August 14, 2007

1/48 SBD5 "Dauntless" Divebomber Kit



I thought it was time I try an aircraft model, and after searching through Tranes and Lanes and their mass hoard of stuff, I found the only Dauntless model I could find. Looks like from research I will be building the SBD5 model.


The Dauntless was the most important bomber of World War II, taking out countless defense posts, gun enplacemets, caves, and even ships. A company of these bad girls took out both the IJN Musashi and IJN Yamato along with TBD Devastators (torpedo bombers). The Dauntless could either be carrier based or land based and was responsible for sinking many Japanese transport and shipping vessels, crippling Japan's supply of resources during World War II.


The SBD-5 model was the fifth improved model of the Dauntless to be ordered by the US Marines, US Army and US Navy. One more model, the SBD-6, would be released by the Northrop company. The aircraft's top speed was about 250mph, while this seems fast for an aircraft this is terribly slow in aviation standards. The Dauntless was moderatly armored and could survive some attacks. When a Mitsubisi Type 00 ("Zero") locked onto their 6, they were pretty much done and could do little to fight back, let alone engage (there have been stories told about Dauntlesses engaging and defeating one or two zeros). If imported to the European theater, the Dauntless would not have been able to stand up to the German Messerschmitt (ME-109).


This is a Revell kit so I trusted that the quality would be good. When I opened the box my suspicions were correct: this is indeed a nice and easy model kit! Definetly something I can build in under a week. I want to build a diorama with this one because they included the crewman for the plane, then a airman to work on the aircraft with a spare bomb and bomb cart. Diorama ahoy!

No comments: