I Love Kit 1/18: SBD-3 "Dauntless"

Aircraft World War II
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Hi mates!

The Monster is complete…..:grin:!! Here comes my new SBD-3 Dauntless in 1/18 sacale.

The kit comes from “I Love Kit” (Merit…..Trumpeter…..HobbyBoss).
Built out of box, only stretched yarn as antenna wire.
Colors from Mr.Hobby (Gunze), Tamiya and Revell.

The fit is quite good. However, the manufacturer took the easy way and simply scaled up the 1/32 scale Dauntless from Trumpeter.:woozy_face:
During the scaling process, the new injection mold wasn’t reworked. As a result, many interior details appear blurred and toy-like. Fortunately, the exterior details are unaffected.
Furthermore, some important parts have been omitted entirely.
For example, the dive brakes can be displayed extended, but the folding mechanism is missing.:face_with_spiral_eyes:

BUT… in the overall-view it looks quite good, so my SBD will certainly be on display during the 2026 exhibition season.:smiling_face_with_sunglasses:

Horrido
Stefan :blush:

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Hi Stefan,
You probably have an entire hangar to house this giant! Joking aside, I especially appreciated the surface finish! Did you use pre-shading? I have the same Trumpeter 1/32 kit (SBD – 3 Midway) in my stash, and your build is a great point of reference. Dan

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Looks big enough to put a small gasoline engine in and fly it, like the gas-powered airplanes that were popular many, many years ago. Actually, I think they may still be popular only not so much. Used to be on a tether, but then modern tech came along with radio-control.
:smiley: :canada:

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Details were softened and/or omitted as the kit was aimed primarily at the large scale toy crowd, i.e. all of us who used to collect 21st Century Toys, so they had to be made to feature working features that would lose some accuracy for the sake of being able to stick an action figure in it.