They have one in Dayton, at the Air Force Museum. And Hasegawa put out a kit in 1/48.
Hasegawa also did a Banshee in 1/72 & Accurate Miniatures has hinted at doing one in 1/48 as well.
Regards, Rick
they called it the A-24 Banshee
For the Army Air Corps they didn’t do well with the Banshees. They were used in Java and New Guinea and took heavy losses. Another unit used some in 1945 in the area around Rabaul, can’t remember details right now. Some were also used for training in the States.
Mike T.
This would be a cool model subject. I might have to order another A.M. Dauntless. [:-^] Art
Post war, they were used by the Mexican Air Force - it hs been rumored over the years there are still one or two still in existance in Mexico.
I know a Marine vet from WWII who flew in the rear seat as an artillery spotter onboard Army A-24s. He said everytime he flew with the Army pilots…'this will be a good flight…the Corps hasn’t given me permission to die today". The pilots would just stare at him confused. They took a lot of small arms fire, but never lost an aircraft or were injured.
And the Army also bought SB2C Helldivers.
Yup-- problem was the Army didn’t know how to dive with them-- they just tried lobbing the bombs in instead and didn’t end up being very successful.
It isn’t too difficult to recreate an Army Banshee from an AM SBD-- basically you need to lose the tail hook, switch out the main gear wheels to wheels with treads, and replace the hard rubber tail wheel with a pneumatic tail wheel to be used on land.
I have the Hasegawa kit-- it’s not too bad-- but you either have to drill out the holes in the dive brake or replace them with PE ones. I look forward to seeing if AM comes out with one.
Didn’t Accurate Minitures release Dauntless’s with the dive brakes pre drilled?
interesting.
The AM Dauntless kits have the dive flaps molded with the perforations open. The Hasegawa kit does not.
Regards, Rick
Yes-- what Rick said. There are aftermarket PE dive brakes available for the Hasegawa kit, but I plan on drilling mine out by hand…mainly because I hate myself.
Looking back at my description of the differences- I wanted to add-- while the tailhook was removed, the fairing for it was commonly left on. Just FYI…
This was the first model my father and I ever built together. Probably why I have just about every varient in my stash along with the TBF/TBM. Jeeves, you are right on with the differences. There wasn’t much of any really. Squadron’s walk around covers this bird great. I forget who made the kits back then. Maybe Revell or Testors? That was back in the early 70’s.
P.S. Jeeves, I remember my father drilling out those holes. I know it wasn’t Sunday but, I remember him talking to Jesus alot[:-^]
Chris