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                        Battle of Midway Aircraft Group Build

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                        1116 replies
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                        bobbaily
                        • Member since
                          November 2003
                        • From: Nashville, TN area
                        Posted by bobbaily on Thursday, March 17, 2005 7:25 PM
                        Progress is slow-still recovering from a nasty cold/flu and a busy weekend ahead. Did do a dry fit and determine that the rear bulkhead needed to be sanded down a bit. Hope to get the interior done by the end of the weekend.

                        Question for the group-Photo etched belts-Eduard to be exact-show a 'plate' that fits under the buckles. Was/is the plate on the real belts or is it for mounting purposes? All responses are appriciated.

                        Bob

                         

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                        tho9900
                        • Member since
                          July 2004
                        • From: SETX. USA
                        Posted by tho9900 on Wednesday, March 16, 2005 9:02 PM
                        it seems a good majority of us are Darren... between class and next week doing a trial of the thin clients at work I have been a bit busy... hopefully this weekend if not then next week (have vacation) I will get something done..
                        ---Tom--- O' brave new world, That has such people in it!
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                        darson
                        • Member since
                          February 2003
                        • From: Melbourne, Australia
                        Posted by darson on Wednesday, March 16, 2005 12:49 AM
                        I'm afraid I'm at a complete standstill at the moment. The cockpit is painted up and shaded but I'm still waiting on a shipment from Greatmodels which as well as my Blue Grey paint and decals, it has my Ultracast seat Angry [:(!]

                        It's been two and a half weeks now since it was shipped so I'll give it 1 more week before I contact them and complain, but in the end it will probably mean having to re-order everything Sigh [sigh]

                        Cheers
                        Darren
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                        pingtang
                        • Member since
                          April 2003
                        • From: NSW, Australia
                        Posted by pingtang on Tuesday, March 15, 2005 7:28 PM
                        The only one that made it back was 8-T-1. I think it pretty much crash landed on the island because it was so shot up. There are pictures of it after the battle out there, just have to find them on the net. This is a photo of it before the battle:

                        -Daniel
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                        razordws
                        • Member since
                          September 2004
                        • From: Vernon, BC, Canada
                        Posted by razordws on Tuesday, March 15, 2005 12:35 PM
                        Thanks Daniel, that's exactly what I needed to know. Which one made it back?

                        Dave

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                        pingtang
                        • Member since
                          April 2003
                        • From: NSW, Australia
                        Posted by pingtang on Tuesday, March 15, 2005 1:35 AM
                        If you want to do a midway TBF, there are only six choices I'm afraid. There were only three that flew in the battle, 5 were shot down and one was written off (not a great combat debut). They would all have been in the blue-grey over light grey camo scheme, with insignias in all 6 positions. The insignias would have been the white star in the insignia blue circle. The fuselage code would have been between 8-T-1 and 8-T-6. There wouldn't have been much else on the aircraft on the aircraft than that.

                        hope that helps.
                        -Daniel
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                        razordws
                        • Member since
                          September 2004
                        • From: Vernon, BC, Canada
                        Posted by razordws on Monday, March 14, 2005 11:10 PM
                        QUOTE: Originally posted by tho9900


                        one thing on the AM SBD-2's from the period being built here, they had the red dots in the middle hastily painted over (i.e. the red bled through just a touch) so maybe you could recreate that with the kit decals and just dry brush over the red dot so it barely shows through.


                        First of all, my kit decals have the white side bars (no red dot in the middle of those) and secondly there are only four of them so I need to get new ones regardless.

                        But... weren't the TBF's brand new? Therefore they wouldn't have had the earlier markings with red dots or squadron markings etc. Just wondering.

                        Dave

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                        tho9900
                        • Member since
                          July 2004
                        • From: SETX. USA
                        Posted by tho9900 on Monday, March 14, 2005 8:54 PM
                        Dave - yup.. that was about it, besides any stencils there were the roundels and the plane number... should be easy to transfer over with the squadron number absent already.

