SBD-4 Dauntless from Hasegawa in 1/72 scale with cardboard carrier island
SBD-4 Dauntless from Hasegawa in 1/72
Today I want to show you my SBD-4 Dauntless from Hasegawa in 1/72 scale. In order to give my model a beautiful environment, I modeled the island of an aircraft carrier out of cardboard. The island resembles the USS Ranger (CV-4). I also scratch build a Ford "moto-tug", but unfortunately, I did not quite get the shape, it is a little too long and too narrow.
About the model:
The fit of this Hasegawa kit is very good, and all the fine details are beautifully molded. I upgraded the cockpit by adding a dashboard and seat belts from Yahu. I also upgraded the Brownings with barrels from CMK and a selfmade armor plate, as well as two ammunition belts.
Hasegawa's plastic is very hard compared to Airfix kits, so it was not so easy to remove the dive brakes, molded on the upper wings. I finally replaced them with resin parts. The decals are not so easy to work with, because I unfortunately broke them very quickly, maybe they are too old. I have also built a few crew members from Preiser figures, the "hot pappa" is from Airfix.
I was amazed how small the Dauntless is for a two-seater plane. It is slightly larger than a wildcat but not larger than a hellcat! If you compare it with a devastator, it also looks small.
The small detail-shots (set of 4) are made with a edoscope camera, which unfortunately has a resolution of 640x480, too smal! I really want to buy a better one because you can "dive" into the model's hidden corners with this trick ; )
WOW - that is a great build and set-up! The Ford may be too long and narrow, but it really makes a difference I think. Fantastic build and beautiful pictures.
If you want to make closeups I highly recommend the small Olympus Tough series. The latest one even has focus stacking like their more expensive cameras, and the macro-function is second to none (no, I do not sell them - just really impressed thats all) 🙂
Thank you for sharing this build!
Hej Erik, thank you for your kind comment about my Dauntless. Thank you for the tip with the camera, I will look for it.
Andreas you keep fooling us with that 1/72 small talk, when it’s clear that this is a much bigger scale 😉 I guess this is the best compliment I can give to your life like Dauntless my friend
Hahahah, thank you for your compliment Pedro!
Excellent build, diorama and photography.
Thank you Dale!
Excellent work with all elements of this, Andreas. Great result.
Thank you Tom!
Absolute marvel! I have this iea to build a CVE-107 in this scale, got the plans but not the space... Where did you get your info Andreas? Congratulations!
Hello Michel, thank you for your compliment. I get my information mostly from pictures via Google. I also looked at the painting instructions for trumpeter aircraft carriers. I have to admit that this is not close to the original, it is just a backdrop to bring more life to the scene
Looking really fine.
Thank you Walt!
Wow. If you hadn't listed the scale, I would have assumed 1/32 given how nice you did painting, detailing, and weathering!
Thank you Mike, I've been practicing for about 10 years to get this result in painting models.
Another Wow from me.
Thank you Haslam!
Great work, Andreas. Your airbrushing skills in 1/72 are outstanding.
Thank you John!
Fantastic!
Thank you Robert!
That's a great model and a really nice diorama setup, Andreas. Indeed you fool us with the scale! The tractor looks beautiful, giving the right impression, and I don't think the theoretical divergence from the actual proportions derates it at all.
All the best!
Thank you Spiros, I try to avoid things that makes the true size of my models obvious and it is also due to the camera perspective, that makes it look like a real plane.
I think it's your great modelling skills that fool the scale, Andreas @fletcher!
Fantastic detail. Very impressive build!
Thank you Emberson!
Andreas, that is a fantastic build. I love it when a 1/72 scale airplane turns out looking like it was 1/32 or larger. Superb work!
Thank you Dion!
inspirational
Excellently done! I also built this same kit a couple years back, and also cut the dive brakes - remade the brakes and actuators out of styrene. The kit does have nice detail, and you really brought it out well in this build. For my kit I had to cut up the canopy - your looks so nice - was it aftermarket?
Thank you very much Greg, happy that you like my SBD. I forgot to tell that the canopy segments under the middle part, are selfmade by pulling a warmed transparent plastic over the original parts and cutting them out, I think you know what I mean. It was a pain to get all parts aligned and glued in correct position.
Nicely done Andreas.
Thank you Allan!
It's a beautiful model Andreas! Nicely painted and beautifully photographed. It's too bad we don't see more 72 Hasegawa Dauntlesses built up. It's miles ahead of the ancient Airfix and Hawk/Testors options. Constructing the Island as a backdrop for photography is a great idea.
Thank you very much, David! My next USN plane is already on the workbench...