1/48 SB2C-4E Helldiver, White 80 of VB-85, U.S.S. Shangri-La

**zaxos345** · 03-18-2012 11:44 AM

Good evening guys, new model on the work bench and this time it is Revell's 1/48 SB2C-4E Helldiver. I have been working on that for the last month, nothing serious to show you until now.

The profile i chose to replicate is the White 80 of VB-85, U.S.S. Shangri-La

It is not going to be an OOB build, i will try to upgrade it as much as i can having as a guide the great build of Chuck Wojtkiewicz in Aeroscale (i have the link but i dont know if the forum rules permit me to post it)

The aftermarket i am going to use are the Big Edition from Eduard

some stuff from Part,

engine from Vector, seats from ultracast

Aeromaster stencils and the KAM set from Montex

First i removed all the detail from the bomb bay

I cut the real wheel in order to shorten it, as Chuck i s right about that, Revell gives the wheel fully extended as in flight condition, normally when in ground it should be compressed.

After a lot of thinking i decided to lower the turtle back, so i took the courage and the razor and i started...

Not bad for my first time...

I continued working with Part PE, the part that covers the fuselage under the turtle back, not bad ...

Here dry fitted

Later i took my time on the turtleback. This is the Part's PE for that

No way could i make it to be at the lowered position, so i took my folding tool and i cut it to 5 pieces. I tried to do the job with them but some of them proved to be too big, so knife again and i made some new ones from styrene sheet. This is the final outcome including some more detail things

The folding parts from the turtle back are not glued together, instead i tape them together by two with a foil adhesive tape from 3M (stole the idea from Chuck, great tip in order to have them together and fully functional).

Unfortunately i dont have a photo from the dry fit i did but i will show it eventually. After i had made my mind about the turtle back i moved to bomb bay and i added the PE from Eduard, great detail indeed.

I removed all the details from inside the fuselage and i add some of mine, painted them and here they are...

and here with the bomb bay dry fitted...

Thats all for now guys, hope you like it so far,

John

**Wurger** · 03-18-2012 12:28 PM

**brucejscott** · 03-18-2012 01:45 PM

Nice work.

**Airframes** · 03-18-2012 02:15 PM

Really nice work so far. Is this a 'new tool' kit, or the old Monogram moulding, from the 1960s, with folding wings, retracting landing gear etc?

**Aaron Brooks Wolters** · 03-18-2012 04:36 PM

Excellent start John!

**zaxos345** · 03-19-2012 02:39 AM

Thanks for your comments guys, Terry yes it is a reissue of the promodeler's old kit but not with folding wings.

John

**chukw** · 03-19-2012 10:41 AM

Looks great, John- cheers! I wish I'd had those Part sets when I was hammering mine together. ;D

chuk

**Airframes** · 03-19-2012 11:06 AM

Thanks John - I thought maybe it was the early kit, part toy, part model, which I built back in about 1963. Still a kit that can be 'worked on', but obviously not as good as the Promodeller.