Halinski SBD-3 Dauntless 1:33

  • On the 27th I wrote:
    Sorry, but I am tired of waiting for the Halinski Mi-24 D It was announced a long time ago - I think it was even before I finished my Messerschmitt E4/T1 thread - and somehow, at that time, knowing the quality and level of detail of the newer Halinski models and simply being attracted by helicopters, I decided that this was going to be my next model, and I logically announced that this would for sure be my next thread.
    Since that moment I have of course checked the Halinski site time after time, month after month, and yes, even today, the 27th of October 2009, it is still being announced as appearing soon, and a new dive bomber seems to be struggling for a more prominent place.
    In the meantime I ordered many other models - aircraft, 1:100 ships and others - issued since that moment, first of all to add them to my collection these virgin and uncut models are a joy to own and the enjoyment of studying them closely and wondering if they will ever be the next model can be almost equal to the satisfaction of actually constructing them.
    The Halinski Dauntless was among these it was there from the start- as perhaps the most challenging of the Halinski aircraft models with a delightful 1400 or 1500 parts and was first in the row to be the alternative.
    Let me be clear: normally the Mi-24D will still be the next one as soon as it will be issued, but for now the Dauntless is my choice it has been waiting for me too long.
    There will be many others who worked/are working on this model (and please let me know if I missed something), but three names are prominent when activating the search function. And these are also the ones whos threads I will follow closely for hints and to avoid mistakes:
    andreask: You presented a wonderful thread with all the ins and outs of building this model, until the 27-05-2007; you were then finishing the dive brakes. Just some of the things I would like to know: did you use the prefab cockpit or the template pieces? Are there any pictures of the finished model?
    matthias jacobs: you made some beautiful progress on the cockpit interior, the hull and the wings. Your last post was on the 26-03-2009, am I right?
    Flyshorni: seems you were working on the cockpit frame around the 19-06-2009.
    Please let me know.


    ---------
    And so I started right away! The Dauntless cockpit floor on this picture is not the first to be shown on this forum, I am very well aware of it, but.... it happens to be mine :]

  • The assembly consisting of the two coupled(?) flightsticks is rather complex and the very precise instruction diagrams are indispensable for a good result.


    Were these coupled flight sticks and pedals meant to offer the gunner the possibility to fly the plane home safely in case of a wounded or killed pilot- I have no knowledge at this point, maybe someone could tell me more about this.

  • JC, I think you are right about that. Good luck with this one. Have you thought about how you will do the perforated airbrakes?

    best regards
    mit herzlichen grussen


    Fred


    In Build:
    Panzerkreuzer Infanta Maria Teresa

    Edited once, last by Royaloakmin ().

  • Of course i will try to build them as detailed as I can, with all the perforations and using all the parts that the model offers to do so. Landing gear down and the airbrakes in landing position seems cool to me. We will see about that later.

  • I added the three formers that will, along with other parts, support part W2 (and part 8, its 'skin' ).
    Part W2 is very fragile and very difficult to cut out properly. The three "scissor-areas" have been cut out but were left in place for the moment -it is the only way to handle this piece without damaging it. Furthermore lots of material must be removed from the long sides to create the proper wedge form needed for the shape of the hull.


    Also visible on the picture is part 8a (to be placed in the smaller middle opening of W2), a part that caused so much misfortune to Matthias Jacobs; he strongly advised to install it before fixing W2 to the cockpit frame. I will try to do so.


    Finally there are parts 1e and 1e. For some reason they are not mentioned in the instructions. They will be placed inside the two holes in the cockpit floor.

  • Part 8 and W2 in place on the cockpit frame. Matthias Jacobs' advise probably saved me a lot of trouble: even when installing parts 8a/b before fixing the completed unit to the cockpit frame, these parts are not really easy to build inside the top of the frame; somehow these boxlike constructions, once finished, always appear to be slightly larger (and never smaller ;)) than the area where they have to be attached to.

  • I added a whole series of formers: part 9 + W3, W3a,b,c,d,e,f,g,h,i,j,k,l,m. My fingers hurt...I still refuse to use lasercut parts (not because I am against them on principle, but because I did not know they were available when I started this model :P, so I will do without them).
    The other picture, taken from underneath, shows the future shape of a part of the fuselage bottom.

