**** DONE: 1/48 TBM-1C Grumman Avenger VC-13 - Carrier Aircraft GB

[Crimea_River]

Well, I'm used to instructions that are mostly pictorial but these AM ones have a lot of verbage. I had also heard of issues with the turret installation sequence but not specifically around the shelf.

Anyway, got it sorted with minimal pain and a bit of touch up should make this area good as new. Thanks everyone.

 

[meatloaf109]

Every AM kit I have done seems to have one strange thing about it, usually a step out of sequence, like the turret in this one. Excellent kits, but weird sometimes!

 

[ccheese]

Nice job, Andy...

Charles

 

[Airframes]

Ah, for the 'old' days of Airfix, when they not only had written instructions, with the diagrams, telling you what went where and how, they also told you what the part was!
The well-known phrase was 'Locate and cement', such as 'Locate and cement part 38, gun heating duct, onto the pin on the side of part 39, gun heating duct inlet'.
Took a little longer to produce the kit instruction sheets, but they really helped the modeller.

 

[Gnomey]

Nice work so far Andy!

 

[Crimea_River]

Cheers guys. This is my first AM kit and despite the turret issue, I'm very impressed. High quality detail and fit. Would love to build another.

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Just doing a bit of catch-up here Andy after a few days out of town. I got to give it to you mate, you have done a beaut job with that ball turret and the whole effort is going to be another fine build.

 

[KoJo]

Cheers guys. This is my first AM kit and despite the turret issue, I'm very impressed. High quality detail and fit. Would love to build another.

I was so impressed (and it being my favorite aircraft) I bought ALOT of Accurate Miniatures Avengers kits which I still have five fresh ready to build kits in their boxes. I highly recommend anyone to buy one!

 

[fubar57]

Agree with all here Andy, nice work on the clear.

Geo

 

[Wayne Little]

One day I'll even build mine.....one day.....

 

[Airframes]

Got to agree, it's a superb kit, and possibly the best I've seen for small detail mouldings, such as rivets and screw heads.

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks Vic and Geo.

I'll be spending some time sifting through my spares box to see if there are some rockets and depth bombs that I can cobble together. Rockets shouldn't be a problem but the depth bombs might be a challenge. If all goes well, I may finish this weekend.

 

[meatloaf109]

I got two spare depth charges. They can be seen in a couple of shots on my Kingfisher build, Pretty nice, they are from an old Catalina kit. They are your's if you want them.

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks for the offer Paul but I'd need 4. Because I would have to scratch build these, I've decided to forget about them and just go with the kit-supplied bombs. Rockets on the other hand were swiped from my Tamiya Corsair and the mods are shown below.

The Tamiya Mk 5 rocket mounts came in pairs on a thick plastic base. Looking at photos of the Avenger installation, I decided to cut the posts off the Tamiya bases and glue them to plastic card strips that I cut to represent the Avenger installations.

These were then stuck to the sticky side of some masking tape to spray the white.

The Tamiya rockets have been assembled and the motors painted here with a light metallic gray colour. The warheads will be Olive Drab and the tips will be silver. The ejector pin marks that you can see here won't be visible as they will be facing up toward the wing surface.

I also worked on the landing light which the kit did not replicate very well. To do this, I used a trick explained by Wojtek. Not all the steps are shown here but I started with a piece of sprue and drilled a center hole in the end. A larger drill bit was then used to dish the end and a piece of foil tape was stick to the dish. Then, a bulb was made using a piece of clear sprue stretched and curled back in a candle flame and the end was then cut and glued into the dish hole.

The finished light was then carefully cut from the sprue and glued to the opening. Evident in this picture was the need to attend to a pi$$ poor leading edge finish which I frankly forgot to fix before I painted the white.

I glued on the lens and sanded the area to smooth everything out and while I was at it, I fixed the entire leading edge and repainted the white and gray.

And that's how it looks today.

 

[meatloaf109]

And today looks pretty good!

 

[Airframes]

It sure does!

 

[rochie]

very nice work Andy

 

[KoJo]

Clap, clap, clap! Very nice!!

 

[Gnomey]

Nice work so far Andy!

 

[Crimea_River]

Cheers guys. Unfortunately I trapped a bit of debris behind the glass but it will have to pass. I'm at the point where I often get and kinda want this build to be over so I can get on with something else.