The Trumpeter Avenger was awaited by most modellers
with guarded anticipation, I had read with interest all the
Trumpeter bashing following the release of their previous offerings
and was expecting the same with this kit. However, after the model
hit the shelves there was a strange silence from the rivet counters,
could it be that the Avenger was accurate, even for the cyber space
anti-Trump mob?
When I got my kit I decided to just launch into building it and took
the fact that because all the internet forums were quiet that the
model must be accurate. The first thing I did was to decide on which
particular aircraft I was going to model, the first part was
obvious. Being a pilot in the Fleet Air Arm it was no strange thing
that I decided on a British Tarpon, but which one? I looked at
building a BPF aircraft, possibly one that took part in the raids on
the Sumatran oil fields; however I discounted this due to the fact
that almost every Tarpon model I had seen was in these markings.
Next I considered a D-Day aircraft but most had some form of badge
or personal markings for which there were no decals for. I went to
the Hannants web site in a light bulb moment and searched for decals
in all scales for some inspiration. There I came across an unusual
white over temperate scheme with some nice big black areas, the
aircraft in question being from 711 Sqn based at RNAS Crail in 1945.
Right, let’s get started then.
The biggest omission in the instructions is the lack
of paint chart. The instructions tell you what Gunze paint number to
use but this is pretty useless without a decode so unless you can
get hold of a decode chart off the web you will have to dig out all
those Hasegawa instructions, what a nausea! The moral of the story
is get some references.
For such a big, complicated model it is important to take time out
and have a quick look at the construction sequence. Basically the
engine fits to the pilot’ cockpit, which fits to the avionics bay,
which fits to the gunner and radio operator’s stations, all this lot
then fit’s on top of the bomb bay. This is then trapped within the
fuselage halves with the rest of the construction being
conventional. Looking at the instructions there seemed to be some
odd elements in that certain sub assemblies are completed and then
left to sit in the pending pile for an age until added to the main
Guess where I started, you got it, the engine. This
is a very complicated sub assembly but highly detailed, all that’s
missing is the ignition harness, which I couldn’t be bothered to do!
This was then attached to the engine bearers which were in turn
attached to the firewall. A word of warning, the engine bearers are
flimsy, make sure that the bearers are fitted in accordance with the
instructions. This sounds obvious but I still managed to mix them up
and when I came remove them to do it right I snapped the mounts (the
dangers of super glue). This assembly is put to one side, due to the
fragile nature of the assembly I would suggest you leave this to the
end of the fuselage sub assemblies.
With the engine completed it was on to the cockpit. Here you have to
be careful with the cockpit colour, some Tarpons were painted with
the complete interior painted in USA interior green whereas some had
the pilot’s office painted in bronze green, this was applicable to
the aircraft I was building therefore it was painted with Tamiya
XF-5. I think at this point it is worthwhile explaining how I paint
the cockpits of my models. If the plastic is fairly dark then I will
prime with Halford’s grey primer as this technique relies upon a
good contrast between the flat areas and the detail which is
pre-shaded with thinned black paint. I concentrate the pre-shading
in the nooks and crannies as well as in the natural shadow areas.
Next I will apply a thin coat of the base colour sparingly enough to
allow the pre-shading to show through. Following that the base
colour is thinned and lightened with white (or yellow if using
green) and sprayed onto flat areas and areas of natural highlights.
Next a very thin (90% thinner) mix of Tamiya black/brown is sprayed
in the shadow areas. Finally the components are given a dry brush of
light base colour using enamel which is far better than trying to
dry brush acrylic. The final final thing is to give a very light and
restrained dry brush of dull silver to areas to simulate wear.
Trumpeter has a novel way of doing the instrument panel. They cast
the panel in clear plastic with the holes for the instruments
drilled out, this is painted black. Then you attach the acetate
printed instruments to the back if the panel and paint the back
white thus the dials show up, to the holes clear varnish is added to
simulate the glass. My question is what’s the point of having the
panel moulded in clear plastic if you’re going to paint it black and
have the holes drilled out? Either mould it in grey styrene or have
the holes filled in!
The final point to note reference the front cockpit are the etched
seat belts that are included on the etched set. This is a fabulous
idea and I wish every kit came with a set of seat belts in this
medium but only if they are long enough, in this kit they are not!
Being a Tarpon the rear cockpit layout is considerably different to
that of the American Avenger, the Fleet Air Arm aircraft had an
extra seat for an Observer forward of the turret in place of the
avionic rack. I could not find any pictures of this area and despite
living 5 minutes from the FAA museum at Yeovilton had no material to
work from therefore I made it up. My mate Phil from IPMS Avon cast a
couple of seats for me (good job as I trashed the first one) as well
as moulding some of the bubble windows at the same time. Anyway, I
made up a mounting for a seat out of tubing and an adjustment lever
from sprue. I added a set of temporary seat belts from masking tape
but as I have had a set of British seat belts from MDC arrive they
will now be replaced. I also made a chart table from sheet styrene
which was painted in a wood effect using brown and tan enamel paint.
For a bit of interest I made a map from paper and a pencil and
Dalton Computer from sprue and scrap. The avionics boxes were
relocated in spurious location which I made up in a logical fashion
as the place I put them was the only available place. To sum up I
don’t know whether it’s accurate and frankly I’m not that bothered
because one; inaccuracies don’t phase me if they are minor and two;
it’s too late to do anything about it anyway. I’m sure there are
some commentators on the various web forums that would have me
burned at the stake for being a witch but talk to the hand cos the
face aint listening. So there!