                        one thing on the AM SBD-2's from the period being built here, they had the red dots in the middle hastily painted over (i.e. the red bled through just a touch) so maybe you could recreate that with the kit decals and just dry brush over the red dot so it barely shows through.
                        ---Tom--- O' brave new world, That has such people in it!
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                        razordws
                        • Member since
                          September 2004
                        • From: Vernon, BC, Canada
                        Posted by razordws on Monday, March 14, 2005 8:32 PM
                        Thanks Tom but I was able to do some searching earlier and I found the info I was looking for and some good links at the beginning of this thread. The kit markings are for the Bunker Hill circa '45 and has the star with bars so I will need to get a hold of some without the bars. I guess there wasn't much else on these birds besides that and a number for the aircraft. Anyway, got some other stuff to do before I can get to it.

                        Dave

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                        tho9900
                        • Member since
                          July 2004
                        • From: SETX. USA
                        Posted by tho9900 on Monday, March 14, 2005 7:48 PM
                        if it is the yellow spinner and about the first 1/4 of the cowl that is yellow that is a squadron marking and not specific to a ship, different squadrons used different colors and sometimes they overlapped with other ships. As far as the code numbers 301 if it is one number would probably be the plane number although that is very high...

                        Previous to Midway they used letter/number combos to designate squadron/campaign/plane number... like on my pre-midway SBD the number on the side is 41-S-17.. so your would probably fit as it doesn't have the squadron numbers on it.. (they were painted over just prior to the battle)

                        hmm they arrow might give a clue to a unit but I dont know off the bat, was it poiting forward, up etc...?
                        ---Tom--- O' brave new world, That has such people in it!
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                        razordws
                        • Member since
                          September 2004
                        • From: Vernon, BC, Canada
                        Posted by razordws on Monday, March 14, 2005 2:20 PM
                        I finally found a kit at the LHS today for this build. It is the Academy TBF Avenger in 1/72 scale but I have a question for you. The kit gives no indication of what unit the decals are for. The only marking it has on it other than the insignia's is the arrow on the tail and the number 301. It also has a yellow nose and yellow spinner tip. Any ideas on what these markings are for? Sorry for my ignorance but this is my first non-European theatre aircraft in a loooooong time.

                        Dave

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                        tho9900
                        • Member since
                          July 2004
                        • From: SETX. USA
                        Posted by tho9900 on Sunday, March 13, 2005 8:09 PM
                        oh yeah I see what ya mean.. I had trouble on the first SBD I built with the fuselage around the pilots aft bulhead... on the second one I bought some plastic clips from the grocery store (in the hardware section) with rubber teeth and those work GREAT!!! just clipped on one and BAM! it was done!

                        good luck to you all the same... I did notice on my dash-2 it was a bit harder in places than the dash-5... maybe thats why they have it in the shop now retooling it...

                        ----edit----

                        or was that the dash-3?? I can't remember now...
                        ---Tom--- O' brave new world, That has such people in it!
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                        pmm736
                        • Member since
                          April 2004
                        Posted by pmm736 on Sunday, March 13, 2005 7:52 PM
                        Maybe it was my fat fingers but I had some trouble just getting the various pieces within the cockpit to go where I wanted them to. The fact that most of them were rounded made using tweezers difficult as well. The bulkhead with the pilots seat didn't want to line up and the instrument panel never really sat in the notches correctly. Had a bit of trouble getting the points above the pilots seats to stay together. I don't have any clamps(and I couldn't find a clothes pin) so I had to hold it together until the glue dried. That was the trickiest part of putting the halves together. I have it all rubberbanded and the seams look pretty tight. I have a slight gap between the sides on the leading edge of the tail that I need to fill, but it's pretty small so it shouldn't be a problem once its painted up.
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                        tho9900
                        • Member since
                          July 2004
                        • From: SETX. USA
                        Posted by tho9900 on Sunday, March 13, 2005 7:08 PM
                        Pete - just curious which areas of closing the cockpit you found fiddly... for me it was getting the gunners aft bulkhead to stay.. and the trailing edge of the wong root at the body...

