Trumpeter 1/32 ABM Avenger Build Thread

Thanks all! Just remember, I'm learning constantly. This was the first model where I opened access panels. I learned that from someone else's post. Using Eduard masks is a god send and really helps if you unsure of hand trimming canopy masks. It was the first time I uesd them too. It was just the second time that I super-detailed a radial engine and the first time I did it in 1:32. I've only been using Future finish over the last couple of years, and just started using wine bottle foil for detail straps and other things. 

In other words, while I've been modeling for 63 years, I'm still learning and trying new techniques. You just have to try.

I may post the refinery build since it technically is a plastic kit. "Kit" is a loose definition of the term since it's really a massive scratch-build project with the raw materials packed by Plastruct. Even the plans aren't in scale. They're given in scale feet so everything has to be custom measured using instruments. I'm toying about scanning them and enlarging to O'scale (1:48) so I can use the plans directly.

All I can say is WOW !

 I've got this WIP saved for future referance for some day when and if I ever get this good at modeling.  TY so much for posting all this.

It's been a fun ride, thanks for all the posts!  Not a bad finish, either

Well this is just an outstanding build!! I'm in awe of those modelers who have the skills and knowledge to add scratch built parts and make them really convincing. Builder, you're one of those guys and my hat's off to you.

I'm still muddling through my 1/48 Accurate Miniatures build and, in spite of the time and effort I put into it, it'll never come close to a work of art like yours.

That is phenomenal! That looks precisely like a museum build. I am impressed with the finish.  :)

Well... Today's the day that you can see it "all finished up". The echo cardiogram was early this morning so I had a long work day in the shop. The test proved at least one thing... my "heart's in the right place" literally. Other than that from what I could see, my heart is working. I didn't see any blood flow going through valves in the wrong direction, but the tech didn't tell me very much. The doc has to do that. Watching those valves opening and closing I was awestruck thinking about how many times they done that in my 71 years and came up with a number of over 49 billion times. 

I have a ton of pics today so bear with me.

The "work" day started with touch up painting any areas where the masks leaked and then installing the torpedo and the bomb bay doors. Leaving them off to the end was a good idea since they're in the way and would be knocked around a lot.

I painted the brake lines, removed the masks around the oleo struts, and installed the running lights at the wing tips.

I then moved topsides to get the glazing installed. I used Formula 560 Canopy Cement exclusively for the clear stuff since it dries clear, doesn't fog, wipes off without damage when it's not dry. The windscreen went it without any difficulty. Since it's a slow-drying glue, I taped the parts until they set (about an hour).

The above also shows another mod. Whenever you add reinforcement to a model part, there's always the chance that it will interfere with something else. In the case of that brass bar I added below the mid-canopy slide impinged on the armor, roll cage behind the pilot and wasn't letting the canopy seat down on the fuze rails properly. So I had to cut a groove in the roll cage without screwing anything else up. I used that new, fine-tooth razor saw to rough out the trench and cleaned it up with an Xacto. It worked and the rest of the canopy array settled down nicely.

 The gun turret dome isn't glued. It snapped in place so nicely that I didn't put glue on it at all. No glue is the best way to prevent glue smears. I touched up all the blue areas adjacent to the glazing and added some clear Future on it. I also used brush paint Tamiya clear flat on the walkways on both wings.

It was time to fold the wings. Instead of using the fat string included in the kit, I made some clips with brass wire. I painted them flat black. Probably not prototypical, but it's very secure.

It was time to glue in the Wright R-2600. I scraped all paint from the glue area, and decided to use 30-minute epoxy for a) strength and b) ability to reposition with the longer curing time. I carefully mounted the plane in my Panavise turned on the side and c-clamped to the work bench. After placeing the engine, I put the cowl on top so it was positioned correctly, and let it set. 

When the engine was set, it was time to permanently glue on the cowl. To get it to sit down tight, again, I used epoxy and added some weight for a "Gravity Clamp". Again, after curing it was on for good and reasonably in line. Not perfect, but reasonable.

I needed something to encircle the engine's gear case with something so the weight was on the cowl, not the engine. A Tamiya spray can lid served this purpose.

