bondoman
Gotta ditto Bondo and the others regarding the kits to avoid... ALL of them are fine kits, when you add the prices into the mix...
Sure, they have their drawbacks, but that's why they cost 12-16.00 rather than 35-60.00... One only has to look at what modelers here do with them to see it... Monogram kits are far and away the biggest "bang for the buck", followed closely by Lindberg's biplanes...
As for scratchbuilding, that's a skill that one has to develop... As far as I'm concerned, that's probably, next to finishing, the most important skill to master... No manufacturer gets it 100%... The first time you stretched a piece of sprue for an antenna, you were scratchbuilding...
Another thing is raised vs recessed details... Many of the older aircraft kits had raised lines simply because those are easier to mold, but some details are indeed raised... The Monogram SBD kit this more or less accurately... The early SBDs did in fact have numerous rivets sticking up all over the place, as well as overlapping panels, rather than flush rivets and butt-jointed skins... And a lot of the high-end shake & bake kits released today have recessesed lines and sunken rivets that are so far out of scale that they're laughable...
Speaking of the Monogram TBF, here's some shots of mine in progress, with a mix of scratchbuilt parts and old kit parts:
In the ones
below, I remove the plastic behind the front row of jugs and added more cut from a P-61 engine, along with a new vac-formed cowl.
As for scratchbuilding seats, they too are pretty easy...
I took a piece of sheet plastic and cut it, then used a lighter to heat-form it into a seat-pan and armor plate for the gunner.
Holding the part in one hand, I moved the lighter close to the edge of the part, an' it magically turned 90 degrees and I quickly grabbed it with my thumb and finger to form the dimple in the pan for the parachute pack. I cut the armor plate back into shape with a scissors, then sanded it round, adding a small piece of plastic for a mount.
So basically, there's nothing magical about scratchbuilding parts for the Revellogram kits... You just need to set your mind to it, and look around the house for parts & materials..
If you can find one (They crop up on Ebay from time to time) get a Mattel Vac-U-Form machine... I've had one for years and it's absolutely essential for the Creative Gizmologist. Being able to vac-form canopies, cowls, gear doors, panels, etc, is a Godsend for a scratchbuilder like me... There's a guy on Ebay that sells the plastic sheets for it as well, both in clear and white. That's also how I solved the canopy issue with the Monogram Dash 4 Corsair... I cut out the entire frame, glued the canopy into it, the then vac-formed the canopy and windscreen as a unit, then cut the canopt from the windscreen... Took a couple-three attempts, but the plastic's cheap and you can afford to throw way the ones that you screw up, unlike "store-bought" replacement parts.
So go ahead, buy any of the Revellogram kits...
Oh, one more thing regarding accuracy... That's entirely up to you... 99.9% of the people you who view your work won't know the difference if you use a P-61 seat in a TBF or cut down a P-47 panel for the SBD. Unless they have the refs right in front of them or actually flew 'em, you'll get a "pass"... "Suggestion", rather than "Duplication" is where Imagineers and Creative Gizmologists shine... It just has to "look busy" in there, it doesn't need to be bolt-for-bolt, rivet-for-rivet... Those B-25 radios in the center cockpit of the Avenger look just fine under the canopy..