The
date, late October 1959. The place, Council Bluffs, Iowa. The ten year old boy
arrives home from school to find a note from his mom saying she will be late and
to do his homework. Aha, the perfect chance! He jumps on his bike and rides the
10 or so blocks to Tom's Shoe Repair & Hobby as fast as the two wheels will
take him. He darts in the door and quickly hands the old guy working on
someone's sole $1.49. Back on his bike and home as fast as his legs will take
him. Never know just what "I will be late" means.
He
bounds up the stairs to his room and removes the box from its brown paper bag.
What a beauty! A Monogram 1/48th scale SBD Dauntless. The picture on the box
shows an SBD just rolling into its dive and a small scrap shot of the included
ground crewman working on the centerline bomb. It is almost like you are there
at the Battle of Midway!
The
young boy pours over the instruction steps with as much patience as he can
muster, but in just a few moments is twisting the fuselage pieces from their
trees and doing a test fit. All the features! Retracting landing gear.
Interconnected dive brakes. Spinning prop. Best of all a small trigger under the
fuselage that releases the center bomb, which swings on its yoke to free the
propeller before plunging into the deck of the Japanese aircraft carrier that is
sitting helplessly below!
In
about 2 hours the plane is together and the boy is testing the flaps and the
bomb action. He has been as careful following the directions as his youth will
allow and there are not too many glue fingerprints marring the blue plastic.
After a few bomb runs he opens his small bottle of Pactra 'namel and begins to
brush on the light gray underside of his latest masterpiece. He also does the
very best he can hand painting the canopy frames with blue paint. It will take
about 4 hours to dry, which should bring him nicely through homework and then
dinner.
After
dinner, while the rest of the family watches a sitcom downstairs in the living
room, he carefully soaks and then slides the decals into position according to
the kit directions. While these are drying he takes some time to paint the
pilot, gunner, ground crewman and LSO officer. By bedtime that evening he has
gingerly rearranged the models already on display on top of his chest of drawers
to give the little dive bomber pride of place near the front. Then he tucks the
empty box into his secret place behind his dresser and files away the
instructions. That night just before he drops off to sleep he reads and then
re-reads the small folding brochure included with his kit and makes plans for
his next purchase. Should it be the Avenger or the small P-40?
Since
that day in 1959 I have probably built at least a squadron of these Monogram
SBD's. When the Accurate Miniatures kit came out I really went crazy. An SBD-3
for my Battle of Midway diorama with my TBD and F4F. Another SBD-1 in golden
wings markings. When the original AM announced that they were closing they
offered a "Double Dauntless" kit which I snapped up. Recently I have
completed one as an SBD-5 and the other as a Midway SBD-3 poised in its dive.
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While on a trip to
my local hobby shop, I saw this kit in the original "4-Star" boxing on
the shelf. The owner has purchased a huge pile of kits from an estate and this
was one of them. Most of the pieces were off the trees but there wasn't too much
damage. The kneeling deck crew figure was the only part missing. As soon as I
saw that kit all the memories of building them as a young boy came rushing back.
Since it was a "4-star" issue, I probably should have had my wife sell
it on e-bay with her account, but some things just do not have a monetary value.
This
time I did the best job I could on the seams and I must say that the kit fits
very well. I did a few things to make it a little more accurate, but I really
didn't want to change it too much. For example, I just could not bring myself to
melt the axles with a heated screwdriver to make them spin. I also drilled out
all the tiny holes in the dive flaps. This is tedious but makes a real
difference in the look of these aircraft. The kit decals were pretty much toast
so I used the Operation Torch markings provided with the AM Double Dauntless
kit. As I understand it the Mono SBD comes closest to being an SBD-4 because of
the prop hub and air intake on the cowl.
The
part of modeling I enjoy most is airbrushing so I took my time with this part. I
pre-shaded and faded the paint on the control surfaces, etc. to make it a bit
more realistic. I think it turned out pretty good.
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This old veteran will take its
place with the rest of my kits on display in the living room and, if plastic
models have feelings, it will be very happy to look around and enjoy the view
after it's 45 year wait.
Michael
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