The rear cockpit and the Bomb bay were built straight from the box
and weathered in my usual way. I added an asymmetric bomb load to
add a bit of interest. The front cockpit was tacked into the
starboard half and the floor and bulkhead positions marked out, this
enabled me to paint the fuselage interiors the correct shade of
green. With the Accurate Miniatures Avenger the dorsal turret can be
added after the fuselage halves have been joined which makes
painting a lot easier, however this is not the case with this kit so
the turret was assembled, masked and added, it is free to rotate
however which does simplify the painting later on. When done the sub
assemblies were glued into the right hand fuselage and the halves
glued together. The fit was very good indeed with no filler required
and minimal rubbing down, this was good to see as the surface finish
has fine engraved panel lines and recessed rivets.
The tail planes came next. Many commentators have stated that the
Trumpeter method of attaching control surfaces using etched metal
hinges is fiddly and results in a weak joint, well I totally agree!
I still added the hinges but glued the elevators in position. This
leads me nicely onto the wings. Here the modeller has the age old
decision to make when building a Navy aeroplane, to fold or not to
fold. I’d wager that for this kit this decision will be influenced
by the sheer size of the model. I wanted the wings spread on my kit
as I think folded wings spoil the lines of an aircraft, however the
wing fold has good detail and the wingtip tie downs are exquisite in
their finesse; there is even some fine thread to simulate the tie
down ropes for the wing tips, all in all very impressive.
I painted the inside of the wheel well and weathered it before
building the wings. The order in which I constructed the wings in
hindsight was probably not the easiest therefore I will explain what
I think an easier method is. I would first glue the inner and outer
top halves of the wing together and then add the etched
strengthening strips over the join, and then repeat for the lower
halves, a bit of jiggery pokery will be required for the wing fold
bulkheads. Then attach the upper and lower halves in the
conventional fashion. Once the wings were completed they were
attached to the fuselage, here there was a strange snag in that the
port wing did not fit as well as the starboard wing, how odd. I
filled the gap with white glue and wiped it with a moist finger (ooh
er) and then sealed it with paint. The undercarriage legs were pre
painted white and added, a departure for me as I usually leave the
legs until last but as they were painted the underside colour I
added them now.
The canopy was masked off inside and out and sprayed
with the relevant green, the inside masking was removed and the
canopy attached to the model, the cowling glued on and a coat of
Halfords grey applied. The fit of the model was very good indeed and
so no corrective action was required. The model was pre-shaded with
black which was very tedious due to its size and the number of panel
lines/rivets. I intended to paint most of the markings so Tamiya
white was sprayed on the relevant roundel positions. I used a
mixture of Eduard Hinomaru masks and masking tape to mask off the
white portion of the roundel. The inner red portion of the markings
were sprayed and then masked followed by the blue/yellow. A bit of
touching up was required especially as some of the roundels were
hard not to get out of register. The fin flash was painted after the
camouflage. The unit codes were done by first spraying the area
yellow, then the letters were masked using the Eduard IFOR set
designed for AFVs. The blue was then sprayed on and then masked
however in hindsight I think this should be Extra dark sea grey.
With all the fiddly bits taken care of it was time to spray the
camouflage, I started with the white which was a pain, first off I
used Tamya flat white as it has good coverage, when I had run out
this was buffed with a soft cloth before being finished off with
Xtracrylic white which was misted on. I left the room to ventilate
as I was sitting in a cloudy room with white nostril hair (an advert
for a face mask if ever there was one)! When I came back the white
had dried to a hard satin finish, ideal as I still haven’t cracked
gloss varnishes. The relevant white was masked off and Xtracrylic
Extra dark sea grey and Dark slate grey were sprayed on. I added a
bit of RLM 76 light blue a bit at a time to the pot to fade the
paintwork, this gave a pleasing effect. When this was all done the
masking tape made another appearance and the black area was masked
and the black sprayed, again being faded this time with light grey.
I had undercoated the cowling with Humbrol silver and before the
black was fully cured I used sellotape to pull up areas of black to
simulate paint chipping.
With all the making tape removed I shot the model with Xtracrylic
matt varnish. With this all done it was time for more weathering, a
mix of 10% Tamiya black/brown and 90% alcohol thinner was sprayed
along panel lines and in the rivet detail as well as being streaked
along the flying surfaces.
With the model almost there it was time to add all the fiddly bits.
The undercarriage was completed and added along with the wheels and
the annoying rubber tyres, as soon as I can get some resin
replacements I will. The prop was added as was the bomb bay doors,
these are a clever design in that the inside faces are etched brass
with good detail, the fit is very good indeed. With the nav lights
added along with the bubble windows from Phil all that remained was
the aerial wire. This was stretched sprue with a tensioner made from
coiled wire.
In conclusion the Avenger from Trumpeter is one of the
best 1:32 scale kits on the market. The rivet counting anti
Trumpeter lobby on the web forums have been conspicuous in their
absence, the fit is very good indeed and the interior is finely
detailed however I am sure there will be resin enhancements to come.
The only niggly things are ones that come with most large scale
Trumpeter kits namely the fiddly flying control hinges and rubber
tyres. As for the price, well it is expensive but don’t forget the
discount from Andy in Antics. All in all a great kit highly
recommended.
Photos and text © 2006 by
Jamie Haggo
December 10, 2006
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