Clunkmeister

Come on, Trumpeter, seriously? Time to peel it off, mask and paint.

A bit of progress. I found a few little spots I had to fix. If carrying a torpedo, the bomb ai er doors are closed. The fit is terrible and some sanding and fitting is needed.

Stunning result, Rob! You have every reason to be incredibly proud.

The Let’s Get Wet GB has officially come to a close, and by absolute unanimous consent, the winner is PanzerWomble with his insanely amazing Zerstorer. Second place was also unanimous. GusMac with his Tomcat. That’s is a GREAT build! PanzerWomble will choose between either a Trumpeter Devastator and an Infinity Val. The unchosen kit will go to GusMac. Personally guys, I do like the idea of the kids choosing. They seriously look at what they like, and it takes everything else off the table. And a bit of a prize at the end makes it all worthwhile to me. I’ll wait to hear from PW, and I already have Gus’s addy. Thanks for doing this, folks! It makes me feel great to see the level of participation we have gotten to. Again, thank you VERY much, and as soon as y’all are ready, we can do it again! E

I revisited my control surfaces today. I had way too thick trailing edges, a d the halves were starting to separate, so off they came, they got split, and on to the sanding board they went. MUCH better now.

Hubert, obviously you’re not going to finish this in time, but you, sir are receiving a very honorable mention in your gracious attempt to give this a good start. So much so that assuming you continue right along with this build, once I’m finished my LSM obligated review build and the couple or 3 I have almost finished, I’m going to join you with a build of the same kit. You have absolutely inspired me here.

GB rules state that an RFI must be posted before midnight CDT. That’s Central Daylight Time. It’s now 21:29. Mickey’s big hand is on the 6 and Mickey’s little hand is halfway between the 9 and 10. There is a new, unopened Trumpeter TBD Devastator, and a sold out everywhere Infinity Val riding on this, guys.

I had seen that as well, but I missed the big one in the middle. Duhhhh. Japanese instrumentation is a mystery to me, although some stuff is pretty much the same anywhere. We can straight up say this looks like a GREAT kit

Hahaha. The dreaded LSM forever GB. Nope, no such luck. Tomorrow it ends, y’all. C’est la vie. So ist das nunmal wenn man ein devoter Diener ist To jest to droga to jest Y esa es la forma en que es Trying to show some flavor of internationalism, and yes, I meant how I said it in German 😂🤣🤣😂🤣😇

Yep, and you’d read about how even US submarines, destroyers, and MTB’s would watch their fish thump into the side of their target with no more than a clang. The perfect alert! The air dropped fish were even better. They had to be dropped at the perfect altitude and airspeed to give the enemy a nice, fat, juicy target, many would fail to run once in the water, others would detonate upon impact with the water, others would veer off course and fail to track, others would run deep and cruise right under their target without even a magnetic detonation. The wood box fins on the Midway fish were an ad hoc way to possibly improve accuracy. So I’m not sure it had anything to do with the aircraft itself. The Brits used slow biplanes through most of the war, with great success. The Japanese used a slow, unarmored, fixed gear monoplane with great success as well. And they both had decent fish. We didn’t.

I love this kit, Hubert. It’s basic, but that’s OK. That just adds to what we can do. The outline seems accurate, yes, the Trumpeter rivet-divots are an issue, but for those who don’t like it, Archer or Quinta will come to the rescue. The only thing that really needs additions is the cockpit, as it’s basic. Trumpeter appears to have fixed a couple of the GWK kit issues. The ENTIRE bombardier control system is missing, but it’s invisible without actually having a mirror and penlight. What’s amazing is how in 1937-38, the TBD was considered the most advanced navy bomber in the world, yet within 3 years, it was woefully obsolete. Credit where credit is due, though. It did well at Coral Sea, and in other battles where it also served as a level bomber. Many of its issues were issues with the torpedo itself. WW2 US aircraft torpedoes were a joke that were never properly developed. Even the Avengers used bombs more than torpedoes. The US torpedoes were a very effective Japanese weapon.

The TBD used a removable crank similar to a 109 to spin the flywheel and start the engine. Being able to show one in place would be cool, but like the 109, it’s never offered in kits.

A few things to point out here, guys. 1. Trumpeter correctly depicted the fuselage mounting foot wells. They were slightly recessed and covered by spring loaded covers. Nicely done! GWH depicted them open on their 1/48 kits. 2. The torpedo sight is there, but it is very rudimentary on the kit. The entire mechanical drift compensator is MIA, but it would make for a very nice AM 3D printed component. 3. The windscreen framing is WRONG. Trumpeter chose to depict two internal braces as windshield frames. No biggie: sand, polish, and Future, but Trumpeter totally blew it there. Oops! Sand them off and add them after the windscreen is in place. I WILL be fixing this on this build. I said OOB, but this is a fairly big oops. In the first pic, you can clearly see the torpedo sight and the internal braces. Compare that to the pic of the kit canopy

That TBD is gonna chew the tail of that D3A. But I expect if the D3A crew would pull their heads out of their arses, they could pour the coal to her and run away from that TBD.

Organized semi mass confusion. There is much missing from the cockpit with this kit, but the exterior is wonderful.

Guys I’m sure you’re all aware, but just in case… The bomb doors on a Devastator are not bomb bay doors, but are bomb aimer doors, used for high altitude level bombing. The bombardier opened the doors on a bomb run so the bombardier could see though a clear windscreen in the belly. He’d then conduct a bomb run using his rudimentary flight instrumentation and his Norden bombsight. The Devastator was quite successful in that role. Those doors were otherwise always closed. IF you’re building a torpedo bomber,Trumpeter would have you open the doors, then add the torpedo. If the torpdo was loaded, the doors could not be opened. They’d hit the torpedo. So, keep them closed, which means minor part surgery. They don’t even come close to fitting, as they’re expecting to be left open.

I started plowing away at this again. I’d like to have it at the IPMS USA Nationals in a month.

I think it’ll surely help the kit. The corrugations look well done, although I’m loathe to call them corrugations. Hugo Junkers brought us corrugated aluminum, and the Devastator nothing like the Junkers patent.

I’m looking forward to a long, drawn out Yellow Wings build full of yummy AM goodies.

Fixing the short shot and you’d think I could find the wheel with “correct” Trumpeter rivet spacing. The ONE wheel missing. 😡😡😡🤬 NOTHING is ever easy.

I just talked to a guy who has studied the aircraft, and like I had said, he stated the cockpit is sparse, really sparse. So, hopefully soon we’ll get some upgrades. This kit will be OOB, though.

Fuselage is tricky to get aligned, with all the interior bulkheads, etc, but patience will get you there. The wing center section to fuselage fit is sublime. No filler at all, although I may needs a slight swipe in front of the windshield

Finally, someone at Trumpeter stepped back from the bong long enough to grow back a few brain cells. No redneck engineering in the wing fold area. This is a press fit. No glue. However, you get folded or extended. Not both. This quick build is getting open wings.