Black Box 1/32 SBD-3/4 Dauntless Cockpit First Look

By Michael Benolkin

First Look

The conversion consists of 32 beautifully cast resin parts which provide the front and rear floors (the front floor is properly rounded to represent the upper surface of the wing), new sidewalls, bulkheads, seats, control sticks, rudders, instrument panel, etc.

Black Box has been turning out some of the most impressive aftermarket cockpit sets for over eight years. I remember the jaw-dropping details in their first releases - a 1/48 A-6E Intruder and a 1/32 F4U Corsair - both of which raised the bar on cockpit detail light years beyond the competition of the time.

Since that debut, they've continued to raise the bar on their cockpits as casting materials and technologies improve. A few years ago, Black Box debuted the Combat Series of cockpit sets, which are the high-end (more detail/fidelity) cockpits in their line.

This release is a complete make-over of Trumpeter's recent 1/32 SBD-3/4 Dauntless. The kit cockpit is really nice out of the box, but you can definitely see the difference when you compare the styrene parts with this new set!

The conversion consists of 32 beautifully cast resin parts which provide the front and rear floors (the front floor is properly rounded to represent the upper surface of the wing), new sidewalls, bulkheads, seats, control sticks, rudders, instrument panel, etc.

The only conversion work required on the Trumpeter kit is to remove any of the molded-on detailing from inside the fuselage halves.

As with any of Black Box's offerings, this set will transform that bland cockpit into a scale replica. These sets are highly recommended for modelers with at least some experience working with resin detail sets.

My sincere thanks to Black Box for this review sample!