                        that's why next time I think I will use the way shown in the online build on AM's site... attach upper wing surfaces, leaving the trailing edges near the fuselage unglued, then stick the cockpit in... it looked like it would work...
                        ---Tom--- O' brave new world, That has such people in it!
                        Report Abuse
                        tho9900
                        • Member since
                          July 2004
                        • From: SETX. USA
                        Posted by tho9900 on Sunday, March 13, 2005 7:05 PM
                        Pete, I have done this, but since your plane is all one color basically you could stuff the cockpit with wet tissue and spray, remove the wet tissue. Then you could pray the canopy separately by using blue-tak on the end of a pencil stuck to the interior of the canopy piece to hold it while you spray...

                        either way would work... I think I would choose the second one but then I've never been called the sharpest crayon in the box... Wink [;)] but have done it the other way too with success...

                        on a multipiece canopy I would worry about if a gap was large enough paint could run inside the gap possibly getting on the interior..
                        ---Tom--- O' brave new world, That has such people in it!
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                        bobbaily
                        • Member since
                          November 2003
                        • From: Nashville, TN area
                        Posted by bobbaily on Sunday, March 13, 2005 3:57 PM
                        Pete-sounds like a good plan to me. So good, I think I'll do that myself! Thanks for the tip.

                        Bob

                         

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                        pmm736
                        • Member since
                          April 2004
                        Posted by pmm736 on Sunday, March 13, 2005 3:37 PM
                        Made good progress today - completed the cockpit and buttoned everything up. I found the construction to be fiddely and the instructions were less than helpful in more than a couple of areas (and I thought Dragon instructions were bad!!), although the finished product looks good (even for my first plane in a very long time). My next question concerns masking the cockpit. I plan on using the canopy in the open position, so I need to protect the interior form overspray when putting on the exterior color. I was thinking of tacking on the full canopy with white glue during the painting, then removing it and installing the open sections later. Is this a good idea or is there something better I can do?
                        Report Abuse
                        bobbaily
                        • Member since
                          November 2003
                        • From: Nashville, TN area
                        Posted by bobbaily on Sunday, March 13, 2005 11:50 AM
                        Thanks Daniel.

                        No progress this weekend-a bit of the flu (or something like it). Just want to sleep & cough-not necessarly in that order. But I think I'm gonna live....have to-too many group builds going on....

                        Bob

                         

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                        pmm736
                        • Member since
                          April 2004
                        Posted by pmm736 on Saturday, March 12, 2005 11:26 PM
                        So it would be black/silver and not black/white like the instructions call for? The other color question is the propeller tips. The instructions seem to be missing a couple of lines where it explains the pattern.
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                        pingtang
                        • Member since
                          April 2003
                        • From: NSW, Australia
                        Posted by pingtang on Saturday, March 12, 2005 6:49 PM
                        The black/silver would be painted with the black on the starboard side and the silver on the port. Not exactly sure why they painted them that way. It might have had something to do with the antenna spinning, and they painted it like that so they knew which way it was facing.
                        -Daniel
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                        bobbaily
                        • Member since
                          November 2003
                        • From: Nashville, TN area
                        Posted by bobbaily on Saturday, March 12, 2005 4:09 PM
                        QUOTE: Originally posted by pingtang

                        I think the DF loop antenna should be half black, and half silver. The pictures I've seen seem to show it like that.




                        Question-when you say half black, half silver, do you mean upper half/lower half (and if so, which color goes where) or left/right. I guess you could do inner/outer, etc. but I try to stick with the obvious. I am finding the Accurate Min. instructions to be a bit vague in certain areas and the on-line build didn't help on this question. Thanks in advance.

                        Bob

                         

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                        pingtang
                        • Member since
                          April 2003
                        • From: NSW, Australia
                        Posted by pingtang on Saturday, March 12, 2005 1:12 AM
                        I think the DF loop antenna should be half black, and half silver. The pictures I've seen seem to show it like that.

