Accurate Miniatures Vought SB2U Vindicator build

1
August 26, 2022
After one day-long session, the cockpit parts are cleaned up and painted with Tamiya silver.
I got frustrated to not build much, so I glued the wings together. Fit is very good on the wings, but as I found out when I glued them to the fuselage, the support spar is a little bit too tall and creates a raised surface at the wing root.
2
August 26, 2022
Dry fitting the main parts promises a fair bit of preparation, fiddling, and adjustments. Not exactly shake and bake !
3
August 26, 2022
But there is reason to hope for a decent result, and the detailing is very nice.
Still, 25 years on, model engineering has moved on to a different level…
4
August 31, 2022
Slow progress on all the details in the cockpit area, some of which needs to be corrected, some completed, some thinned out. Everything is molded in place for simplicity but the details are not optimal. The rudder pedals, for instance, would have gained to be separate pieces, a number of levers too.
5
August 31, 2022
I moved a set of bottles from the right to the left side of the radio area, moved a box from where it won’t be seen to a visible place next to the rear oxygen bottle, added a prominent structure element under the pilot’s right switch box, all based on the walk-around pictures of the preserved SB2U.
The pilot’s secondary instruments panel is wrongly placed: it must be moved forward and angled.
6
September 2, 2022
A few more details and modifications. The eduard P-E fret helps quite a bit, despite strange omissions like one of the radio faces (at least in the SB2U-3 set).
7
September 10, 2022
The cockpit is really a kit within the kit, which I enjoy, even if it looks like slow progress.
I have started adding wiring and tubing, as well as other missing details, but only what I think will be visible. For instance, I only used the front and back of the straps holding down the dinghy, so I can use the remainder on another build.
8
September 10, 2022
I built the shelving between the radios because it looked like a great empty/flat space behind the P-E radio faces.
I also cut out the top of the rear fire extinguisher (?) to thin out the handle, then glued it back.
9
September 10, 2022
More cables and tubes, and a small (retracted) map table added under the top instrument panel.
The bottom one is too wide for where it should go (closer than the kit has it) so I will have to adapt it somehow when adding it to the cockpit framing.
10
September 10, 2022
The cabling added to the other side of the pilot’s area, now ready to be glued in the fuselage.
As for the rear structure, I progressively removed all the details molded in to correct and thin it out. It’s a very visible part of the cockpit, so it seems worth it. I still have to paint the rear bottle in its proper gold color.
11
September 10, 2022
Each step requires thinning, adapting, fitting,… and sometimes undoing. I’m not sure if it’s my kit, but understanding how the parts should go together is baffling. When I decipher the instructions and think I get it, test-fitting proves me wrong. Or perhaps fit is just off for some parts. (I know some people have had problems I don’t seem to have.)
An example here: I had glued the instruments panel where it seemed it should go, but then the front on the fuselage would not close, and by quite a margin.
So off it goes for more trial and error, and now each part of the IP assembly is separated, the only promising solution. The bottom IP (SB2U-3 version) definitely seems too wide.
12
September 11, 2022
I measured and added the triangular structure under the IP first, then shortened the lower IP by quite a bit so it would fit within the cockpit tubing.
13
September 11, 2022
Another image to show where I placed it, angled up towards the pilot.
14
September 11, 2022
To P-E or not to P-E… The MG ring needs a bit of thickness for the rail, so I opted to improve the kit’s part rather than use P-E.
The seat needs serious thinning down to portray the thin metal construction (they always do).
15
September 11, 2022
The rear cockpit is now detailed enough for me.
I added cables and tubing where I could see them and a second morse code device on the rear tablet.
16
September 11, 2022
From the top, with finished rear seat and all the wires coiled on the radio shelf.
The seat ring is a bit wide and will have to be squeezed a bit (not a perfect circle) when all closed up… Too late to change that !
17
September 11, 2022
The other side’s detailing, as well as a couple of wires attached to the middle platform.
18
September 13, 2022
Sometimes modelling leads to interesting sculptures...
This kit really warrants only gluing the minimum amount at a time. The parts are soft and somewhat warped, so they need to be worked into the proper place. Also, the amount of adjusting that is needed (and the guesswork needed with the instructions) requires that each part of the fuselage be glued in turn, and minimally.
Here, I only glued the right part of the cockpit top to the fuselage, making sure that the structural elements fit flush with the fuselage walls. The bottom of the cockpit assembly is not glued, in case the wings and fuselage bottom need it adjusted.
19
September 13, 2022
Next, I glued the top part of the front of the fuselage (the cowling is not glued).
Trying out the fit of wings to fuselage at this point is promissing. Only the outer part of the wings were glued before, but now I can see that the central parts will fit nicely if glued down completely.
From this point of view, it's clear that the MG ring is not circular. If I had realized that, I would have removed some of the material of the cockpit structure.
20
September 13, 2022
Still just test fitting. The front windshield looks promising with little adjusment. The rear shelf will need more work before it sits where it should. I'm glad I did not follow the building instructions sequence there.
The instructions are the weakest point of the kit, somehow. They are vague, but also too simple, since the kit works out quite well when built with a lot of caution.
21
September 13, 2022
The gap visible here is one that will not go away with better fitting. It's either there, or at the top of the wing to fuselage joint (if the fuselage is is squeezed together harder), but it's more visible and harder to fill there.
Also, some detailing will have to go into the bottom of the pilot's cockpit. All the detail is flat there.
22
September 14, 2022
So, the wings' central part can be glued down, trying to keep the central part flat. I proceeded in three steps : front (to keep top and bottom aligned), center (against the spar and wheel wells), and back (pictured). Again, this progressive method gives very good results on this kit.
23
September 14, 2022
Now on to fitting the rear shelf, where the left part is particularly troublesome. It needs thinning all around and made as flexible as possible.
In the process, all the details I added came off.
24
September 14, 2022
I finally realized that the support added by AM to the left side had to go : because of the ammo boxes underneath, the shelf sat too high. Removing that support with the fuselage closed was a bit of a struggle... it felt like 'plastic' surgery 😉
