Question on Dauntless

Modeling Subjects Aircraft
1

I was wondering if anyone ran into this.

On the Hasegawa 1:48 Dauntless. I have removed the plastic airbrakes, right, left and center and will be replacing with aftermarket photoetched brakes. I have painted the inner surface red and am waiting til tonite to paint the upper and lower surfaces.

Questions:

  1. When I cut out the right left ad center airbrakes from the plastic frame, there is a pretty big gap. Should I fill it or should I just place the photoetched pieces in the center? It is weird. The other question is whether to separate the two flaps or leave them together, just bend them, upper and lower.

  2. The center flap is only a bottom piece. The upper surface is still attached to the fuselage. What color is the interior of this? Is it also red or is it chromate green like the interior of the plane or is it white like the undersurface of the plane itself?

Unless you have done this model, this may not make sense.

2

For #2, the interior is red. It is a safety warning for ground crew. I have only built the Monogram Dauntless, and I used the kit dive brakes. On one kit, I closed the dive brakes. The dive brakes also worked as flaps, with just the bottom opening. I have another kit posed with all the bottom flaps lowered, showing off the interior. Hope this helps.

3

I ran into the same problem[:(], only mine was in 1/72. Here is what I did:

  1. I centered the two upper flaps and openned them very
    slightly, no more than five of six degrees. The three lower
    flaps were lowered all the way. This way, I found that the
    difference in size is not noticable and really looks good. [^]

  2. The interior of all three, upper and lower, should be red.

Be careful, those d___ed brass photoetched parts bend if you even look at them! [:(!] I wish they were made of stainless steel
like the photoetched parts they supply in many of the 1/43 car kits.[;)]

Pete