Trumpeter 1/32 SBD-3/4 Dauntless

By Mike Kloppenburg

This is the 1/32 scale boxing from Trumpeter. This was a fun kit to build. Not much was needed to bring the kit up to a masterpiece of styrene. The first thing I noticed when I opened the box aircraft size impressed me, I wasn’t expecting such a large bird. The cockpit comes fully loaded and the only things I needed to add were two oxygen hoses. I did have a hard time getting the fuselage together. I had to cut off the locating tabs on one side of the cockpit tub to get both halves to fit snug. The engine looks fabulous, but most of it is hidden. I added ignition wiring and it looks like it could run. I found that the markings instruction sheet has an error or discrepancy on it. For the aircraft I built in one of the color profiles it show a red band on the spinner, but on the other profiles it was omitted. So I don’t know which one is right. Some of the numbers on the decal sheet do not match up with the instructions. The dive brakes look sharp in the open position. I painted it with model master enamels and weathered it with oil washes and pastels.

© Mike Kloppenburg 2006

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This article was published on Friday, September 27 2013; Last modified on Saturday, May 14 2016