In all of this last minute adjustments, parts that were glued before have progressivley snapped off (no damage) : the middle shelf's small panel, the triangular structure to support the main instruments panel, some tubing I had added... Nothing that can't be re-glued later.
25
September 14, 2022
Now it fits where it should ! So I first glued the left side to the fuselage wall, then the right side (the bottle barely fits), then the top of the fuselage together.
It feels like progress has been achieved now !
26
September 20, 2022
For the area behind the pilot's head (under the odd painted-over middle canopy), which definitely looked too empty, I finally found a diagram of the SB2U that explained that the hydraulic system tank was there. I'm not sure of it's exact shape, but it won’t be very visible… a general shape will do.
The diagram also confirmed that there was a set of supports behind the pilot's headrest.
27
September 20, 2022
From the other side.
I also re-gled the parts that had come off the radio operator’s area, but the circular antenna is not glued yet. It’s thinned out and the base was detailed, but I’m still undecided whether the antenna should be half black. Some pictures seem to point that way, others not.
28
September 21, 2022
The wings, after many hours sanding down the strange ‘fabric’ effect molded on by not-so-Accurate Miniatures… I'm surprised it does not get mentioned in any of the reviews of the kit. Maybe the Vindicator is not well known enough. Still, I was puzzled by their strange structure, and I'm glad I checked.
I may sand it more yet, as the wings on the real AC were nearly flat.
29
September 21, 2022
The rest of the detailing on the top of the wings was quite off too (even if sharply molded), including the 3rd set of position lights (!?) and small 'walls' that would have acted as diving brakes on the real aircraft. Off it all goes !
The aileron actuator need thinning down, especially the front part.
30
September 14, 2022
Next, I have started on the P&W engine. The cylinder heads will probably be fine enough after a quick cleaning, but the pushrods and ignition wires molded with the crankcase had to go. Again, AM made a valiant effort at detailing without multiplying parts, but the result is too soft for my taste.
By the way, if anybody knows about decals with the Pratt & Wittney logos, I'd love to hear about it. They're quite visible on the bottom of the crankcase.
Also, the rear cowling needs a fair bit of cleaning to achieve decent cowl flaps (the open version is worse).
31
November 5, 2023
After a loooong break from modelling altogether, I'm returning to this kit and its motor. First order of business was to add pushrods, with thin Evergreen rods. Color is from a black marker that has a reddish cast when lit strongly.
I chose a glossy mid-grey for the crankcase based on the documentation.
32
November 5, 2023
Because I had a SB2U-3 (Marines) kit and want to make a more colorful Navy kit, I had to shorten and reshape the top cowl scoop. The exhaust has to be thinned out a lot too.
Once the cowl is glued together, the engine barely fits from the front. The positioning tabs for the front ring must be filed down.
33
November 5, 2023
More detailing of the engine : the ignition wires are made with 28 smalls bits of copper wire and the distribution ring with Evergreen rod carefully wrapped around the crankcase with a bit of glue to soften it along the way. A small PE disc is added at the top of the variable-pitch propeller control box, and a tube out of the bottom (oil?) protrusion.
34
November 5, 2023
I concentrated on details on the center of the engine because little is visible once it's closed. The shine of the wiring has been toned down with a matt varnish.
The exhaust pipes should not protrude too much out of the cowling, so their angle must be adjusted when gluing them.
35
November 5, 2023
Gluing the wings, rear of the fuselage and bottom part need to be done bit by bit and after adjustments to avoid too much puttying and sanding later.
36
November 5, 2023
The tail wheel can stand a bit of improvement.
37
November 6, 2023
I’m not a big fan of that extra rear fuselage part as a kit design as it means more finicky trial and error before gluing. At least the angular surfaces means the later filing will be relatively easy.
38
November 6, 2023
The wing root joints are ok, but the part over the wing support spar is a bit too high, so that spar should have been filed down a bit.
39
November 12, 2023
A few corrections made today: first I removed the molded detail around the foot traps, which were flush on the aircraft and should be filled in (they had spring-loaded covers). I’m not sure yet how I will fill them in.
Also, I filled the little bit of gap that was left at the wing root with flash removed from another kit. Then it just needs to be trimmed and avoids filler trouble.
40
November 12, 2023
Then I sanded down the wings ‘detailing’ some more. The wings were essentially smooth on the aircraft. I will leave a bit of it for structural detail.
41
November 12, 2023
Finally, I detailed the bottom part of the cockpit that is visible from the lower observation window. AM left that whole area flat.
42
November 13, 2023
Painted and window glued in. A few gaps to fill here again with flash bits.
The added detail is quite visible, so it’s worth putting it in.
43
November 13, 2023
Dry fitting the cowling looks good. The airplane is taking shape now ! Still not a pretty one, but that was to be expected 😉
44
November 14, 2023
The spacer tabs under the cowling actually need to be shortened, otherwise it sits too far from the fuselage and points upwards.
45
November 14, 2023
The instruments panel is finally in place, which took a fair bit of fiddling and corrections again, but the result seems fine.
46
November 21, 2023
Next, the instrument panel needs a semi-soft cover (under the windshield), which I made in the metal from a wine cap seal.
And I glued in the front seat (much thinned out) after adding the lap belts.
47
November 21, 2023
In the back, the lab belts were also completed with their smaller adjustement straps. I added them later because I knew some would not be visible and would get in the way with too much bulk.
I also decided it was time to add the radio loop antenna, also thinned out. I checked and it was stored either in that position or at 90 degrees (azis of flight), so no need to modify it.
48
November 21, 2023
Now that the cockpit is nearly finished, I started work work on the landing gear… Again, the instructions are messy, but I figured it out with trial and error. At first I had not tested the parts visible here with the rest of the gear, but I knew this was unwise. And indeed, with the main two other parts in place, i could rectify the position of these two struts and springs.
49
December 6, 2023
Just a small update after a long session dedicated to filing down the weird appendages under the wings outboard of the landing gear.
They are only on the SB2U-3 molds, but they don’t appear on my references for even this model. Whatever they are supposed to be, they had to go from my earlier SB2U.
I will still file down some more of the wing panels structural detail which should be hardly visible, if not completely gone.

