Mike Posted October 21, 2011 Share Posted October 21, 2011 SBD-1 Dauntless "VMSB-132" 1:48 Hasegawa The Dauntless was designed as a naval diver-bomber from the outset, and served with the USN as well as the AAC (as the A-24) until late in 1943. It was somewhat sluggish and outmoded, but a combination of heavy offensive armament and rugged construction meant that it was highly successful. It served with distinction in many major battles, sinking a sizeable chunk of the Japanese Navy, most notably at the Battle of Midway, where it was responsible for sinking or crippling all four of the carriers fielded by Japan. The SBD-1 is the earlier model of this redoubtable aircraft, and lacks self-sealing fuel tanks, crew armour and reduced fuel capacity. Only 57 of this variant were produced, a number of which were destroyed on the ground at Pearl Harbour. The kit arrives in Hasegawa's compact top opening box, and inside you will find twelve sprues of mid-grey styrene, a small bag of resin parts, a sprue of clear parts, a fret of Photo-Etched metal, four poly-caps, decals and instructions. Whilst the sprue count may seem high, a large number of these contain only a few parts each due to the modular tooling to maximise versions. This is not a new tool kit, but it has some significant upgrades in the box in the form of the resin and PE parts, but more on that later. The cockpit builds up into a tub from flat sections, with instrument panels, crew seating and control column as separate parts. The detail on the sidewalls of the tub is good, if a little chunky, and the instrument panel has recessed dials with decals that can be overlaid to give a creditable representation of the panel. A nicely moulded engine is provided on one of the smaller sprues, with good rendition of the cooling vanes on each cylinder. An ignition harness and gear box casing is also included, as well as the collector ring at the rear for the exhaust gases. A poly-cap is placed into the engine before closing up the gearbox, to enable to the propeller to be removed once built. The cowling itself is on a separate sprue, and has been slide-moulded to obtain very nicely engraved panel lines around the full circumference, as well as a nice rendition of the intake and gun troughs at the top of the cowling. Closing up the fuselage is possible after installing the cockpit, and a 2-part front section provides the mount for the engine and cowling, with the stubs of the .50cal machine guns poking out of their troughs. The resin parts are used here to adjust the shape of the top intake to represent this early model, and removal of the old intake is required, so care must be taken here. The wings have moulded in dive brakes in the closed position, which dates the moulding somewhat, but Hasegawa have provided a full set of PE dive-brakes within the box to replace these somewhat aged features. A large fret at 17cm x 8.5cm of nickel plated metal is lurking at the bottom of the box, and a PE saw is provided right in the middle of the sheet. This is used to cut the marked areas from the wings in preparation for the building and installation of the new brakes. Take special care here, as PE saws are both flexible and very sharp - take your time with the cuts and never force the saw, as it will bend and probably end up with your blood on it! The construction of the perforated dive brakes takes up a whole page of the instructions, as there are five sections in total. Three along the underside of the wing and two on the top side. You will need either bending pliers or a PE holding tool with a long blade to accomplish the task well, as you need to make a long fold along the rear of each section, to a specific angle. Helpfully, the instructions have all the angles needed printed at the bottom of the next page, so that the modeller can check their work. Individual stringer parts are included, so CA and a lot of care is needed, but once complete, you will have a set of stunningly realistic looking dive brakes. Once installed, you add the final few parts that represent the hinge/actuator mechanism, so careful painting will be the order of the day. The underside of the wing is one piece, so setting the dihedral won't be necessary, but you will need to remember to install the poly-cap and retainer so that you can add and remove the bomb from the fairing later (if that floats your boat). The upper sides of the wings comprise two parts, to which you need do nothing but cut out the dive brake areas. The gear bay wells are moulded into the underside, and are fairly well detailed, so other perhaps than adding a few wires they should suffice for most of us. The gear itself is simply one strut with a wheel on the end, and if you want the sagged look, you'll need to take a sanding stick to the bottom of each wheel. The gear bay cover is a small square part that attaches to the hinge side of the bay and sits at an angle away from the oleo strut, a scrap view of which is provided to assist you with setting the correct angle. The bomb is constructed from quite a few parts and should look good in its A-frame harness under the aircraft once painted. An aerodynamic fairing is provided to cover the bomb "bay" when the main bomb isn't being carried, but as it doesn't have a pin to engage in the poly-cap, it's an either/or scenario. A pair of pylons for smaller underwing bombs is provided as an alternative, but there aren't