US CARRIER AVIATION GROUP BUILD 2013

Well... first I mixed a little MM enamel Gunmetal with Jet Exhaust to make a warm-toned, but still darkish metallic color and put that on in the displays.  I let that dry and then added a lot of Tamiya clear green and then followed on with more Future/clear smoke ("I put this &*^% on everything") for depth and generic murkiness.   I may yet add a layer of a dulling agent to knock off the high shine.

Looking good, Dre. Curious how you did the flat panel displays, even if you do think they look like aquariums at the moment. Look pretty cool to me.

Stu, I would sit through a movie about Taffy 3, TWICE, and then buy the DVD and watch it at home after that, lol

some of those guys were flying runs at the Japanese,,,,even though their Home had been sunk

It would be a lot better if I had hundreds of tiny decals for all the switches and gear- the resin is great but the lack of labeling is going to make this look a little odd...  or I could shave off all that 3-D resin goodness and slap on some dead-flat preprinted PE panels that have the labeling.

Thats just awesome, Dre! I love it! You are doing some really great work there!

I've made a small start in the cockpit with a little painting over the last few nights...

the side wall canvas is various drybrushed shades of lightened greys to simulate both age, sunfading and wear.   I'm slowly working on the fuse panels...  I wish I had decals for these.

the seats are slowly getting there- just a little PE and paint, all that's really left on them is to add the belts and grab handles.

the IP clusters haven't yet been painted beyond the basic black, but I did work on the display screens a little...  I need to tone those down a little so they don't look like deep aquariums.

just a lot of slow, busy work that gets hidden deep within the closed cockpit.

Thanks for the kind words, Clemens!

I downloaded the original Accurate Miniatures instructions a few weeks back from a link I stumbled across. Now I can't find it. If you want to PM me your email address, i would be more than happy to scan and PDF them your way.

Your Avenger is looking great, Greg!

Checkmate: Nice work on those little kittens! Such small stuff is not my building preference (actually, it's the last thing I'd like to build), but I admire you for doing such stuff!

Does anyone of you know where I can get the AM instructions for the Avenger? I just ordered one of the reboxed kits by Academy at my LHS...

I should be able to post an update of my wildcat tomorrow evening or on Sunday...

Cheers, Clemens

Checkmate, thanks for the kind words re my weathering attempt.

Those Wildcats are really coming along nicely. Really like the bottle cap jig idea. Now I'll have to tell the boss I want to start saving them. She is starting to think I have lost it all this stuff I want to save for modeling purposes since I started up again some months ago.

Everyone else, fun to read the info about real life Avenger usage! Y'all are a cornucopia of information.

TarnShip

isn't that bomb bracket mounting the same as the USAAF's bomb bays?

I seem to remember reading that Avengers delivered more bombs in close support missions as part of the VC units on CVEs than the total of torpedoes launched against ship targets

Escorts (CVE) each carried a mixed batch of fighter and attack aircraft called a VC, made up of Wildcats (Hellcats on the larger ones) and Avengers,,,,,,,they were used in the Pacific to support the beach landings, freeing up the large CVs to leave sooner for the softening up of the next stop and to fight the Japanese fleet to protect the island-hoppers

added: ah, yes, I remembered where it was,,,,,,,old dusty Naval Institute book by William T. Y'Blood "The Little Giants" 1987,,,,,,,,,page 120-121 has the squadrons and aircraft assignments to the three Taffys during the battle that Gambier Bay was sunk,,,,,,,,,,I never noticed before, but one of the four large CVEs had Wildcats instead of Hellcats on that day

Two fantastic books that are out there that detail the exploits of the Avenger are:" Last stand of the Tin Can Sailors" and a "Dawn Like Thunder"

The Tin Can Sailors details the battle of Leyte Gulf and Taffy 3.  Great stories in that book.  One that sticks out is when these poor tin cans (Deystroyer Escorts) and escort carriers decided to throw caution to the wind and attack the Japanese armada head on is an Avenger pilot who, after dropping all his bombs and running his machine guns dry, charged the Yamato, flipped inverted and fired his .38 at the bridge.

They were so desperate to slow the big Japanese battleships from closing on the escort carriers they were making fake torpedo runs on them to force them to evade.  It's really a harrowing story.  Why it hasn't made it to a movie is a mystery to me.

Greg

Taking pics to explain dilemma, seems the brackets fit perfectly this way.

If this is correct, problem solved. Had it in my head the mounting bracket had to face downward. Is it really this easy? Stu, if you (or anyone else who knows) might opine, I would appreciate it.

But I didn't spent much time on the bottom seam since I thought it would not be visible anyway. Oh well, tomorrow's project then....

Re: 1/700 Wildcats--

LOL, Greg; glad you didn't fall completely off the recliner; no modelers should be injured in the production of this GB!

Maybe it's because they do look like something growing in a petrie dish, as Eric said.

Thanks for the comments!

Dre and Clemens:  masking is fiddly, and tape will only go so far on such little pieces, so I use poster tack for a lot of it.

