I pulled a Hasegawa SBD-3 out of my stash for a group build on iModeler, to celebrate the anniversary of Midway. I was originally intending OOB build, except I intended to drill out the holes in the flaps/dive brakes to make them more realistic. The way the wing sections are designed, they are molded as both upper and lower sections into the upper section of the wing.
As I started drilling, I decided "hey! why not flatten this thick piece down, cut it out, then manufacture the lower section from styrene and present the flaps and dive brakes open. If I had done some research first, I'd have found all this lovely detail:
Whoops! Too late - I had already cut out the flaps! (well - I guess I could have glued them back shut, but I really thought they would look good open).
So, I cut out the styrene lower brakes, and then drilled out all five sections (including the central lower brake section). Next came ribs and runners and spacers to represent the interior side of the flaps.
Next, I have to even up the upper/lower wing join and blank it out with styrene, so I can drill it back open as research indicates, then create all the actuator elements. I'll also need to do some work on the underside of the wing/fuselage of the middle brake section once I've got the wings and fuselage together.
More to come...
Looking great! Don't go blind
Some work on the interior - there was no detail, and I'm going to cut open the back sections of the canopy and mount them nested, so added ribbing and details to the back section sidewalls, some to the floor/cockpit area, and some to the upper sections of the front sidewall panels.
Looking real good there
Some more work on the actuator area for the brakes and flaps - blanked off the section left by the gap of cutting off the original brake, drilled it out per reference photos, then built up the actuator control rods and brackets using styrene square strip and rods.