Eduard 1:48 SBD-5 Dauntless limited edition

[MarkVerploeg]

Hi guys
This will be the build thread for my Dauntless build
I will be building this kit

It is Eduards rebox of the Accurate miniatures SBD-5 Dauntless
As per usual with a Eduard linited edition they have used a kit from a different brand and give it new decals and several goodies like PE and resin upgrade parts

So let's have a look what is inside this box

All the bags with the sprues and parts
All the sprues are individually bagged and according to the bags it was done with pride in Korea
(Good to know they like their own product at AM)








When you look at the styrene parts you can see that this kit has been updated a few times o er the years
Some parts date back to 1997 when AM released their first version of the Dauntless wich was the SBD-3 version
Those have some flash on some parts
Mainly things like levers
Other parts are newer as they later released the SBD-4 and SBD-5 versions
And with upgraded planes you get new parts
So we as modellers get new sprues for those parts

But ofcourse this box contains more then just the styrene

You also get 2 sheets of masks
2 frets of photo etch
Resin wheels and machine guns


A nice decal sheet


A nice A4 sized colored instruction book


As you can see the Eduard instructions are very clear and this is in fact the most cluttered one i have had so far
I did see 1 mistake in them but more on that once i get to the first update






These are the 5 options you get in the box
As you may have noticed this is one of the few planes that saw service with several branches of the armed forces as you get US Navy ,US Army airforce ,US Marine corps and the French airforce options
I will be going for the USMC version wich was flown from the Marshall islands in 1944 (option C)


Now this is something i like
Notice the small amount of red numbers
Those are the stencils
And there are not that many of them

There is one thing i noticed about this kit and that is the lack of rivets on the exterior but there are a lot of panel lines
So there still is more then enough detail for the washes to bring out

As some may have seen on facebook yesterday i already start building it
I decided that i wouldn't wait untill the admins posted the gb on here and as it was the 1st of May already i didn't see any harm in starting to build this kit as i thought that Paul and Lee where probably busy or it slipped their minds
They are just humans after all ,so that can happen

I have the parts laying ready for some paint at the moment but i want to finish up the interior before i post the first update so i hope to have that done somewhere this week

As for now
Thanks for stopping by and having a look
Untill next time
Cheers, Mark

[pourquoi61]

Wow, nice choice .

[MarkVerploeg]

Thanks
It was a bit of a impuls buy
I really like the Eduard limited edition kits and i only had a quick check on scalemates before i got this one
It just took me a while before i even noticed that it was a PTO plane
There is some more after market for it but i will stick to what is in the box

[AdamLuscombe]

Looks like a nice kit

[Richp1969]

Looks like an awesome kit. I have the Accurate Miniatures 1/48 version of this plane. So I am interested to see how it compares.

Sincerely,

Richard

[MarkVerploeg]

Thanks guys
It should be largely the same Richard
It is based on the Accurate miniatures kit
But as far as i can tell almost all the upgrades are for the cockpit area
Only the wheels are in resin for the parts that don't go in the cockpit
All the other stuff is for the cockpit or the to rear facing mg's
But those look very nice
Now i only need to figure out how the canopy needs to be fixed
But there is no rush with that as i need to paint those bits first

[Vleugelmoer]

Mark, what an over site on the use of this aircraft. It was widely used in the Pacific and had its moment of fame during the battle of the Coral Sea where it was credited for taking out several of Japans most valued battleships and carers. One of these planes was actually piloted by George Bush Sr. when he was stil an unknown navy pilot. A replica of his Avenger is on display at the Imperial War Museum as the original got shot down in the early days of the conflict.

As always happy modeling and keep sticking styreen.

Paul

P.s. got hold of some of that Uschi van der Rosten EZ-Line should be arriving this week.

[fly1ngdutchm4n]

Sweet kit! Good luck Mark!

[MarkVerploeg]

Mark, what an over site on the use of this aircraft. It was widely used in the Pacific and had its moment of fame during the battle of the Coral Sea where it was credited for taking out several of Japans most valued battleships and carers. One of these planes was actually piloted by George Bush Sr. when he was stil an unknown navy pilot. A replica of his Avenger is on display at the Imperial War Museum as the original got shot down in the early days of the conflict.

