SBD-4 Dauntless from Hasegawa in 1/72 scale with carrier island from cardboard.
I want to show you my SBD-4 Dauntless from Hasegawa in 1/72 scale. In order to give my model a beautiful environment again, I modeled the island of an aircraft carrier out of cardboard. The island resembles the USS Ranger (CV-4). I also scratch build a Ford “moto-tug”, but unfortunately, I did not quite get the shape, it is a little too long and too narrow.
About the model itself:
The fit is very good, and all the fine details are beautifully modeled. I upgraded the cockpit a little by adding a dashboard and seat belts from Yahu. I also upgraded the Brownings with barrels from CMK and a self-made armor plate, as well as two ammunition belts.
Hasegawa’s plastic is very hard compared to Airfix, so it was not so easy to remove the dive brakes. I finally replaced them with resin parts. The decals are not so easy to work with, because I unfortunately broke them very quickly, maybe they are too old. I have also built a few crew members from Preiser figures and the “hot pappa” is from Airfix.
I was amazed at how small the Dauntless is for a two-seater. It is slightly larger than a wildcat but not larger than a hellcat. If you compare it with a devastator, it also looks small.
The small detail shots (set of 4) are made with a small edoscope camera, which unfortunately has a resolution of 640×480, too smal! I really want to buy a better one because you can “dive” into the model’s hidden corners with this trick.
Very good fit of all parts and nice molded
