The Map Case

The SBD-5 had a leather map case that was mounted on the port side wall next to the seat. I fabricated this case by first cutting the entire case out of posterboard in one piece. This ends up with something like what you'd get if you tore a cardboard box open into a single flat piece.

Once the overall pattern is cut out and folded up, I glued the seams with Titebond glue. Next I used a thin mixture of Titebond and water and "painted" the entire case to seal it and make it paintable.

With the map case done, I went on to build the aft section of the port wall in the same manner as I showed for the starboard section on the previous page. The main difference here though is that I was able to go ahead and assemble the upper and lower halves together into one piece before installation this time. The starboard section did not permit this since I couldn't get it in over the hydraulic pump on the floor if it was in one piece.

All the details you see on this wall were done with the same styrene techniques that I have demonstrated throughout the cockpit section of this site. Some of the hoses/lines were done with styrene and some with black aileron wiring. The "T" handles for flare and extinguisher release were made from styrene rod. Once this section was primered, I added the glue rivets and proceeded to the trim wheels.

The large trim wheels in the SBD, which look much like giant "gears" were made from ply. I cut them out with a scroll saw first, but only made the top section of the one that is mostly hidden. Here I show the one that will be totally exposed, which I made an entire wheel for.

After cutting the basic wheel shape out of ply, I used a cutting wheel and Dremel to file notches around the perimeter of the wheel, which gave the pilot a better feel and grip on the wheel. I believe this one is the elevator trim wheel but not sure.

With the wheel done, I added a styrene axle and mounting plate that I was able to glue up under the "shelf" that protrudes from the port side wall.

Here you see the entire aft section of the port wall after assembly and primer. I test fit it into place and worked out all the hardpoints I would need to securely glue the wall to the fuselage interior.

Once that was all in order, I removed it and proceeded to paint this section with acrylic hobby paints and do all weathering.

On to the forward section of the port wall... This section was made almost identical to the opposing section on the starboard wall, utilizing the posterboard and FliteMetal technique for fabrication.

Additional details were made from balsa and styrene, including the control quadrants for the throttle and bomb controls. The throttle and bomb quadrants were made from balsa plugs that were surfaced with 10 and 20 mil styrene.

The various levers used a variety of fabrication techniques with a tailoring pin at the heart of each lever. Control lines, hoses and conduits were fashioned from styrene rod, tubing and micro pushrod tubing.

All major assemblies were glued to the wall with Medium CA and included a styrene hex post that passed from the component, through the wall and into a balsa doubler on the back side of the wall. This adds a tremendous amount of strength to the glue joints and helps fight vibration/resonance degredation.

Since the control quadrants were so intricate, I found it easier this time to paint them before installing them. After painting the wall and controls separately, I installed the controls, and finally the wall section.