TBM-3 Avenger Conversion to TBF-1C. On to the Cockpit

[Pete in Lincs]

Engine installation is always fun. Right?

Then more connections add detail. Right?

Of course the cowling will hide a lot of that detail. Right?

But then, Where would the fun be otherwise? Right?

[georgeusa]

56 minutes ago, Pete in Lincs said:

Engine installation is always fun. Right?

Then more connections add detail. Right?

Of course the cowling will hide a lot of that detail. Right?

But then, Where would the fun be otherwise? Right?

I'm trying to limit the detail to what will actually show and not turn it into a ZM kit where there is tons of detail that will be hidden away forever!  Likewise, the same for the cockpit. Not real worried the rudder pedals might not be accurate or lack detail. Who will see them after I button up the fuselage?

[hendie]

but we'll know George..... we'll know !

[georgeusa]

Today, working on this kit and the G-2 for the 109 group build was an exercise in futility for the most part.  I had set aside a wonderful 3-hour block for nothing but modeling, thinking I would get such progress on both kits.  Yeah, right!  On this kit, I need to add some piping that is very prominent between the engine bulkhead and the cockpit firewall.  I had already assembled this section with this result.

 

 

There is no way I will be able to run all the piping, knick-knacks and doo-dads that have to be added with this section completely assembled.  So, let the deconstruction begin.  Now, the firewall/bulkhead assembly looks like this.

 

 

More of this assembly deconstructed than I wanted.  I was just trying to separate the engine bulkhead from the rest of the assembly.  In the process of doing this I succeeded in separating the engine bulkhead, but also separated the tank from the firewall and the round ring from the engine bearers.  Now, everything must be put back together now.  I have already attached the round ring back to the engine bearers and got that aligned again.  I also attached the engine to the engine bulkhead.

 

 

Plus, I found a decal that will work as an engine specification plate and attached it to the front of the engine.

 

 

Now there are four pipes that run from the cockpit firewall, along the engine bearer ending at the gearbox at the back of the engine firewall.  I began the fun process of bending wire to represent the pipes.

 

 

These pipes, about halfway down the engine bearer, pass through a connector. I took some plastic card stock and made a block to act as the connector and then drilled 4 holes through it for the wire to pass through.  The block still needs some sanding and shaping to make it look right.  That is all I have for this update.  As always, all comments are welcome.

[georgeusa]

Update with me being my worst enemy!  I had already bent the wires to represent piping in between the engine bulkhead and firewall.  Now it was time to put them in place and thread them through the plastic connector.  What fun. 

 

 

Unfortunately, I am using just plain wire and it does not bend so easily.  I have looked online and it seems lead wire for fly fishing would be a better choice if it comes in this diameter.  Will have to go to a sporting goods store to see what is available.  Next up, the piping and connector get a coat of paint.

 

 

Now I get to reconstruct my deconstruction from yesterday.  And, this is also where the comedy of errors begins.  I glue the transfer case to the back of the engine bulkhead.

 

 

This is mistake one, I just don’t realize it yet.  When do I realize it, when I go to attach the engine bearers/firewall to the engine bulk head.  The proper sequence of construction is connect the ring that attaches to the end of the engine bearers first, then the transfer case as the transfer case sets inside of the ring and has a greater diameter than the ring.  So, the transfer case that has just been installed, gets uninstalled.  I then go to attach the ring to the engine firewall and discover mistake number two from yesterday.  Seems yesterday, when I glued the ring to the engine bearers I did not realize there was a top to the ring and a bottom.  I had a 50/50 chance of getting the orientation correct; I lost.  The ring is on upside down and the pegs in the back of the ring do not match the holes on the engine bulk head.  Off comes the ring again.

 

 

The ring is put on the engine bearers with the correct orientation.  (Always a joy, as the bearers have 8 pins that must match the 8 holes in the ring simultaneously to make it fit.)  The next step is to reattach the tank to the firewall and hope the piping was routed correctly to not interfere with the tank’s installation.

 

 

Some minor wire relocation was necessary to fiddle the tank into position, but it was not a major ordeal.  The pre-bent wire was close to the bend needed to go around the tank.  The engine bearer/firewall is then attached to the engine bulk head.  And now the transfer case is threaded through the new maze of piping and glued to the engine bulk head.

 

 

 

Whew, things would have gone much smoother if I hadn’t made a couple of mistakes, but the engine section is shaping up nicely.

 

 

There is still some smaller pipes that go above the engine bearers and some of the paint needs to be touched up due to my mishandling and deconstruction gaffs.  There needs to be some work on the fuselage to provide framework for the cut-out inspection panels, and that is what is next.  Then, hopefully, on to the cockpit!  As always, all comments are welcome.

[hendie]

George, I think you are doing great.  I can't begin to imagine what it must be like trying to phenargle all those small parts together without feedback through your fingertips.

 

For wires - you're right. Fly tying wire is the best (cheapest) solution.  It's way cheaper than buying "modelers" lead wire.

I found a place on ebay that sold a batch of 6 different diameters

[georgeusa]

3 hours ago, hendie said:

George, I think you are doing great.  I can't begin to imagine what it must be like trying to phenargle all those small parts together without feedback through your fingertips.

 

For wires - you're right. Fly tying wire is the best (cheapest) solution.  It's way cheaper than buying "modelers" lead wire.

I found a place on ebay that sold a batch of 6 different diameters

Thanks for looking in Hendie.  I'm just using left over electrical wire, stripped of insulation. So, flexibility and pliability are not its strong suit. That's why I have to do all the pre-bending. Gonna try and hit Cabela's this weekend and peruse their fishing section. 

[georgeusa]

More engine updates.  There are two more major pipes that run between the engine bulkhead and the cockpit firewall.  I found some suitably sized wire and began the bending process.  Once bent and shaped they were put into place.

 

 

Next the wires were painted as the pipes appear to be either silver or metal.

 

 

Then a test fit in the fuselage to get an idea how everything will look produced this.

 

 

So, for right now, I am calling this engine done and this is about as far as I am going to detail it.

 

 

 

So, did not get around to working on the access panel attachment points so that will be next.  I think I have an easy way to make this happen.  After that, the cockpit will be tackled.  As always, all comments are welcome.

[Pete in Lincs]

Good morning, George.

0630 and light rain here.

Those pipes do make a difference

so it was worth all that effort.

Have a good one

Pete

[(ex)Sgtrafman]

Morning George

0640 and lovely and sunny here (funny what a difference a few hundred miles can make!)

The avenger is coming along a treat - I take my hat off to you sir, stick at it 

Iain  

[Biggles87]

Morning George' I agree with Pete on the pipes.

Looking forward to the cockpit, always my favourite part of a build.

 

John

 

PS wet and sticky here, with lots of storms around. 

Edited June 3, 2017 by Biggles87

[hendie]

nice pipery sir

[georgeusa]

5 hours ago, Biggles87 said:

Morning George' I agree with Pete on the pipes.

Looking forward to the cockpit, always my favourite part of a build.

 

John

 

PS wet and sticky here, with lots of storms around. 

I don't know whether I'm looking forward to the cockpit or dreading it. It will be nice to leave the engine for awhile. I'm thinking the exhausts are now just not right. Thanks for looking in. 

6 hours ago, (ex)Sgtrafman said:

Morning George

0640 and lovely and sunny here (funny what a difference a few hundred miles can make!)

The avenger is coming along a treat - I take my hat off to you sir, stick at it 

Iain  

Thank you for the compliment. The Avenger is coming along at a snail's pace. But at least it's a pace!

6 hours ago, Pete in Lincs said:

Good morning, George.

0630 and light rain here.

Those pipes do make a difference

so it was worth all that effort.

Have a good one

Pete

I agree the pipes do make a good visual difference. So all that torn out hair and blue air above me was justified!

and gentlemen, thanks for the weather update. Here, it was stormy all last night and will be rain off and on all weekend. 

[georgeusa]

1 hour ago, hendie said:

nice pipery sir

It is not up to your level of scratching, but at least I'm working on it. Curse you and Nigel and . . .

[georgeusa]

Onward to the cockpit update!  I know I was to scratch the attachment points for the inspection panels, but I just want to do some relaxing plastic part gluing.  That means start the cockpit.

I have some reference photos for the interior. 

]

 

Now, I realize some of the pictures are of restored warbirds and may not be entirely accurate, but it does help me with ideas of where everything goes, how it is attached, and the color combinations.  First up the instrument panel (IP).  Trumpeter does a clear face, with acetone instrument sheet, attached to a plastic panel sandwich for their IPs.  The clear panel is nice and detailed.

 

 

I glued the base for the IP along with some accessory parts together.

 

 

The instrument on the center console is represented by a clear piece with a space for an instrument to go, but Trumpeter does not provide the instrument that goes there.  A search through some stash decals will be necessary.

