1/48 Accurate Miniatures SB2C-5 Helldiver

Gallery Article by Hugo Cabral on Mar 25 2015

 

      

History
As a NATO founding member in 1949, Portugal benefited from a huge military re-equipment program in which included 24 ex-US Navy SB2C-5 Helldivers. The Helldivers arrived in Portugal in 1950 and were initially operated by the Portuguese Naval Aviation in the anti-submarine role. In 1952 they were transferred to the newly created Portuguese Air Force where they remained in service until 1956 to be replaced by the P2V Harpoons more suited to the ASW role. My model depicts an Helldiver from the Aveiro´s Naval Aviation Center (1950-1952).

 

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The Model
The Accurate Miniatures SB2C-4 is a very detailed and accurate model. The construction is very straightforward and there's lots of aftermarket items for this model, but curiously there isn’t any SB2C-4 to SB2C-5 conversion set… However there's only small differences between the two models and so the conversion is quite easy. 

The main differences are between the SB2C-4 and SB2C-5 are:

Frameless pilot´s canopy
I sanded and polished the original canopy and added PE sprues for the canopy frames.

Propeller
I used a P47 propeller identical to the SB2C-5 one.

Cockpit
Here is where the main differences are. Unlike the disorganized C-4 cockpit, the C-5 has lateral consoles and the instruments are better organized. Basically I used a C-4 front panel PE (the differences are minimal to the naked eye) and I scratchbuilt the lateral consoles.

Bomb bay
The C-5 has a slightly bigger bomb bay and L-shaped bomb bay doors. I missed this detail...

The gunner/observer cockpit has been detailed with the AN-APS4 radar scope and it has no machine guns because they were never used in the Portuguese Helldivers.

Hugo Cabral

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Photos and text © by Hugo Cabral