Reviews : Revell-Monogram SBD Dauntless Bomber Plane

when i read the description of the kit features for this item, it piqued my interest. the price convinced me to try it out, am i'm so glad i did. now, this plane is small in real life, so 1/48 is about as small a scale as i would ever consider for this subject , but the surface details and posable features make it worthy of some modelling attention with the right painting attention, this kit builds into a serious display piece. i usually don't utilize pilot or gunner figures, but i found it necessary to include them in this build to add some color pop and visual detail. i was extremely happy with the finished piece, and found this kit to be a terrific weekend build. it holds its own even next to my much more expensive and involved aircraft models. don't let the relatively low parts count turn you off. with a little attention, this became one of my faves. a real nice surprise, and its got me buying more of revell's smaller aircraft kits. definitely have one of these in your stash if you don't allready!

I had no problems building this kit at all.The fit was execellent.I took my dremel tool and a small drill bit and drilled out all of the holes in the flaps and dive brakes.I added a little extera details to the cockpit using left over photo-etch parts from other kits. I was a little disappointed with the decal sheet.(content only not quality),I left out the old toy like bomb release and filled these holes with putty,and installed a different bomb.This kit with a little work produces a very good looking model.I of course especially like the price.You can see my completed model in the users gallery. I would recommend this kit.If you would like other decals or a different color scheme you will have to buy a aftermarket sheet,but you can still build this kit and add an aftermarket decal sheet for less than you will pay for most other kits of this aircraft.Finish on mine is Testors Model Master Paints,and weathering was done with pastels.

This model was a blast to build. Considering it is from an original cast date from the 60s, it is still being produced with a lot of detail. It surprised me for an Aurora model since I feel most of their newer kits aren't as good as the old ones were. Everything fit well. I especially like the way the gear fold and are positive in both out and folded. The plane actually has a bomb that drops and the prop free wheels nicely. The detail of the air brakes and rear gunner are great. Like I said, I had a blast building this little plane. It should have been a few days but I spent 3 weeks playing with it in process. Thank the Lord for the original SDBs and what they did to save our guys in the Pacific. The Stukas of the Western theater had nothing on these brutes. I highly recommend this model.

This was the first Monogram kit I ever built back in the late fifties after having done a number of Revell kits. It was the first WWII kit I built. I was pleased with all the moving parts, something new. I ended up building all the navy WWII Monogram kits of the time. it was my first exposure to a specific scale, as revel kits at the time didn't say much on that subject. The kit has worn its age well. Compared to more recently issued kits, it doesn't have a lot of detail at all; but the parts fit together well and is a great kit for a young novice builder. I find (in all kits) the action figures a bit hokey. The price of the old Monogram kits now issued to be a very good bargain for a social security guy, even with the lack of detail. A very nice kit for the money.

Overall, I really liked this kit: it was inexpensive, had more detail than I expected and was a very quick build. The fitting of the fuselage to the wings was a bit off, so I had to break out my tube of putty and spend a couple of hours making the seams disappear along the wing-fuselage connecting areas. I believe this is an older model from the 60s. The decals that come with kit enable you to build two different variants: one an American carrier-based craft circa 1942 and the second is a land-based New Zealander version. I wish there had been a bit more detail involved with large cockpit/crew compartment as any detail work once done would have really stood out under either open or closed canopies.

so i spent ALOT of time on this model as i wanted to make it better. i used a small drill bit and battery operated drill to drill out the individual holes for the air brakes. i couldnt believe how much better it looked once it was in paint and mounted. i started with just doing one side to see the difference and what a difference it makes. WAY more realistic but took a ton of time to drill the holes out then sand the edges down but, again, it was well worth it. the aircraft itself went together well with no real gaps or filler needed. the cocpit is quite bare but dressed it up with some paint and such. could have been a bit better but it looks great for being such a cheap kit.

The Monogram SBD was one of Monogram's early efforts of the late '60s, when operating features were the rage, details and accuracy were not as important as they are today, and plastic injection molding technology was in its infancy. These factors mean that this long in the tooth Dauntless is a great trip back in time, but not up to the standards of today. It assembles easily, and would make a good starter or second kit, and it looks like an SBD, and with a lot of effort, can be made into a nice model. If the builder wants a quick, easy SBD build but isn't too picky about details, this fits the bill... for anyone looking for an accurate scale model, look elsewhere.

