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

[Crimea_River]

Thanks for the link Kojo - great stuff.

Terry, got your info a bit late and had already started gluing the fuselage together last night so the table, if plywood, will need to be interior green plywood!

Fuselage has now been glued together with no drama. To do this I work in stages using Tamiya Extra Thin cement working one or two areas at a time. Alas, no pics at the moment as my daughter has the camera for a day trip.

 

[rochie]

some Atlantic Avengers for you Andy

from osprey's TBF-TBM units of WW2 and Aero series No21 Grumman TBF Avenger

 

[rochie]

or my personal fave, ed sea grey/ed slate grey over insignia white

 

[KoJo]

A little story about the first picture that Rochie posted of the deck full of Avengers with one flying right over is that one flying was dropping a message on the deck as the crew were scattered around ready to pick it up. Reason was to keep the airways silent and make it harder for u-boats to intercept messages between the Allies.

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Some great links folks, like the crispness of the pic's KoJo, as Terry says, good camera.

Did you note the timber decks on the carriers Karl. Great shots.

 

[N4521U]

I beliave jet hooks tear a wood deck to bits.
CVS-10 Yorktown in '62 had a wood deck when I was on her.

 

[rochie]

Some great links folks, like the crispness of the pic's KoJo, as Terry says, good camera.

Did you note the timber decks on the carriers Karl. Great shots.

i did and also note that the Avengers wingspan is almost as wide as the flight deck !!!

 

[meatloaf109]

It took us awhile to learn the R.N. armored deck thing.

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks fro all the support guys. Karl - great pics and thanks. I'm now nearly committed to Black 2 with the cat crest shown in Kojo's post a few days back.

Anyhoo, as I said yesterday, the fuselage is now together so here are few pics starting with some overall shots. I have begun a rough filing of the seams so you'll see some areas of paint work that will need to be touched up.

In cleaning up the seam on the cowl, I noticed a sink mark near the intake so I brushed on some layers Tamiya primer as a filler. This will be sanded down and smoothed out next.

The downward-firing gun, as I read in Terry's Avenger post of a few years back, is prone to damage so I created this temporary "roll cage" out of sprue and CA glued it in place until the tail wheel is installed. Yes, there are ejector pin marks that I did not fill in but I'm not convinced these will be visible once the glazing is applied here.

Thanks for continuing to look over my shoulders guys and I really appreciate the links and interesting pics.

 

[meatloaf109]

Oh, definitely do the "flippin' cat" design!

 

[KoJo]

Excellent work! This is another great paint scheme for the Avenger, you will soon find out that the build will pick up pace and that this is a really well made kit. Heads up though the horizontal stabs are a bit of a pain to get aligned perfectly. The wings go together perfect and required no filler at all when you install them and are a dream! Back to the stabs though is if you paint them first and install toward the end you will need to make a jig as they are installed they tweek.. Happened on all four AM Avengers I made. I secured the plane level on a table and used paint bottle to keep the stabs level and along with cement I used extra thin CA to help keep the position while the cement cures. The only other bugger later on in the build is the rear turret but you have to take your sweet time. NO excessive force its all an angle and turn game.

Enough of my rambling, keep at it chap!

 

[Airframes]

Looking good Andy.

 

[Gnomey]

Good work so far Andy!

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks guys. Kojo, the technique you describe to align the horizontal stabs is pretty much what I do all the time but thanks for the heads up anyway. I never paint exteriors of flight surfaces before assembly as I almost always run Tamiya extra thin along the seams to assemble them and this tends to remove the paint.

 

[rochie]

looks good Andy, and great idea on that roll cage.

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Good thinking Andy and all that detail looks great.

 

[Crimea_River]

Cheers guys. Cowl has been glued on after painting the inside light gray and I should get the wings on tonight.

 

[Crimea_River]

As stated, the main wings are now assembled and glued to the fuselage. Here is the set-up I used to ensure the proper dihedral and symmetry are achieved. The model was mounted on steel thickness gauges that spanned through the bomb bay and which rested on a flat granite tile. This provided a secure and truly flat platform from which to work and the tape provided further security against movement. The fuselage seam was checked to be perpendicular to the tile surface using an accurate carpenter's square that was aligned to the vertical stabilizer. Eyeballing this from the prop shaft to the tail confirmed there were no twists to worry about (thank God!).

After a dry-fit check, styrene cement was applied to the spars and to the inner wing surfaces where they mate with the fuselage and the wings were then slid into position and supported with paint bottles. These could be slid in and out to adjust the dihedral angle of each wing and this was checked using a dial caliper aligned to a common point on each wing, in this case the inner edge of the leading edge slots.

When each side matched and all looked good, Tamiya Extra Thin cement was applied along the wing-to-fuselage joints and the whole thing was allowed to sit and cure. Once the main wings have fully set, I'll use the same kind of set-up to do the horizontal stabs.

 

[KoJo]

Excellent work my friend! Its nice to watch an Avenger being built!

 

[Vic Balshaw]

That is an excellent little tutorial Andy…………………..now where on earth did I stow that piece of marble slab a couple of years back!