  • At the rear (above the number 23 on the second picture) is the housing for the barrel of the rear machine gun. At the front side I added some more formers.
    If you might consider to build the model some day: please be aware that some of these formers are quite difficult to 'introduce' inside the cockpit frame: in an earlier stage I found this for part 9/W3; and former part 11/11a* (the one that will support the instrument panel) is, like most of the other ones, fragile and must be be introduced inside the frame with care. ( To make them easier to attach I fitted 11c+ inside the former and 11b under the frame roof before fixing the assembly 11/11a* inside the frame, but, like I said, the part is less easy to position under these conditions).

  • Hello Jcvandenbergh,



    thank you for the valuable hints with regards to the order in which the parts are to be glued. Someday I want to do the Dauntless too and then these will be most welcome.


    Zaphod

  • ...more levers, handles, instruments, and even a cute little bottle in a container attached to the bulkhead behind the pilot compartiment. Schaps, as Andreask suggested. Or, more likely, some fine bourbon to keep the spirits high when things got tricky. This cockpit frame is getting nicely filled.


    Now ready to start assembling the pilot seat.

  • I fixed the pilot seat to the vertical rails - I don't think the ejection seat already existed at that time; maybe it was just adjustable to the length of the pilot. The exact position of the seat is not indicated in the diagrams. The shoulder belts are not part of the seat; they will be added later.
    Also in place: rear sections of forward machine guns.

  • The radio stacks are hidden deep inside the frame. Once all the assemblies are in place it all fits perfectly well, but here again the problem is to get everything inside properly. I somehow thought that simply following the alphabetical order of parts would lead to trouble. Therefore I followed my own plan and it proved to work out well:
    Assemble the lower platform with parts20 h,i,j and supports 20k (see marks on cockpit floor). Radio unit 20l will come later. When thoroughly dry, introduce the unit vertically from behind,turn it 90 degrees and fix it in place gluing the front edge and the ends of 20j, with the supports 20k resting on the cockpitfloor.
    Assemble the complete upper platform using parts 20,20a,b,c,d,e,f,g and place it inside the frame in the same way, gluing the front edge and the ends of 20b.
    Finally place the radio unit 20l on the lower platform. This is a one piece unit that can be handled and put in place easily with both platforms in place.

  • I added some more details to the rear section of the cockpit floor, plus the cupboard-like part nr. 22, directly to the right of the instrument panel (not the slightest idea what was stored inside). It has no contact with the cockpit floor and it is positioned in a 'hanging' position between formers 6/6a and 7/7a. As said earlier by Andreask, this part is wrong in design; at the indicated spots at the bottom of it , corrections must be applied to make it fit around the lower parts of the formers.


    (Now adding some more details to this part and also preparing the ammunition rack and boxes for the rear gunner).

  • All these details belonging to the right cockpit wall took lots of time, but I am satisfied with the result. The only problem I met was that due to the step that is to the left and beneath of it, there is definetely not enough place for the container base (see the indicated spot). I had to make some small corrections there.
    But the overall precision of this cockpit wall assembly is so perfect that it litterally fits like a skin around the frame - it 'holds itself' without any glue. The right and left walls will be attached at the same time, and any view from the sides will be impossible from that moment on.
    Therefore this was the right moment for this second picture showing the frame and right cockpit walls in all their details:

  • Hallo jcvandenbergh,


    Ziet er geweldig uit, mijn volgende model wordt er ook een van Halinski.


    Looks great, my next model is for certain a Halinski model.


    Hans

    met vriendelijke groet,


    Hans

  • Thank you Wols for your interest/Bedankt voor je interesse, Wols!


    I am working on the left cockpit wall. The 'briefcase' nr. 34 (see first picture) is in place... but I am desperately looking for the location of parts 34a, 34b and Y. (second picture) Are they somehow part of 34, or must they be placed somewhere else on the cockpit wall? Maybe I am missing something. Can someone help me?

  • Hello Jcvandenbergh,


    sorry, I didn´t find them.


    I looked into the report by andreask (page 4), but I couldn´t find these parts there.


