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1/18 French SBD-5 Dauntless UPDATE 18/11/16 FINISHED!


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This is amazing work the detailing is bonkers !!! will be looking forward to more updates.

Guy

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  • 1 month later...

*update 22/11/15*

Hi - time for an update..

last time I showed you the work I had done on the engine accessory compartment. The next item to tackle was the engine itself.

The kit representation is fairly basic. The main shapes, such as cylinders and crank case, are there. The problem being that in this large scale, there is huge scope for improvement.

The first thing to tackle was the cylinders. The Dauntless was powered by a 9 cylinder Wright R-1820 Cyclone engine. The kit supplies these already affixed to their mounting, but in two separate halves. As you can see from this photo, the ‘wafers’ typical of radial engine cylinders are moulded into the parts, but they are crudely done. There should be many, many more of them.

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I first considered scratching a master and casting the pieces in resin, but my resin-casting skills are limited at best. I then thought about somehow fashioning dozens of thin ‘wafers’ from metal sheet. A good idea in theory, but a logistical nightmare as I would have to repeat the entire process nine times.

In the end I hit upon a satisfactory solution - refer once again to the trusty pewter sheet! This is thin and maleable enough to mould around the curves of the cylinders, and I could scribe in the lines to represent the layers of ‘wafers’. So that’s what I did..

This photo shows the process - there are five pieces for each cylinder. To get the right shapes, I first made templates with low tack masking tape, placed them on the pewter sheet and cut them out. I then used these parts as templates for the next cylinder and so on. It took several days of cutting, scribing and sticking, but I am happy with the result. I think a coat of grey primer will determine how successful I have been, but that’s in the future..

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This photo shows several features of the real engine that I needed to replicate. Firstly, the ‘dome’ on top of the crank case, which isn’t present in the kit. Many of my ref photos show this, so I added mine from plastic card and putty. The black gadget on top is the prop governor.

Also evident are the clips / tighteners on each puch rod - three per rod.

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The kit’s crankcase isn’t bad. Here’s my modified version:

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The push rods on the kit are fine - I dressed mine up with the clamps shown in the photo of the real thing above. The gadget at the bottom is the oil sump. Further mounting bolts were added for the crankcase, and also at the base of each push rod. I added these from appropriately sized hexagonal plastic rods.

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getting there….

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rear of engine - more mounting bolts etc. You’ll notice the sheet of thin plastic card sandwiched between each half of the cylinders. Evident on the real machine, although I can only summise that this was for aerodynamic purposes. The holes in it are for the air induction pipes / intakes to be fitted later (more on that in a moment)

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Here is one of the aforementioned air induction intakes. There are two - one either side of the crankcase. They extend through the rear of the engine into the accessory compartment, and are connected to the two ‘kidney’ shaped devices found on the top of each side of the engine mount (see earlier posts for details)

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I started to build mine up with plastic tube and card, plus some of the ubiquitous pewter sheet. The white gadget on the bottom is the part that attaches to the rear - only the left side one can be seen, and then only half of it, so that’s why it looks like…nothing in particular at the moment! Trust me, once it’s in place it should all come together and it will be obvious what you are seeing (that’s the idea anyway)

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The rear part of the engine is a little spartan. I dressed it up according to my reference pics. Again, I only detailed the half that could be seen - the right side is mostly hidden in the cowling

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and again. Can’t remember what those pipes are called - the opposite to exhaust collectors. Someone help me out?

The white pipe at top right is a piece of solid plastic rod buried inside the engine. This mounts directly through the cowling and is essentially a way of affixing it (I had to remove the moulded in mounting pegs for realism’ sake). Once everything is glued in place, sanded and painted, you won’t see it.

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Exhausts - pretty good! I dressed them up a little with some mounting plates, and one or two cosmetic details. The open exhaust itself benefitted from having a section of hollow tubing sandwiched in, so at least it looks hollow all the way up now.

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Again, once all these parts are glued together everything will be much more fluid

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Modification begins on this part of the cowling (Americans would call this part the speed ring). The kit part is about two meters thick, or so it seemed. Thinning down the edges to scale accuracy took a lot of time, and indeed I overdid it in places. An issue to be addressed at a later date…

The SBD-5 had only one cowl flap on each side. I duly cut down / filled in the relevant areas. At the right time I will add the cowl flaps. Also you will note the white strip at the top - the SBD-3 depicted in the kit had a different air intake system, and this needed to be filled in.

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A final couple of shots show the state of play as of last night. Next up is the ignition harness and wiring.

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any comments or queries welcomed as usual

Rich

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Stellar stuff Rich. I know this is a larger scale but ultimately that means that you are obliged to add even more detail to make things look realistic. The engine accessory bay looks totally convincing. With suitably tight cropping I think they would pass as real 1:1.

Equally, the work on the engine has begun in the same vein. I really like your initiative with the cooling vanes of the cylinders. I was a little sceptical when I viewed your first image but subsequent shots show that your technique works beautifully.. Congratulations on that mini triumph and please keep the updates coming.

Cheers.

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thanks very much mate. I know what you mean about the cooling vanes (that's the phrase I was looking for!) - I really only think it could work in this larger scale. At a push 1/24, but you'd have to have a bloody thin scribing tool blade and a super large magnifier to stick the parts on..

The acid test will be painting it, then I can see how realistic it looks

thanks for your kind comments about the accessory bay. I'm no photographer, and it's hard to convey a) the size B) the complexity in images. I can't wait to get everything glued together, then it should really start to come to life

Rich

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Lovely work on the engine Rich really looks good you certainly have a good eye for detail.

Guy

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Hello Rich,

Dauntless is one of MY favourite aircrafts and having read thru

your ASTONISHING build & it is a work of art..

