Flight 19 TBM-3
Hi all,
Had these photos ready for quite some time, but never seemed to have a moment to post this past summer. Hurricane Lee has provided me two days (while I have power and internet) to finally post this.
I have FINALLY built my 1/48 Accurate Miniatures TBM-3 in Flight 19 markings. As a young teen, I learned about the tragedy surrounding flight 19 and how even the rescue efforts had its share of misfortune. As I loved all things aviation growing up, and became particularly focused on USN/USMC, I was motivated to snap up some accurate miniatures kits way back when postage was not the ridiculous cost it is now to get kits 700NM from the US to Bermuda!
Anyway, there have been some far better builders who have provided very thorough posts about the Avengers of flight 19. This build would not have been possible without the information I gleaned from those posts, and a very generous modeller who provided me their leftover 1/48 Supserscale Flight 19 decals.
Points to note are that the Avengers had white landing gear and bays, and were stripped of the turret gun. The TBM-3 had rocket stubs under the wings. The blue bombs are standard practice ordnance- a very interesting thing to read up about. Google is pretty useful!
The paints are all Testors enamels- I think I have come to terms with the fact that they are no more, and will judiciously use my remaining Modelmaster stash on other builds. I followed through on my usual method of hand brushing coats of future before applying decals, and afterwards to seal them in. I may still mix up a satin clear to tone down what looks like 500 hand applied coats of simoniz!
Thanks for looking,
Dan from Bermuda.
Very nice, I'm with you in having that kit for years and not building it yet. I have had the Flight 19 boxing of the TBM-1C kit for probably 15 years, I really need to build it! At any rate, yours looks fantastic, great GSB finish!
1 attached image. Click to enlarge.
Thanks very much Rob. I have other TBM-1 airfames leftover, and would be happy to pass on the markings to you. The kit ones in the first boxing (before the white border style like yours) are incorrect.
PM me and I will let you know what I have. I want to pay it forward so that they don't go to waste.
Thanks for the offer, but I have a Microscale sheet I'm going to use, when I get the courage up to build it!
Very nice build! Looks great.
Thanks Greg- I have a lot more to post that are finished but have not seen the light of day on here!
Dan.
Great looking build, Dan @danfrombermuda! đź‘Ť Stay safe and keep your head down, my friend!
Thanks Gary- thankfully a glancing blow again- we have had 3 in the past 2 weeks.
Have another one (Nigel) likely to actually be a direct hit next Friday- hopefully not.
Fantastic build, Dan!
Looking forward to your other builds posted!
This Avenger looks really good, Dan @danfrombermuda
Well done.
Well done Dan, I've build two of the AM Avengers and enjoyed them both. I thought they were really nice kits and I experienced no difficulties building them. Added bonus was no putty was needed. And you're welcome for the decals it's nice to see they came to good use. If some one is looking for a AM Avenger I have an extra that I'm willing to depart with, and I highly recommend buying some canopy masks when building one. Unless you enjoy masking all that glass. Again, well done Dan.
Excellent showroom finish
Nice work, Dan.
Nice looking build.
Beautifully done!
Beauty. I chickened out with all that glass and bought masks