TBD-1 Devastator

[Tbolter]

Can I get extra credit?

Needed something to do while I'm trying to figure out how to put together the Orlik Hurricane.

Had to do a lot of doctoring on the scans to get this one back to a reasonable color, not sure it's an accurate color though.

[OldTroll]

Hmmmm...well, if you edit your title to the correct format and you understand that only one of your models can count for scoring (high or low, your choice) and not more than 53 other contestants complain, then yes, you can enter the Hesitator.

[cjwalas]

Oh, Great! Another MM kit I have on a huge pile somewhere! I love finding out all the problems, er...challenges, these MM kits have before I get to them!
If I recall this one correctly, the printing is quite light on the original? I'm looking forward to watching and learning on this one! Good Luck!
Chris

[Tbolter]

Ok, Ok this one was old and slow (a screaming 200 mph) but not unlike some of us...

[Darwin]

Now, there is nothing wrong with old and slow. And everyone knows, age and deception will triumph over youth and experience every time.

[Cecil.Severs]

I also have this one in my MM pile. I hope it turns out well. There are'nt many models of this much maligned airplane around. Good luck with it.

[Tbolter]

The center fuselage is together.

The orientation of the parts on the original kit sheets are random and since the old Maly card has a distinct texture the color scanned differently depending on how the part was drawn with respect to the texture. The old kit colors had to be restored on the scan and increasing the saturation might have minimized this however after getting the scan back to a reasonable color I decided to quit while I was ahead.

The former just behind the cockpit opening (K) provided no support for the rear part of the fuselage so extra top portions had to be added.

The fuselage section at the front of the cockpit is a little short on one side. Looks like the part was cut off at the line just below the opening and then another line was drawn below the cut off. a small piece can be added when the opening is reinforced and straightened to bring the edge up even and the extra line painted out.

Otherwise, aside from the usual trimming and coaxing, no major problems yet.

[OldTroll]

Stop me if you've heard this from someone else before but the Hesitator is one of my favorite airplanes. I do not know how the crews summoned up the courage to fly at a walking pace into murderous AA fire to drop a torpedo that had less than a 50/50 chance of working properly. It looks good so far!

[Tbolter]

I agree, Old Troll, and then at the battle of Midway the TBD's lost fighter escort contact, made the torpedo approaches anyway...40+ started out 4 came back. I don't think many, if any torpedos did any significant damage.

The only thing that futile effort did was to get everyone sufficiently pissed off to go back and sink some Japanese ships later.

[Golden Bear]

I like the look of the torpedo hanging out of the Devastator.