Accurate Miniatures TBM-1 Avenger 1/48: OOB
Paints: Golden Fluid Acrylics; Vallejo Model Color; Coat d'arms
Weathering: Iwata/Medea Com.Art “Real Deal Weathering Kit”
Below is my first finished model of hopefully several entries in this Group Build. I'm a military historian by trade and have written about the Pacific War in 1942-43. So it's an occupational hazard to get wordy when writing about military history and that's largely what I'm going to do on this first entry. I've made a separate post under “AM Avenger Complete” in the aircraft segment if anyone has any interest in the build details without historical commentary.
There's good reason for people interested in history's greatest war to study 1943. The Axis dominated military operations between 1939 – October 1941. After June 1944, the conflict was a military mugging as most of the industrial world savaged Germany and Japan. In between things were interesting with the struggle moving like a see-saw with both sides scoring significant victories and suffering serious defeats. It was the period of the war when the struggle was between something like military equals. In 1943 the tide turned decisively in favor of the allies. This was not obvious at the time. On the Pacific Coast where I spend most of my life the tide moves slowly. The “break” of the tide is almost imperceptible and becomes obvious only about two hours later. Knowing events we can see that the Axis lost the war in front of Moscow in November/December 1941. With the Wehrmacht in tatters from which it never fully recovered, any chance of a rapid victory over the USSR disappeared. In turn, this meant that soon Germany would face a greatly strengthened enemy in the West and a true two front war that spelled doom. Given Hitler's defeat, Japan faced certain annihilation with only the duration of fighting in doubt.
Things certainly looked different to those that lived history in the summer of 1942. The Wehrmacht was on the move deep into southern Russia. Rommel was driving into Egypt. Thanks to some brilliant operations on the part of the Japanese Navy in late summer, the “miracle” of Midway had been numerically equalized and the Americans on Guadalcanal were fighting for their lives. But history can move fast in war. By New Year 1943 the Germans were trapped at Stalingrad and the Japanese facing their first great defeats on land in both the Solomons and New Guinea. Things had changed and Churchill said it best after Alamein, Britain's first great victory of WWII on land, when he said “It is not the beginning of the end, but is the end of the beginning.” Ironically, the speed with which military inertia had left the Axis put allied capitals in a kind of confusion. The German and Japanese empires were still colossal and both had powerful forces. Nobody fully understood the degree to which the allied nations were organizing industrial output toward levels that the enemy could never hope to match. So it was too early for the allies to think about the postwar world and pointless for the Axis to do so. On both sides of the fence eyes were drawn to the desperate struggle itself. By the end of 1943 the allies had seized decisively the military initiative in every theater and had shown the might to keep it. A lot of history took place in between those dates.
One highlight in a very momentous year was the decisive victory of the Royal Navy and its allies in mid-1943 against the U-boats who had been running wild on and off since 1939. Rarely had a high-stakes military campaign changed in nature so quickly. It was thinking about those events that led me to chose my first model to fit the 1943 theme.
After spending nearly nine months building an eccentric battleship and some armor, I decided to do a serious aircraft. In the stash was an Accurate Miniatures 1/48 Avenger. Wise heads told me that the AM kits from the late 90's were challenging but very good kits. Worth a try methinks, but there was one immediate problem: AM did several editions of the TBM and mine was the “Bermuda Triangle” :
The Avenger was one of the premier attack aircraft of WWII and a postwar build was out. Also my stash has several USN planes and ships that will all be some form of blue. I needed something else. After some reading I decided to model a plane flying off the USS Bogue that would be dressed in a very neat white/gray color scheme. And good history, no error. As noted above, in mid-1943 the RN decisively turned the tide in the Battle of the Atlantic. The allies were putting together the pieces required to turn the U-boat arm into a suicide service with something like 75% of German crewmen perishing by war's end, making it the war's most dangerous duty. (A higher percentage of Kamikaze pilots survived simply because large numbers were saved for the American invasion of Kyushu that never came.) The technical balance had changed in 1942 but couldn't have full impact until more air and sea forces could be deployed to take advantage of them. It was a sign of the time that in early 1943 that the escort vessels continued to swell in numbers and heavy bombers were able to close the “air gap.” In May 1943 the Germans lost a stunning 44 boats – almost matching the number of merchantmen sunk and Doenitz pulled the wolf packs from the mid-Atlantic. Desperately hoping that advanced technology might allow a renewal of the fight (it didn't but helped NATO develop splendid diesel powered submarines after the war), Doenitz hoped that by applying pressure where it was possible to do so would tie down more allied resources than German. Perhaps Doenitz did that but at an astounding cost.