As always happy modeling and keep sticking styreen.

Paul

P.s. got hold of some of that Uschi van der Rosten EZ-Line should be arriving this week.

That is caused by a complete lack of knowledge of the PTO
I allways kept my focus on Europe and North Africa
I know about the famous planes like the Corsair and Zero but that all
But this is just the first entry ,i have some more planned
1 will involve a small dio with 2 Corsairs and my 3rd place prize from the Vietnam GB of 2014
And there is a Sherman on it's way

[MarkVerploeg]

Sweet kit! Good luck Mark!

Thanks Frans
It should be right up your ally with all the metalwork involved

[rodrant]

Nice choice MArk ! Good luck with the build , this is one to follow , I for some time was to buy this kit , but then I didn't buy it ...I think I may get this one yet as seeing your build and now hte color schemes could be perfect for an idea that I have !

[MarkVerploeg]

Thank you António
It looks like a nice kit so far
Allthough the cockpit is fairly complex
There really is a lot of stuff crammed in such a small space
That is why i want to have a open cockpit
It would be a shame to hide all of that
The schemes look pretty good but i decided to have one with the blue colors and a arresting hook
3 of the versions had that hook removed as they where land based planes
Allthough the version i am going for is land based aswell it still had that hook
Masking will be fun , with all those tiny windows but there are masks so it should speed up the proces
Once i get to that point anyway

[RustyWarrior]

I think I'll be watching this one closely as I have this kit myself and thought for a millisecond that I night just join in the GB but don't feel quite up to it yet. Plus I still have a Lanc to finish that I've kinda hot the wall with and my SO just doesn't get the "you don't have to finish the kit you're doing before you start a new one " vibe. She'll learn though.

Good luck with the build.

[MarkVerploeg]

Thank you
Well you don't want too many builds at the same time ,i don't anyway and i have 4 or 5 at once most of the time
Now is no exception to that but almost all are being painted
It is a nice kit so far
I am about to paint the interior and after that i can move on with the PE
And there is a lot for just a cockpit

[Vleugelmoer]

[MarkVerploeg]

I'm not that fast
You better get some more to eat or you will get very hungry

[Joesdad]

Looks an interesting project this seeing that some of the plastic is nearly 20 years old. There's loads of weathering options open here as well. Somehow I've missed this kit, been so out of it lately.
Great choice my dear, have one of these

[MarkVerploeg]

Thanks Tim
Some parts are old but don't look that bad
As for the weathering i think i want to try some things from the faq book like the oil paints to make it look like a well used plane

[snappercity]

Good choice. Looking forward to this.

[MarkVerploeg]

Thanks
I painted the interior but after that i focused on 2 other builds
But i am planning to work on this kit today and finish all the interior PE and some chipping
After that it can be gloss coated and a wash should finish it off

[fly1ngdutchm4n]

Sweet kit! Good luck Mark!

Thanks Frans
It should be right up your ally with all the metalwork involved

Yes it is
Although It's been a while I even touched PE...
I'm more and more into figures these days, and the don't have any
But I'm still loving the bling!

[MarkVerploeg]

Sweet kit! Good luck Mark!

Thanks Frans
It should be right up your ally with all the metalwork involved

Yes it is
Although It's been a while I even touched PE...
I'm more and more into figures these days, and the don't have any
But I'm still loving the bling!

