Profile Photo
Louis Gardner
169 articles

75th Anniversary of the “Battle of Midway” Group build started…

February 1, 2017 · in News · · 16 · 1.9K

It's official! Everyone is invited!

I received enough interest to go ahead and start the Midway build.

I wanted to give us all a good amount of time needed for our selections, research, and building, so I started it about 5 months ahead of the Anniversary.

The "Rules of the Road" have been posted in the Group Build section. They are pretty simple.

Even if you decide not to join, please feel free to post pictures and a something about your previous "Midway" related builds during the 75th Anniversary of this significant historical event, which is June 4th through June 6th, 2017.

I am looking forward to this.

Thank you all in advance!

Now head on over to the Group build section, and join us:
http://imodeler.com/groups/75th-anniversary-battle-of-midway-group-build/

Reader reactions:
2  Awesome

16 responses

  1. A rare (for me) WIP pic is over in the group build forum - an AM SBD 3/4.

  2. Hello Louis and all. I'm in. Actually had been planning this for a while, me my kid and Freddie seitz planned a group build of TBD's so might as well get in on this with it. As soon as Fred sees this he will jump in. I planned to do something along the lines of the picture below, a still from the Torpedo 8 movie by John Ford. Very haunting images. There are quite a few details to be found here including the dual MG storage and differing paint variations.
    Will be using Great Wall's TBD and Tamiya fighter pilot figures from the "Moto tug" boxing, modified. Midway deserves to be commemorated in a big way.

    https://c1.staticflickr.com/4/3324/3416120940_15b6a3dc15.jpg

    • Sounds to me like this was meant to be. The timing was just right. Thanks for sharing the interest with us. I agree that Midway deserves some special attention. Too bad we just missed the 75th Pearl Harbor Anniversary. I've seen some of the color still photos from the John Ford movie on Torpedo 8. The TBD in T-8 markings would be a fantastic choice for a Midway build. I welcome you, your kid and Fred aboard. Thanks for sharing the interest.

  3. This GB is a good reason to have a deeper look in some kits of mine, especially Hasegawas B5N2 Kate in 1:48 scale. Its a "Midway" release.
    Monograms TBD and Tamiyas F4F can be also added to this theme and the Airfix F4F as well-

  4. I'm in with either the Fujimi Val or Monograms Devastator, or if time permitting both of them. Time to do some research.

  5. Good deal Chuck. Thanks for joining the group. We will be looking forward to seeing your progress.

  6. I didn't see the rules in the group build section Louis. I'm almost finished with a Devastator, but it's in the pre-war scheme. Would it still be eligible since they served at Midway, or do we want period correct as well? (I also just bought Hasegawa's yellow wing SBD, so again I have the same problem!)

    • Hey Josh. Sorry for the late reply...

      The Rules for this Group Build have been added under the "Group" tabbed section. Our Group Build has it's own thread listed as "75th Anniversary Battle of Midway Group Build".

      I am encouraging everyone to start their own "New Topic" under this heading. These new topics would then in turn be for that person's build process. You could group your planes under this single heading, but it would be better if you started a new single thread for each model (and easier for us to follow you progress).

      There are currently 3 topics over there. One is about the "Rules of the Road" where you can find the rules for this event, the other is a Torpedo hauling B-26 build started by Greg, and the third is a thread I started on my 1/48 Accurate Miniatures SBD flown by Richard Best.

      I am going to add a little more to the rules that will cover your questions.

      I think that as long as the plane you are building was involved in the Battle it would be OK, as long as you included something as to what happened to it and / or the fate of the crew . I know that most of the TBD Devastators were previously wearing "Yellow Wings" era markings several years before Midway. If you can somehow tie your plane to Midway, then it is relevant. Since it's not completed just yet, it still would be considered a new build. You just are building the plane at an earlier period during it's service career. That's OK.

      Therefor your Devastator would qualify. Please feel free to send me a PM if you want.

      I'm not so sure about the SBD's though. I'm pretty sure the older Dauntless planes were reassigned to training units, and that newer SBD-3 versions were taken aboard the 3 US Carriers just before the Battle. You may be able to slightly modify your Dauntless to a dash 3 and make it work. If you can find where some of these early SBD's that were wearing a "Yellow Wing" scheme, and they also participated in the Battle, then that would work too.

      As long as the model you are building participated in the Battle it would qualify. If it happened to wear "yellow Wings" markings earlier in it's life, and that's how you chose to build it, then the choice is yours. Just include some sort of reference how it is linked to the event.

      I hope this helps to answer your questions.

      I'm sorry if I caused any confusion. This is my first time at this. Please bear with me on this and don't hesitate to ask any questions.

      Thanks for your interest with this. I sincerely hope you decide to join us.

      A "Formal" request is not needed to participate in the Build. Simply start your own thread under the Midway Group Build topic. It is open to everyone.

      Also please "tag" your article with the "Midway Group Build" when you start your own thread.

      I hope this helps to clarify things.

      Sincerely,
      Louis

  7. P.S. I'm going to post the EAA pictures in the "Museum" group shortly. Then others can have access as well.

  8. Well, my Devastator does not qualify. "Aircraft lost 3/11/41 with VT-3; crashed, reason unspecified. Ens. Walter G. Barnes, Jr. (pilot) parachuted, R. Goff, AMM3 and D. D. Daga, AMM3 killed". Found a real neat site just by searching type and the four digit number. Want to know what became of "your" TBD? It's on this list here! http://109lair.hobbyvista.com/DETAILSITE/US/USN/TBD/tbdpage.htm

    • Oh man that's a real bummer about your TBD not qualifying... Could you change up the side numbers and bureau number on the tail ? You could probably make it work like that.

      Thanks for the link for the website. There's a lot of great info there. I will have to bookmark this one ! Thanks again.

      • I also started reading the after action report from the Enterprise. They show quite a few SBD-2's listed as lost. They have two squadrons with heavy losses in each that operated many of the earlier dash 2 versions of the SBD. The two squadrons were Scouting 6 and Bombing 6. I'm sure there were other similar occurrences on the other two US aircraft carriers involved in this action. It's possible that your yellow wings SBD could work too.

        Hope this helps.

        Thanks again for the link.

Leave a Reply