...A SPECTACULAR Masterpiece in the making.

Your Engine is amazing..MY Favorite part of the aircraft ..

keep it coming..its fascinating to watch your build { have you gotten any reference books for your extensive book collection that you have also used in getting details }

KUDOS.... :mike: :mike::mike:

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  • 1 month later...

*update 07/01/16*

Hi - Happy New Year to one and all!

It’s been several weeks since my last update, and I’ve been very busy.

The big news is that the engine is more or less finished. I had several more items to scratchbuild first though. First up was the ignition harness - the one provided in the kit is a simple circle of plastic, whereas the real thing comes in two halves, as seen in this photo:

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I also noted that the ignition wires themselves are braided - iin smaller scales it would be hard to depict this, but in 1/18 it is possible to use some of the various braided hoses available for model car detailing, and I duly ordered some. Each ignition wire also requires several open head bolts - I got a job lot of 1.0mm aluminium coloured bolts. The thread is just wide enough to allow the braided wire to fit through.

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I used the kit part as a basis for my own version, first cutting it in two and then bending, shaping and trimming the parts until I had two halves. I drilled holes for the ignition wires and fed the appropriate lengths of wiring in. The support pieces at the base were made from the plastic casing from electrical wire - rather than trying to thread the ignition wire through it, I simply removed the electrical wiring and then split the casing along its length. I could then wrap each piece around the base of the ignition wires and glue in place. The seams are hidden at the rear of the harness, and once it’s in place on the engine you can’t see them. Bolt heads were added as appropriate. I was considering making the individual spark plugs, but these are (more or less) hidden inside each cylinder, so in the end I simply fed the ends of each ignition wire directly into holes in the cylinder heads.

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One thing I needed to make was the prop governor - atop the crankcase in thi pic

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and the prop pitch regulator:

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Here’s the engine painted up:

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Some things to note:

The data placard at the base of the crankcase will need to be replaced as I handled it a little too much during construction. Also, the silver paint has worn off the nuts around the base of the prop mount - again due to heavy handling and test-fitting. One of the downsides of the AK Interactive paint is that it isn't very durable unless sealed in with something.

The little green things are mounting brackets which fit up snugly against the inside of the cowling when it is attached - there is one per cylinder. Some of these had broken off when this pic was taken. Similarly there are some at the rear, to which another supporting bracket is attached (to which the cooling flaps / gills attach) - but more on those at a later date.

You’ll notice that on the real engine, the push rods and ignition harness are natural, shiny metal. I decided to use a product new to me, which was AK Interactive’s ‘True Metal’ paint - fantastic stuff!

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Next up, the interior of the cowling received some details. I ascertained what was needed by studying the maintenance manual, and numerous pics of the real thing. It’s not 100% accurate, but it dresses things up nicely. Various fasteners were replicated with metal, plastic, and one or two spares from an Airscale etched brass detailing set.

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The edges of the cowling were very thick, and a lot of sanding was required to make them scale thickness.

Oh yes - I skinned the finished cowling with pewter! First of all, I bought some new tools - an RB Riveting tool at Telford, and a set of beading tools from UMM in America. Dive bombers tended to be heavily riveted to withstand extreme strains on the airframe, and the Dauntless is no exception. I can expect lots of riveting in the weeks to come. In retrospect, I think that the few rivets I added to the cowling are a little too small. In any case, I think they will be virtually invisible under a coat of paint. For larger fasteners (like dzus fasteners) I used one of my large beading tools. You can’t really see any of this on the photos because unfortunately my camera died and I am using my iphone, but you should get an impression of what I am trying to do.

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The engine is now attached permanently to the cowling.

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For the final part of this update, I will focus on the windshield. The SBD-3/4 had a telescopic gunsight that protruded through the windshield glass, whereas the SDB-5/6 was fitted with a Mark 8 Naval gunsight. I could have gone down the whole master / vacform route, but as I don’t have any vacforming equipment, I decided to take a big risk. I chopped out the windshield glass, and through trial and error I made a replacement one-piece one from clear thermaform. Believe me, this was tricky, and took around half a dozen attempts before I was remotely happy with it.

Here’s the windshield, pre-modification - you can see the big hole for the telescopic sight at the bottom.

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And the same item after I chopped it up, masked and undercoated, with the clear thermaform part.

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Oh yes - rivets are prominent on the canopies / enclosures too - the first of many were added from appropriate hex-shaped plastic rod:

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Bit of a poor photo this, but that’s a Mk.VIII gunsight under construction… a few more bits to add to the windshield, such as the magnetic compass and the bullet resistant glass pane - it’s a wonder the pilot could see anything forward at all!

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update ends! Any and all comments welcomed, as usual

Rich

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Like it doesn't quite cut it. If it's finished and if you're ever taking it to a show I might have to catch a plane and drool on it in real life. It's exquisite! The pewter on the cylinders really worked out quite well didn't it?

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A thing of beauty.

But will it fire up first swing?

haha thanks Pete. It's not quite in the same league as those guys who build 1/5 Spitfires and the like from metal, but I like to pack in as much detail as I can...

Like it doesn't quite cut it. If it's finished and if you're ever taking it to a show I might have to catch a plane and drool on it in real life. It's exquisite! The pewter on the cylinders really worked out quite well didn't it?

Hi - thanks very much! The idea is to have it ready for Telford in November, although that might not happen..who knows? Yeah the pewter turned out well. Probably only do-able in this large scale..

hi!

I'm really impressed by you stunning work here.

especially the shiny metallic rendering of the cowling... impressive.

bye

thank you very much. Unfortunately this won't be an all metal machine, rather a three tone blue/grey French navy one

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