With the cowl on, all that was left was the prop and the radio antenna. Like the B-17, I used E-Z Line for this purpose. The beautiful thing about this product, besides its elasticity, is that it is intantly adhered with CA. It allows you to intersect lines at 90 degrees and with a tiny drop of CA it's adhered and can be trimmed very close.

So here's the finished model taken in a better photographic environment.

Some weathering powders on the wheels, tires and exhause area is all the weathering I did. It's a newly restored musuem bird so it's clean and fresh.

Well that's all folks. Thanks for hanging in since the beginning.

The next project up is a large Plastruct petrochemical refinery that will be for the railroad. Since it's a plastic structure perhaps I'll post the build here and in the model railroad sites that I feature.

Hi,

Wowm your model really looks great so far.  I can't wait to see it once you finish it up.

Pat

Thanks guys! Glad you're watching.

I've been exercising on the bike and elliptical every two days (or trying to) and today was one of those days so I didn't get into the shop until after 3:00, so I didn't get enough done, but I got some stuff done.

First I painted the new brass radio antenna support and the brass reinforcement bar beneath.

I painted those triangular access panels that open to enable the wings to fold with the inside interior green and the outside deep sea blue. I painted the running lights will go on after everything's done. I painted the back sides chrome silver and the lenses either Tamiya clear green or red. I also painted chrome silver the inside of the area on the wing where the four lights will go. The tip lights get covered by a streamlined clear part. There's another light that goes on the dorsal fuselage that stays clear which also got the chrome back treatment.

The only thing I paint with these two colors are lenses, therefore these two bottles last for years. There's no solid pigment so they don't dry out. 

I picked out some details on the airframe that needed doing such as the red stick in the wing fold area that is the manual release handle for the wing fold lock and a couple of silver details. According the to prototype very little is anything but deep sea blue. I'm going to paint the hydraulic hoses flat black along with the brake lines on the main gear. I need to paint the walk ways one the wings with flat clear. Right now they're very glossy which they would not be. 

I carefully glued on the gyro compass into position inside the top of windscreen. I used Hypo Cement to give a very controlled amount of glue so I didn't screw up any more glazing.

I made the wheels. After spraying gloss on the prop I put some Tamiya clear smoke on the prop hub to highlight the details.

I'm going to airbrush exhaust streaks on the fuze sides once it's all nice and dry. I then gave the fuze another coat of Pledge. This dried much more nicely than the first coat. The Vallejo Steel Blue is almost the exact same shade as the blue in the stars and bars. I pulled off all the masks tonight and was pleased for the most part. A bit of interior green was pulled off in the radio area and I'll have to go back and touch up the fuze edges after the canopies are all glued on.

We're very near the end. Tomorrow I'll start putting on all that's not on and do some mild weathering. I'm at a loss since this blue is so dark, so shiny and so pervasive that none of the normal things will be seen. I suppose I could have used a more faded color in the panel centers to bring out their contrast, but that plane has left the hanger. Since I actually have a blog follower who owns a real blue TBM that's being restored, mine is going to look like a restored plane that is not all beat up.

Color looks great! I'm loving it so far.  :)

This project is just coming along beautifully.  Everything looks great!

Toshi

Well Toshi, we're getting closer...

Yesterday, I masked the prop hub and sprayed it with rattle can Tamiya natural metal. I then intended to use the buffing metal paste for the hydrodynamic piston hub. If you all recall, I said that I'm not actually a patient man. I am persistent. My lack of patience always gets me in trouble. In this case, I attempted to do the buffing paste before the natural metal was set. I thought it was, but it wasn't AND because it's a solvent-based it started to melt away the gloss black below creating a mess. I removed all the black on the hub, and resprayed the natural metal. Then, after really letting it dry, applied the past successfully. Here's the results. The hub is reasonably shiny, but it could have been better.

I had a little residue left on the paper towel I was using and I rubbed it on the prop's leading edges to give it a little wear.

I sprayed all the blue stuff with the Pledge with Future Acrylic to create the gloss for the decals. This plane actually was gloss sea blue so it will get another coating after the deals are in place. I covered it while drying, but still ended up with a lot of dust in the surface which made me not happy. I used some steel wool to knock it down a bit, but it's not really good. 

