Douglas TBD Devastator

The Douglas TBD Devastator was a very modern aircraft when it was introduced in the late 1930s. being the first metal monoplane torpedo bomber of the USN. The rapid pace of aircraft development during that era also meant that the Devastator was all but obsolete when the United States entered the war.

The Airfix TBD was for many years the only kit available in 1/72. I'd say that the molds date back to the late 1960s or early seventies. The kit is accurate, but suffers from the typical molding techniques of that era, in this case raised panel lines and overdone riveting. However, the TBD was built before the era of flush riveting, so we'll let that slip. The fit is decent, although the interior isn't very detailed. On the other hand, the thick canopy doesn't really show the cockpit. An additional review can be found here.

Two after-market items were added: White Ensigh photo-etch and decals from Techmod. The phot-etch set consisted of the wing folding mechanisms, the pitot head, an air filter, propellers for the Mk 13 torpedo, the wheel wells, and the hatches for the bomb sight. The decals were unfortunately very delicate and did not react to setting solution, even on the non-corrugated part of the model. Nevertheless, this TBD is marked as the aircraft flown by VT-2 commander Lt Cdr J. Brett together with AOM2c D. F. Hallock as observer and ARM1c A. D. Hensley as gunner off the carrier USS Lexington. Brett led the attack against the IJN light carrier Shoho at the Battle of the Coral Sea on May 7, 1942. Five out of nine of the notoriously unreliable torpedoes actually hit the target. VT-2 lost two aircraft during the attack, but the entire complemet of Devastators went down with the Lexington when she was sunk after the battle.