any bombs for those in the kit. A landing light, the all-important arrestor hook and the engine exhausts finish the underside, and then it's just a case of installing the push-fit prop and spinner, and adding the cockpit glazing. The canopy is made from 5 individual parts, giving the modeller the option of posing the canopy open, although whether the parts will slide past eachother isn't certain. The parts are pleasingly thin and clear, and a separate clear section is provided for inside the rear cockpit, where a few small vision panels are present in a bulkhead. There's doesn't seem to be a rear-mounted .50cal provided in the kit, and it isn't mentioned in the instructions, but a pair of PE lengths of ammo are provided, which seems a little at odds with that fact. Perhaps the set has been designed with all models in mind, some of the later ones may have a gun installed. Decals are of Hasegawa's usual style with slightly subdued cream coloured whites, although the carrier film does seem thinner as of late. A set of prop tip decals are supplied to ease painting, as are some manufacturer's marks for the blades of one option. From the box you can build one of the following airframes: VMSB-132, US Marines, July 1941 VMSB-232 US Marines, July 1941 Both aircraft are painted in an all over grey (FS26440), with the older star roundels with red centres reminiscent of the "yellow wings" era. Conclusion An excellent re-vamp of an existing kit to bring it up to modern standards. Surface detail on the kit parts is very fine as you would expect from Hasegawa, and the addition of the PE dive-brakes removes the kit's main weakness. The inclusion of removable prop and bomb may appeal to some, but it's of dubious value to most unless they often transport their models. It's nice to see a pair of Pearl Harbour era aircraft too, with the early paint scheme and markings. Recommended. Review sample courtesy of UK distributors for Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moofles Posted October 21, 2011 Share Posted October 21, 2011 That looks rather tasty, and decent of them to include a saw aswell, i must admit those dive breaks will really look good when all built up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunshine coast Posted October 21, 2011 Share Posted October 21, 2011 Very nice indeed .....but £47 odd retail.....not sure if the saw is worth that much ..... I shall dig out one of my Accurate Miniature SBD-1s and compare ....and probably get the new one anyway ... Regards Trevor ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyC Posted October 21, 2011 Share Posted October 21, 2011 (edited) Frankly it needed the p/e to replace the moulded dive brake holes which were the major detractors from the kit although I believe Hase released another later version with perforated dive brakes without the p/e? Or am I imagining? The only alternative before that was to drill out the 136 holes individually! Go on...ask me how I know how many there are! Andy Edited October 21, 2011 by AndyC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Posted October 21, 2011 Author Share Posted October 21, 2011 Go on...ask me how I know how many there are! You counted them? Just think - no drilling, and you get a free saw to use on anything you fancy after the build! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyC Posted October 21, 2011 Share Posted October 21, 2011 You counted them? Many times over in my sleep Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Posted October 21, 2011 Author Share Posted October 21, 2011 Many times over in my sleep I bet you have! I built the 1:32 Matchbox one as a kid, and this is really tempting me to build it at the moment. Might go searching for some cockpit refs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyC Posted October 21, 2011 Share Posted October 21, 2011 I bet you have! I built the 1:32 Matchbox one as a kid, and this is really tempting me to build it at the moment. Might go searching for some cockpit refs Mike If you can lay your hands on a copy the Mushroom publication on the SBD is superb. I bought it at Telford 2 yrs ago before even attempting mine - it's invaluable. Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robw_uk Posted October 24, 2011 Share Posted October 24, 2011 oohhhhhh very nice (if too big).... is there a wingfold AM set available for this> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Posted October 24, 2011 Author Share Posted October 24, 2011 oohhhhhh very nice (if too big).... is there a wingfold AM set available for this> There's quite a bit available generically, but most of it is for the later -dash models with the larger fuel tanks, engine and crew protection. maybe this will prompt some updates for it, but apart from the wingfold you mentioned, I'd want very little other than maybe a bit more cockpit detail? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mal Posted October 24, 2011 Share Posted October 24, 2011 I was under the impression the Dauntless didn’t have folding wings. Malcolm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robw_uk Posted November 3, 2011 Share Posted November 3, 2011 I was under the impression the Dauntless didn’t have folding wings. Malcolm shows how much I know ;-) lol.... answers that question - way too big Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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