Well the amount of PE in this kit is good
I don't think that a PE beginner would like it as the PE is pretty complex in this kit
I had my share of PE already and even i need a lot of time with this one

[MarkVerploeg]

Hi guys
So here is the first build update for the Dauntless
It has taken me much longer then i thought it would
Mainly because of all the PE in the cockpit but i have been spending a lot of time on other builds aswell so that doesn't make it go faster either

But here is the progres so far

The work starts with some prepwork
The raised detail of the instrument panel needs to be sanded smooth for the PE that will replace it
And i placed all the parts that can be painted while they are assembled


The lefthand side of the cockpit will get a lot of PE so i had to remove a lot of styrene details


The righthand side wasn't so bad


Some more parts like the radio and seat for the gunner


All the parts ready for some primer and paint


I used Alclad primer for this build
Mainly because i already was priming 2 planes with it so i thought i can do this along with those 2
The interior color is the interior green from the Aqueous range


The seatbelts where installed


And the fronts of the radio and probably some other systems
You don't really get a good view of this once the plane is assembled asthe previous part i showed goes over this side of the panel


The gunners seat and the strap they used for sitting while using the guns


The righthand side of the cockpit with all the PE



The left hand side has the most PE parts


The floorplate and instrument panel
The black of the panel and PE are different at the moment but once it flat coated they should be pretty similar


Once all the parts where installed and assembled i gave it a dry brushing with Vallejo modelcolor Buff
This is still fairly subtile but i think white or any paler color would be overkill and look too bright
I did this to all the raised details and lines


I hope you can see it but u then used some gunmetal grey to make chipping on the places where the crew most likely places their feet
But again it is fairly subtile
The next step is to gloss coat it and then some washes to finish the interior
But that is for the next update

And that is all i have for now
Thanks for stopping by and having a look
Untill next time
Cheers

[Lysus]

You give me hope that someday I will have to nerve to do some PE. Looks slick so far.

[Stokesy44]

Looking good so far. Hopefully that big glass cockpit will show those goodies off nicely.

[Richp1969]

It's coming along quite nicely.

Sincerely,

Richard

[NorthernModeller]

Beautiful aircraft and am really looking forward to getting mine

[MarkVerploeg]

You give me hope that someday I will have to nerve to do some PE. Looks slick so far.

Thanks , if you are into planes one of these cockpit sets is a nice starting point
Most sets for jets are fairly easy to use

Looking good so far. Hopefully that big glass cockpit will show those goodies off nicely.

I want to have a open cockpit so that shouldn't be a problem
Not really because i want to show the interior but i can't place the guns with a closed canopy
The canopy is pretty thick so that would blur the view

It's coming along quite nicely.
Sincerely,

Richard

Thanks
It just isn't going as fast as i would like
Bur i will do the washes today and hopefully i can do the matte coat tonight
Then i can move on with the build

Beautiful aircraft and am really looking forward to getting mine

It is a fairly nice plane
And way ahead of it's time
It even has a flare gun sticking out of the side for those pesky heat seaking missles that wheren't made yet
Allthough that probably was for signal use
I think it could be improved though
Some parts could use some locating pins and holes
And there is a small error in the instructions where they want you to place a cover over the pilots seat instead of on the other side of the bulkhead that holds that seat
But other then that i didn't see any mistakes

[pourquoi61]

Very nice sir, it will build into a very good aircraft and you will do it proud.

[MarkVerploeg]

Thank you
The Dauntless is set aside at the moment
I had to fill a couple of gaps and put it on the shelf to dry
But i continued some other builds while that was drying
But those kind of drained my mojo
So this plane is still half build
I need to clean up some spots where i used filler and i left some fingerprints with glue on it aswell
I didn't notice some gaps in time and the glue just poured out of those places
I hope to finish the decalling work on those other builds this weekend and after that this plane will be back on the bench

[MarkVerploeg]

Hi guys
Here is a little update for today just to show i haven't forgotten this build
It has taken me some time to get some progres but that is mainly because i had a lack of mojo for a while
But i did some work allthough not much

So this is what i have done lately


The first thing was to add some wash to the cockpit
I used Mig prod. dark wash for this
Once that was dry and cleaned up a bit (i still wanted a slightly dirty look) i sprayed a coat of AK ultra matte varnish over it


I then applied some Microscale Krystal clear on the dials with a raised edge
I didn't do this on the flat ones because i was thinking i would spill
At the time i took the photo it was still wet so it was white but it turns clear when it dries to give the effect of a piece of glass that covers the instrument


