GWH 1/48 Devastator – FINISHED

Started by Eric Berg · 173 · 3 years ago · devastator, dive bomber, Douglas, Great Wall Hobby, GWH TBD-1 devastator, Lt. John C. Waldron, Midway, T-16, TBD-1, TBD-1 Devastator, torpedo, torpedo bomber, VT-8
  • Profile Photo
    Eric Berg said 3 years, 9 months ago:

    FINISHED AT LAST![/B]
    Finally done after a little more than two months of working on this TBD, of course only part time. I neglected to add the vertical antenna wire as I had already folded the wings (not as easy as the vague instructions make it look) and didn't watch to botch things up on the home stretch by correcting this "error".


    Aside from the difficulty of this build, GWH's Devastator is a vast improvement over the now out dated Monogram kit despite the overly thick, unusable open canopy pieces.

    Many thanks to Spiros, John vB, Erik G, and Louis G. for their advice, and to TC for his MM reviews and all you guys who followed along with my lengthy build here.

  • Profile Photo
    Pedro L. Rocha said 3 years, 9 months ago:

    Wow, what a beauty Eric! It’s a thing to behold for sure. The details are all there, I love it! Please post her in the headlines but with a lot more pics please.

  • Profile Photo
    Eric Berg said 3 years, 9 months ago:

    Thanks Pedro. I will post plenty of photos.

  • Profile Photo
    John vd Biggelaar said 3 years, 9 months ago:

    It was a real pleasure to follow this thread, Eric @eb801
    Great to see how this TBD became a beautiful build.
    Lots of compliments on your achievement.

  • Profile Photo
    Michel Verschuere said 3 years, 9 months ago:

    Really a great achievement! Kudo's!

  • Profile Photo
    Eric Berg said 3 years, 9 months ago:

    Thanks a lot for following this John vB and Michel.

  • Profile Photo
    Spiros Pendedekas said 3 years, 9 months ago:

    Congratulations, Eric @eb801!

    You tackled this difficult kit with excellency, addressing all issues that arose, the result being truly amazing.

    It was ajoy to follow your build, especially the parts whwere you had to solve upcoming issues.

    Well done!

    P.S. After some research (which still goes on), I cannot figure out why the pitot looks like this...

    Might it be split in three small tubes? Or the triaena being a "lightning discharge rod"?...

  • Profile Photo
    Eric Berg said 3 years, 9 months ago:


    Thanks Spiros. Now that extreme modeler's compulsiveness has set in, I can't figure out this trident looking pitot tube either nor can I find any closeup photos of it. I wish I could get my hands on that Ginter book (OP) just for a few minutes. I also noticed that Devastator pitot tubes varied quite a bit and a lot of them didn't that that prong thing. The Monogram pitot doesn't have the three prongs either and is molded completely different from GWH with a step on the leading end. Most reference photos show TBD pitots to be straight, prongs or no prongs.

    I would like to find a head on photo of the TBD-1 windscreen. The Monogram part is molded differently than the GWH version so I wonder which kit canopy windshield is most accurate? I used the GWH windscreen here. More compulsiveness: I forgot to attach the vertical antenna port side before gluing the wings folded. So I decided to forget it. Now I keep staring at the model and it's all I can do to resist the urge to attempt drilling a tiny hole and attaching it. However the risk of knocking off the left wing fold and screwing up the horizontal antenna makes the whole idea daunting if not scary. I know it's best to leave well enough alone, but...