SDB-3 Dauntless ‘Battle of Midway’
I was reading Tom's terrific article from November 11 (here in Britain, Armistice Day, first designated to honour the dead of the Great War), and another great battle of the Pacific theatre in WW2 came to mind - Midway.
It's always been an interest of mine, and I had built Trumpeter's 1/32 SBD-3 as part of that interest last year, the 70th anniversary of the worst Japanese maritime defeat in 350 years.
Go Navy.
Nice presentation...I like the base - where do you keep all your builds?
This one is just sat on a shelf, but with light-ply tissues draped over it to keep off any dust - quick and easy to take down to a show if required, and the tissues can be replaced without any bother, on return. I also keep builds in large fairly shallow plastic containers with lids - I keep a 1/24 Hurricane in one of these, on its base. Also have some drawer sets - deep plastic cube spaces that will take a couple of armour kits or a 1/48 jet or similar.
It's a little hard to see in the photo (629), but the belts are made of curtain tape - that closely woven cotton strip you buy by the metre for a few pence from sewing shops/haberdashers.
I find Trumpy kit belts are stiff steel that don't anneal easily. I cut off the buckles and superglued them to the cotton belts, which had been trimmed from the main strip, treated with a white glue wash to stop them fraying, and then stained canvas-colour. They have a relaxed natural look that's hard to replicate.
I like the tissue paper approach...quick and easy. Some of my older ones are REALLY bad (dusty). But whenever the mood strikes, I've found that a light squirt of Windex followed [immediately] by a soft stream of warm water removes all dust/dirt and does no harm otherwise. Of course, a display case would be ideal, but I have to deal with space constraints.
Good looking aircraft Rob. Just right on the finish. Nothing overstated.
Nice clean build. Your canopy treatment looks so real, my eyes were drawn to it first out of all your photos. Any "secrets" to your canopy's beautiful finish? Great effort all the way around.
Thanks Mike. Clear parts are washed, air-dried, and buffed with an anti-static cloth (as used for TV screens), then double-dipped in Klear (Future) and set in a drawer overnight. After painting and de-masking they are buffed again. Some people use polishes but I find I get the result I want as noted above.
In this country, Klear has been discontinued by the manufacturer. I understand that because it was 'clear', children were mistaking it for water and drinking it. The manufacturer then changed the formula to make it cloudy/milky looking. They say nothing else changed, but I don't care for it (new formula) now. I still have a stock of the original product, but I've recently found an acrylic gloss floor sealer made by a Dutch company that, although also slightly milky, dries to an absolutely brilliantly clear finish, so will be using that in 'future'. It's not just about the clarity though. It's important to have a product that won't bead or curtain when curing, which I found was an issue with new-formula Klear (now re-marketed as Pledge or something), but not with Dutch product.
Excellent work! I have the -4 version as a hangar queen... I should get her done.
Very nice, clean build, Rob, and beautifully presented.
Outstanding, Rob!