Commenti

25 26 August 2022, 22:45

Hanno Kleinecke
Very good detailing in the cockpit ! Watching with great interest, as this one is on my list as well.
Not the best fit at the fuselage/wing joint ?

13 September 2022, 17:26

Boris B
Hello Hanno, Thank you for the compliment. I try to keep a balance between accuracy and visibility in my detailing... and my skill, of course !
The fit of the model is (surprisingly) good overall, if a lot of precaution is taken in building. But the fit of the fuselage to wing root at the front of the aircraft is a place where there is an obvious gap, and I'm pretty sure it's not my building. Still, it's not much and a bit of filling will do the trick.

14 September 2022, 17:00

Boris B
By the way, I have a SB2U-3 kit, but I want to build a SB2U-1/2, with different cowling and shorter empennage. If anybody wants to trade those parts to build a Marines aircraft (for instance at Midway), let me know!

20 September 2022, 17:31

Michael .
I'm working on my first Accurate Miniatures kit right now myself. I was amazed at the kit.

20 September 2022, 18:10

John
I've never built one, are the Accurate Miniature kits all they're cracked up to be? Some kits better than others?

20 September 2022, 18:23

Michael .
Most of the kits I've built so far are Revell and Testors. The AM kit blows them all away. I haven't made many other kits, yet...