First, a photo of the light gray undersides:

This was just straight-forward painting.  After letting the paint dry for one day, I used little bits of masking tape to cover the undersides of the horizontal stabilizers.

Then I pushed the planes into a pile of poster tack, mounted on bottle caps.  This is necessary because the poster tack slides around and deforms if you try to hold the part by the tack.  That in turn will pull the tack away from the places where you want it to be.

Gripping the bottle cap while painting leaves the tack arrangement in place.

Then, I applied the blue gray.

WEM's paint remains tacky for about a day, so after that, I'll check for any necessary touch up that will have to be done with a brush, then put on a clear coat and they should be ready for a dark wash to bring out the panel lines, and on to decaling.

Thanks for looking.

isn't that bomb bracket mounting the same as the USAAF's bomb bays?

I seem to remember reading that Avengers delivered more bombs in close support missions as part of the VC units on CVEs than the total of torpedoes launched against ship targets

Escorts (CVE) each carried a mixed batch of fighter and attack aircraft called a VC, made up of Wildcats (Hellcats on the larger ones) and Avengers,,,,,,,they were used in the Pacific to support the beach landings, freeing up the large CVs to leave sooner for the softening up of the next stop and to fight the Japanese fleet to protect the island-hoppers

added: ah, yes, I remembered where it was,,,,,,,old dusty Naval Institute book by William T. Y'Blood "The Little Giants" 1987,,,,,,,,,page 120-121 has the squadrons and aircraft assignments to the three Taffys during the battle that Gambier Bay was sunk,,,,,,,,,,I never noticed before, but one of the four large CVEs had Wildcats instead of Hellcats on that day

I remember reading about the unusual placement of the bomb shackles in the avenger, hmm.  I don't know of any other bomber like that.

My understanding about the bomb load is that they would load two bombs or depth charges for scouting missions, but then they could still do full loads for strikes.

Nice looking bomb bay, Greg.  You did a great job with the washes and highlighting.  Very appealing.

Outstanding!!! I'd wondered about proper color for the bracket, aluminum it is, then!

I believe I saw a post from you elsewhere regarding the turret install before joining fuselage, will do for sure.

The Accurate Miniature instructions (not the Academy) mentioned getting the armament installed first too,

Thank you very much for the help, Stu!! (you've saved me at least two days of fiddling and fussing)

That's it!  I'd give the bracket a quick shot of Aluminum and you're ready to glue it in.  It's easier to do it now than when the sides are glued.  One other tip I can give you as I'm pretty sure this is a re-pop of the Accurate Miniatures Avenger, go ahead and assemble and paint the turret.  Install the turret on the rear deck before joining the halves and you will save yourself a tone of delicate maneuvering down the road.

Taking pics to explain dilemma, seems the brackets fit perfectly this way.

If this is correct, problem solved. Had it in my head the mounting bracket had to face downward. Is it really this easy? Stu, if you (or anyone else who knows) might opine, I would appreciate it.

But I didn't spent much time on the bottom seam since I thought it would not be visible anyway. Oh well, tomorrow's project then....

Thank you Dre & Clemens.

Stu, thanks for that info. Mystery solved. I think easy to mount the two rearward bombs, me being me am likely going to have to mount the two forward ones too, correct or not. :) I am in the middle of building some mounting brackets for the front two, but I think I'll go take a couple pics to ask a question first, see if I understand or not.

Ghost, I don't feel so alone now. :) That's a nice looking ordnance kit. I thought AM was out of business. Surprised to see the kit. One big torpedo will look cool in there! Bet you'll have to figure out how to mount it,though. I took a look at the 1000 lb and 1,600 lb bombs included in our kits, don't see an obvious way to mount either one. Nor the 500 lb'ers, for that matter.

Greg

Inspired by stikpusher's wash and drybrush techniques (his 1/48th TBD-1 thread), decided to take a break from my interior fussing and my doing everything possible to avoid joining the fuselage halves, decided to have a go at detailing the torpedo/bomb bay interior, which I wasn't going detail beyond the base green..

I tried oil based wash and oil based drybrush right over the flat zinc chromate whilst stik used enamels. (I have a few tubes of oil on hand for experimentation, no enamals at all).

Though not up to the standards of most of you, a huge improvement over the mess I made with my pastel wash over flat acryl base at the start of this build (at least I hope so!). So thanks to stik and so many others here for inspiring me to stop fussing and just try new stuff. And if it don't work, change something and try again. :)

Not to make excuses, but apologies for any mold marks that might show up. At this stage of the game, I'm afraid to mess with heavy handed stuff that should have been done at the beginiing for fear of messing up detail (in this case, on the upper side of the interior deck).

I'm afraid this build is going to be a bit of a mish-mash of weathered, un-weathered and inconsitant results as I move forward and try new stuff. That said, still having a ball. :) And enjoying the GB immensely so far.

Now to figure out how the ordnance attaches????