                        -Daniel
                        Report Abuse
                        pmm736
                        • Member since
                          April 2004
                        Posted by pmm736 on Friday, March 11, 2005 9:08 PM
                        Started painting the AM SBD tonight and although I haven't started construction, the kit looks very detailed and well molded with just a little bit of flash. The instructions, on the other hand have a bunch of errors (not counting the one they point out themselves). I'm glad I'm doing as much of the painting ahead of time because its giving me an opprtunity to examine all the parts and compare them to the instuctions. Can't wait to get building. I have a question on one minor point. Should the direction finder loop be painted half white and half black? The painting guide is a bit confusing. Thanks, Pete
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                        tho9900
                        • Member since
                          July 2004
                        • From: SETX. USA
                        Posted by tho9900 on Friday, March 11, 2005 4:16 PM
                        Somehow I think people can tell the model is detailed... my neighbor came over last night and I had my unfinshed SBD sitting out along with several others (he is pondering building models as a hobby so wanted to show him a few) his eyes went straight to the SBD even though it had only one wheel and no prop on it and remarked how that one was way out of his league.

                        It was sitting next to my S-100 Schnellboot with 130 plus pieces if I remember right (and many more hours of work), and few otrher models with PE and resin cockpits that took me much longer to get together... I have to agree with him, with a few mods the SBD cockpit would be the ULTIMATE!!! mainly the seat and a litle PE in the controls and levers would be all that was needed... but it is great by itself!!
                        ---Tom--- O' brave new world, That has such people in it!
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                        KINGTHAD
                        • Member since
                          May 2004
                        • From: Dallas
                        Posted by KINGTHAD on Friday, March 11, 2005 8:46 AM
                        Daniel, I worked on mine last night and added a few more bits and even more detail disappeared. Its a shame no one will be able to see all that great detail from such a fine kite.

                        Thad
                        Report Abuse
                        pingtang
                        • Member since
                          April 2003
                        • From: NSW, Australia
                        Posted by pingtang on Thursday, March 10, 2005 8:25 PM
                        Tom Out of the box, it is one of the best detailed pits I've seen. It's a shame it won't be very visible when in the fuselage, but it's the same with most cockpits. Looking forward to building mine.
                        -Daniel
                        Report Abuse
                        tho9900
                        • Member since
                          July 2004
                        • From: SETX. USA
                        Posted by tho9900 on Thursday, March 10, 2005 6:34 PM
                        Bump
                        ---Tom--- O' brave new world, That has such people in it!
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                        darson
                        • Member since
                          February 2003
                        • From: Melbourne, Australia
                        Posted by darson on Wednesday, March 9, 2005 7:26 PM
                        Jules, good to see you back on line Smile [:)]. Do you still have the stuff from the disk I sent up to you, if not let me know and I'll create a new one for you?

                        Cheers
                        Darren
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                        tho9900
                        • Member since
                          July 2004
                        • From: SETX. USA
                        Posted by tho9900 on Wednesday, March 9, 2005 3:21 PM
                        Thad, Bob - I agree 100%.. the interior looks fabulous when you are doing it... it is kind of anti-climactic when you close her up though... still all in all the plane looks GREAT even without a good view of the cockpit... nice panel lines, good exterior detail... and that engine with a wiring harness showing is good... you don't see that on many kits. (wiring harness etc..)

                        Tweets - thats just the first two pics mate... I had to span DVD's on the last one...
                        ---Tom--- O' brave new world, That has such people in it!
                        Report Abuse
                        tweety1
                        • Member since
                          August 2003
                        • From: Alice Springs Australia
                        Posted by tweety1 on Wednesday, March 9, 2005 9:05 AM
                        QUOTE: Originally posted by tho9900

                        Jules: when Tweets gives me back the disks

                        TOM you aint NEVER gettin em back!!![:0]
                        Those fell into my bag fair and square!!!!!!!
                        QUOTE:
                        I have a several walkarounds of Kremps... some good detail shots... even the one you are talking about! Wink [;)]


                        Guys, it TAKES several walk arounds to get Kremps to fit into 1 pic!!!Wink [;)]
                        And it has to be recorded on DVD, those 750Meg discs just can't hold that much data!![:0]


                        --Sean-- If you are driving at the speed of light and you turn on the headlights, what happens???
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