Academy 1/48 Grumman TB3 Avenger

[RangerNeil]

So - heres my contribution to the 50th Birthday kit-bash. Academys 1/48 release of the TB3. The kit comes with decals for aircraft from the USS Bunker Hill and the USS Essex.


Type History
The Grumman TBF Avenger (aircraft manufactured by General Motors were designated TBM) is an American World War II-era torpedo bomber developed initially for the United States Navy and Marine Corps and also eventually used by:
United States Navy
Royal Navy
Royal Canadian Navy
Royal New Zealand Air Force

The Avenger entered U.S. service in 1942 and first saw action during the Battle of Midway. Despite the loss of five of the six Avengers on its combat debut, it survived in service to become the most effective submarine killer and most widely used torpedo bomber of World War II, sharing credit for sinking the super-battleships Yamato and Musashi and being credited for sinking 30 submarines. Greatly modified after the war, it remained in use until the 1960s.

From 1942-on, production of the Avenger (in fact nearly three quarters of its the total production) was subcontracted to a purposely established division of General Motors: the Eastern Aircraft Division.

The Type was finally retired from service in the 1960's

9.389 were buìlt of which 80 still survive and 42 are still flying


The Kit
Instructions










Sprues










Decals


Edouard instructions





Edouard PE sheet


Going to be while before work starts in earnest as I have that Bristol Freighter to finish first. I'm s bit perturbed by the insyructions though, just glancing through the sections it seems they missed a step where the fuselage halves get joined and in a couple of place there are "bend" instructions dor what looks like PE parts -but the kit doesn't come with any..... Ah well, we'll muddle tbrough....

[Twokidsnosleep]

Very cool stuff
Love these dive bombers

[digger303]

[Stokesy44]

Great choice of kit.

I was looking for a Dauntless but couldnt find a kit I liked. We could have made a strike force!

[RangerNeil]

Thanks folks!!

Currently waiting for the primer to dry on the Super Freighter so I made a start on the Avenger. Step 1 was the basics of the cockpit.

[Stokesy44]

Up and running.

That's a big cockpit area and highly visible under all that glass. Great call on the Eduard PE as it will really stand out

[Quax]

all that PE is going to keep you occupied! looking forward to following this build

Paul

[RangerNeil]

Did a bit more painting of internals tonight:


And I was a bit worried about the lack of any reference to fitting out the fuselage so I did some digging on Scalemates and it turns out this is a re-boxing of a kit initially made by Accurate Miniatures. And Scalemates had the instructions for this.
This is what Academy give:


And this is how they were originaĺly:


Spot the difference!!!!

[Stokesy44]

Very busy interior. That's a big aircraft when you really look at it.

[digger303]

The interior bits don't look half bad.

[RangerNeil]

Made a start on the Edouard PE tonight - and got the seat belt decals on. Doesn't look much but theres a few hours work in there!
The instrument panel is layer 1 out of 4 plus a number of tiny parts to finish it. The raised moulded areas had to be sanded off and the main instruments at the top carved off

[digger303]

[RangerNeil]

More or less finished the PE now, there are a couple of bits to go on the bomb bay bulkhead and fuselage but that needs to be fitted to determine positions. My God - were some of these PE bits fiddly and minute or what?? I had to break out the magnifier just to see them on the sheet!! Not sure I'll go this route in 1/48 again. 1/32 or 1/24 maybe....

Anyways -heres the work so far:




And with the fuselage closed up to make sure everything fits OK and nothing is fouling:

[Stokesy44]

Cockpit looks nice and busy

[digger303]

Nice cockpit, busy, detailed and nicely painted.

[RangerNeil]

Both fuselage halves are now complete. Which means most of the PE is complete, thank god. So the next job is to physically join the two halves.


Shouldn't be a problem as they have all been subject to numerous test fits.
.



So whilst waiting for the 2 rear bukheads to set I moved on to the ordinance:
4 x 500 lb bombs in the bomb bay.
1 x 2,000 lb bomb to go on the bomb cart.
8 x Rockets for underwing mounts.


Painting the rockets is going to be interesting - the A.M.instructions say an all over natural metal finish whilst the Academy instructions give a different colour for the war heads. So - adecision to make.

Also started looking at the engine - and I can't decide if the lines down the sides of the cylinders are meant to be there or are moulding seams??

[Stokesy44]

That's a big boxey interior. I would not want to be the guy on that little jump seat in the rear.

[RangerNeil]

That's a big boxey interior. I would not want to be the guy on that little jump seat in the rear.

Its a busy seat - I think as well as the ventral gun position he gets the radar and radios. Not sure about navigation.....

[RangerNeil]

Fuselage is all joined up. Can't see it because of the tape holding it till dry - but it aligned very nicely indeed Hopefully there will only minimal clean-up sanding to do.


Egine cowlings went the same way. Only thing left to add pe-wise now is the turret firing control and cockpit release handle.

[digger303]

You've been very industrious

[Stokesy44]

Looking good. I've seen a walkaround of the real thing and its amazing how big it is. It makes the Dauntless look dainty.

[cor]

The interior is looking very nice

[RangerNeil]

Todays progress:
* 8 x Missiles painted, steel bodies and olive drab warheads
* 1 x Cowl nose painted yellow, first coat brushed next will be sprayed.
*Tailplanes assembled and secured in place
* Rudder assembled and dry fit.
* Main wings assembled and dry fit.
* Turret glazing assembled,wiiting for TET to sert.