The radio mast was a flimsy styrene part that butted up to the center canopy rid. Not having much support, I was afraid it wouldn't perform very well so I made a brass part with a tang on the bottom that would epoxy into a hole in the rib. Unfortunately, when I finished drilling a 0.031" hole, the rib broke in two. I then repaired this by epoxying a brass bar underneath which really reinforced it.

I then epoxied the brass mast in place and it will cure overnight.

I applied the "Hamilton Standard" prop decals. I needed to drill a hole in the wheel hubs to accept the new brake lines.

I also had overlooked putting in the wing fold lugs on the outboard wing tips. This little PE part had a tab that was supposed to engage in the box in the wing. With the wings glued together the box was no longer accessible. So I folded the tab over on itself and epoxied them into their respective opening. That problem solved.

I airbrushed the assembled wheels, a triangular panel that opens when the wings are folder and the little piston assemblies that are simulating the rams that open and close the wings. It was then time to apply decals.

I had trouble with those wing tip decals. They were very delicate, and being Cartograph, they had no added film extending beyond the graphic so they kept tearing. I also had a similar problem with the fleet insignia on the tail with one of those cross Shelalies on the bottom tearing off. I was able to get them back together.

There are lots of stencils, but they're basically invisible against the dark blue so I'm not wasting time putting them on. I installed several and you can't see them.

Tomorrow, I'll overcoat it again with clear gloss to blend it all together. I will try to control the dust better. I think it was on the plane when I sprayed it.

Great job on the canopy!  The Eduard masks are amazing in assisting with builds.  I too enjoy using them.  The Vallejo blue looks great, can't wait to see the continuation.

Toshi

So... the ECG showed my heart is now beating normally and there's no really sound reason why it's doing so, but I'm not arguing. On Friday, I started the canopy masking process. The back and mid-canopies are supposed to be glued together. Instead of using Hypo-cement which would have controlled the glue better, I chose (unwisely) to use the applicator brush in the Tamiya glue bottle. And this is what resulted. 

Needless to say, I was disgusted.

So I let it dry overnight.

Saturday I got in the shop and did some TBM work. I sanded the damaged canopy as best I could and then dipped it into Pledge Floor treatment with Future and hoped for the best. I also started using those wonderful Eduard canopy masked to cover all the intricate glazing. I completely masked the airframe using wet paper towels to plug the big areas and Tamiya masking tape for the smalller ones.

Today, I found the now-cured canopy to be better, but not close to perfect. I decided that it was as good as it was going to get and masked it. The Eduard masks are incredibly accurate and if you position them correctly they fit very well. Don't be afraid to pull them off and reposition them. The adhesive dosn't lose its grip and they will still stick just fine even after several attempts. Most impressive were the ones for the windscreen and the gun turret.

Burnish them down well with a burnishing tool (if you have one) and they don't leak. Just to be sure, I hit all of them first with Tamiya clear spray to seal the edges. The backsides are completely masked with Tamiya tape. I believe Tamiya tape and Eduard's masks are made from the same material.

First color that goes on is interior green. Believe it or not, I just learned this trick recently. I always wondered how guys would get the inside colors on... masking inside? Really? This was airbrushed with Model Master Acrylic.

After force drying this coat, I sprayed several light coats of Vallejo "Steel Blue) which is their name for Dark Sea Blue. Again I forced dried it so I could remove the tape today.

While the green was drying I shot the airframe with Tamiya Grey Primer outside to give more tooth to the Vallejo acrylic which followed and to prime any bare metal that was still left like around the landing gear details.

After pulling the tape, I was very impressed with the accuracy of the masks. They really worked well.

In looking at this pic I realize that I neglected to paint the little triangular window that separates the cabin from the guner's area. I hate to do tiny jobs with the airbrush since it takes just as long to clean it as to spray the part (or longer). Here's the backside of all the glazing showing the interior green. Pretty slick!

I sprayed the entire airframe the Vallejo blue. It wasn't spraying particually well and the spray pattern was very narrow, but after several force-dried coats, I got it covered. There were a couple of missed spots that I noticed after drying and I hand-brushed those for that same airbrush cleaning issue.

