Accurate Miniatures 1/48 TBF/M Avenger (1 Viewer)

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History Man

Airman
73
6
Jul 1, 2014
West Coast
In accordance with my display coming up next month, I am working on a TBF that would have been stationed on the USS St. Lo with VC-65 during the Battle of Leyte Gulf. Though the kit is still being tweaked and such for final preparations (been working at a good pace to finish the final 4 kits before the display on the 14th, I know...near Mission Impossible), I took photos along the way to share on here.

Kit started with researching the TBF along with VC-65, though online references and photos are sparse for their unit markings (closest I have come is a photo of a crew in front of their TBF, which appears to show a vertical stripe on the tail). I planned to do a tri-color scheme for 1944 and it came out alright....had some issues, actually multiple issues with the white (thought I was using my acrylic and turned out to be an older enamel which came on watery, so I removed and repainted, which came out worse, so I stripped it and then primed it and repainted it until it looked....okay).

Progress photos....

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Cockpit assembly and detailing. I went over the inner areas with flat coat which came out really nice, I will most likely continue this practice as it really brings out the detail.

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Inner fuselage assembled and cockpit nearly finished.

I had some fit issues with the body, especially near the nose....but surprisingly after leaving it be for a good portion of a day, the fit issue was gone and so was the gap.

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I really enjoyed the engine construction....Accurate Miniatures supplies some nice engines that, if painted and detailed correctly, come out pretty good.

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Engine attached to the fuselage and the cowling attached...accidentally snapped the the rear belly mg, but luckily it came off it one piece and I am able to re-attach it.

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Aircraft has now had putty applied and sanded to any areas in need....a coat of Tamiya Primer applied as well. I decided to leave the wings, horizontal stabilizers, and rudder off until after painting...which turned out better than I had hoped.

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I ordered some Montex masks for the canopy as I just didn't want to chance messing it up on this kit (I am starting out on masks but still having good amount of difficulties). I had heard of some people having issues with a residue left over but I did not encounter those problems, I did run into some issues with masks being too short in some places and too large in others....

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I have had good luck with Model Masters Insignia Blue as a good match for the dark blue seen on Naval aircraft....though masks haven't helped in keeping paint in-check in some areas. I then added the middle color...Model Master Intermediate Blue.

As stated earlier in the thread, the white gave me loads of trouble but it finally came out alright....overshots and such in this section were all touched up and fixed.

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Gear added and detailed....was quite easy to put the gear in, which was nice. Propeller was also painted and detailed, then added.

Ordnance was added...forgot about the decals for the bombs, will try to fix this today.

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Now this is the part that has given me the most headache so far in terms of contruction (I do not think anything paint-wise can surpass the white :oops:)...the bomb-bay doors were very difficult for me to install as they kept attaching to far from the body. I do not like having to force parts but I had to really man-handle those doors to finally attach.

Not much has happened beyond this point....just applied a coat of gloss and applied the basic decals, photos to come later today.

Also, if anyone could help with markings for VC-65....it would be most appreciated.

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It's a great kit and you're doing well so far. You might want to check on that port wheel. Looks like Jan's eyes on a Saturday morning. If you thought the gear doors were fun, wait til you get to the turret area.
 
I'm working on this kit now as well.. you've sure as hell passed me! I'm fussing with the turret / seam prepping.
 
Going to fix the port and starboard wheels....accidentally gave them both saturday morning eyes!

I put together the turret and boy was that real fun to make....multiple coins were put in the "cuss jar" over it. Finally it did come together which is good, but I am holding off on installation until the very end (learned my lesson with the Helldiver "foggy" canopy).

Philip
 

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