That's a nice, smooth finish. Looks like the photo that started you on this.

The Accurate Minatures TBF-1 "early " Avenger is finished!

Thanks Bernard. I tried very hard to get the finish looking like this. I didn't want to make the plane look too weathered since it was only a few months old when it was written off at Midway. The time frame that I built the plane from would have been a few months before Midway. I hope I got it right. I like how it looks so I guess it's a matter of personal preferences. I sincerely appreciate the compliments.

Thanks for the kind words Rick. I hoped that it would turn out ok. I really like how she turned out. I tried to capture the looks of the original plane and I really like the way the Blue Gray over Gray scheme looks especially when you add in the pre War markings of red, white and blue. I decided that in order to make it look more like the original "8-T-1" then I had to use the smaller size stars on the fuselage sides. I was lucky enough to find some pictures of this exact plane with these markings for Torpedo 8 prior to Midway when they were still at Norfolk VA.

I'll share more of the photos during the Group build reveal in June.

Meanwhile here are a few pictures of how it turned out. It's hot off the work bench. I literally just finished installing the antenna cables. Earlier this morning I applied the decals.

Now that it's done with, I hopefully can get busy on the PBY Catalina.

Thanks again for following along with this build.

As usual comments are encouraged.

Take care.

Beautifully done Louis, I'd have to say she's just about perfect

Thanks everyone for the compliments. I am truly pleased with how this "Early" conversion turned out. I appreciate the words of encouragement along the way.

Outstanding job Louis looks just as it should. Tell me what colors did you use for the torpedo? Looks great sitting in the bay. As I was getting ready to paint the Torp for the Devastator.

Astounding build Louis. I especially enjoyed the wip-pics of the interior since I've always been curious of what the guts of this plane was like. Builds like this are always educational and inspiring, so thanks for taking the time to document an already challenging process.