Son of a B!tch, 2nd Class....
I'm 12 years old and I've just brought this home from the newsagents/toy shop. School holidays are coming soon because of Christmas so I will build this over the break. First a peek into the box...
Umm... used to love this feature
No paint needed... hmm... at this point in my modelling career I was painting. I will paint this by airbrush but otherwise will be a basic slap together job.
Colour plans and options. I'll be doing the 2 blues/white scheme. (The real US Navy scheme to a 12 year old me..) Listed as VB-4 off Yorktown it's actually VB-2 off Hornet .
Whee! Sneaky tantalising peek of the wonderful joy that awaits in the box!
Multi colour goodness...
Multi colour goodness..
Matchbox made great crew figures
Mix of raised and engraved panel lines.
3rd sprue
Decals have suffered some damage but chosen option seems usable.
The goal here, is to see using the 40 years of experience, if I can build it to look as good as the catalogue photo example.
When I was 12 I didn't need two pairs of glasses to be able to paint these two lads...
Matchbox's mini paint plan just calls for black over the whole interior. Basic Tamiya LP matt Black used but I also put some cockpit green in there to liven it up a bit.
I was 2 years old when this was originally tooled up. This will be 50 years old in the new year....
Let's put the wings together. 4 parts each side, 8 in total, quite a lot by Lesney standards.
Fuse together the fuse halves, trapping the arrestor hook and pilots armchair.... Yes there is a total of 4 parts in this assembly
Wings on.
Most productive 2 hours I've spent at the bench in a long while. Enough for today though.
Wings work!
Spent a happy hour last night masking the clear parts.
Crew, gun and it's mount installed. Left the crew in blue, yes it's wrong but I would have lost today's session at the bench if I had repainted them.
Put the gunner looking to the side. Artistic move there on my part?
Quick spray of Tamiya primer and LP matt white on the undersurfaces.
Painting finished. Used Humbrol intermediate blue but it looks too dark, and Xtracolour foe the dark sea blue
Not sure about this.....
Back at it..
I cheated and used some filler, the water based stuff so still safe for a 12 year old, wiped down with damp cloth and touched up with brush paint.
Prop tips brush painting. Under coat yellow with pink....
Decal time... Will 49 year old decals work?
Hopefully...
Well, there's a surprise ?
Well, only lost one National Insignia and the 45 on cowling on one side.
Replacement courtesy of a microscale sheet. Of course now that makes the rest look odd. Matt coat clear at the next session and removal of masking tape will see it nearly finished. Till next time...
Semi gloss clear coat added. Time to start removing canopy masking...
Looks OK! I'm impressed!
Should have changed the second insignia...
Microscale this side, looks better. Canopy looks good.
Folded wings. I've already broken one hinge....
Some drybrushing of silver to add wear.
No Matchbox is complete without fingerprint or smudge. This kit is no different
Off the bench at last.
C'est fini...
Prop even spins.
Beauty shots...
Best side.
Wings still work. Whoo hoo!
It's a big old bird, here with a Tomcat for scale. No wonder it was a handful compared to the Dauntless. And why she got the name derived from designation SB2C.; Son of a Bitch, 2nd Class.
Comments
45 15 December 2022, 20:35
Roy McKayWas hoping to get some work done today... went trimming a tree in the front that took a lot longer than I expected... all afternoon... and even longer to clean up. It's now far too cold to work in the shed so no models or modelling until tomorrow...
17 December 2022, 18:05
Roy McKay-1°C yesterday, +12°C today. Bit more conducive to modelling in the shed.
Well. 2 hours done today. 40 mins of which was painting the crew.
18 December 2022, 19:16
Mark BroughtonI built this kit when I was about 10 years old, bought it with my pocket money from the hardware store in the village where I grew up. Big selling point back then where the foldable wings. Happy days!
23 December 2022, 20:29
SkyhikerApparently that dark blue is correct. Seems pretty dark in the photo but I think it is that dark on the real planes.
29 December 2022, 02:11
SkyhikerYes, the Humbrol intermediate blue looks very dark in the photo but I think it's probably correct.
29 December 2022, 12:47
Jan PetersA trip through memory lane, I was 3 when this came out 🙂
Looking through the foto's and reading the comments made me feel like that little kid butchering and smearing these kits, great stuff 👍🏻
4 January 2023, 17:51
Neil PatrickVery handsome model Roy. I suspect the finest build of this kit ever made. Congratulations!
29 January 2023, 00:50
Album info
Matchbox SB2C-1 oob
Group Build
Matchbox 50th anniversary group build
1. April 2022 until 31. December 2023
1. April 2022 until 31. December 2023