Both the -4 and the -5 had a different propeller (no spinner) than the earlier -3, which could be with or without the conical rubber spinner. Me, I'd say it fell off due to battle damage.

The RNZAF issue is a -4, used for training before the squadron deployed to Bougainville with -5s.

The -4 had the -3 cowling, with the intake at the top, the -5 was circular without the intake.

Accurate mixed and matched the MGs and cowlings as they went along, so it's best to see just what you might have, before starting.

As to the twin .50s, I'm thinking they modified the mount in the -3 (same as the one on TBD and the SB2c) "in the field"(like LT Com. Waldron did with his TBDs) and (for then) left the MG storage doors as is. I do not know if they cobbled up a larger ammo box at that point, to replace the rack for the individual magazines stock with the -3.

Others may know more.

Thanks for the info Bernard. Last night I inventoried all of my Accurate Miniatures SBD kits. I am short a rubber spinner, but Rick Wilkes has an extra one and is sending it to me. Thanks Rick !

I'm going to mix and match parts from several kits to come up with what I will need for this one, just as you suggested. Thanks for posting the information about the rear gunners station and the rear upper fuselage deck. After close study of the pictures you all provided, it makes perfect sense what you all stated. They didn't have time for a major modification. Hang the guns on, arm them up, and go...

So I will be using the earlier dash 2 / 3 fuselage halves, the twin .030 caliber weapons and mounting hardware from the dash 5. The upper cowling section will come from a dash 4 kit I have, since the ones in my dash 3's are all wrong. My mix and match E-bay dash 3 kits all had the earlier (and much taller) dash 1 upper cowling air intake, which is wrong.

I'm sure they removed the weapons to clean them, and probably reinstalled them to save armament time later. I don't know 100 percent for sure about this though. I have often wondered about how the salt air spray from the Ocean water would have affected the weapons. They probably used a lot of "PL Special".

I know from first hand experience with our US Army Tanks, ( I was in M-60's and M1-A1's) that we left the weapons mounted when we were out in the field. We would remove them for cleaning during gunnery exercises. Only when the tanks were parked in the motor pool, did we remove them for good. Then they were all secured in our arms room under guard.

Hope this answers your question about the weapons.

Thanks again everyone for your assistance with this project... I've been really busy in the shop, and will be over the next few days. Hopefully after this weekend is up I can start building this one...

Take care.

Thanks VERY much Rick. I sincerely appreciate the assistance. I was worried about not having a spinner for this project, and was going to have to put this one on hold until I located one. I'll let you know when it arrives. 🙂

Glad it got there okay, looking forward to seeing your build progress

I ordered a set of 1/48 "Airscale" aircraft instrument decals from E-bay. The set has 26 different individual instruments. I needed them for my TBF Avenger, since the original AM kit decals were gone. I can use these on the SBD too. When they arrive I will post up a picture.

Now that I have finished up my "Koga" Zero, I plan on getting back into the SBD and the TBF builds.

Here's the other set of decals that arrived. This set is for the early F4U-1 and-1A Corsairs. I've been looking for something that offered a lot more options and this decal sheet covers most of the early Corsairs that I have been wanting to build. The main reason for this purchase is that it included two of Boyingtons Corsairs number 740 and 883 which I have wanted to build for a while now.

This set contains enough markings for 30 Corsairs!

The last three pictures are of part of my Corsair stash. Too bad the F4U wasn't used at Midway...

10 attached images. Click to enlarge.

I was just commenting that you are clearly a Corsair Fan..natic lol

Tonight I sprayed the interior green on the SBD. I'll try to post some photos of the progress soon...