KIT REVIEWED: SB2C-4 HELLDIVER

Scale: 1/48

Manufacturer: ProModeller (Monogram-Revell)

Price: MSRP $24.95

Media: Injection-molded plastic with photo-etch brass detail

Decals: One tricolor VB-3 Helldiver off "Yorktown," one overall sea blue VB-85 Helldiver off "Shangri-La"

Accuracy: Very good

Overall: A+

Reviewed by: Thomas McKelvey Cleaver (THE AERONUT)

Monogram first did Curtiss' Big-Tailed Beast in 1962, in the days when retractable landing gear and droppable bombs were the rage and models were really toys. The kit bore a passing resemblance to a Helldiver, but the wing chord was way too narrow, and that was just the start of the list of deficiencies. Until last month, however, that was the only SB2C available in 1/48, which meant that most modellers who do US Navy aircraft had a gaping hole in their collection. That is no longer the case. The wait is over!

ProModeller's SB2C-4 Helldiver can stand toe-to-toe with the TBFs and SBDs from Accurate Miniatures, the Hellcats from Hasegawa and the Wildcats and Corsairs from Tamiya. The U.S. Navy's Second World War carrier air force is now complete.

Opening the box, the kit is familiar in molding to those who have made ProModeller's Bf-110 night fighter. I think the same German concern that did that one has done the Helldiver, a very good sign. There's a nice big instruction booklet that details a very straightforward and logical construction process.

All the cockpit detail anyone but a super-detailer could desire is found in both pilot's and gunner's cockpits. The kit glass is thin enough no one will even think of vacforming it. The dive flaps are photo-etch brass, as is the engine electrical harness and the various items of hardware for the seatbelts, should you choose to do them the hard way.

I have now built two of these, one for the Planes of Fame Museum, one for me. When assembling the gunner's cockpit, I found on the second kit that setting the gun ring with seat into position before assembling the rest of the armor ring and gun made for an easier fit; the first one sat atop its position until I cut away the mounting pegs in the cockpit. Other than that, there is no pre-fitting of parts necessary. So far as ordnance is concerned, the kit provides two so-so 500-lb bombs to go in the open bomb bay, or to hang from the wing racks if you close the bomb bay. I used two bombs left over from my A-M Avengers, which are much better, and put them in the bomb bay. The SB2C-4 came from the factory with zero-length rocket rails, and these are in the kit, though no rockets are provided.

However, there is one thing to worry about: Monogram's old nemesis of production quality control. The first kit was perfect; no warping, the photo-etch brass nice and flat. The second kit had a badly-warped fuselage, and the photo-etch fret looked like it had fallen off the production line and been stepped on. Putting the fuselage halves in very hot water solved the first problem, and placing the photo-etch fret under a lot of pressure on a flat surface solved the second. That would not have happened in a TamiGawa kit from my experience, and demonstrates in the microcosm the biggest problem U.S. industry still faces in the macrocosm: quality control. Evidently Monogram needs to take a Deming Seminar and then put the lesson to work.

I used Aeromaster's Tokyo Raider sheet to do the VB-3 Yorktown Hellidiver for the first kit because the decals don't look to be up to previous ProModeller quality, which may be why ProModdeller has announced a sheet of aftermarket decals as quickly as they have; these should be in your local shop shortly after you read this. The second kit was also done tri-color, as the VB-15 Helldiver from "Essex" that's on the cover of Squadron's "Helldiver in Action" book, and is the subject of the photos that accompany this review.

As an aside, I already had the Squadron book, which I used for research on this, and have just seen the Detail & Scale book. If you want to do this kit complete justice, then "SB2C Helldiver In Detail & Scale" is a must, especially if you want to do an earlier version.

Overall, I am happy as a clam with this kit. Even the second one with its problems was just fine. Perhaps Curtiss' last operational naval aircraft was a disappointment in performance to the U.S. Navy, but it won't disappoint modellers. It looks great on the shelf, next to my Accurate Miniatures SBD-3 and SBD-5, just below my Accurate Miniatures Avengers.