    Perhaps they fit somewhere inside the canopy?


    Zaphod

  • Thank you, Royaloakmin and Zaphod, for looking for a solution. And thank you, Andreask for finding it! I would never have thought that these tiny parts must be fixed to the cockpit frame and not to the cockpit wall... I could, and should have found out myself, because there are indeed small white marks indicating the proper location.
    Thanks again!

  • The first picture shows the Dauntless center section wearing its white under ware, but waiting for its beautiful blue-grey dress (at least, that is what I am hoping for 8o).
    The second picture shows one last step necessary before proceeding - a step that was a bit neglected in earlier threads: there is this window pane that explains the intriguing opening in the cockpit floor: the pilot could directly see a part of the world beneath - in a dogfight, or maybe to make landing easier?
    Anyway, the third picture, taken from underneath, clearly shows that is was well positioned: the flight stick is visible directly behind the window pane:

  • Covering the complete center section of the hull using just one piece of paper was indeed one of the most nerve breaking operations that I ever experienced while building a model: where to start? how to proceed? how to give everything the right profile? what to do if everything fits on the left side and nothing on the right side?
    And then there were the building instructions warning us that "this phase in constructing the model requires particular attention and accuracy and that any error committed here will for sure affect the final result negatively"...
    But the result for the moment is better than I could have hoped; everything seems to fit perfectly on both sides. Let us see if the adjacent parts fit just as well: that will be the proof of succes.


    p.s,: Zaphod: your remark about bomb aiming sounds much more logical indeed!

  • Hi JC, I too agree with Zaphod, it may also have helped with carrier landings. The skinning is a success, now you can relax a bit.

    best regards
    mit herzlichen grussen


    Fred


    In Build:
    Panzerkreuzer Infanta Maria Teresa

  • This next fuselage section (a) proved to be much more complicated then I had thought. It is not a closed ring but more like an inverted u-form, the rest of the ring being formed by a series of skin parts in a row at the bottom of the fuselage.
    I started at the right side with the lower side perfectly in line (b) with the rest. Then, I checked the left side and the part was simply to short (c); not very much, about 0,8mm, but still too short. There were no corrections possible, at the upper side of the body the part fits tigtly around the machine gun compartiment.
    The only solution was to make the four skin parts (d) just a little bit longer adding the neccessary color corrections (my wife knows how to make the perfect color mix, that's why I keep her 8o).
    Furthermore, on both sides the last of these skin parts (e) was not completely in line with the rest of the joint that will connect it to the next section. So, I had to correct that also... It all looks quite acceptable after all, but with all these corrections I wonder if the next fuselage section will fit...Strange, because I worked with great precision.


    Next step: the center wing section.

  • Hello JC,
    my Dauntless is still sleeping, because i had big problems with the hull.
    I made some mistakes that now traverse through the whole model. So I do not know if I continue to build the model.

    Was man kann, weiss man erst wenn man es getan hat.


    Zurückgestellt: SBD-3 Dauntless, Halinski
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    Fertig, Aircobra von Cartoon Models

  • Nice to hear from you, Matthias Jacobs!
    You may have made mistakes in building your Dauntless, but your thread, together with those by Andreask and Flyshorni is nevertheless a great help for me.
    I am having some troubles too, like I showed, but I am still full of confidence to continue. The only problem for me is that I am almost sure that I did not make any major mistake up to this moment. On the other hand I would not even dare to blame the model for not being precise enough, although I did find design faults in Halinski models in the past, for instance in the nose section of the Morane Saulnier.

  • Hello Jcvandenbergh,


    could it be, that the slot you are looking for is the tiny one on part W6c just above where "W6b" is printed?


    Zaphod

  • I have thought about that too, Zaphod, but the answer is no. The little slot is at least 5mm away from where 'my' slot must come and it is there for an other purpose (or wrongly placed..). I will soon see when I will continue this assembly.

  • The middle wing section under construction (first picture) and the way in which it will soon be attached under the fuselage (second picture) plus a bottom view (third picture). The arrows indicate the places where I had to remove about 0,2 to 0,3 mm of material to make the"fork" like frame frame part fit around the viewing pane box: