This kit is my entry in my club's "Gunna Build" competition for 2022-23.

I do have a number of kits awaiting painting, but the weather a few weeks ago was too cold and windy to use my airbrush outside, so I decided to start this one.

It is the Italeri boxing of the Accurate Miniatures kit.

I will be using decals from the AeroMaster SP48-10 "The Royal New Zealand Air Force in WWII" sheet to build a RNZAF aircraft. In particular, the aircraft will be "Plonky".

This is the mostly assembled cockpit and crew area with the bomb bay underneath.

The fuselage interior. The dark green is "Dull Dark Green" or Gunze H302 Green FS 34092 and the light green H58 Interior Green.

There is a bit of weathering still to be done and I am waiting on a Quinta cockpit detail set for the seat belts and the instrument panel, plus a few other pieces. The AM instrument panel is moulded from clear plastic and, in the original, a reversed decal was provided so that the instruments would show through the clear parts. Italeri didn't provide the decal and just advised the instrument panel to be painted black with white dial faces.

The instructions duplicate the AM diagrams but without the text that explains where everything goes in more detail.

I had to go online to find the original instructions (Scalemates.com) to work out where the silver tube piece on the left goes.

Finally, the bomb bay doors are assembled.

Excellent entry, my friend @michaelt! Pity Italeri did not upgrade the instructions.

The Quinta cockpit decals arrived and have been used, plus a wash applied.

The front cockpit.

The rear crew area.

The mystery silver tubes are float light and flare release tubes. It slots through the bulkhead piece on an angle as can be seen.

The lower gun has to be installed at this stage because of the ammunition belt. This attaches to the bottom of the magazine bin and I think that is supposed to be done before attaching the bulkhead to the fuselage. I had to make a few strategic cuts to get things to fit.

I decided to install the bomb aimer seat stowed in the vertical because that is how it would have been when on the ground and because I wasn't confident I could get to sit correctly in the horizontal position when I closed the fuselage halves. I just cut off the support arms, folded the seat back down and re attached the support arms. I had to cut bits of the seat and support mount away to get the mounting right. A photo in the Squadron book show the seat stowed and the belts hanging this way - with the left belt hooked up on the seat frame.

Turret internals. You can see that the clear parts are a little cloudy and not a clear as I would like.

This looks really good, Michael @michaelt

Lovely work Michael@michaelt

Lovely work, @michaelt, as usual. Looking forward to seeing the rest of the project.

@tcinla - I used the folded set by Dangerboy back when and yes, it's the one worth using. Good to know Lone Star picked it up. Thanks for the update. I have two more Accurate Avenger kits and an unbuilt Trumpeter 1/32 TBF that I will probably never get around to.

Excellent progress so far, my friend @michaelt!