Speaking of ordnance, I thought this bird was a torpedo bomber. Curious why the Academy kit includes only 3 sizes of what appear to me to be conventional bombs? I'm not even close to the point of being prototypical with this stuff, but I am curious if anyone has any input. Getting close to having the 500 lb bomb option done, so regardless that is the route I intend to go. Would like to finish this whilst still alive, or before the build deadline, whichever happens to come first. :)

http://www.scalehobbyist.com/catagories/Objects/ACM00009900/product.php?micr=2541

hopefully, it comes with everything I need to mount the thing too.

The Avenger was a torpedo plane in that it was conceived as a replacement to the TBD-1 Devastator.  In addition, the "Turkey" also served as a level bomber and sub chaser.  Those vertical tabs on either side of the bomb bay are your bomb racks.  Typically due to weight they carried 2 bombs in the rear-ward stations.  It was  pretty versitile aircraft.  I believe it's postwar role was that of a firebomber to drop on forest fires.  I just finished a book where survivors of a Japanese POW camp were supported by Avengers dropping supplies on the POWs after their captors fled.

That's some really nice work, Greg! I leave the mold marks on the interior untouched most of the time, because you won't see them anyway...

Cheers, Clemens

That detail work looks pretty good to me, Greg.   The wash does too- you could either add more or leave it as is.

I wouldn't worry about those sink marks unless you're really compulsive about such things- throw a torpedo in there and no one will notice them.

Inspired by stikpusher's wash and drybrush techniques (his 1/48th TBD-1 thread), decided to take a break from my interior fussing and my doing everything possible to avoid joining the fuselage halves, decided to have a go at detailing the torpedo/bomb bay interior, which I wasn't going detail beyond the base green..

I tried oil based wash and oil based drybrush right over the flat zinc chromate whilst stik used enamels. (I have a few tubes of oil on hand for experimentation, no enamals at all).

Though not up to the standards of most of you, a huge improvement over the mess I made with my pastel wash over flat acryl base at the start of this build (at least I hope so!). So thanks to stik and so many others here for inspiring me to stop fussing and just try new stuff. And if it don't work, change something and try again. :)

Not to make excuses, but apologies for any mold marks that might show up. At this stage of the game, I'm afraid to mess with heavy handed stuff that should have been done at the beginiing for fear of messing up detail (in this case, on the upper side of the interior deck).

I'm afraid this build is going to be a bit of a mish-mash of weathered, un-weathered and inconsitant results as I move forward and try new stuff. That said, still having a ball. :) And enjoying the GB immensely so far.

Now to figure out how the ordnance attaches????

Speaking of ordnance, I thought this bird was a torpedo bomber. Curious why the Academy kit includes only 3 sizes of what appear to me to be conventional bombs? I'm not even close to the point of being prototypical with this stuff, but I am curious if anyone has any input. Getting close to having the 500 lb bomb option done, so regardless that is the route I intend to go. Would like to finish this whilst still alive, or before the build deadline, whichever happens to come first. :)

Ok, back to business on my Wildcat.

I have the landing gear installed. I have to add some small parts and I'm about done.

Did I mention, I forgot to weather the 2 drop tanks....that's on the list also!

I didn't even think to break out the old (and I do mean old) Dremel for the grinding. Thanks for reminding me, Marty.

Ghost, having forgotten the above, so far I've mostly filed off details. My bargain purchase of the year so far has been a diamond hobby file set from Harbor Freight. I was very skeptical. I'm skeptical of everything there. Love 'em. Use the flat one for almost all my PE fret trimming, too.

No pics to post of it yet, but I started to paint in the cockpits last night..   not a lot of color, but a ton of different shades of black on black.

Well I got a little more work done on the S-3.     I wanted to avoid dealing with the fans so I decided to make the engine covers.  I did some very quick vacuum form s of the front of the engine,  just heated the flat styrene sheet in the oven and pulled it over the engine nacelle.  I was pleased with how it worked.

Also got a little done on the ejection seats

Had to add the breaker bar on top as well as the yellow pull ring, still need to add some hoses and the belts.

John

Ghost,  That panel is looking good. As to grinding, dremel to the rescue I always say!

Greg

Ghost, that panel looks vaguely familiar (I am building the same kit for the GB) :) Looking good!

This kit represents my first adventure with PE, how about you? How many parts have you lost so far? I think about 4 for me. Brain grinding away at ideas for a PE part loss-resistant work cage of some sort, doubt I'll ever go anywhere with it, though. :)

Checkmate, almost fell off my recliner when I saw your progress pics. Head started spinning a bit considering masking a 1/700th canopy. Built, or shall I say 'worked on' a carrier as a kid, surely don't recall the airplanes having been molded in clear. Reckon Trumpeter has done that to accommodate what you are doing, then? Looking good!

I've used PE a little bit, but nothing this intricate.  Fortunately, I've only lost one piece so far on this kit, I think its supposed to be an emergency bomb release handle or something, if I read the instructions right, there should be an extra or two.  That's the nice thing about the couple of Eduard frets I've dealt with so far, they always give you extras of the small pieces.  I suppose the next step for me is to figure out how I'm going to grind down the details on the kit IP to get this thing to fit on top of it.  Eduard's instructions aren't terribly clear on that.