I sprayed the back of the acetone sheet white to make the instrument faces stand out more.  Then, the acetone sheet was glued to the back of the clear IP.

 

 

I know it looks rough now, but the front of the clear IP has not been painted black yet.  Now, I get to try and attach most of these little, kit provided PE parts for knobs.

 

 

The instructions make it look like it should be easy because of the size of the PE parts in the instructions.  However, one of the actual PE parts is next to the instruction diagram to show just how small the PE is, versus the size in the instructions.

 

 

And the fun and games of attaching PE begins.

 

 

I know it is difficult to see, but there have been 3 of the handles put on the clear IP front.  After some paint, they should pop out.  What I do not like is there is no sort of attachment point for the kit PE.  I guess the knobs are supposed to be butt joined?  All I know it was a headache to put them on the IP and get them to remain standing and straight.  From now on, I will be making my own attachment points for the rest of the PE.

While the PE knobs dry, I set aside the IP and move to the pilot’s seat.  The seat, according to the instructions, attaches to part A12, the seat frame. 

 

 

However, A12, is not the seat frame.  Going through all of the sprues, I finally find the seat frame on sprue F number 18. 

 

 

Anyone who has this kit in the stash, make a note the instructions mislabeled the seat frame part number.  The seat and frame are joined and set aside to dry.  Next up, the cockpit floor is begun by installing some tanks and a box.

 

 

INSERT cockpit 1

The holes for the tank had to be drilled out for them to fit perfectly.  The rudder pedals, control stick and some other lumps and do dads are added to the cockpit floor.

 

 

 

The bulkhead the pilot’s seat to which the pilot’s seat attaches is a multi-part affair.  The bulkhead on one side has the pilot’s head rest . . .

 

 

And the other side contains a shelf where some radio equipment rests.

 

 

There is another piece of the bulkhead that goes in front of the radio equipment, but I am leaving that off to ease with the paint job.

 

 

There are also some side boxes that attach to the cockpit floor that need to be built up.  The first box had some PE knobs that attach.  Not wanting to go through the same headaches as with the PE knobs on the IP, I drill out some holes for the PE handles

 

 

Now the PE handles fit and are installed with relatively ease.  I say relative, because they are so small, and my fingers are not; plus, that no sense of touch thing comes into the ease of PE installation.

 

 

And, finally, there is a second panel box that needs to be built up.

 

 

The detail of this kit OOB is just astonishing.  I really hope I can do it justice when it comes time to paint the cockpit.  I am purposely not attaching all the parts, just to ease the painting process.  Which, by the way is next after all the glue dries.  After the pilot’s seat is painted, seat belts will need to be installed.  The kit has seat belts on one of the PE frets.

 

 

However, I have the Eduard set that is specifically for this kit. 

 

 

The Eduard set is miles ahead of the kit seatbelts in detail and look.  It is also way more complex to build and I really am looking forward to more PE bending, twisting and cajoling into place.  So, this is my stopping point for now.  As always, all comments are welcome.

 

[Biggles87]

That should keep you busy for a couple of hours.

I had the Accurate Miniatures 1/48 version, which was almost complete when there was a partial collapse of the ceiling in my "man cave " and it was destroyed! 

Hope you have better luck.

 

John

[Grey Beema]

I usually ditch the small PE levers the but joint is very weak.  I use a small pice of stiff steel wire drilled into the IP.  Little knob of glue on the end and leave to dry..

[georgeusa]

23 minutes ago, Grey Beema said:

I usually ditch the small PE levers the but joint is very weak.  I use a small pice of stiff steel wire drilled into the IP.  Little knob of glue on the end and leave to dry..

That is what I did for the PE levers that pinged off into the twilight zone as the kit does not provide spare knobs. 

 

1 hour ago, Biggles87 said:

That should keep you busy for a couple of hours.

I had the Accurate Miniatures 1/48 version, which was almost complete when there was a partial collapse of the ceiling in my "man cave " and it was destroyed! 

Hope you have better luck.

 

John

I could not in good conscience like your above comment as it is so sad. One, your roof collapsed which must have been a nightmare to clean up and fix.  And two, how sad the very excellent, but also very out of production AM Avenger kit was destroyed. I have one in the stash that will be converted to a Tarpon. 

[georgeusa]

Painting the interior update.  The interior detail of this kit is simply amazing for out of the box.  I took the various sub-assemblies I have made and gave them their base coat, along with the interior of the fuselage halves.

