1:48 SBD Dauntless and A-24 Banshee in combat. Part 3

A dive bomber in two coats

The Douglas dive bomber was one of the types that decided the first year of the war in the Pacific. The Army Air Forces took over the same airframe under a different designation, stripped it of the arrestor hook and sent it to New Guinea. The sheet covers both branches of the family: one land-based machine and one carrier-borne one.

The schemes on the sheet

• The army version with a serial from the 41 series and personal nose lettering, flown in May 1942 by a crew of the 8th Bombardment Squadron of the 3rd Bombardment Group based near Port Moresby
• A carrier-borne machine from a scouting squadron operating from USS Ranger during Operation Torch in November 1942, with black fuselage markings

What the sheet offers

Two schemes mean that one package gives you the land-based and the carrier-borne form of a single aircraft, which is a rewarding subject for a comparative pair on the shelf. The differences are not only in the markings: army examples differed from navy machines in the equipment of the tail section and in the shades of the upper surfaces, and their fuselage markings looked different as well.

Working with the decals

On a glossy surface the decals settle without silvering. It works well to cut them close to the artwork, to apply decal softener only once the water has dried and to run a cotton swab over the large fuselage markings so that the air is pushed out of the rivet lines. Once dry, a matte varnish comes next and hides the edges of the film completely. The kit is not included in the package; the sheet is intended for finishing off a completed model.