SB2U Vindicator

Many IPMS members will be familiar with the name Ben Guenther. Ben is a fellow club member in IPMS Tidewater, and is one of the most amazing aircraft modelers on the planet. He works almost exclusively in 1/72 scale (with occasional forays into 1/144), and is a consistent top finisher in every national event he enters.

When he decided to do a Vindicator from the recent 1/72 AML kit, he borrowed most of the shots I have on the site, and he also had an old "Skyways" with plenty of SB2U-1 info in it. As can be seen below, he made the most of the information at hand...

Every project starts somewhere... Ben began by soldering the interior structure out of brass rod.

The kit fuselage was thinned, and Evergreen strip added for interior ribbing.

The fuselage doors were made from .005 plastic sheet with Evergreen strip ribbing.

The kit cowl was thinned, and the cooling flaps opened and detailed as shown below.

This is a SCRATCHBUILT R-1535 engine, consisting of around 840 parts; this is one of TWO which Ben made (the other is displayed on a stand with the model)

And the finished product...

At the 2002 IPMS Nationals, the judges rated this only THIRD best in its class due to a "misaligned cowl", giving first to Scott Bregi's straight out of the box P-47D Razorback. Scott is a fellow club member, and was embarrassed by this result; at the first meeting after the Nats, he gave Ben the first place award, saying it was obvious that his labor of love deserved it.

Ben did get the People's Choice award for his efforts, though- and he was nonplussed by the official judges' results. He builds for himself, and has VERY high standards... :)