Royal New Zealand Air Force SBD-4 Dauntless

[BarryWilliams]

25 Squadron Espiritu Santo Island Spring 1944

 

[Mikester]

Gorgeous!

[GusMac]

Lovely finish. Are those the kit flaps? I've seen a few of these done with the Eduard ones, but if those are the kit ones they look very good.

[BarryWilliams]

They are the kit ones.  They needed a bit of work but turned out well.

[Fran]

Love it!!! 

[jjetmec]

This is a fantastic looking NZ SBD.  Really really nice job!  Could not do better myself.  I am being asked to build this SBD in 1/32.  I will be using the Trumpeter kit also.  What if anything is not included in the kit?  I saw the response regarding the FLAPS.  Nice flaps OOB.  ANything that I should know about this kit before I jump in.  Do you know if all the Trumpeter SBDs are of the same quality, same mold, or were there improvements made with newer releases?

[coolboxx]

 Well done Barry a beautiful build. 

[dolly15]

Love it! lovely detail and not over- weathered.

[BarryWilliams]

On 14/04/2018 at 4:07 PM, jjetmec said:

This is a fantastic looking NZ SBD.  Really really nice job!  Could not do better myself.  I am being asked to build this SBD in 1/32.  I will be using the Trumpeter kit also.  What if anything is not included in the kit?  I saw the response regarding the FLAPS.  Nice flaps OOB.  ANything that I should know about this kit before I jump in.  Do you know if all the Trumpeter SBDs are of the same quality, same mold, or were there improvements made with newer releases?

I went very light on the aftermarket just the masks and rest was out of the box.  This is my second 1/32 Trumpy Dauntless, the first one being built as a Banshee, see below.  I am not aware of any changes between releases other than the parts needed for the version depicted.  I would say just jump right in - this is an excellent kit with a Tamiya standard of fit.   The painting instructions, as always with Trumpy, are a bit sparse, so I would just do some on-line research to beef up the interior painting.

Built as per the instructions the kit would have the flaps (dive brakes) open but the photos of this particular aircraft showed them closed on the ground so I modified the kit to that as I was not convinced of the 'look' with them open as I depicted them in my first build.   A pic of that Banshee below:

[MARU 5137]

Barry.... that's real NOICE...

[Dennis.E]

Fantastic finish Barry - are those fuselage markings decals or painted on?

[harv]

Beautiful!..... Harv. 

[Martinnfb]

The OD finish definitely sets it apart, Bravo!

[BarryWilliams]

6 hours ago, Dennis.E said:

Fantastic finish Barry - are those fuselage markings decals or painted on?

In that case, the od Banshee, decals as it was before I tried masks, the RNAF aircraft masks. 

[Bomber_County]

Drop dead gorgeous Barry, never built Trumpeter bar one AFV............love the subtle weathering of your Ziwi bird.......

[Guest DannyVM]

Nice work, congrats with the result

Regards

Danny