Spectacular job, @davids_models!
How is possible to cut a,1/350 canopy?

The Devastators for Torpedo 8 are almost finished. I added the landing gear and wheels. The landing gear required some tedious work to get them to line up together. There are 3 attachment points so getting the left side and right side to line up as well as stand straight from the front took a lot of work. The landing gear struts were then painted aluminum, tire black for the tire and then the medium grey for the hubs and underside of the aircraft. The top was painted intermediate blue. The wings required a lot of work as well as they had a lot of flash. Especially on the trailing edge which is also very thin. Once finished they were painted. I then looked at the decals. The ones that came with the Trumpeter kit had the incorrect blue for the insignias so I will be using the Starfighter decals. This morning I was going to start applying the decals however, I was looking at some reference photos and noticed the antenna is incorrect. The one photo from the side looked like the antenna was offset similar to the vindicator and dauntless. It turns out the antenna on the devastator is actually just behind the cowl and centered. So I need to correct that today. Once I correct them I can start the decals. Hoping to finish the Devastator’s during this nice long Labor Day weekend then start on the Dauntless dive bombers of Bombing 8.

See more photos and details from the start in my build log at https://davidsscalemodels.com/build-log/1-350-uss-hornet-cv-8-doolittle-raid/

7 attached images. Click to enlarge.

You are doing an amazing job on those Devastator's, @davids_models!

Very impressed by the detail level, David @davids_models
Those tiny dive brakes look fantastic.

The SBD’s of Bombing 8 are getting closer to being completed. I made one of them with canopy open and dive brakes open. There will be two more with just the rear gunner canopy open and the rest will be all closed. I had to fill in the hole for the tail wheel so I could mount the photo etch version. Another thing I am doing is since the SBD’s do not have folding wings some of the aircraft on the ship had their wings, bomb swing, and propeller removed then the fuselage was hung in the rafters of the hangar bays. So there will be a wing rack as well as a rack for holding the propellers as well as spare propellers for the aircraft. I also found some reference photos of how the aircraft were arranged in the hangar bay. The very few photos I found show the F4F Wildcats forward, TBD’s mid-ship, and the SBD’s aft. So once the SBD’s are finished I will map out where the aircraft will be placed on the hangar deck.

The photo etch set also has bomb carts and torpedo carts which will be added to the hangar near the weapons elevator. I bought some brass early MK 13 torpedoes to place on the torpedo carts. I am hoping to start working on the hangar deck details and crew next week. Still need to figure out the routing for the fiber optics to illuminate the hangar deck as well.

See more photos and details from the start in my build log at https://davidsscalemodels.com/build-log/1-350-uss-hornet-cv-8-doolittle-raid/

8 attached images. Click to enlarge.

As usual, SPECTACULAR job, @davids_models!
Amazing SBDs!

The SBD’s of Bombing 8 for the USS Hornet have been completed! I completed the detail painting then applied all he decals then attached the propellers. I scratch built a rack to hold the propellers and added a bunch of them on the rack. I then started squeezing all the aircraft on the hangar deck. I added a couple more moto-tugs and placed the torpedo and bomb carts near the weapons elevator. I then laid out all the under deck girders. At first I tried using CA glue but with the size and length of the assembly then kept breaking loose. So I decided to solder them together. This worked a lot better. I made two assemblies. The assemblies are separated by the mid-ship elevator. I taped everything into place an measured the room available. There is a lot less room than I originally thought. I would need about 0.6mm of space but I only have about 0.15mm of space. This coupled with the thickness of the hangar walls it looks like I will not be able to add the fiber optic lines for each light.

There is just no room for the estimated 14 feet of fiber optic lines. So I will be moving on to plan B. Instead of fiber optic lighting I am just going to use Nano sized LED’s. These will be placed in the girders throughout the hangar deck.

With the girder assemblies built, I need to attach the aircraft and other details into the hangar deck. One of the things I need is the crew. So I will start off with the accessories I bought. I have a set of Eduard photo etch crew figures that I bought a few years ago when I was getting accessories for a different project. I ended up not using them back then. For this project I bought the Tamiya crew set which has 144 figures in 6 different poses. I also purchased 120 3-D printed crew figures. These were bought on Shapeways by member Holder8702 on his Panzer vs. Tanks page. The Tamiya crew members will be used mostly on the hangar deck and the 3-D printed will mostly be on the flight deck and island. I will not be using the Eduard set. The photo etch came painted but they are too thin to look real. The Tamiya figures are thicker but only have basic details See the photo below where I compare a saluting crew member between all 3 sets. I have lots of fine detail painting and mapping out where they will be placed to get accomplished before I can move on to the lighting.

See more photos and details from the start in my build log at https://davidsscalemodels.com/build-log/1-350-uss-hornet-cv-8-doolittle-raid/

12 attached images. Click to enlarge.