Thanks so much for the invite, Lis!
I was going to build a dive bomber for the 80th Anniversary of the Battle of Midway, so this is a nice place to share some steps along the way. I imagine that many on here have built this kit, so not too much by way of intro!
I know it’s not a huge plane, I’ll see about adding a bigger bomber later. Hopefully we’ll have some fun along the way. As an SBD-2 (not a shiny new SBD-3 in 1942) I’ll have a little leeway regarding the fading.
The plane I’m going to build will be ‘BuNo 2106’, a famous plane pulled from Lake Michigan to currently reside in the National Naval Aviation Museum in Florida.
It has a very well documented History, having survived the attack on Pearl Harbor; flown in raids against the Japanese in New Guinea; and now existing as the only surviving plane from Midway. Eventually this aircraft became part of a training unit in Illinois and ditched in Lake Michigan in 1943. It was recovered in 1994 before going on display, after restoration, in 2001.
It is considered to be one of the most ‘historic’ aircraft on the planet!
More of the history later. Here is a picture of the plane on Midway Atoll, dating from early June 1942.