Vallejo paints, even though they're no longer shiny, are not dry yet. It takes a good 24 hours for the paint to lose its tackiness and be completely capable of being touched with paint damage. So all of this will dry overnight. I need to get more clear gloss spray since that's the next step prior to decaling and any weathering I'm going to do. With the dark blue most weathering won't show very much. Besides, I'm not building this as a war-weary craft. In fact, I've been reading various threads about weathering and the condition of most war machinery has a lot to do with who the crew chief and the rest of the chain of command was. In some instances, the machinery was always spotless and others not so. In the modern Navy, most craft are very clean. They're kept that way out of pride, but more so since it's much easier to spot leaks and their source when the machine is basically spotless.

Last thing I did was spray the prop tips yellow, force dry and then mask them. I then sprayed Tamiya gloss black over the entire surface. After force drying, I pulled the tape, and was satisfied with the results. Tomorrow I'll mask the black and spray bare metal on the hub and polished metal on the prop pitch piston cover. Having the gloss black as a base coat makes for better bare metal finishes.

To facilitate handling the prop I clamped it into a pin vise. We're getting close to the end of this project.

Good to be back and thanks gents! I'm wondering how it's going to look painted also.

Today I got the main landing gear decked out with their hydraulic and brake lines. I used foil to "chrome" the oleo struts and wine bottle foil for the tubing clamps on the structs.

The wine bottle material is a bit thick and you have to overlap it a bit to get it to adhere right. Painted you won't notice it. And these gear get painted the same dark sea blue as the rest of the craft.

I sanded down yesterday's filler and made the small leading edge seams sand made them disappear. I also glued in the ailerons and flaps on the main wings and then snapped them home. As I noted before, I completely gave up on getting the main wing flight surfaces workable with those Trumpeter hinges. The wings will be folded so all the hinge details would be on the inside away from the viewer.

You need no glue to fasten the main wings. They literally snap in and will not come out without breaking a lot of stuff.

Tomorrow when I come back from the doc's I'll finish up adding all the remaining doodads and start getting it ready for painting. Lots of Eduard glazing masks to apply...

I had an episode with atrial fibrillation that lasted for about 11 days. I got a beta blocker and blood thinner to reduce the impact and then 10 days ago it just stopped and the engine was firing normally. I'm going to get an ECG tomorrow to see if my heart has converted back to sinous rythym. If it has, I'm not sure why that is, or what if anything, you have to do going forward.

Good to see you back in the Forums. That distillery is just amazing - I've always been fascinated with what RR modelers can do with buildings and scenery. Looking forward to the next steps in your Avenger build, which is also jaw-dropping good!

Mike

That distillery looks amazing!  0.0

Im looking forward to seeing how you paint that plane.  :D

Well... the Bernheim project for Heaven Hill Distilleries is complete and waiting for delivery. It is supposedly going to be on display at their Bourbon Experience attraction in Downtown Louisville. 

So today, after a little cleanup, I went back to work on the TBM. I'd like to finish that up over the next couple of weeks because I have some more big model railroad projects to complete.

Today, I glued in the main gear, completed the tail feathers and then glued on the main wing tops. Before I left it, I applied Tamiya filler to any gaps and let it dry overnight.

I was able to use Trumpeter's questionable hinging method on the elevators and it worked. There's a very fragile plastic rod that attaches the right and left elevators to syncronize their movement. It also worked, but it's really fragile and probably shouldn't be played with.

I need to detail the main gear now that they're installed, and attach the wings and bomb bay doors. There's a few added details like antennas and then it will be time to mask and paint this beast.

Very interesting and lifelike!  The somber tones suggest Batman may be near.

Just checking in...

I've been working like crazy on trying to complete the Bernheim Distillery diorama for Heaven Hills Distilleries' Evan Williams Bourbon Experience in downtown Louisville. I finished the main building today and started work on the "wooden" shed covering the railroad track in the building's front. I have the base plate routed out so the track will be inset and only the track will extend above ground level like most spur tracks are.

I have about two weeks' work left and then I'll do some TBM work before starting the next model railroad project: a Plastruct Petro-Chemical plant that will go on the last unfinished area on my layout.

