Building
This Trumpeter kit is well detailed with lots of equipment and armament, but
special attention has to be paid to the detailing of the landing gear, the
hinges of the ailerons and the elevators, the landing- and navigation lights,
the cowling and off course the radial engine.
As I wanted to build a simple
diorama with a fire bomber TBM Avenger, I had to take some time to construct the
special container for the retardant to fit in the bomb bay. The whole
canopy area had to be reshaped as well, leaving just the pilot's office with a
windscreen and the plexiglass
sides. The building of both the retardant container and the fuselage replacement
construction of the back part of the canopy was not really difficult, but took a
lot of work. I used a system whereby I constructed a rude assembly with 2
mm and 4 mm plastic sheet strips. Some of these strips were bent under hot water
to follow the curve of the fuselage when necessary. Other strips were kept
straight and all pieces were firmly glued together and sanded to the good shape
using a glass plate as base. I was pleasantly surprised to see that
both new elements fitted nicely in place!
The exterior of this model needed
much work as many construction holes, the fuselage windows, under wing
attachments, etc had to be filled and sanded. Some new panels, panel lines
and rivets were foreseen as well.
For the basic cockpit equipment I
used the update set from Black Box, but I only installed the sidewalls, the
floor plate and the joystick. The instrument panel, the seat and its frame, the
back panel and some supplementary details were scratch built and added.
The main landing gear was reworked
intensively and my good friend Luc Van den Ende made me the oleo's again. I
reshaped an old pair of tires of a P-47 to fit on the gear struts, whereon
scratch built parts and break lines were placed.
The famous Wright R-2600 radial received the attention it deserved as well.
Click on
images below to see larger images
Painting
Painting was based on a number of pictures of TBM Fire bombers in
different books and magazines and on the net. Although many different
schemes are available, I preferred this overall orange painting as it
gives the plane an even more 'workhorse' appearance. The overall model was
firstly sprayed with a base coat of a mix of International Orange, Deep
Yellow and White. With pastel powder I accentuated the panel lines, rivets
and places that suffer most from weathering or from the crew servicing the
aircraft. After cleaning the model, I dry brushed the upper side of
the model with a mix of Humbrol Yellow and oil paint Yellow to
create the bleaching effect of the sun, but without exaggerating. I
sprayed a very diluted (1 to 5) coat of the first base mixture to blend
all colors, shades and accents together. Then I added a glossy coat of
varnish and put the decals (from the sparebox!) in place. To end the model
was given an overall coat of mixed varnish (5 parts matt, 2 parts gloss).
I used Model Master paints and varnishes.
Weathering
A lot of weathering was already finished and I only had to add a little contrast
with different pastels to the same panel lines, rivets and places as mentioned
before, but I do not like to overdo this! The aluminum parts were given a darker
pastel touch and behind the exhausts light smoke strains were applied.
References
-
TBF&TBM Avenger in detail
& scale
-
Walk Around TBF/TBM Avenger –
squadron/signal publications
-
TBF/TBM Avenger in action –
squadron/signal publications
-
Kagero TBM-3 Avenger
-
Warbird Profile – TBF/TBM
Avenger
-
Avenger at war – Barret
Tillman
-
Internet – Fire Bombers
Luc Janssen
Click on
images below to see larger images
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