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Academy SB2C-4 Helldiver 1/72nd ***FINISHED*** 3/12/2017


DaveyGair

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Due to my abysmal work rate with kit building, re; my 1/72 SH Tempest II, there's no way I'm going to get anywhere near finished the SH 1/48th Oxford I planned to do. So, I'm going to attempt Academy's recent Helldiver release under 'Operation Iceberg' guise. Going to be OOB, not going to attempt the PE dive brakes, going to be finished as the VB-3 machine from USS Yorktown. 

I don't know much about the machine or USN birds in general so just going off the instructions and quick internet searches, so apology's for any glaring errors when finished.

 
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Hopefully will be straightforward and WILL be finished before deadline!
 
Davey.
 

 

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I'll keep an eye on this one, I've recently picked up an earlier Academy boxing to one day do the Bunker Hill one this kit has, pity I didn't realise the decals were in there. No matter, it'll be good to see how well it comes together & what the pitfalls if any are.

Steve.

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Ok, here we go then, the build starts, as usual, with the interior.

Did a bit of test fitting just to check the fuselage halves close up properly when the various floors and bulkheads are in place. Just needs a little care, I glued the parts in one half then adjusted them after dry fitting the other half.

The rear gunner 'basket' needs a bit of care as well as there are no positive locating pins or such like for the half dozen parts that make it up.

Did a quick black undercoat then on with Vallejo Modelair Zinc Chromate, this is an initial coat.

I know from some research on the 'net' that Curtiss used there own version of this colour, and used it in the wheel bays and bomb bay, contrary to the Navy practice of having them done in the underside camo colour. I'm never one to fuss over colour shades etc, life's too short!

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks for the kind comments chaps. Done a bit more through the week, got the fuselage together and glued the main wings together.

A little bit of a step here and there along the join, but probably more to do with me than any fault of the kit, a little bit of sanding and filling to do.

 

I offered up the wings to the fuselage and they would seem to be a good fit, but a moulded cross member on the bombay/cockpit floor fouls part of the wing assembly (on both wings) so they don't meet the fuselage. Just needs a bit of trimming, but I don't know if it is a design fault in the kit or just bad placement by me of the assembly.

There are notches moulded into the fuselage halves that locate the placement of the cockpit assembly and there didn't seem to be much in the way of leeway for it to go anywhere.

I've tried to illustrate this in the photo's. I don't have the computer skills to put in arrows or such like to indicate where the problem is, but the offending cross member is clearly shown on the Bombay moulding.

Still have to do a touch of dry brushing, add the pilot seat and gunners position.

 

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Ignore my previous post!  the wings 'clicked' into place fine, you can see where the tab on the wing was pushed forward in front of the cross member in the first photo.

No filling of the joins needed as far as I can see.

 

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Starting to look like an airplane now.

The tailplanes needed a little filler blended in, apart from that, going together nicely.

The cowling is just push fitted at the moment, need to paint inside and the crankcase of the Twin Cyclone.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Quick update after trying to get over this flamin' bug thing!!

 

Canopies on and masked, and lots of them there were too!

Orifices plugged (Ooh! Matron!) and a couple of coats of Ultimate grey primer, although the loft is a tad cold even with the heater on, it sprayed fine.

 

Later today I'll see if I can get some colour on.

 

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Got some paint on at last. Not the best effort you'll see, (especially up close!), of the feathered edges on these 2-tone navy birds but it'll do. Had to do a bit of touching up with a brush, I really have to practice my airbrushing technique. My usual impatience gets the better of me!

Colours are Vallejo ModelAir, the Glossy Blue was fairly translucent and needed a few passes, also kept clogging for some reason?!

Should get this done for next weekend anyway.

 

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  • DaveyGair changed the title to Academy SB2C-4 Helldiver 1/72nd ***FINISHED*** 3/12/2017

Just got this finished today. Had a bit of a disaster with the final gloss coat, just went all 'funny' and lumps in it, not sure what happened as I've never had a problem before. The coats of Semi-Gloss seemed to disguise most of it, but there are lots of flaws in the finish if you look hard enough!

The decals were ok apart from the 'stars and bars' which seemed very thick. I even used the yellow prop tips!

Didn't apply some (well, most) of the stencils.

All in all a nice kit to put together, superb fit and detail.

Many thanks to our host's for a great Group Build, and the kind comments, and I even managed to do 2 !!

 

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