[digger303]

All those little bits seem to take me forever....maybe I have no discipline

[RangerNeil]

The wings are now sanded and fixed to the fuselage:


One of the - many - nice features of this kit is the wings sit in a recess in the fuselage thats an exact match to the wing profiles. Tail planes were similar with the added feature the locating tas protruded put the other side and located in the opposing tailplane to ensure currect alignment.


Ordinance is all painted, bombs have a gloss clear coat, as has the frot face of the prop blades ready for decalling:


Now to work out how the turret finally goes together......

[Stokesy44]

The wing joins are a great idea. My Hellcat has the same recessed connections for the wings and tail, I hope they fit like yours

[RangerNeil]

The wing joins are a great idea. My Hellcat has the same recessed connections for the wings and tail, I hope they fit like yours

Yours is an Esdoard one if memory serves so should be at least as good, probably better!!

Got the turret assembled today. Once I worked out how the bits actually went together it was fairly easy. I'd say that its not a place for someone with claustrophobia though:














The underside has been done in Insignia White:




I've got to do a repair to the rear between bomb bay and ventral gun - for some reason the air brush blew the filler out of the void. Only running at 18 psi so I can only assume the filler hadn't pentrated properly.

[RangerNeil]

All masked up ready for the Mid-Blue to go on......

[Twokidsnosleep]

Superb cockpit
Really coming along

[digger303]

Lovely bit of origami

[Stokesy44]

Great work, forging ahead. Fire up the AB!

[RangerNeil]

AB fired up before breakfast today - the Mid-Blue is now on and drying for 24 hours!!

[digger303]

[Stokesy44]

Nice. Really like those multi-tone USN schemes

[digger303]

Nice. Really like those multi-tone USN schemes

Between wars they were very colourful.

[RangerNeil]

And we have a tri-colour Avenger!!








Next job is a coat of gloss clear coat to prepare for the decals...

[digger303]

[Stokesy44]

Paint looks like its gone down really nice

[RangerNeil]

Putting the finishing touches to the paint work - contemporary photos of USN Avengers show a semicircle of white under the tail planes so I decided to add these even though not referenced in the paint instructions. This is what I mean:


First thing was to determine the size. A quick measure-up gave a length of 25mm and a depth of 9mm. A bit of basic geometry gave a circle radius of 15mm so some tape was laid on the cutting mat and a circle cutter set to 15mm used to cut the circle. Then 9mm was measured in from opposite sides and a knife run through:


The two outer segments were then peeled off and placed on the fuselage, insignia white used to fill the void and there we have it:

[digger303]

Well spotted.

[Stokesy44]

Good spot. Its always nice when you know you're adding something authentic

[RangerNeil]

Well spotted.

Good spot. Its always nice when you know you're adding something authentic

In all honesty I cannot take any credit for this - it was pointed out to me by someone else over on the Britmodeller site.

Fitted the engine last night. Instructions say the large block (prop governor) on the front should be vertical but to get this I've had to modify the locators on the firewall thats part of the fuselage two lugs on the back of the engine fit vetween pins on the firewall but when I first tried it that block sat at about 15⁰ so I trimmed one of the pins off and that let me get the vertical position.

[bfrd]

I love that Mid-Blue shade!

[Twokidsnosleep]

Great progress
wow

[DRUMS01]

Looking good. I saw where it was commented that it is a larger than first thought aircraft, when compared to other similar aircraft. To put this in perspective, I was walking around one last summer that flew into our local county airfield for a special memorial event. Here is a friend of mine looking inside the wing fold.



I concur, it is indeed a large aircraft for its assigned duties. I had more images and will try to locate them if it would help you?

Ben

[RangerNeil]

Looking good. I saw where it was commented that it is a larger than first thought aircraft, when compared to other similar aircraft. To put this in perspective, I was walking around one last summer that flew into our local county airfield for a special memorial event. Here is a friend of mine looking inside the wing fold.



I concur, it is indeed a large aircraft for its assigned duties. I had more images and will try to locate them if it would help you?

Ben

They would be very useful - Thanks Ben!! From the image you posted I can see the interior green of the bomb bay is visible through the seams! I'd done them white as per the underside so they need redoing now...

[digger303]

Looking good. I saw where it was commented that it is a larger than first thought aircraft, when compared to other similar aircraft. To put this in perspective, I was walking around one last summer that flew into our local county airfield for a special memorial event. Here is a friend of mine looking inside the wing fold.



I concur, it is indeed a large aircraft for its assigned duties. I had more images and will try to locate them if it would help you?

Ben

Wow thats big, lovely crisp shot too.

[RangerNeil]

Decals started going on toaday. The Accurate Miniatures instrutjons were quite specific that the main markings had to go on BEFORE The stencils as some go over the top. Decals were Cartograph and with one exception went on well. The exception was the US Star in the the second photo. There is a small airscoop on the outer edge and it was the devils own job to get it to conform. It was so bad the decal tore but hopefully I've nanaged to get it all lined up properly!!

[Stokesy44]

Looking good. Decals always bring an aircraft to life.

[digger303]

Looking good. Decals always bring an aircraft to life.

Very true