Trumpeter 1/32 TBD-1 Devastator Floatplane

By Boyd Waechter

In 1936, the USN authorized Douglas Aircraft to mount one of their first production TDB-1 Devastators (BuNo. 0268) with a pair of Edo Corporation steerable twin floats. It was strictly a test aircraft that first flew in October 1937 and was eventually used as a torpedo test aircraft at the Naval Torpedo Station in Newport, Rhode Island. Despite its poor handling qualities, it flew until September 1943 before being scrapped. I have only found three photos of this aircraft in its overall natural metal/yellow wings finish, but I wonder if it was ever repainted in a USN camouflage since it was flown well into World War II?

Although being a single evaluation aircraft, this airplane has been very popular by kit manufacturers with Great Wall Models and HobbyBoss producing this float plane variant in 1/48th scale and Trumpeter in 1/32nd scale. I built the GWM’s kit when it was first released and had no interest in doing another until I saw the high quality of the Trumpeter kit. It was just too interesting to pass up.

Of course, the kit is based on their TBD-1 Devastator release with everything the same except for adding the floats and deleting the landing gear. The design of this Devastator kit goes back about 15 years when it was first announced by Trumpeter and lacks all of the open panels and gimmicks that they included in some of their later releases. It is a straight forward and easy build that presents little trouble regardless which variant you are building. The clear parts are outstanding, and Trumpeter has included a set of masks that makes life a lot easier.

The TBD-1A builds up into a very large model, with a 22” wingspan and 16” in length. It is also quite heavy. Trumpeter does not provide any type of trolley or stand for the kit, so I made four supports for the two big floats to rest on that I glued down to the base.

The instructions call for the interior to be interior green, but due to the time frame, I went with silver. However, I have found multiple color photos of Devastators and Vindicators with green interiors with prewar markings, but being 1937 circa, I just felt more comfortable going with aluminum.

The only fault I found in the kit are the size of the national insignias that go on the wings. They are about 20% too large, so I used a set of those from a sheet produced by Gold Medal Models (sheet 3205D) and sold by Squadron. These are excellent decals that conformed to the corrugated wings without any issues.

If you have the room and want to model a very interesting “one off” airplane, you might consider this kit.

Trumpeter 1/32 TBD-1 Devastator Floatplane

By Boyd Waechter

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