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Undaunted by a mini "Coral Sea" Dauntless


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My record hasn't been that great for past BIitzbuilds with many of them, having failed to make the deadline, being candidates for the year end KUTA. This time I thought that I would try to improve my chances with this little kit of the Douglas Dauntless SBD-3.  🤞 

 

Here are the box and contents pics. 

 

53937034077_9c2a4e8e3d_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

53938188738_f94be71a7c_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

See y'all over the weekend.

John

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Hi John,

 

Long time... How are you all?

Unlike us, poor mortals, your eyesight appears to be improving with age... When most of us are thinking 1/32, you keep ploughing through the whole 1/144 catalogue.

What's next? 1/720?

Anyway, this Dauntless will be another masterpiece.

Enjoy, and please give my regards to Carron and he Black Beauty.

 

JR

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On 21/08/2024 at 19:09, jean said:

Hi John,

 

Long time... How are you all?

Unlike us, poor mortals, your eyesight appears to be improving with age... When most of us are thinking 1/32, you keep ploughing through the whole 1/144 catalogue.

What's next? 1/720?

Anyway, this Dauntless will be another masterpiece.

Enjoy, and please give my regards to Carron and he Black Beauty.

 

JR

 

Nice to hear from you Jean, I hope that everything is well with all of you down there in Zim. I am gradually recovering from a course of chemotherapy and that is why there has been less activity from me here on Britmodeller lately. Good news from my last CT scan though, it shows that the tumour is continuing to shrink and a lymph node discovered at the initial screening has been resolved.

Caron has been a rock through the treatment and the Black Beauty still thinks that she is a puppy and seems to have boundless amounts of energy,

 

As I have said before, the eyesight is greatly assisted by my special glasses, they are useful for these smaller scale models.

 

51288081972_abbe551a2a_w.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

There are no plans to drop down to 1/720 scale just yet - I think that I would need to change my prescription for that. :lol: 

 

Cheers for now.

John

 

On 21/08/2024 at 21:30, JOCKNEY said:

Great stuff John, good luck mate :fingerscrossed:

 

Cheers Pat 

 

On 21/08/2024 at 22:35, 81-er said:

I'm sure you'll have this one wrapped up in time for lunch on day one ;)

 

James

 

Thanks chaps. I hope that I can get this finished this time around, I don't want to rush things though. :lol:

 

John

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I finally made a start early this afternoon. After cleaning up and painting the few cockpit details I glued those into the starboard fuselage half and then assembled the fuselage and wings.

 

53947442105_ddbff26fa2_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

53946981001_ffd2aa417f_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

53947246468_5417a68ee8_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

And after around 51/2 hours work that's how I left things when I had to break for our evening meal. That should give the model time to set up and I may have a shorter session later to clean up the joins and carry out the filling around the the wing root and fin. 

 

53947442030_249a2f7d97_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

More later.

John

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20 hours ago, Hockeyboy76 said:

That’s a good start good buddy. 

 

2 hours ago, 81-er said:

A very strong start there, John

 

James

 

Thanks for the comments guys, I stopped for something to eat a short while ago.

 

This how things stood before starting today.

 

53949879914_d6f197f2e1_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

53950009915_1deb6ff7e9_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

And after around one hour I had filled and tidied the joins, glued the canopy in place and added the port and starboard tailplanes.

 

53948658687_985c076382_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

After a break for some lunch I spent the rest of the afternoon painting and this is how it looks now.

 

53949879634_12e15dac7d_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

53949879639_bb9f7406bd_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

Things should be dry enough for me to unmask later, then I can paint the canopy and start on the decals.

 

Cheers

John

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After a couple of hours spent hand painting the canopy frames and adding the decals I have decided to call it a day for today on this one. I'll wrap it up tomorrow and post the finished photos in this thread. The decals need to bed in then I can add a clear coat to seal them in before adding the rest of the details and I may revisit the canopy framing.

Here are a couple of photos of progress so far.

 

53950116156_89172c70fd_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

53950116161_546d7d8a33_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

Cheers for now.

John

 

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3 hours ago, Tim Taylor said:

How will you mask that tiny greenhouse canopy?

 

Tim,

In this scale and for this tyoe of canopy, I would generally mask the frames off with 1mm tape one row at a time (horizontally then vertically) and paint that row before proceeding to the next. But in order to speed things up, tonight I decided to paint them freehand, needless to say I am not happy with the end result. I'll see if I can rescue it tomorrow.

 

John

 

2 hours ago, Hockeyboy76 said:

Hope it’s all going well. 

 

It has gone well matey just running out of time. As a former Production Planner you would think that I would be better at managing my time. :rofl::rofl:

 

John

 

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A few days later than expected, but here is the model almost complete. In the end I stripped the paint from the canopy and masked up the frames then repainted those, for @Tim Taylor here are a couple of photos showing the vertical frames masked up, and the result after unmasking having brushed on the top colour.

 

53958508828_c2e0cf7a9b_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

53958508823_2fe6fd3783_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

 I finished adding most of the remaining parts last night and the aerial wire this morning. I almost missed the small spinner which was still on the sprue, I had to quickly paint it up and have left it to dry. I'll add that later and take some final photos, but here are some of how it looks so far.

 

53958260311_6e1281cf7b_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

53958578194_e7fb3a453c_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

John

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On 30/08/2024 at 17:08, 81-er said:

That's very nice, John 

 

James

 

On 31/08/2024 at 06:18, Hockeyboy76 said:

Really nice good buddy. 

 

Thanks guys, having finished a Blitzbuild in the same week is a bonus for me. :lol:  It's a nice little kit that goes together really well and there is also a small etch set available to improve the dive brake detail - but not for a Blitzbuild.

 

I added the spinner on Friday and took some more photos of the finished model this afternoon, so finally here is the end result. 

 

Douglas SBD-3 Dauntless

CX-6 USSEnterprise, VB-6 

during Wake Island Raid, 24 February 1942

 

Brengun 1/144

 

53963293731_9c81f16d84_b.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

53963623264_b4dfea0ddb_b.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

53963750810_873c57e937_b.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

53963293726_79da22fffe_b.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

53963623254_95facce5d6_b.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

Off to see if I can blitz some Hornets now.

 

John

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