The Little World

I gotta find it – I gotta find the 1941 Fred McMurray/Errol Flynn movie ” Dive Bomber”. If only to see the real thing in ( fake ) action. Now that the Vought Vindicator is complete and the Yellow Wing Navy is well and truly started I need all the entertainment I can get.

Well, the bomb assembly was as difficult as I expected it to be – aided in infamy by unclear instructions and a moulding decision that was  impossible to assemble. I tried to do it but in the end had to make a compromise with the sway braces. No big deal…another modelling accomplishment.

The last error of the build occurred in the assembly of the landing gear. The fairings and housing were again inadequately illustrated and I glued ’em on wrong. Fortunately I did it wrong with the right material – PVA white glue – and I was able to dissolve and loosen the parts easily. They cleaned up and were able to go back on in the correct position with no harm done. The legs of the Vindicator are surprisingly long to clear the large two-bladed prop from the deck.

The only bit of resin – the .30 machine gun – went on with contact cement and looks fine…except you can hardly see it in the back office there. But overall the cockpits are excellent and the canopy clear enough to see into them. Perfect registration with the coaming, too.

Final note was the decals – the Special Hobby ones are either a love or hate situation. I love how they release with only 6 seconds of soaking, but they can be a little fragile and prone to wrapping onto themselves after that. I have taken to following Phil Flory’s lead in decalling; I swab the decal position with a little Microset on a brush followed by a lot of plain water, then the decal, and the water allows it to slip a lot more readily than straight Microset. Eventually after all the decals are on and squeegee’d down I brush Microsol over them and then go off for coffee and some book reading. Even with as complex a scheme as the pre-war US Navy, this gives time for everything to set up.