I then started to glue the fuselage halfs together
The fuselage itself fits fairly good and i only had a very small seam to sand down to make it smooth
But the cockpit parts where giving me some trouble
I think i already mentionned it but they have pretty poor connection points
The gunners seat was one of those parts
I had to cut down the conneting pins or it would have been to wide
The bulkhead wich holds the pilots seat also didn't go in without a fight
I do have some paint work left but later on there are some more parts to be added


I then added the floor of the cockpit
It fits but i had to apply some pressure to keep it in place while the glue was drying


Then the lower half of the wings was added


But that part didn't fit perfectly
I later used some molten sprue filler to fill up that gap


Then i added the tops of the wings and elevators
At first i thought i had a major gap at each side where the wingroot is but then i noticed that the lower wing section was slightly bend down wards
If i pushed the wing up it had a very good and smooth fit


After that step i started filling all the parts that needed filling
But i also stopped there to allow it to dry and continued working on some other builds
So this is all i have for now
I will be back on this build pretty soon as i already decalled 1 other plane and i primed 3 other builds today
And that needs to dry
Allthough i haven't decided if i will be working on the paintjobs for those builds or continue this build yet

Thanks for stopping by and having a look
Untill next time and happy modelling
Cheers

[Stokesy44]

Looking really good. The cockpit looks great and I cant wait to see it all coming together.

Top drawer

[Lysus]

Even with low mojo your work is superb. I agree, that cockpit is sweet. You really do a great job with tiny details.

[MarkVerploeg]

Thank you very much guys
I haven't worked on it yet though
I was busy with some other builds to get them ready for painting ,priming and so on
The last 2 will get their black and white base today and after that i need to do a little bit of cleaning on the bench followed by a decalling session for the Sabre
That way i can atleast finish the builds for the shiny stuff sig soon
And i can work on this one when i get painting the other builds
They need to dry sometimes so that gives me some time to work on this build
I just need to get started on the sanding and after that i can move on with the build itself

[MichaelHoffman]

This is a great build. I have the Merit 1/18 Dauntless, and this is inspiring me to build it. Keep up the great work. Keep calm and model on.

[MarkVerploeg]

Thank you

[MarkVerploeg]

Hi guys
So i think it is time for a update as i completed the construction of this kit last week and forgot all about it
So here is a little catch up update to bring it back up to date


The gap that was on the bottom earlier was filled and some parts like the antennas ,pylons and drop mechanism for the large bomb where fitted



Ofcourse the landing gear was fitted aswell
And all the seperate stuff was put together like the bombs ,engine and cowling
The airbrakes will be painted seperate as the would be a nightmare to mask and they will be red so any overspray would be very difficult to remove


The last cockpit parts where added
It was a bit foolish of me not to add them earlier when i painted the cockpit but nothing i can do about it now
On the other hand Eduard could have moved that step a bit forward in the build and not so close to the end


The rear facing .30 cals are a kit on their own
There are about 6 or 7 resin parts and 10 pe parts to make this


The engine was glued in place as i will be brush painting that
The cowling is not glued yet though
And the antenna post was put in place
I like the fact it has a small notch cut out of it
It makes it easier to fix the antenna wire without having this little bump on top of post or mast (whatever it is called)


The weighted resin wheels look pretty nice
Not that much detail on the wheel itself but the tyres have a nice thread detail


The canopy parts where cleaned and masked
I test fitted them to make sure they actually fit over eachother as i do want to make it a open cockpit


All the seperate stuff on sticks ready for priming


The plane itself is ready aswell
I do need to remove the propellor and cowling though


At this point it is already in a coat of primer and waiting for the paint
As far as i can tell i have all the paints i need but those will be Vallejo paints as the 2 blue tones the instructions call for are not in the Aqueous range
So it is possibly a mistake made by Eduard and they mislabeled the numbers
But i have replacements so i'm not really worried about that

Thanks for stopping by and having a look
Untill next time
Cheers
Mark

[privatepete]

Hi Mark, outstanding work ,I have mentioned this before how do you plane guys do such brilliant fine detailed cockpit/inner fuselage work.Every time I see one I have to sit down to recover .I think there should competition for cockpits only what do you think of that Idea Keep up the good work sir

[Stokesy44]

That is a beautiful looking plane you've got there Sir. Cant wait to see you get stuck in with the paintwork.