 

 

 

Then, the first go around of detail colors is applied

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are more layers of detail to be painted, in addition to the weathering that needs to be done.  Unfortunately, this is all the time I have for this go around, plus I need to let these detail dry before I go on to the next layer.  I’m avoiding the seatbelts, but I must force myself to start them.  Once started, I don’t think they will be as difficult to do as I anticipate them to be.  As always, all comments are welcome.

[hendie]

that interior looks nice and sharp George.

[georgeusa]

From just a build standpoint, I think Trumpeter kits are excellent. I also appreciate all the detail they put in their kits. The only complaint I have against the company is sometimes the research is shoddy and the kit differs so much from the real thing. In this case, Trumpeter's research team was very good on the details of the kit and the look of an Avenger-3 is captured well. Where they fell short was in the decals for President Bush's plane as it is a TBF-1, not a TBM-3. Why this decal set wasn't in their -1 kit is beyond me. That's why I have to backdate this kit to a -1.  Thanks for looking Hendie

49 minutes ago, hendie said:

that interior looks nice and sharp George.

 

[Pete in Lincs]

I'm still here too.

Just had to go out for more popcorn

[georgeusa]

1 hour ago, Pete in Lincs said:

I'm still here too.

Just had to go out for more popcorn

And, I for one, are glad you are still present.  Popcorn, one of those foods that seems like it should taste better than it does, but is always a disappointment when actually eaten. Hash browns are in the same category; foods that smell and look delicious, but are just merely, at best, adequate. Thanks for still hanging in there Pete. 

[Grey Beema]

Great level of detail there.  I'm not by any means an expert of Avengers or Tarpons but I'm enjoying this..  That cockpit will come out really well..

 

Hope you enjoy the pop corn.  Mrs GB made a puff pastry pizza with crispy fried steak, sour onions, onion marmalade and blue cheese creame fresh....  After all her effort I had to eat it didn't I?  

 

Off to have my food baby now but I'll be back in my seat in a moment.  Anyone want a beer whilst I'm up?

[georgeusa]

Cockpit update; paint and more paint.  The base paint was laid down for the most part in the last update.  This next session has more of the details painted, plus the beginning of the weathering process.  WARNING:  This is picture intensive as there are a lot of parts to the interior.  A wash was applied to grubby the interior pieces up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After the wash had dried, more of the details were picked out with either a fine tip paint brush or pencil colors.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I found these 3 sets of AM placards and brass bits and bobs for 1/32 Allied aircraft.

 

 

I found some placards and instruments that would work for the IP and radio.

I added some placards to the IP for further detail

 

 

 

I must say these are very small to work with, but they do provide some interest.

A radio dial was added to the radio

 

 

Now, I can start putting the pieces together to do the final stages of weathering.  The bulkhead that goes in front of the radio, but behind the pilot’s seat was added to the pilot’s seat bulkhead.

 

 

Say goodbye to a lot of the detail of the radio.  The radio assembly was then added to the pilot’s cockpit floor.  The radio assembly sits over the fire extinguishers.

 

 

 

Next up the pilot seat and the side boxes were added to the cockpit floor.

 

 

 

 

 

Now a curious thing happened as I was adding the seat and side boxes, I looked at the directions for guidance!  I was sure glad I did as I discovered there is another part that needs to be added to the pilot’s cockpit floor.  The directions show a part to be inserted in the floor, but it has no number assigned to it.

 

 

Going by the drawing of the part, a multitude of sprues were searched looking for the missing part.  I found it on Sprue G, part 7.

 

 

It was inserted into the cockpit floor and painted to match the rest of the cockpit.  The last thing to add is the IP panel.

 

 

 

I must say again how impressed I am with the fit of parts and Trumpeter’s construction design.  You can gripe about their random inaccuracy issues in shape, but really can’t fault them for how the design a kit to be built!  Now the sharp eyed among you will have noticed that the pilot’s seat still does not have seatbelts.  I still have not motivated myself to tackle the Eduard PE set yet.  But, that next on the list to do.  I also hope I haven’t made a mistake in attaching the seat prior to the seatbelts being installed.  There are still some stains I need to make on the interior and some fine tuning of the detail painting and weathering.  However, tomorrow’s modeling time will be dedicated to Rall’s 109 kit as I have let that sit too long without an update.  And it also needs the seatbelts done!!  As always, all comments are welcome.