Dirk's Testors SBD Dauntless Circa (1943-ish)

[BWP]

Wow, and I thought I was doing a lot of work! Great stuff Dirk.

[Dirkpitt289]

Thanks guys. More to come soon I hope

[kruaxi]

Bravo !

[Dirkpitt289]

Now we move on to the aft cockpit for the radio Operator/ Gunner.

Using the framework from the PE fret I was able to make the gunners ring.









To make this fit I had to make some more room in the back of the cockpit







Plenty of room now.

[Martin R]

Good stuff, DP! Keep it going.

regards,

[Desert_fox]

Fantastic stuff, as per usual Dirk! I am mightily impressed by the dedication to modifying and scratch building the details. It really does need a lot of work, but you seem to be taking it in your stride. Can't wait for more!

[Dirkpitt289]

I've been doing a little bit just about every night. Most of my time has been trying to drill out the dive flaps. I can't begin to tell you how many flaps I've destroyed. I've had a very difficult time trying to keep the 3 rows of 30 holes each straight is killing me.

Anyway time to get onto the parts that have gone well.

Installing the anchor point beneath the cockpit floor



Drilling the mounting holes for the gun mount



Dry fitting the mount



View from the bottom



Modifying the gun mount





The semi completed cockpit

[Dirkpitt289]

Rebuilding the twin 30 cal. machine gun. The original kit mount was disposed of.







Adding the first piece of armor plate





The sides of the armor plate



Here is the finished gun. I will mount it much later on in the build to prevent it from getting knocked off.

[Dirkpitt289]

This little beauty will be added to the gun mount after its put in place. Its a PE gun belt set. I used it on my last SBD Dauntless and I thought it looked great.



Here you can see the star has been filled in. The panel lines and raft access panel has been rescribed. It feels good but we'll have to wait till a cote of primer is applied to see just how good I did.



Fuselage assembled



Wings assembled



The underside along with the newly carved out gear wells.



If you remember back to my list of issues with this kit you may remember this issue. The kit wheels are way to big for the newly carved out gear wells



Well as I pondered this issue an idea occurred to me in the form of a 1/144 B-24 Assembly Ship I have sitting on my bench.



With a little work these baby's should look great once fitted.



Till next time, thanks for taking the time to look at my work

[kruaxi]

This is real 'creative modelling'. Great, Dirk, Great !

[Stamford]

Never seen one of these - does seem to have a few issues! How old is the mold?

[Dirkpitt289]

I'm not sure of the age of the kit but I believe it originates from a company called Hawk as thats the name stamped inside the model. I think people had a discussion about that earlier in the build. Something makes me say its from the 50's but I could be wrong.

[MerlinJones]

I'd say you're right with the vintage Dirk, but like...Duh. Now you've filled in the decal placement guides, like how're you gonna know where to put your decals? Duh!

I like to see this sort of modelling, turning an old kit into something of beauty.

Regards,
Bruce

[Dirkpitt289]

Thanks guys

[JohnRatzenberger]

Excellent work -- a lot of valuable lessons for all of us !!!