Carlos' Helldiver **FINISHED**

[carlos]

Karl
Carlos
Curtiss SB2C Helldiver
1/72
Airfix
OOB (maybe a little scratching)
edited to add... aftermarket - Eduard dive brakes

Was originally hoping to do something twin-engined, with a nose full of guns for strafing - but lately have been busy moving my 'den' out of one room into another, and haven't got round to buying owt suitable.
Anyhoo - my small stash contains a Helldiver, so that'll be my subject.

I fancy building it wheels-up, in a dive, with dive-flaps open - but not sure how easy/difficult it'll be to drill out the pattern of holes on those flaps.
Interior is a tad bare too - so might do a little scratching inside.
Won't be doing both though probably too ambitious for me to finish both, within the time.
It'll either be diving - or wheels-down with canopy open and some interior bits.
Haven't decided yet.
Either way, will definitely be the US version from the supplied decal sheet

[bluesteel]

Go on, do the diving option, you know you want too! Also, it is a HellDiver, so the poor thing needs to be in its element, doesn't it?

[Dirkpitt289]

Great choice Karl. I will also be doing a Helldiver in a diving position. It will be great to compare the two builds. Right now I have the Airfix rebox. I'm going to take a ride at lunch to my LHS and see if they happen to have the Academy kit instead.

Oh and welcome to the build

[Dirkpitt289]

SCORE, My LHS had the Academy Helldiver. It was a little steep in price ($24) but what the heck. From what I'm reading its the best kit in 1/72 available right now. Sice there are already some Helldivers being built for this GB It'll be third on my list to do after the Dauntless and Avenger.

[carlos]

Finally got my new 'den' set up to the point I can begin working in here.
(I'll start a new 'workbench' thread later)
Just in time to begin the Helldiver today - and after assessing the kit, I've decided to go for the 'diving with flaps open' option.

First off, a coupla pics of the kit...





And I've just realised, the canopy isn't in that pic - oops!
I have it with the kit - just forgot to 'pose' it for the pic

Looking at the kit, and some Helldiver references, I'm also toying with the idea of folding down the concertina section of the rear fuselage to give the gunner a better field of fire - not sure about that yet - depends how it goes with the dive brakes - we'll see.....

First job though, was to cut the dive brakes off the wing pieces, and glue the bits together to make complete flaps.
The flaps are rather thick - I might sand them a bit thinner, but don't wanna make them so thin they come to bits in my clumsy mitts.



And now to drill out all those holes - I'm starting the holes with a pin taped into some tweezers - then drilling through with a 0.6mm.



A quick count up - and there are 312 holes in each upper flap, and 354 in each lower - 666 per side- or a total of 1332.

Do not disturb - I may be some time.......

[IrishAir]

1332 holes!!! It'll probably take longer to do that then the actual building of the kit.
Good luck,

Cheers,
Paul

[Dirkpitt289]

It's a daunting task, but in the end it'll be worth it

[Jagewa]

We'll hear from you in a weeks time then...
tap whirr,
tap whirr,
tap whirr,
tap whirr,
tap whirr,

Good luck Carlos, I hope you have spare drill bits..

Cheers
Jim

[Dirkpitt289]

We'll hear from you in a weeks time then...
tap whirr,
tap whirr,
tap whirr,
tap whirr,
tap whirr,

Good luck Carlos, I hope you have spare drill bits..

Cheers
Jim

Oh my sounds like you're cheating Jim and using a power drill. Tisk tisk,,,

[MerlinJones]

I'd be worried re the structural integrity of the piece you're drilling.
Perhaps backing it with tape might make it stronger?

Regards,
Bruce

[bluesteel]

Personally I'd have used some plastic gauze over a basic rectangular metal/plastic rod structure - you can get plastic gauze quite cheaply from aquarium suppliers.

[carlos]

I'd be worried re the structural integrity of the piece you're drilling.

That does appear to be a big problem bruce - already had a couple of places that have 'blended' into an oval - and I'm only halfway through the first one so far
Looks like drilling out the whole lot isn't practical, unless I want to make it look battle damaged - If I use the original plastic, looks like I'm gonna have to fill the holes I've drilled so far.
Might have got away with it in a larger scale, though I s'pose a larger scale kit might have the holes molded in.
One possibility I suppose is to make indents with the pin, and wash in some dark-red.

Personally I'd have used some plastic gauze over a basic rectangular metal/plastic rod structure

Might do something like that yet - got plenty of time to experiment I s'pose - and in the meantime I'll just crack-on with the rest of the build....

[BWP]

Have you considered a PE set? Seems like it would be a lot less work.

http://www.hannants.co.uk/product/ED72454

[Dirkpitt289]

Have you considered a PE set? Seems like it would be a lot less work.

http://www.hannants.co.uk/product/ED72454

I was wondering if that kit would work on the Airfix kit. However I will get that for my new Academy kit

[carlos]

Have you considered a PE set? Seems like it would be a lot less work.

http://www.hannants.co.uk/product/ED72454

That does look good - but I have no experience of photo-etch yet - and I really don't fancy spending more on aftermarket, than the kit cost. And that sheet of PE is more than 4 times as much as the £3-99 I paid for the kit.
Besides - I enjoy the process of tinkering about altering, or adding, little touches here and there - and even if it doesn't look great, so long as it's not too bad, I'll get great satisfaction if I do it myself.