Thank you, guys!

@gblair George - I work in 1:72 and 1:700 all the time, so it's just another day in the office for me with those parts 😀 I even scratchbuilt a windshield mounted compass, Flyhawk forgot to include in the kit 😀

@tcinla Tom - Thank you for your input! Actually I found out about the interior just when I primed the model. So what I did was unmask the wheel wells and let the overspray lightly cover the interior, mainly the firewall; the later being aluminum colour and the fuselage having a black base, the interior now on closer inspection looks lighter grey than exterior. Trick save in order of accuracy 😀 Just a question - was this "engine mount", the front part on the photo, which I painted aluminum, grey as well?

Anyhow here's Dauntless in her new clothes as well

Amazing progress, Sebastijan @inflames

Decals look fantastic, my friend @inflames!

Thank you! Looking more and more at the available photographs these aircraft weren't as weathered so I hope to finish them soon. But first some detailing work with the landing gear, dive flaps, etc.

Paint and decals look great, Sebastijan (@inflames). Weathering looks just right. My grandfather was also an archer...very old school. He used to make his own bows, and he made his drawstrings (right word?) out of sinew. He competed in distance and accuracy competitions.

@inflames - Everybody does Dick Best's SBD (of course!). Let me tell you before you screw the pooch that he told me several times that VB-6 handed in their old SBD-2s when they got back from the Doolittle Raid and received new SBD-3s from the Ford Island aircraft pool. These had just arrived from the factory and as he put it, "those were the cleanest airplanes I ever flew in the Navy." So outside of some exhaust staining, you're good to go with what you've done to this point.

Also, the VF-6 F4F-4s were fairly clean too, since they'd only arrived just before the Doolittle Raid.

@inflames - Exhaust would probably be it. That airplane was only ever flown by him in combat twice - the morning strike against the Akagi and the afternoon strike against the Hiryu, after which he never flew an airplane again.

Yes, Dick was an amazing guy to know. He had one of the largest personal libraries I ever saw (two-story living room with floor-to-ceiling bookcases on three walls) and an incredible collection of jazz records.