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Best 1/72 kit for a TBF-1C Avenger?


k5054nz

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Hi team,

I have a couple or three TBF-1Cs I’d like to build in 1/72 but I see there are a few different options. What’s considered the most accurate kit, and what are the pros and cons of each?

 

Many thanks in advance!!

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Zac, afaik, this Hasegawa TBF/M kit is the best in 1/72 but spendy, the Academy one is less the half the price but can build up quite nicely, it is basically a clone of the old Frog kit, not necessarily a bad thing but not as well detailed externally as the Hasegawa one. The Academy seems to be unavailable locally but still quite cheap on ebay.

Steve.

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IMHO the Hasegawa/Hobby 2000 kit is the only way to go.  I will declare with a haughty sniff that the Airfix and Academy offerings are certainly decent practice for the beginner, but not worth the time investment for we Very Serious Bona Fide Modellers.

 

Nota bene, Hasegawa include a second seat behind the pilot which may need correcting depending on the machine you plan to model.

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In the case of the Hobbby2000 kit, considering they're limited series reboxings they tend to sell quite fast. 
I ordered my A-4M Skyhawk 10 days ago when they didn't indicate low stock, and they're sold out now.

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I remember that the Frog Avenger's main landing gear was positioned wrong. I think that Academy copied this. 

The bomb bay in the Hasegawa kit is too shallow. The Mk 13 torpedo in the kit is a tad too thin and too short. 13' 5" by 22.4" in real life (56.8mm by 7.9mm in 72nd) versus 55.75mm by 6.55mm in the kit. The older Airfix Beaufighter torpedo is closer.

If you want to make a very accurate Avenger in 72nd, I'd look for various Accurate Miniatures kit builds as a guide to add detail. 

If you want a typical mid to late war ASW fit, I'd add sonobuoys

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Weapons-bay-of-an-Avenger-showing-the-two-depth-bombs-at-the-rear-and-the-six-sono-buoys_fig5_312221907

and the MK 24 mine, AKA the secret acoustic torpedo FIDO. 

https://www.history.navy.mil/our-collections/photography/numerical-list-of-images/nhhc-series/nh-series/80-G-373000/80-G-373112.html

http://www.hauler.cz/e-shop/1-48-accessories-22/mk24-mine-„fido“-torpedo-1550

 

If you want a TBF-1D, The Italeri F4U-5N has a wing mounted radar that can be used.

The Academy Typhoon or Tempest kit has longer launch rails that the USN also used for the underwing rockets. VC-8's Torchy 21 from the USS Guadalcanal had TBF-1Cs with the launch rails when the U-505 was captured. Part D4 should have the thin cross rods added to the underwing yagi antenna like on the box art on the Atlantic and RN kits. 

 

Hasegawa has the half engine molded to a plate. You may look for a good Wright Cyclone 14 radial engine. 

 

Grant

 

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I think I overthought my question as one of the builds is an unrealised New Zealand agricultural conversion, the other is a playground installation my late grandfather painted and helped set up (and which my mother and aunt played in as kids):

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/hawkes-bay-today/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503459&objectid=12000035

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2 hours ago, Gmat said:

If you want a TBF-1D, The Italeri F4U-5N has a wing mounted radar that can be used.

 

 

Negative, the radar fairing on the TBF's is different in that it squares off at the back on top of the wing.  I believe OWL did a resin conversion for this that included the night exhausts, but their stuff is pretty limited run and it's probably hard to find now.  Would take some work to properly modify a Corsair radar fairing to be acceptable.

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14 hours ago, Jackson Duvalier said:

IMHO the Hasegawa/Hobby 2000 kit is the only way to go.  I will declare with a haughty sniff that the Airfix and Academy offerings are certainly decent practice for the beginner, but not worth the time investment for we Very Serious Bona Fide Modellers.

 

i second the declaration + haughty sniff.  

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15 hours ago, Gmat said:

Wish Hasegawa released a TBF-1 with the gun in the nose. The boxing would be nice to have.   VT-8.

It would be great box art, but the conversion is too simple to cut new moulds.  Plug the wing guns, carve the nose gun trough, fix lower fuselage windows, rustle up decals, Bob's your uncle.  Hasegawa even include the second seat that wasn't there after the TBF-1.  You could do more to snazz it up but the basic work is... basic.

 

6 hours ago, Denford said:

I'm still hoping that Airfix might re-tool it, complete with folding wings of course.

I'd buy a few.  A new Dauntless is also a pressing need IMHO.  I've managed to accumulate a few Hasegawa SBDs and one of the Hobby 2000 reissue, and it's nice as a kit but it doesn't really satisfy current standards as a model, at least not without lots of extra work.  The dive flaps were deplorable when the thing was released, twenty odd years ago now.

 

If somebody in some eastern land unburdened with priggish western notions of "copyright" and "intellectual property" were to pantograph the Accurate Miniatures Avenger and Dauntless kits down to 1/72, I'd be a happy panda.  Maybe when this Wuhan bat pox thing blows over they'll get round to it.

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 2/27/2020 at 7:57 PM, alt-92 said:

Considering the intention was (I believe) to recreate the playground TBM, that may not be such a problem.

Precisely! I think I may have over-thought my question, considering my plan!

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