Worked today finishing up the Eduard PE on the outer wings. There are more gussets in the outer wing. The last two are very small with the very last one, almost microscopic. On the first wing I attempted, both flew into the rift. I did get them both on the second one and was quite surprised that I did. When folded, these details are not easy to see. When un-folded, they're buried in the wing. Notice that I drilled the plastic behind the open hole on the wall PE. AMS rearing it's head again.

I painted those inner wing areas dark sea blue now since they'll be very hard to air brush when assembled. Tomorrow I'll pick out the silver details in the joint area and paint the flexible hoses rubber black.

While this was all drying, it was time to work on the main landing gear. I reinforced the main shaft with a piece of 0.021" brass rod, and then after assembling the oleo links, drilled the their pivot points and again used the brass wire to reinforce and make the joint more realistic.

On the opposite side of the wheel hub is a tie-down ring. The first one I was going to place blasted out of my tweezers, but lo and behold, I actually found it. I glued it in and carefully glued in the second. I wanted to take a picture and guess what? The first ring glue joint had let go and it disappeared again. This time it successfully went into the Rift and was lost. So, even though I had found it and glued it in, it still disappeared. So I made one out of brass that luckily was exactly the same gauge. I took the opportunity to put the brass all the way out to the other end, thereby strengthening the wheel hub.

There were tiny nuts and washers that Eduard wanted me to glue on the pivot ends of the oleo links. I actually tried to put these on. They were so small that my very expensive jeweler's tweezers could barely grab them. One actually got stuck under my fingernail. Ultimately, I realized that any detail so small that magnification was needed to see it, wouldn't be missed on the model. You've got to draw the line sometimes.

The last thing I did was add the gear doors. There's a little Eduard folded PE bracket that goes onto the top of the door. Nice little detail...

With this done, the hiatus has to begin again. The additional parts for the distillery arrived today and I'll be working on that project until its completion (or when paint is drying).

I did get clarity on the hydraulic question... and yes, the flaps are hydraulic and the ailerons are cable operated with the bullies hidden in the hinge area and not modeled. While I did work on Saturday to finish up the PE on the other wing root, I didn't post, but got more done today. Basically what I didn't get done was get the flap hinges to work. The design is awkward and doesn't really work. I attempted to stabilize all the floating pieces with CA, but just got a mess. After messing with the pins and the PE hinges, I decided to scrap it and glue the flaps closed since I'm going to display with the wings folded and the flaps would not be hanging open. The hinge rods should have somehow snapped into their slots, not just lay there hoping that the upper wing will hold it all in place. Today I started working on the upper wings. These too have their PE enhancements some from the kit and a lot from the Eduard set. First there were two walls to install in the wheel well. Last week I cut the parts for one wing ahead of when I was going to use them thinking, "I won't lose them". Famous last words! Of course I lost one. So I cobbled one together out of styrene sheet, added a raised strip and marked and drill the rivet marks. 

In the wing root, the PE lined both the bottom and side of the space with all those webs. In the wing body (top), Eduard did not include a bottom and you had to fill the slots to receive the plastic webs in preparation to receive the PE wedges. Instead of piling in filler and then sanding it all off, I used styrene strip to fill the bulk of the space, and then use some filler to clean it up.

I used a razor saw to trim the strips down almost level so I reduced the amount of filing needed to make them flush.

After this pic was taken I added the Tamiya filler. I'll sand it tomorrow.

While all this was drying, I saw that there was some more PE to be added on the fuze. There were two PE overlays to add more relief to the tail skid area, and then a folded piece which was supposed to have a piece of plastic rod to add as a snubber to control the downward drop of the tail hook.

Instead of the plastic rod, I drilled the PE to accept a 0.021" brass rod. I also did not use CA on this, but epoxied it with J-B Weld 5-Minute Epoxy. It cured much more securely than CA which has been letting go on a lot of the brass overlays that concerns me. I scratch the back of the brass pieces to provide more "tooth" for the CA to grab, but it still doesn't like to hold metal all that well. The epoxy worked really well, it's just not instant.

I feel bad about scrapping the hinges, but with folded wings you're not going to be expecting the flight surfaces to be moving at all.

