Atlantic Dive Bomber

[NARSES2]

Douglas BTD Destroyer of VS 31 aboard USS Core as part of the River Plate blockade.

By early 1945 the Grand South American War was gradually winding down and although the US had taken no part in combat operations (at least officially) she had clearly taken sides with Brazil who had found herself virtually alone against most of the rest of the continent in a conflict that had it's origins deep in the history of the 19th century. So apart from arming the Brazillian forces, increasingly so from 1944 onwards, the US had restricted it'self to imposing a blockade on the major shipping channels of both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.

USS Core was part of the S Atlantic Task Group and in 1945 received it's first Douglas Destroyers. Originally designed and built as a 3 place dive bomber equipped with turrets it had been redesigned as a single seater with no defensive armament. Although the aircraft had not met it's design requirements a small number had been built and issued to the Atlantic Fleet prior to the production run of the Skyraider.

So this is the Planet models kit and is typical of their range. It goes together very well, although I must admit the cockpit looks more like a 1/48th kit, especially the seat. However the aircraft it'self just looks wrong ? Maybe it's the nose wheel undercarriage which in all honesty doesn't give the fuselage much ground clearance, maybe it's the rather snub nose, maybe it's a canopy that looks as though it would be more at home on a light aircraft ? It's obviously a design that started off as something else, and was changed late on during it's gestation period and nobody told the airframe builders ?? Seriously it's something only its mother could love in my view.

Anyway paints are my standard mix and transfers are from the odds and ends box.

[PR19_Kit]

That's one weird looking aircraft Chris, but nicely built and finished nonetheless. It looks pretty darn big too, is it? 

[JayBee]

I must admit the cockpit looks more like a 1/48th kit,

Could be because the BTD was originally designed as a two seater. 

[Army of One]

Great work again  Chris.......

[Captain Canada]

You're right about that.....the aeroplane does look wrong ! Square nose, oddly shaped canopy...stubby legs. But having said that, the model itself looks very nice ! Nice to see a splash of colour on there and that paint scheme always looks nice. Good work Chris !

[lancer]

Got to agree with Kit, it IS pretty ugly, but very nicely built and a great backstory. Leave me wanting more

[NARSES2]

That's one weird looking aircraft Chris, but nicely built and finished nonetheless. It looks pretty darn big too, is it? 

Yup it's - wingspan of a Firebrand TF5 with a fuselage that's double the diameter.

I must admit the cockpit looks more like a 1/48th kit,

Could be because the BTD was originally designed as a two seater. 

Yup very much so (I wasn't sure if it was 2 or 3 seater) as it originally had upper and lower turrets. One was built as a multi-seater.  However the seat in the kit does look overscale to me, which would be strange given Planet are normally quite good with their dimensions etc. I think the Planet designer was as thrown by the size of the cockpit as I was.

[Father Ennis]

Pardon my ignorance,but is this a wiff or is/was it a real world aircraft ?  Either way it's very Kool .... !!!!

[Tophe]

I was also puzzled, sorry...
But Google directed me to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_BTD_Destroyer and I do appreciate your transformation, Chris...

[Librarian]

Very nice model. Would look good in formation with an F4U. Heinemann designed some very interesting aircraft. Thanks for the link, I didn't realise it was accepted for production....I always thought it lost out to the Helldiver which never made any sense.

[rickshaw]

It does look odd.  Even the real one looked odd:



Were there two versions?  There are pictures online of a two seater and a single seater like yours Chris.  The pilot seat does look big but the only picture I've found showing the pilot/seat does seem to confirm that it is that big.



The cockpit seems a bit low to me.  Can't have had much vision out of it.

You've painted it quite nicely.  The green goes well with the other colours.   

[Madoc]

Yup, it was a real design.  And, yes, it went through a lot of changes in mission and requirements.

It originally got started when the USN was just getting its initial air combat reports back to be analyzed and when the USN thought that it would wind up fighting a long range carrier air war against Japanese land based aircraft on its home islands.  As such, they wanted aircraft which could perform the traditional naval aviation roles but do so from much greater distances - so as to not put the launcing carriers at risk of aerial attack - and at much greater speeds and payloads.

The war's progress rendered the original concept moot and the technological progress rendered much of the original design moot as well.  Thus the bird went from a multi-place machine to a single one and they even threw in a jet engine, in one version, to amp up the performance.  Ultimately, it was all for naught as the Allies won the war far more quickly than originally envisaged back in early '42..  But it did produce this very striking and heavy machine.

[Captain Canada]

Poor old girl...the more you look at it the uglier it gets ! The two seater with the rear gunner looks like they made it up as they went along !

[Mossie]

I don't know why, but it looks even odder in an Antlantic scheme.  Nethertheless, very interesting bird and glad to see it done Chris!

Being that it eventually morphed into the Skyraider (odd enough in it's own right) it's got me thinking, bombed up to the eyeballs in Korean or even Vietnam markings???

[Dizzyfugu]

Poor old girl...the more you look at it the uglier it gets ! The two seater with the rear gunner looks like they made it up as they went along !

AFAIK, it was the other way around - it was designed as a two-seater with rear defense, but the gunner was dropped along the way to save weight. Sick detail is the shape of the fin root on the two-seater with the gunner! Never seen such an ugly solution...