Dive bombers were in vogue during the late 1930s as a way to deliver ordnance to a target with pin-point accuracy. As such most of the major powers developed dive bombers with the German Ju-87 being probably the best known. In the US and Japan, dive bombing was pretty well left to the Navy with the IJN developing their excellent D3A 'Val' while the USN entered the Pacific war with the equally superb SBD 'Dauntless'.

The Dauntless played pivotal role in the early years of the Pacific war and was able to stop Japanese advances at two battles in mid 1942 at Coral Sea and Midway, where they were successful in reducing the Japanese carrier force by half, a loss the Japanese were unable to recover.

This particular sheet provides the markings for eleven aircraft during the 1942-43 time frame. All of the planes are painted in the blue-grey upper with light grey underside scheme that was standard at the time. Most of these options had twin guns in the rear. Only those schemes with the red/white tail stripes had a single rear gun.

Markings are designed for the Accurate Miniatures kit, which, I believe, has also been released by Italeri. The instructions are very good and provide details specific to each aircraft. There is also load-out information provided as the ordnance carried differed between scouting and bombing squadrons. Decals are superbly printed and you are provided with enough insignia to do three planes as long as one of them is the early version with the red/white tail stripes.

July 2019

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