20 September 2022, 18:36

John
I was looking over products and it seems I do have an AM kit in the stash. Apparently the Eduard P-39s are AM molds, so I look forward to seeing how it goes together.

20 September 2022, 18:48

Boris B
Michael, the AM Avenger kit looks like a very good one, maybe better than this one, but apparently the same vagueness in the instructions means a lot of test-fitting is needed too. And yes, the level is defintely beyond Revell (at least the older kits) and Testors. But recent kit (from eduard, for instance) would be yet another level above (at the price of many, many tiny parts).
John, for the P-39 kit, it's the other way around : eduard designed it and Accurate Miniatures re-boxed it, at a point where they were not designing kits anymore (financial troubles, I suppose). But that is also not the eduard of the 2020's and their rendition of classic airplanes that blow (most of) the competition away.

22 September 2022, 14:32

Michael .
Boris,
I do agree on the vagueness of the instructions. Sometimes what they show doesn't match with how it actually fits together and as you say, a lot of test fitting before I put glue to plastic.

I bought my first Eduard kit a couple of months ago. I'm waiting to start it. But my modelling is on hold at the moment since we had a fire in my house in the office where I do my modelling. That room is not blocked off and they'll bet getting rid of all our furniture and we have to redo the office. Just when I got my work area the way I wanted it.

22 September 2022, 14:36

Boris B
Sorry to hear that... how frustrating ! But it sounds like the fire was quite limited, which is the main part.
Regarding the eduard kits, the quality has improved steadfastly over the years, from early kits that were so mediocre that they eventually re-made them (or dropped them altogether), to their recent renditions of the great classics that are apparently so good that they warrant having yet another kit of Spitfires, Mustangs and Me 109s.
The ones I have built (Me 108, Polikarpov i-16,...) were not quite at that level, with some inaccuracies and oversights, but they are from their 'middle' period, when they were making the best kits of rarer planes and so could get away with less-than-perfect.

22 September 2022, 15:16

John
Hi Boris, thanks for the info. It's sometimes hard to tell who is boxing whose sprues and when! I wasn't checking the kit history closely enough and now see that yes, it was initially Eduard. I know it's not newer Eduard but it still looks pretty good in their recent P-39Q release.

If I do an AM kit, I think I'd like to try one of their B-25s, go big or go home.

22 September 2022, 15:19

Boris B
Yes, their P-39 kit is the best in that scale, I believe. I should be a good build !

22 September 2022, 15:24

Rando
Such a nice build, for as frustrating as this kit sounds every step looks beautifully done. I have an AM P-51A with a Verlinden engine that I plan to build in the near-ish future.

7 November 2023, 02:57

Boris B
Hi Rando, glad you find the build interesting. I suppose not many people build this not-very-successful and not-very-pretty airplane ! 😉
I hope I don't sound too whiny, as I wouldn't say that the build is frustrating overall (even if the instructions are). It's satisfying insofar as the result promises to be on a par with the effort put into it (and that's what model building is about, no ?).
Out of the box, there are pitfalls to avoid by testing for fit an placement before gluing, but the result would be quite ok. I chose to go the extra mile because I enjoy the detailing and the research behind it. That's the core of my comments about AM's general idea to do molded-on detail instead of multiplying extra parts. It's laudable in principle, but I prefer to remove some of it that I find too soft and replace it with scratch-built.
Still, OOB, these AM kits remain top of their class after many years (even when they are not rare birds : for ex. the SBD, the TBD, the B25, the early Mustangs, I suppose), because of their detailing but mostly because of the general quality of the molding as well as their... accuracy, of course.

7 November 2023, 10:39

Album info

This is my first Accurate Miniatures kit, and I was interested to see what top kits of the 90's amount to today...
Well, the answer seems to be that while AM may have been a fine heir to the Monogram kits of the 80's, including better detailing, the emphasis on molded details means a loss of precision compared to today's best kits (and their very high part count, including tiny, tiny ones).
What was lost from Monogram, unfortunately, was the clarity in the instructions. As a result, the placement of parts can be puzzling. Looking at the built-up kits of the AM Vindicator, you can see a lot of errors in placement (and probably fit too), which can be traced clearly to this problem.
But, with a lot of trial and error, the fit that ends up being suprisingly good (surprisingly, because at first it looks like it won't work, until you figure it out).
So, with a bit of modelling skill, the proverbial patience of test-and-retest-before-gluing (and re-building a few thickish parts if you feel like it), a very nice model can be made.
As for the Accuracy of the name, well, it's too bad the wings are quite fanciful on this one (the fabric rendition is completely off, and detailing is odd in parts). More modelling fun to rectify that !

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