1/48 Accurate Miniatures TBM 3D Avenger

Gallery Article by Andrew Marriott on May 9 2011

 

For a “big” challenge I built the great Accurate Miniatures (AM) TBM 3D Avenger with the full Eduard PE detail set.  I say “big” challenge as the finished model is the biggest I have ever done in pure shelf space.  I’m trying to focus on planes that flew on, around or over Guam and this fit the bill.  One of my favorite dive sites (Tokai Maru and/or Kitsugawa Maru) was torpedoed and bombed by these planes (but not sunk) in the harbor here not far from our house.  A picture of the Tokai bridge area is included.  This was a great build and the PE was wonderful.  The only exception was the turret, which was a bit of a challenge as all the other reviews of this kit can attest to.  Nothing a little good old brute force and correct angles wouldn’t fix.

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This kit is a gem in any version.  Even without the PE it would have been a great build.  Hats off to AM for this kit, and a few others I’ve tried in the 3 years I’ve been building.  I look forward to finding more of these in Asia, or back in The States.  Construction was straightforward, with special attention paid to the rear turret.  This is a tricky piece and I had to pull out some PE to make it work.  This may have not been totally necessary with serious dry fitting, but even without these parts nobody will notice unless they use a microscope.  The interior detail work involved a base coat of interior green, gloss coat and a pretty heavy dark wash of Future and water base ink.  To finish it up added the PE and top coated with a slightly tinted flat coat, as is my custom.

Once the kit was assembled and the seam lines busted it was time for the two base colors.  The technique was the same multi shading I did on my first Corsair.  I laid down the base colors, followed by some panel centers highlighted with a mix of the base and clear coat mixed with varying amounts of light grey/buff/white.  The three tinting colors were randomly mixed with the flat coat.  Once these set I shot a coat of Future and added decals.  After the decals I went back over panel centers and random streaks with a flat coat and white/light grey that was random in mixture.  After this I added the panel wash with oils and did paint chipping with pencils.  Final step was with a very lightly tinted flat/semi gloss (50/50) and 10% buff over coat.  This is basically the same multi shading technique I used in my F4U Corsair build.  Best part of the painting is that I can find/air mail all the components here on our great little island of Guam.  Hafa Adai and hope this provides some inspiration to others.

Andrew Marriott

Photos and text © by Andrew Marriott