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

[Crimea_River]

Gotta shave more often I guess.

 

[meatloaf109]

Yeah, you're really letting yourself go lately...

 

[Lucky13]

Chewbacca?

Great....work Andy!

 

[Crimea_River]

Work done over this weekend started with completing the interior of the turret where edges were chipped, shadows darkened, highlights lightened, and wiring picked out. After this shot was taken, the clear canopy was placed over the top and glued to the mounting brackets, not without challenges. It took me a cople of days to get it right with careful application of CA glue so as not to mess u the glazing.

Then it was on to masking, masking, and more masking. After finishing the canopies, they were glued to the fuselage. The small windows were taped before gluing them into the fuselage so I could used them as templates to cut the tape to shape. To facilitate handling, I removed the antenna post on the rudder (a sure candidate for breakage) and omitted installing the rail between the windscreen and mid canopy section as it also had a damage-prone antenna post sticking out of it.

Then it was on to a coat of gloss white using Tamiya X-1 and this is now drying as I type.

 

[woody]

Looking real good Andy.

 

[KoJo]

Cant wait to see this scheme complete!!

 

[Crimea_River]

Cheers KoJo. I'm trying to get a handle on the 3 colour Type 1 Atlantic scheme, in particular the mid range colour "Light Gull Gray" FS 36440. I've seen various interpretations of this colour but one discussion talks about a "tannish" tint to this gray. In fact, an IPMS Stockholm colour chart I've bookmarked suggests a Tamiya mix of 1 part XF-20 to 1 part XF-2, which would result in a warm gray with a slight yellow/brown tinge. Other colour suggestions stick with the cooler gray, simply lightening the Dark Gull Gray with white.

Any thoughts on this?

 

[KoJo]

I personally would go with the FS color. But you have to build it as you see fit. Its your piece of art!

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks but the issue is with interpretations of the FS 36440 colour. See this example from the net. Does it look too brownish or should it be a cooler (bluer) gray?

 

[KoJo]

I think that just comes down to the "modelers" interpretation and not the actual color. In most cases as in with Model Master enamel paints it is spot on to FS colors. Now switch to an acrylic paint and the tone will be a hair off due to the chemicals used are not the same but are to be made close. Take in a different company who cannot get their hands on the exact pigment for what ever reason. Now we run into the big issue. Everything in modelling is an illusion, we are trying to trick the eye into seeing something that it reay is not. Now be it panel lines, weathering, and in this case paint colors. Perfect color that on a model does not look right what so ever is gunship grey, it "appears" darker on a model than it does on the real aircraft. Just like white "appears" too bright on a model than on the real aircraft. Pre-shading is un-realistic on real aircraft but we do it on models, but why? To fool our eyes to think we are looking at the real thing.

That particular model you are refferencing is that of the modelers interpretation on what they thought looked right. But here lies two issues, one it is not 100% accurate and it was based off a black and white photo with refference to FS colors. But here is the nice part, its a model! No one, and I mean no one will EVER be 100% correct because of scale difference which effects color tones. Colors also look different inside than outside, under natural sun light which these birds where exposed to (which is its own issue with fading) compared to tube or bulb lighting.

But to my point, you will have to paint it to what YOU see fit, because there will always be someone who said you did it wrong, but I would argue that it is in the eye of the beholder. You are making a kick arse Avenger! Keep at it chap!

 

[Vaughan]

Hi Andy looking good. I thinks KoJo has summed it up perfectly it is down to interpretation. The example of the Avenger on the net will be also affected by the way it was photographed and also the monitor on your computer you are viewing it on. Keep the good work up.
Vaughan

 

[Wayne Little]

Sounds good to me too!

 

[meatloaf109]

I would go with the Gull grey and white mix and see how that looks. You can always change it.

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks guys. I'm leaning toward the cooler mix as well.

 

[Gnomey]

Lovely work so far Andy!

 

[Vic Balshaw]

KoJo has summed it up very nicely, colour is an interpretation of a 1,000 factors and we just have to go with our gut feeling. It's going to look good either way Andy and that detailing is superb.

 

[treyzx10r]

Excellent looking build Andy,my vote would be the cooler mix.

 

[N4521U]

I'll second that.

 

[Airframes]

Me too. I've just seen some period colour footage, of a B-24 in the Atlantic scheme, and it did look 'paler', for want of a better description. OK, it's wartime footage, with all that entails, but it gave a good idea of the light, 'cool' colours, which didn't have as much contrast as the model posted above.

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks guys. May have a go at the mid colour tonight if I feel up to it.