Douglas SBD-5 Dauntless 1/32 Scale Mahogany Model

Introducing the ready-built ASBDT Desktop Model. This 1/32 scale model was handmade with precision and accuracy to produce the finest model that will be the centerpiece of your collection for years to come. This model is a perfect gift for pilots and aviation enthusiasts alike. Not too big or too small, this model features a wingspan of 15.5 inches and a length of 12.5 inches. This model features a very accurate paint scheme with realistic panel lines.

This collectible model SBD-5 Dauntless represents the Navy’s leading dive bomber during the early days of World War II. Slow and outclassed, it nevertheless sank four Japanese carriers during the Battle of Midway, turning the tide of the war in the Pacific. Painstakingly built from Philippine mahogany by our skilled craftsmen, this 1/32-scale model SBD-5 Dauntless makes a great pilot gift or a present for any veteran, aviation enthusiast or history buff.

The SBD Dauntless first flew in 1940, with service deliveries beginning that year. The SBD Dauntless saw its first combat action on Dec. 7, 1941, when 18 SBDs from the USS Enterprise arrived over Pearl Harbor during the attack, with seven shot down.

The SBD Dauntless also served as the Army Air Forces’ A-24 Banshee, used early in the war.

The SBD Dauntless’ finest hour came during the Battle of Midway, when the aircraft sank four Japanese aircraft carriers, turning the tide of the war in the Pacific.

Their relatively heavy gun armament (two forward firing .50-caliber machine guns, one to two rear flexible-mount .30 caliber machine guns was effective against lightly-built Japanese fighters, and many pilot-gunner combinations took an aggressive attitude to fighters which attacked them.

When the last SBD rolled off the assembly lines at Douglas Aircraft Company's El Segundo plant on July 21, 1944, it marked the final Dauntless dive bomber which the Navy was to buy. The Navy placed emphasis on the heavier, faster and longer-range SB2C Helldiver.

From Pearl Harbor until April 1944, SBD's had flown 1,189,473 operational hours, with 25 percent of all operational hours flown off aircraft carriers being in Dauntless planes. Its battle record shows that besides the four Japanese carriers destroyed at Midway, 14 enemy cruisers were sunk, 6 destroyers, along with 15 transports or cargo ships and scores of smaller craft.