One of the last of the pieces put into the allied onslaught against the submarine was the creation of “Hunter-Killer” groups of “escort” aircraft carriers each accompanied by from 3 to 6 destroyers or corvettes. Armed with the best technology and guided by British code breakers these groups were viciously effective. Interestingly they were effective in different ways. The British groups were more interested in protecting convoys and were always wary that “targeted” attacks would alert Doenitz to the fact that Bletchley Park was reading his mail. The RN went to great lengths to make sure that any sub ambushed by aircraft knew it had been sighted (so it could report the fact) or was near a convoy and thus vulnerable to attack. In addition Fleet Air Arm got the lion's share of the UK's 900 Lend Lease Avengers to reequip their fleet carriers. A few went to Coastal Command where were used in the nasty war against German shipping in the North Sea. Thus RN “kill groups” relied on the redoubtable Swordfish which became a most effective weapon when fully fitted with radar and rockets in 1944. In general RN groups could be considered convoy escorts with extended teeth. The Americans wanted to kill German subs and its groups often operated far from convoys and would pursue any submarine sighted until sunk or lost – a process often taking several days and involving several ships. The most successful US group was formed around the USS Bogue, a converted fast liberty ship that became the queen bee for the most successful Atlantic group of the war with 12 subs (two Japanese) to its credit with an additional five assists. Not bad for a ship that usually carried 12 Avengers and four FM-2 fighters helped by escort vessels. The “full court” pressure put on by allied anti-submarine forces of all sorts turned the entire Atlantic, not just the convoy lanes, into a submarine graveyard. Considering the fact that as late as 1943 Germany put tremendous effort into the submarine effort and hoped it would greatly hinder the allied build-up in Britain, the collapse of Germany's submarine effort was a bitter pill for Hitler. It gave the allies unconditional control of the seas. The result, of course, were the amphibious invasions beginning with Torch and culminating at Normandy.
Concerning the kit the AM Avenger proved to be a splendid model despite terrible instructions. A very good photo build on Aeroscale based on the now defunct AM site helped greatly. (The present Academy rebox has much improved instructions and better decals but lacks the very good canopy masks that came with the original.) It lacks PE but has a hefty part count, extremely well detailed molds, very crisp panel lines and an elaborate interior. Anyone who has built one of Eduard's kits will feel right at home, although for my money AM has better fit. I created my own colors matched it to the excellent samples found in Robert Archer's opus on USAAF camouflage and colors. So the interior green favors green more than yellow. The pics below show some of the complexity involved. Things did go together nicely despite driver error that caused a botched paint job, damaged parts and lost parts including an errant rocket. To atone for that sin I scratch a number of parts including a small camera under one wing often shown in photos to record results from rocket attacks.
While building I was checking the net for Avenger photos – preferably those flying with the killer groups. I also had a very good version in the Squadron series dealing with the Avenger. It took a lot of digging. Because the TBF/TBM was such a versatile and solid design it was in military and civilian use throughout the world long after WWII and thus many fly today. Looking closely at wartime photos, however, has convinced me that carrier based planes were heavily worn and faded. This was especially true with the Atlantic Avengers. Sorties were many, big radials burn oil, hydraulics were elaborate, service conditions not ideal, fresh airplanes rare and planes faced salt, wind and sun constantly. These planes worked hard and showed it. Below are some photos of aircraft from the Bogue. Please note the two photos of crack-ups. One gives a good view of the heavily weathered area around the cockpit, the other a very clear view of the underside of a hard-used aircraft. Also note that Squadron's artist, presumably after looking at more photos than I have, likewise depicts a heavily weathered aircraft.
So I decided to give the model a well weathered look. I did not want chipping or obviously rust. I did want fading across the board which meant above all avoiding uniformity in the model's surface colors – make the eye work for a living. I also wanted show smudging, grime, exhaust stains and overall dirt. Except for exhaust and obvious points of fluid discharge, I did not want paint to show airflow: when I look at aircraft I do not see any kind of front to back movement of coloration of the kind you might want on armor. I also wanted to get the panel lines right. I think that panel lines are often over emphasized, so I was looking for thin but visible. However, the Avenger had very prominent bulkhead lines along the fuselage and those we did want to see. And I wanted to do this all on a plane that was 75% white, a color I've never employed at anything like this quantity.