The Douglas Dauntless model was very easy to build, and I strongly recommend it for beginners. Overall, it had many nice features including a spinning prop, retracting landing gear, opening dive brakes, and even a dropping bomb. Revell's Dauntless also had a decent amount of detail. Its decals did not look the best, but they worked. On the down side, however, the dive brakes were hard to open and close. Also, the landing gear retracted fairly well, but, it was sometimes difficult open them again. Still, on the whole, this aircraft is excellent for beginners and is one of the cheapest models on the market. (And it retains quality and includes good features.)

I purchased this model somewhere else before stumbling upon this website. It seems that this model uses older tooling as apparent from the molds. Lots of filing/sanding needed to get the parts to look better. The fuselage and the wings needed some work. Some parts needed filler to fix the gaps and those little ejection holes. Not all of the parts fit properly either. One thing I like about Revell's panels is they already have the rivets and decent panel lines. This kit is easy for a beginner if they don't really care about the nuances explained above. I will give the decals some brownie points as they did not silver all that much.

This was my first model attempting to use an airbrush and doing detailed weathering. Neither look that great next to a real accomplished modeler, but I tried. The airbrush, I just could not get the hang of it. Thereafter, I kept to brushes not having a suitable area to use it and having to put away after each use. The model itself has enough detail to satisfy builders like me and mine shows well with the rest of my air force. Plus, the price is right. I almost got to see a Dauntless flying but the day I was there the weather grounded it. It is on my bucket list as are all WWII aircraft: to see in the air and hear it fire up.

This model is awesome to build! Super fun and easy to build. It comes with four figures (a pilot, gunner, a flag waver, and a signal man), a bomb and cart and a little stopping indicator. It has two different decal and paint schemes so you have choices on what you'd like. It includes five pieces for the Swiss cheese airbrakes and they were a breeze to assemble, I had some pre-build frustration thinking they would be hard to install but nope, I was pleasantly surprised! No clue just snapped right into place! Honestly, it was a great joy to build and I will be buying another! Great work revell!

I purchased this model since it was cheap. I haven’t modeled in over 30 years and had som extra time on my hands. I bought an airbrush and all the supplies from Hobbylinc. The model was an older model by Revel...1960’s. It came out pretty good. There was some fit problems mostly with the fuselage to the wings. I had to use a bunch of filler and when you sand it out you sand out the panel lines. To the untrained eye you do not notice...but is modelers notice. There was also some extra flash here and there but no big deal. This is a great looking model with the paint schemes provided.

I recently rekindled my love for building World War II model airplanes after a long layoff. I ordered several different types and various scales. Overall I've been very happy with one exception. This DBT dauntless in 1/48th scale made by Revell. It was very poor quality. Several pieces had to be reworked and altered to make things fit. Luckily I have the skills and the tools to do this. I'm sad to report that their quality has deteriorated tremendously as I built many of their plastic models when I was young. I will be hesitant in the future to purchase any more Revell kits.

This kit still can compete. Don't bother with the toy-like bomb-swingy mechanism, build the plane without then fill the holes. If you sand carefully the bomb cradle will look fine- it's kinda thick. As always assemble the wing roots first then fit the body a half at a time for no filler joints. The crew cleans up well. Also sand the MG 'cradle mount' thinner for the rear guy and it looks better. Remember to open the MG mounts on the front engine cowl, check your resource photos. MG barrels can be added to the cowl if you wanted.

This kit builds into a respectable model of the subject with a little work... I am not and never will be a rivet counter but when the my mode was completed it looked like the airplane I was going for. Decals in this set are good however I found the subject to be uninteresting to me personally. I didnt have any problems with fit and the kit has suitable interior detail. All in all you get more hen you pay for with this kit but you arent going to reach a super detail level out of the box

From start to finish the build went pretty well. The aft gunner stow and movement was some what of a problem but nothing really to gripe about. What I really had a problem with was the decals. I used a solveset solution that pretty much works with all decals. For some reason it started to set the decals normally but instead of settling along the lay area it just stayed curled up. I have had this problem with Revell decals for some time. This was an average build for a cheap price.

The model fills the gap within the model aircraft selections. The kit is well designed for the beginner or advanced modeler and with easy to read instructions and concise diagrams the kit will go together with out any major problems. As shown the dive brakes can be shown either out of in and the landing gear is detailed enough to have shown in the down position. The details are enough to show off some of the actual aircraft.

The only issue, which can b easily rectified are the wing flaps. Contrary to the directions, u can't leave them in an open position, u HAVE to glue them together and to the bottom of the fuselage. Otherwise, the fuselage and wings all come together flush, and i really cant complain. The rear gunner and his machine gun fit perfectly through the canopy, as does the pilots frontal gun! Great kit, cheap and worth it!

This model was as good as I remembered from years ago. It's an easy kit to follow the instructions, and fits together really well. Minimal trimming, and no putty was necessary during the build. There are a few different options during assembly, which I always like also. The only thing I wished is that it came with some decal variety, but I made the included ones work for my chosen paint scheme.

I enjoyed this kit overall. There were some problems with fit, so you will have to modify the parts to come together properly. Also, the air brakes were a bit problematic at first, but once you get them fit together, they open and close together nicely. Extra figures can add more background story to the model if you want. Finally, directions were clear and concise.

This isn't the most-detailed kit available, but it is fun to build and produces a nice-looking plane. I wish the rear gun was more accurate (it should be twin 30-cals, not a single), but that's ok. Plenty of options with a little improvising for canopy configuration, I drilled holes in my air-brakes to add some realism there. A great old-school kit.

What a great kit with lots of extra features that will work if you take your time. You won't be sorry if you take the time to drill out the 268 air brake holes. Everything fits together just fine with little to no flash. Quite tempted to purchase another to build the New Zealand version as I don't see a single one here in all the photos.

This was the second model I have completed and overall it was fun. The parts fit together easily and the detail is what you would expect from an older mold. I completed it in roughly 8 hours. It's a great model for those who are looking at starting with piston aircraft. I went with the New Zealand paint scheme with the USN markings

Understand this kit is molded from molds done in the 1960's Mind set was not on crazy detail even though this kit does have respectable detail. Revell does provide you with a platform to end up with a beautiful model. The current decal idea leaves a lot to be desired. I love the kit. There are others out there, but, not so affordable.

Very good and clear instructions but the model requires alot of filler and has lots of flash (extra plastic from the mold injectors) among other issues. If you cant afford/find name brand filler ive found through an emergency ditch if you arent too squimish, toothpaste works arguably better than name brand filler putty!

This was the perfect model airplane for beginners. From the build to the paint job, I found this model to be enjoyable. The only trouble that I ran into was the dive breaks as they tended to pop open when I pulled on them but then caught on themselves and refused to close without force.

Loved building this model, all the parts went together easy enough, they fit well, the only thing I had an issue with was the Rear Canopy needed to be altered to let the rear gun have any kind of field of movement, but apart from that, like I said it went well and I liked the outcome.

Really easy kit to build. There is an above-normal amount of flash but its only a slight bother. Found the fit to be very good. Built this one with U S markings. Think I'll build another with the NZ markings. Really enjoyed building this kit.

A very good model. the things on the back of the wings are hard to attach, the main bomb you need to glue it to the mechanism that launches the bomb, and you need to get rid of the back peace of glace for the back gunner.

Good starter kit for the price. Early revell kit so the detail lacks. I had to modify several parts for better detail. But for the price or for a young modeler it’s a nice kit that is simple

Very nice and detailed. I'm thinking to buy some accessories to enrich the kit, as cockpit and flaps. The box was intact and well done. Delivery in Italy according to the pre-set times

It's a good model. The instructions and building is good as well, I haven't built models in some time and it was pretty easy to build. The finished product looks very nice.

I just finished this one, turned out great. The dive flaps were a pain in the butt to drill out. I also painted it in the Atlantic camo scheme, I'll add a photo.

Very good model for the money, went together well, little flashing. The figures with the model are not well made however, so it gets a Good rating for that.

Typical of Revell value for money, this is finely crafted and woderfully detailed. The result is a fine reproduction of an iconic plane from WWII.

Pretty good Dauntless kit, no problems with parts fit or flash. The decals were really good too. Great kit to add to your WW2 collection.

Another perfect packing. Thanks again. Can't wait to get to this one, being a retired Navy Chief, love the Navy aircraft.

This Dauntless is a fun build. It has a simple paint scheme, and the decals were easier to use than I thought it would be.

HIGHLY DETAILED,PARTS FIT VERY WELL,GOOD QUALITY KIT.A LITTLE EXTRA DETAILING WILL MAKE THIS KIT STAND OUT

This is a good kit for the guy who likes to have his parts move. But, this leaves minimal detail.

I did not care for the decals for this plane it looked like a kid drew them but over all good kit

Caution: Parts take a lot of filing and sanding. Airbrake flaps are loose fitting and fall off.

Some of the flap holes were open where I hand drilled the bigger portion of them

Old but with good detail, and for the price it worth it.