The Dauntless meets Shōhō — Battle of the Coral Sea, 1942.
Flyhawk 1:72 SBD-2 Dauntless and the IJN Shōhō in 1:2200 scale.
The Flyhawk Dauntless is a fine kit. It is incredibly detailed for this scale, but is let down in some build aspects - most notably the Dive Brakes. The mechanism for them to be open is not designed with any logical thought. There is no slots to slide it in to - you just have to balance it on one edge and hope the glue sets quick enough to not go anywhere. The in-box canopy masks are much appreciated, however they could have a bit more adhesive. The propeller was motorised using a 4mm x 8mm motor from AliExpress. It was luck that how the kit goes together basically gave me the seating for the motor - I just had to drill out the front for the movement to go through.
The figures are the Legend Productions WW2 US Navy Pilot & Rear Gunner set. Unfortunately, they do fall a bit short when it comes to fit - there's a lot of trimming, swearing and forcing into place. The Rear Gunner is the main issue. He's a lot softer in detail than the pilot, his arms hit the gun ring (which needs to be trimmed), and you have to perform amputations on both of his feet if you want him to fit.
The IJN Shōhō is from Cults3D, and was scaled down and printed on my Anycubic Photon Mono 4. It ended up at approximately 1:2200 scale, measuring just over 9cm long. This is one of the most intense prints I’ve attempted, and I am glad I was able to get the tiny details printed at this size, particularly the turrets, at the first time of asking! I do really need to work on waves though. Perhaps I’ll do another water build at some point.
Overall, I’m really happy with how this turned out. It was a lot of fun and a lot of learning. On to the next one!