Infinity Models SB2C-4 Helldiver. Finished. Well, OK, maybe not.

[Jeff]

Ernie, I LOVE what you did with the seat belts, such a refreshing change from the perfectly crossed ( airline passenger style ) lap belts that EVERYONE does, I have seen a lot of operational aircraft and have never seen lap belts always so neatly crossed on the seats, your rendition is much, much more realistic... they look spot on !

[Clunkmeister]

6 minutes ago, Jeff said:

Ernie, I LOVE what you did with the seat belts, such a refreshing change from the perfectly crossed ( airline passenger style ) lap belts that EVERYONE does, I have seen a lot of operational aircraft and have never seen lap belts always so neatly crossed on the seats, your rendition is much, much more realistic... they look spot on !

100% agree, Jeff, and thanks!  I try to achieve the haphazard look on every build, but it’s not always successful.

However, I can’t take credit on this one because the seat is the Resin2Detail seat with the belts already molded in place. 

[Martinnfb]

when is Ernie talking about 'creative changes', I hear noises of some undisclosed, heavy machinery and see tons of saw dust and barrels of putty in our near future. Looking good my friend 

[Bomber_County]

Very tidy so far Ernie, modelling in the house, I don’t go near resin these days…..onwards and upwards……

[Clunkmeister]

On and upward.   Plenty of fitting, sanding, and lots more fitting.  This fuselage is cut almost into pieces. 
But, we slowly make progress. The only thing secured in place are the cockpit sidewalls and the cockpit bulkhead. One piece at a time, we hopefully will get there, without goobering up the entire thing. 
And then, thank you Airscale for your amazing 1/32 WW2 Navy and Marines instrument decals. 
Some placards should liven it right up….

[Clunkmeister]

The fit of some of the parts in quite, ummmm,… vague.  Add to that the the butchery of the fuselage, and there is a fair bit of creative scratchbuilding needed here. 
The fit of this bulkhead is, what I like to call a “good humor suggestion”.  As in I find myself glancing around to see if Im on Candid Camera. 
So I think it will be easier and quicker to simply make a new bulkhead out of card stock and go from there. 
Not that I’m surprised. This IS a SHORT RUN kit, and it is advertised as such. I’m convinced an absolutely stunning Helldiver can be created here, but it’s going to be a bit of work.  This is the kind of kit I truly enjoy.  I actually get bored with the almost snap title Tamiya kits, as my one and only Corsair can testify. It still sits, forlornly waiting for my love. I really should finish it, as the hood stuff is waiting; the finishing. 

[BlrwestSiR]

Some impressive work there Ernie. 

The paint on the Corsair is different too. Is it one of those half and half rebuilds that occasionally showed like Little Miss Mischief?

 

[Peterpools]

Ernie

Nice progress on the Helldiver as the front office is looking so good. Scratching out a new bulkhead does look like the best option as the kit suppled version seems too small all the way around.

Yup, with your Corsair this far along, would be great to see her finished and cross the finish line.

 

[Clunkmeister]

1 hour ago, BlrwestSiR said:

Some impressive work there Ernie. 

The paint on the Corsair is different too. Is it one of those half and half rebuilds that occasionally showed like Little Miss Mischief?

 

The Corsair is destined to be a very early Bitdcage with badly beat paint. It will still have the earlier blue and grey scheme, two color, not three. 

[Clunkmeister]

This is getting worse and worse.  The more I get into it, the more the razor saw gets used.
What could possibly go wrong?

I sure hope I can put Humpty Dumpty back together again.  NOTHING here is by the book, and I think that when I’m done, only 2/3 of the thing will be original Infinity plastic. Needless to say, I’m only wee bit concerned.  But tomorrow we do a couple washes over the nice, shiny Future, then start slapping it all together with baited breath 

[Kaireckstadt]

Great work on the Helldiver Ernie. A friend of mine built it too and made the same experience like you: bad fit and lots of rework necessary. 
Maybe you set it aside for a day and continue with the Corsair? 

[Martinnfb]

You’ve got this girl  , looking awesome. Short run kits are pain in the butt, but at the end you win. And you will.

[Clunkmeister]

9 hours ago, Kaireckstadt said:

Great work on the Helldiver Ernie. A friend of mine built it too and made the same experience like you: bad fit and lots of rework necessary. 
Maybe you set it aside for a day and continue with the Corsair? 

I thought about it, but I can’t. Mostly because I’ll forget where everything goes!  
It’s fresh in my mind and we continue on. Maybe once the airframe is back together all in one piece, we might take a break before paint. 

[monnthebiff]

Nice progress and pleased to see you are feeling my pain with this build. A complete shocker of a kit indeed and the easiest thing to do is make a new rear bulkhead from plastic card or easier still put the whole thing in the bin lol

Regards. Andy 

[GazzaS]

On 8/8/2022 at 2:02 PM, Clunkmeister said:

I actually get bored with the almost snap title Tamiya kits, *snip*

And you bought how many Wingnuts kits?

Love your work Ern.   The office looks great!

[Clunkmeister]

On 8/11/2022 at 2:55 PM, monnthebiff said:

Nice progress and pleased to see you are feeling my pain with this build. A complete shocker of a kit indeed and the easiest thing to do is make a new rear bulkhead from plastic card or easier still put the whole thing in the bin lol

Regards. Andy 

Oh it’s a pain, no doubt, Andy. Matter of fact it’s a Royal pain. What I’ve learned through watching your build will certainly help me avoid a few of the pitfalls out there  

But,.. it’s pretty much what I expected, quite honestly. I looked closely at yours and John’s builds before I jumped in, simply because I was quite concerned with how far I really wanted to chop this thing up for modifications.  What y’all showed me was that it’s certainly doable, albeit with quite a bit of effort. 
I also knew it was a short run kit, so I was expecting the fit to be on the “vague” side, and if I was doing a buttoned up airplane, the surprises would have been negligible, but I seem to live for making my life interesting, so away we went with the razor saw.

The kit is plagued with the bugaboo of all short run kits: vague, head scratching instructions, and small interior parts that could fit in 40 different spots, with the correct location actually being your last choice because that’s where fit is worst. 😬. 
But, it’ll get done, and I expect it’ll look awesome once finished. 
I opted for the open bomb bay, so now I’m cutting spars and fitting them in the wings even before I finish the fuselage. It all keys together right there below the cockpit floor. Fun. 
I’m actually starting to think the resin kit might actually be an easier build than the IM version.

I fully expect to do another one of these kits as well, but that one being fully buttoned up with folded wings.

[Bomber_County]

On 8/12/2022 at 7:34 AM, Clunkmeister said:

Oh it’s a pain, no doubt,
I’m actually starting to think the resin kit might actually be an easier build than the IM version.

My thoughts as well concerning resin v IM…….as I understand it, the tooling for short runs is inferior to full run. The machining process is the same so all I can think is the tool isn’t hardened ………I’m sure someone will know……

[Clunkmeister]

59 minutes ago, Bomber_County said:

My thoughts as well concerning resin v IM…….as I understand it, the tooling for short runs is inferior to full run. The machining process is the same so all I can think is the tool isn’t hardened ………I’m sure someone will know……

I heard it’s the molds. Full run kits use hardened steel molds and short runs use softer molds that need to be refreshed more often.

[Martinnfb]

exactly 

https://sealectplastics.com/news/what-is-short-run-plastic-injection-molding/

[Clunkmeister]

I’m starting to feel I’m getting a handle on the basic fuselage inner workings. Yes, the fit is extremely vague, but at least it’s oversized, not too small.

I can nicely sand the edges until it all slides in place, but just know that forewarned is forearmed. If you approach assembly by following the instructions and assembling the entire interior first like a ZM kit or Tamiya, you will cuss the day the designer was born.  But going carefully, one piece at a time takes longer, but will get you there faster and easier. Thank you Andy and John!  You just need to be fearless and keep at it. 
 

I tossed a coat of sorta interior green on the areas, glued the pieces shown to the starboard side fuselage half and taped it all together to cure in place.  Trust me, there was PLENTY of grinding and other hijinx behind the scene here to help coax this together. 
Tomorrow we pull the fuselage side off, finish the radio stack and forward floor, put on some placards, run some lead wires for interest, and weather the ever loving crap out of it. 
 

As for the engine, I’m using a Resin2Detail R2600 fast fix piece, which to me, is easily one of the nicest R2600s out there. 
The cowl was simple, although I’m honestly thinking of ditching the overly thick plastic cowl flaps and scratching something out of brass.  
Failing that, maybe thin the kit part to within an inch of their life.

Thanks for looking!  More updates tomorrow. 

[Clunkmeister]

Placing a few more internal components tonight, and started scratching out a rear bulkhead because the kit part is closer to 1/48 than 1/32.  It’s attached to the right side, but not glued on the bottom or to the left side. Some adjustment needed yet. 
But the good news is that other than a few rivets and such, it’s just a flat piece, so cardstock will work just fine.  
I’m looking forward to being able to hit the rear with some wear and tear so it looks like an actual workspace. 

Good LORD this is one UGLY aircraft. 
 

 

[Clunkmeister]

And then guess what’s staring at me in disgust. First the Birdcage Corsair gives me hate, and now this one jumps out and says FINISH ME!

[Clunkmeister]

The thing I’m finding on this is that the kit is actually pretty typical HPH. Absolutely gorgeous exterior moldings/castings, and some basic fit issue on the inside. 

So far, I’ve found that if you can build short run injected or full resin kits, (not including Silver Wings, Lukgraph, or Fisher, which fit as good as a Hasegawa kit) you won’t find any surprises here. 
With a bit, ok ALOT of care and attention, this appears like it’ll build up into a stunner.

Obviously I have a ways to go yet, but the area I’m in now is where the major complaints occurred, so once the fuselage is together and the modifications complete, it should be semi smooth sailing. 
There have been several really nice builds of this kit so far, and yes, aim going a bit further down the road of idiocy than most, their kits all turned out awesome. 
And best of all?  I have a resin type build, but ZERO resin dust. 

[BlrwestSiR]

You are really beating this kit into submission Ernie. 

Even the shake and bake kits don't always go as planned. I was looking at my Lanc fuselage last night and noticed that a couple of the fuselage window had popped loose. No choice but to open her up, find the loose windows, glue them back in and reassemble the fuselage. Not pretty but that's what filler is for. 

[KevinM]

Well Ernie I am glad you are having so much fun but I am still not going to buy one!