Manufacturer: Sword, available from Squadron Mail Order, 1115 Crowley Drive, Carrollton, TX 75011-5010, 972-242-8663, www.squadron.com
Kit: No. SW72008A Scale: 1/72
Price: $23.98
Comments: Injection-molded, 74 parts (14 resin, 10 photoetched brass, 2 vacuum-formed canopies), decals
Pros: Good exterior details, excellent vacuum-formed canopies, good resin details, good decals
Cons: Vague instructions, some parts fit poorly, rear fuselage turtledeck molded closed, small plastic details are too thick for the scale

Considering that the previous two Helldiver kits in 1/72 scale are at least 25 years old, Sword’s new one is a welcome arrival. The plastic parts are typical of the Czech limited-run kit genre – fine recessed panel lines on the outside, but featureless inside. Sword makes up for much of this with fine resin details for the cockpit and wheel wells. Two sets of vacuum-formed canopies are provided, just in case you have difficulty cutting the large greenhouses from the sheets.

When this kit was first issued (Spring 2001), it came with separate plastic dive flaps. Recently, the kit was reissued with excellent Eduard photoetched brass dive flaps (and Yagi radar antennas). While Squadron Mail Order lists the kit with the photoetched flaps with an additional “A” on the stock number, the kit box has no such designator. If you see one on the hobby shop shelf, ask to open the box and see if it is the kit with the photoetched parts.

Building the Helldiver will require some experience. The resin wheel-well inserts are thin, fragile, and difficult to remove cleanly from their pour stubs. The mounting holes for the landing gear struts are positioned too far aft; the mount should be at the front edge of the opening. While not mentioned in the instructions, the plastic brace across the landing gear openings in the lower wing halves must be removed.

The cockpit parts are a tight fit. The gunner’s Scharff ring is a little too large to fit cleanly. Both pilot’s and gunner’s seats are much too small. I wanted to open the gunner’s canopy and deploy the twin .30-caliber machine guns, but Sword doesn’t provide the option of an opened turtledeck just ahead of the fin. I ended up attaching the fore and aft canopies in the closed position.

All the small plastic detail parts are too thick for the scale. This becomes a problem with the landing gear doors and the main gear supports. The fit of the parts required filling and sanding most of the joints.

There’s a twist (heh heh) with the propeller; the pitch of the blades is backwards, and the only way to fix it is to cut the blades from the hub and reinsert them after turning the shafts 45-degrees counterclockwise. The instructions show the rear face of the spinner to be resin, but it is plastic. There is no prop shaft and no positive means to attach the propeller to the engine.

The separate instruction sheet for the photoetched dive flaps is vague. It shows the parts disassembled, but doesn’t indicate clearly that each upper and lower flap has an interior and exterior face. The interior face (with the irregular holes) should have its pins bent about 15 degrees so that it sits slightly above the exterior face. There are no notches in the wing surfaces to rest the leading edges of the flaps, so I glued styrene strips inside the flap cutouts to provide a bonding surface.

Sword provides beautiful decals, but they are thin and easily torn. A spot of saliva on the surface makes them easier to position. Sword’s overall color recommendations were accurate and provided ANA color numbers. My primary reference was Squadron/Signal’s SB2C Helldiver in Action.

I spent about 30 hours on my “big-tail bird.” It may not fit as well as the old all-plastic kits, but it has better detail and more potential for superdetailing. This one is for experienced builders.