. I think there is just some flash keeping the surfaces from going together properly.

My progress is going well. I've got the interior painted, washed and dry-brushed. This is a fun cockpit to do all that stuff on, because there is som much detail to work with. I'm in the process of putting it all together now, and have the fuselage halves glued together. I'll post some pics of it when I can.

Anyone beside me working on the AM SBD -2 having trouble getting the rear part of the lower wing assembly to line up properly with the fuselage? If so, how did you adress it. I'm trying to fill the area with putty but I can't seem to get it to where I like it. I've actually put it aside for a few days to regroup. Thanks, Pete

YAHOOO!! The mailman has finally delivered my package from Greatmodels, so now I'm back in business. It's been about three and a half weeks since they shipped the order and I had just about given up all hope of ever seeing it. So tonight after the kids go to bed, I'm back to work

Cheers
Darren

Ahhh thanks fellas that makes it a lot easier to hunt one down

And Pingy it's good to be back mate

QUOTE: That was some spectacular weathering, eh Daniel?

YES!!!!

Jules Accurate miniatures has a weapons set too. http://www.accurate-miniatures.com/catalog/489900.htm . Only problem is, you have to buy all of it, so it's more expensive.

Good to have ya back too mate.

Jules - This is the only one I know of, maybe some others have some better options but it looks to fit the order!

http://www.squadron.com/ItemDetails.asp?item=TD48506

Well Fellas i'm back in buisness my PC is all fixed up and we have moved into our new home so i can finally get back to doing some modelling in a week or so
Good news, the Accurate Minatures Avenger finally showed up and i've been going over the sprues and test fitting some of the parts, so far i have to say the kit is very impressive, the internal detail is fantastic and it even comes with canopy masks, the only gripe i have is no torpedo only bombs, The Avengers at Midway all carried torpedos so i'll have to try and find an AM one cause i really want to add a fish and open the bomb bay up.........

That was some spectacular weathering, eh Daniel?

Well...back onto modelling, I started working on my SBD today. I glued in the side panels, and gave it all a coat of interior green. I'll give it a wash and a dry brush soon, and then detail painting. Saltydogs weathering job inspired me to start, I wanna have a go at a paint job like his.

thanks Darren... I feel good about it.. as the parts they concentrate on according to a coworker that just took it, (subnets and binary conversions) I have down like nothing! Just need to pick up some ISDN lingo and a little knowledge on Frame-relay over a WAN and I think I am set!

oh and.. BUMP back to ya! (envisioning "Rocky Horror Picture Show" and the "Time Warp" scene....)

Tom good luck with your exam, oh and BUMP.

Darren

Daniel... I know... I used it before, but in this class we spent several hours a day translating an internet address from decimal to hex to binary and sometimes just straight to binary... the first day I came home and tried to have a nap and BOOM!!! there they were... those insidious 1's and 0's dancing in front of me... so immediately I thought of a subnet... after verifying it was a legal internet IP I hastily converted it to binary and figured out which valid subnet it belonged to..

needless to say I jumped out of bed and ran to the corner store and bought me a 6 pack of my favorite beer... I had to anesthesize myself that evening to be able to think...

Thankfully it is over for the weekend, but on Monday I start studying for the exam which will bring back flashbacks I am sure!!!

razordws If you look at the photo I posted earlier, you'll see that the insignia's are a different size. So the whole thing was re-painted, not just an over paint of the red dot.

Tom Gotta love that binary code. As they say, there a 10 different types of people...those who can read binary, and those who can't.

well done bob, I guess I will do mine tomorrow... needless to say we at Happy Acres weren't happy when we heard of this... but they brought us chocolate ice cream with lunch and that settled down the lot of us...

I haven't even started my build here so yall are waaaaay ahead of me! so no one feel bad about getting nothing done! I was in a class all week and all I had was binary number sequences in front of my eyes most of the time and I dont think I would have been effective doing it...

Haven't gotten any modeling done, but I have 're-sized'. Guess it's the least we can do for the good folks at FSM who provide these forums. How else would we keep up with the adventures of Kemps and the gang at Happy Acres....

I thought I posted this already but apparently not. Apparently I must be getting old enough to forget things.

I found this picture on the web showing the first batch of TBF's with the red dot in the star so I guess I could do the same pinky thing you guys are talking about with your SBD's. The caption said this photo was taken in the States before they shipped out.

How strange is this I ask??

Most of us are in the same GB's, and we are all having a big helping of 'Zero Time' syndrome.
Could it be that time of year I ponder?

I'm flat out with work and home, things finally looking good for me, but that really bites into my modelling time something harsh.

Still haven't gotten around to selecting a kit for this GB, but seeing as Easter is coming up, might take a couple of those 4 days off, and do some shopping, as well as some building.

Thats the plan anyways, I'm sure the powers that be have other things in mind for me