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Kelly Cottle
8 articles

1/32 SBD Dauntless ( Battle of Midway 1942)

December 8, 2019 · in Aviation · · 31 · 6.1K

Hello , This is my from Trumpeter, I used Modelmaster enamels paints. Colors are light gray and Intermediate blue , Cockpit is painted interior green, I used Black Box resin and some aftermarket decals from Cutting edge .Also used a pencil for the panel lines. I wanted to do pilot LT R.H.Best aircraft ( B1) during the June 4 1942. This is a very good build, the parts fit good from trumpeter. Used some figures from Black Dog resin, They look a little big to me. I went to see the movie MIDWAY . I Wanting to know something about the pilot, LT Best . and the aircraft that was on board of the USS Enterprise. Please enjoy the photos.

Reader reactions:
12  Awesome

13 additional images. Click to enlarge.


31 responses

  1. Must be the best SBD build I have ever seen in this scale! Great job and presentation!

  2. Inspirational!

  3. Great work all around!

  4. That is awesome, Kelly! I hope to see that in person at some of the upcoming shows this spring.

  5. I like this a lot. Really great presentation and finish. Well done.

  6. That is a beautifully done model of one if my favorite airplanes. I enjoyed the Midway movie because I thought they portrayed the experience of dive bombing quite well. I don't know why they put bombs AND torpedoes on all the Devastators tho...

  7. Great work, especially the paint. I just saw “Midway” last night, so your post is very timely.

  8. One excellent SBD!, I recently saw Midway myself, thought it was petty good, although the navy officer uniforms looked a bit disheveled.

  9. Very nicely done Kelly. My compliments.

  10. You wouldn't learn anything about Dick Best from that movie, other than exactly how he wasn't. Having known Dick for the last ten years of his life, I can assure you that, while he may have been born in New Jersey, he was no "Joisey boy," and even moreso no "hothead." You could learn more about the Battle of Midway watching the 1976 version than this waste of film stock. (as an aside, as one of the few screenwriters in this business with a reputation of knowing about WW2, I did get a meeting with that i d i o t director about the project - it took about 5 minutes to realize the dumb cluck knew nothing and had no desire to learn)

    Past all that, you did a very nice job on the model. Dick told me that when they turned in their well-used SBD-2s on return from the Tokyo raid, they were issued factory-new SBD-3s that were "the cleanest airplanes I ever flew in the Navy." You definitely got it right.

    (And as a personal commercial announcement, Dick is a major presence in my coming book, "I Will Run Wild: The Pacific War From Pearl Harbor To Midway" coming next spring, if you want to learn what kind of guy he was)

    • Thank you Tom for the information, hopefully I got it right ,can y please let me know when the book comes out ,I would like to get one.

      • Sure can and yes, you did a great job with the model, particularly the light sun-fading - the airplanes weren't there long enough to get real faded like those color photos of them when they were being used as trainers.

  11. Well done Kelly, lots of detail to take in, I like it.

  12. Looks great! I also love the Dauntless - did a Midway aircraft in 1/72 a year or so ago, and am ready to do one in Mexican livery. It's jut a classic.

  13. Outstanding work and presentation!

  14. This is a primo build! Every aspect is spot on. The bird looks real! Beautiful work.

  15. Wonderful. Just saw the movie and enjoy your presentation.

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