Most of the plane was painted with Golden Titanium White tinted with buff and Vallejo Dark Blue Gray to get Insignia White and Dark Gull Gray. This went over a gray Vallejo acrylic-polyurethane primer which I liked a lot. (Both guided by Archer's samples.) Both base colors had progressively lighter shades used for panel fading – this is evident only on the gray in the photos. Golden Titanium White is extremely opaque and I was concerned about covering all of the preshade, so I preshaded the base with after the first thin coat of white was down. I employed Golden Carbon Black which is the most opaque black I've ever seen and put it on with a brush. The paint self-levels and thin stroke marks are invisible after an airbrush coat is applied over it. Panel lines were very thin, bulkhead lines more prominent. I paid a lot of attention to the fabric surfaces. I wasn't sure whether I wanted them darker, lighter or a different color. The only thing I could tell from the photos was that they looked different. In practice they're a bit lighter and busier because of very thin preshade. Below is the model after the base coat was complete but nothing else done. (The slightly “off” nature of the white does not appear clearly in this photo.) I was quite pleased at this stage.
After a coat of Future the decals went on and I painted on the black walkways next to the cockpit. I did a lot of fading after applying oil filters first with oils and then Iwata Medea Com.Art paints which I also used for panel lines. These are unfamiliar to many plastic modelers but are used by railroaders. They're acrylic paints, but intended for use on fabrics or other porous surfaces. The solvent reminds me a little of Future but thinner. The pigments range greatly in opacity. If you could imagine a cross between a heavily thinned MIG pigment and a Vallejo Model Air you'd be close. Com.Art type paints don't hold to a solid surface well. That its greatest advantage for weathering. For panel lines I put a few drops of transparent smoke into a cup and hand brushed it a few inches at a time with a very thin brush. Over Future, the stuff runs right into the panel lines. Here's where it gets interesting. After waiting a minute or so you wipe the stuff perpendicular to the line's direction with a paper towel – rather like a Swanny sludge wash, except you want to keep the paint inside the panels and avoid any directional effect coming from removing excess. Give it a quick swipe and hopefully it will remain inside the line but not smudge the surface. The most likely difficulty is to swipe too hard and remove too much. Com.Art type paints are extremely forgiving and doing things over is no problem. Removing excess is a cinch because Com.Art type paints are “active” almost like a lacquer. In other words, if you've got too much on, put water on and wipe it off. Do it progression if you want to be efficient but you could wait for a couple of weeks as near as I can see. Moisten Com.Art and it reactivates and can be removed. (In theory you can do this with pigments – in practice I've often found that very difficult.) This stuff will wipe clean because it doesn't stick and I'd guess the pigments are chemical dyes and won't get as easily embedded in the surface as will genuine fine pigments. After doing the panel lines I used some blue-gray smoke on top and base white on the bottom to create a series of very nice smudges that you can stretch out with the brush – complements the oils very nicely. Lastly, I put on a brew Com.Art calls “old oil” tinted with an earth color and began creating the darkened zone coming from the exhaust and going underneath the wing. OK: the stuff doesn't stick so it's now time another coat of Future to seal the fading and panel lines. The Future includes 30% Tamiya Flat Base which gave a very matte finish. Usually I look for satin, but the sun and salt argued for flat. Here's where we are:
At this stage we're basically done: just have dirty things up. The Com.Art colors are redeployed with the airbrush. I sprayed more exhaust color along the bottom – this time with the bomb bay doors open and depth bombs installed. The color I used mostly here was transparent smoke applied from varying distances to give some more smudging and just to make the thing dirty. I also did some chipping with a silver, black and gray artist pencils. I kept the tips very sharp and tapped more than scratched. This is pretty evident on a detail shot below of the cockpit area. The canopy was already painted – it went on with a nearly perfect fit. Put on a radio antenna with some stuff called “EZ Line” that stretches and allowed the odd angle seen. I did not seal the final stage. The final exhaust highlight had Future in it for a kind of wet effect. In general, Com.Art leaves the kind of moist texture you see on heavy machinery: a good contrast with the flat finish. And if I don't like it next month, I can clean it all off with Windex.
Whole thing took me about three weeks. I almost destroyed the kit once. That said, the kit itself was splendid. And in the end the model turned out the way I wanted it. Any failure was not in the hand but in the mind's eye. Pics of a Bogue Avenger below:
