1/32 Trumpeter TBM Avenger- Fire bomber

Gallery Article by Luc Janssen on June 14 2010

 

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

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

Photos and text © by Luc Janssen