Starfighter Decals 1/72 Colorful Dauntless (SBD-1)
By Matt Bittner
When you typically think of the SBD Dauntless, you think of dive-bombers during WWII. Which also means thinking about their Blue Gray over Light Gray finish (a much more camouflaged finish). Rarely do you see a model of a Dauntless finished in something other than WWII colors. Thankfully Starfighter Decals has alleviated this problem by releasing this set of decals for pre-war SBD-1s. Unfortunately SBD models in 1/72 are for the later variants; however, Starfighter will also alleviate that with their upcoming release of an SBD-1 conversion set. But for now, at least we have these decals, if you want to take matters into your own hands. There are three Dauntlesses is this set:
- VMB-2 Red Devils, MACS North Island, 1940 (red fuselage-stripe and cowl)
- VMB-1 MCAS Quantico, 1940 (True Blue fuselage-stripe and cowl)
- VB-2 from photograph taken at the Douglas plant (the entire tail is painted Lemon Yellow)
Aside from the detail colors mentioned above, all three were left in their Natural Metal state. Decals are by Cartograf so you can be assured of their high level of quality. References are provided on the instruction sheet if you need more information.
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All in all this is a very welcome release, one that will help break-up the monotony of all those WWII-finished Dauntlesses. With either providing your own conversion, or waiting for the one from Starfighter to be released, you'll be rewarded with a very unique model of the ubiquitous SBD Dauntless.
Many, many thanks to Starfighter Decals for the honor of letting us review this decal release.