[MarkVerploeg]

Hi Mark, outstanding work ,I have mentioned this before how do you plane guys do such brilliant fine detailed cockpit/inner fuselage work.Every time I see one I have to sit down to recover .I think there should competition for cockpits only what do you think of that Idea Keep up the good work sir

Thank you very much Pete
But i wouldn't classify myself as a real plane builder
I do build some planes and this year it has been the most of what i have been building but made a lot more armor kits then i did planes
This kit however offers a very detailed cockpit with a lot of photo etch upgrade parts
And about a stricktly cockpit build ,i don't expect that to be a great succes but i have seen a few cockpit models that actually won prizes in plane catagories at shows
Those where all large scale kits or scratch build projects but if they are done right they can be outstanding pieces of work

That is a beautiful looking plane you've got there Sir. Cant wait to see you get stuck in with the paintwork.

Thank you Stokesy
I haven't started painting it yet though
Due to being sick i was out of the game for a couple of days
I hope to get started on it soon as i really want to try some new techniques and make a old worn plane for once
These dive bombers often took quite a beating while they where in action and just the envoirment was bad for a plane
The salty water and humid conditions wheren't really ideal for a metal plane
So many of them looked a bit beaten up or even had entire panels replaced after they where hit by some AA fire
And that is just about what i want to do with this one
Maybe i can make a small start today but it will depend on some other builds and projects

[Avgas]

Watching this one with interest as I have this kit. You're doing a top job so far Mark.

[MarkVerploeg]

Thank you very much Dave
It is no easy kit ,not in my opinion anyway
The fit isn't perfect at times but the overall detail is good and the goodies make up for some of the issues
I hope the end result will be something like i planned it will be but i guess i will have to start painting before i can see if that works out
It just isn't a beginners kit and even for someone who has used his fair share of pe the cockpit can be a bit of a challenge
But that is just caused by the amount of pe that goes into the rather small cockpit
But if you take your time it is a fun build just not a super easy one

[OliveDrab]

Great work on the construction of the Dauntless and looking forward to seeing it with some color

[MarkVerploeg]

Thank you very much Curt
I wanted to start but i need to check some techniques first
I don't know if i should pre shade it or do some panel fading after the painting

[martin57]

Well what can I say mark.
That is an excellent cockpit and some lovely detail.
Outstanding

[MarkVerploeg]

Thanks Martin
Glad you like it

[MarkVerploeg]

Hi guys
Time for a little update
After watching the news show for this month i noticed i only have a bit over 2 weeks left

So it is time to increase the time i put in to this buikd and put my figures and other builds to the side for a little while
At the moment the Dauntless is painted and decalled so that is what i have to show for today
I hope to put on a second coat of Aqua gloss tonight and then i can start the weathering with some chipping ,fading and washes soon
So here is the painting and decalling of the Dauntless


I started out with the basic colors of white ,light blue and dark blue
The blue tones where mixes of Vallejo modelair colors so they are likely to be wrong but it looks good enough as a base for the weathering proces


The white bottom


The engine was painted with mr metal color paints


I then glued the aluminium colored brackets for the air breaks


And glued the panels on them


I have to say i like the contrast between the blue plane and the red from the breaks


The .30 cals where glued in place


And the bombs and wheels where painted and glued on the plane


And that covers the painting


After a coat of Aqua gloss the decals where placed


And a couple of decals on the bottom

And that is where she is at right now
Lile i said i hooe to put on a second gloss coat tonight after work but it will depend on the time
Once the gloss is dry i will start with the weathering
Most likely some fading first and i will work from there on
Thanks for stopping by and having a look
Take care
Cheers
Mark

[Liamcraven666]

Looking really good so far!

[Icemannique]

That looks real good.

[MarkVerploeg]

Thanks guys
Glad you like it so far