Builder,

You're doing fine work and obviously have the skills and the confidence to scratch what you need and do a great job of it. I'm certain this project will end up being a very, very special build.

As to the mechanical/hydraulic connections to the ailerons and flaps, I'm certainly not one with any special mechanical knowledge but I thought you might like to look at these pages:

https://books.google.com/books?id=xxG4MKYDj40C&pg=PA12&lpg=PA12&dq=tbm+avenger+aileron.&source=bl&ots=QvHBJq-s1y&sig=YvZl3FaCVgjLwkNTa7WxiCEl2Eo&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiG2vHuu-jRAhVN1mMKHSqfAL8Q6AEIKzAF#v=onepage&q=tbm%20avenger%20aileron.&f=false

Thanks Toshi, but really you ought to get out more. I'm just getting started on this super-detailing business. I've got a lot to learn. But I promise that everything I learn, I'll pass on to everybody else. Whenever I think I'm doing something really awesome, I find someone else on the web who is much more awesome and puts everything in perspective. We all need someone to look up to.

The same can be said for scratchbuilding. I really began in earnest in the late 90s and mid 2000s. I was well in my 50s. I was very anxious about building stuff of my own design. I was always a kit builder and picked models based on the number of parts, number of decals and the number of pages in the instruction book. Once I took the plunge I realized that I had all the skills and know how necessary and I just had to do it.

Your Avenger and distillery work is just superb, what craftsmanship!  I've never seen anything like this before.  Amazing!!!!!

Toshi

Yes indeed, very interesting. 

Well... there's a slight hiatus on the Avenger Hiatus. A couple parts of the Distillery needed to be re-cut due to some minor errors I made on the drawings so I had another day to work on the Avenger and got the other wing joint piped. Took much less time to do the right hand wing joint than the left due to that wonderful learning curve and actually knowing what I was doing.

This time I drilled and installed the micro pipe fittings before joining it to the joint.

Then, when I went to install it, I realized that I drilled the holes on the wrong side of the cylinder. So I cut off the mounting lug and glued it in correctly. Without the lug, the joint was weak, but with medium CA in the slot, secured it well enough.

The brass wire I'm using for the hydraulics is from a wire net wrapped around bottles of Rioja Spanish red wine. When I removed those nets, I immediately realized that this was a nice small guage brass that had modeling usage. I was right. It's a bit tougher than copper wire of the same guage and less difficult than the guitar string.

Here is an intermediate shot showing the early piping.

And now with the rubber hoses added to the metal piping.

And here are both wing joints ready to be installed and painted.

So with this done, and the new distillery parts expected next week some time, I may or may not contiue working on the Avenger. If I can, I will post the results.

Interesting project!

Folding wings definitely add interest. 

I'll be taking some time off from the TBM project. The laser cut parts for the Bernhiem 1870 Distillery model arrived today and I have to build it for a client. It's going into the Heaven Hill Evan Williams Bourbon Experience here in downtown Louisvile. Here's the photo from which I designed the model, and the one that's sitting on my railroad.

The picture hangs in lobby of Heaven Hill's Lousiville Distillation Plant. It was one of Isaac Bernheim's distilleries and the picture dates from 1870 and existed in Pleasure Ridge Park (a S.W. Louisville suburb) and was razed during Prohibition. 

Picture was imported into SketchUp where I produced a scaled 3D image. This was then exported to Illustrator to make 3-view working drawings which were then laser cut to make the "kit". Model is mostly MDF, Masonite, thin ply or Laser Board. All the fancy Victorian stonework is layered ply.

The prototype took many months to complete due to working through lots of kinks. This next kit should go togehter much faster based on the number of errors I found and fixed, the reduction in parts count and the use of 1/4" MDF, istead of 3/16 Masonite for the main body. The MDF is smooth on both sides with enabled the bricks to be engraved on both sides eliminating a lot of overlay pieces to add bricks to the back edges of certain parts.

A multi-part article on its design and construction is being published in the next issues of Railroad Model Craftsman.

I found a diagram on the navy site showing pulleys in the hinge area. They are almost impossible to see in pictures because of the hydraulic folding mechanism though.  Do a google image search for tbm avenger aileron.