Revell TBF Avenger 1/48 Work in Progress

And here are the promised finished pictures. I'll be applying the clear-coat in 48 hours.

Hey, we all started from somewhere, so no worries.  For your first time out, it actually looks pretty good.  So, stop beating yourself up over it.  Keep at it!  Raymond

Wow!

Did you hand paint that? Looks pretty sharp to me. For my first, I'd be VERY pleased with the end result.

Steve

The blue looks pretty close.

Welcome to the gang! Great first build! What's on the build list next?

Yeah, it's handpainted. I didn't have any painter's tape, otherwise the lines would have been sharper. The paintscheme is kind of an amalgamation of about three different Avengers, the main inspiration being the paintscheme used for the TBF-1c in the video game War Thunder. It took me over an hour and a half in real work to get the elevators and rudder close enough. Next on the bench in a few weeks will probably be an A6M2 or an F4U Corsair, mainly because both had monochromatic paintschemes and aircraft of the Pacific Theatre are interesting to me, and more importantly, plentiful in kit form.

Edit: Huh, apparently my memory's going bad. I thought it was both the rudder AND the elevators in the Stars and Stripes theme. Turns out it's just the rudder. Oh well. I didn't have quite the right scheme, so I decided to go for a more fun fantasy scheme instead.

Either of those would be good subjects and, yes the monochromatic schemes would be easer to hand paint than a como scheme.

If you brose through the paint of techniques forums, you might pic up some ideas.

Again, good job and keep em coming. I'm looking forward to your next build.

Take a look at some of the group builds. Read the rules and jump into one.

Thanks. I'll look into group builds. Would you have any recommendations for a kit of WWII-era naval aircraft that looks good and is relatively easy to assemble?

Most Hasegawa/Tamiya kits "fall" together and are very nice, however they can be pricy. Although I recently purchased a 1/48 Tamiya F4U 1D off of eBay for $16 plus $5 shipping, so there out there.

The newer Revell kits are better than the old ones (after Monogram/Revell merger).

Other guys can give you some more ideas as well.

Yeah, Tamiya's F4u-1A went together very well, with the exception of the wings.  They are a little tricky, but there's some builds on here that can talk you through it...  Raymond

Gotcha. I saw a good price for a Tamiya Zero on Amazon, so I'll probably get that. Thanks.

Congratulations!  It's a good build.  Even I, as a nostalgia builder and a made member of the Monogram Mafia, will admit that this kit is tricky.  It's over 60 years old, so the engineering isn't what today's modelers expect.  But it's a fun build.  I recommend doing more of them, though I prefer to buy second-hand boxings, on the general rule that with a newer boxing, you're getting styrene out of an older mold, than if you pick up a white-box kit from before the merger.

Let this be a step into a bigger world for you!

Gotcha. I was also pondering the '62 F6F for a while before realizing that it would probably be even more of a painting nightmare than this thing was. Well, nightmare until I get painter's tape, that is. And the kit did show its age in multiple ways. I'm not quite sure why the rocket mountings, as one forum post called it, are capable of movement. The torpedo bay doors were by far the hardest part to get in, the fuselage is warped somewhat around the cockpit, and the wings are uneven no matter what I did. Still, it was quite the fun kit to assemble. I even kept one part capable of moving: the propeller.

Good first build, you're on your way.  Much better than my first!   If I have to offer a criticism I would find a way of steadying your camera.  If you don't want a tripod use the remote shutter.  Stack something to set the camera on then fire away.

Well there's a simple reason for that: It's a six-year old cell phone camera. I really don't have anything better at present to use. Maybe I should talk to the university's photography club or something. Hmmm...

Borrowed a friend's camera, got far better results.