Going to start my next project tomorrow - an Accurate Miniatures TBM-C. It looks to be the most complex aircraft I've attempted - a considerable step up from my normal fighters. I also understand it's a good kit. Unfortunately it's the one with Bermuda Triangle markings. That won't do.

I'm thinking more along the line of a U-boat hunter flying for Fleet Air Arm where I think Avengers did very good service. I've got the AM armament set that includes rockets and depth bombs and I'll have to open up the guns on the wings. I think I'll be needing to make some kind of camera. I've got a lot of decals: something will make it look British. Anyway, if there are FAA fans out there with any advice on things not to do or things that will help the project along, I'm all ears. I'm thinking of something a little like this:


Eric

Eric I'm going to follow your build as I'm a FAA (Fleet Air Arm) fan, if you give me a couple of days I should be able to come up with something for you by the weekend, but other will I'm sure beat me to it.

You will I'm sure know that on entry to the FAA the Avenger was called the Tarpon but in 1943 all American supplied aircraft reverted to the American names like the Wildcat - Martlet.

I do not think there were much or anything in the way of external differences between US and Royal Navy Avengers. About the only thing you have to watch out for is the nomenclature:

Avenger Mk.I = TBF-1/TBF-1C
Avenger Mk.II = TBM-1/TBM-1C
Avenger Mk.III = TBM-3

Please note that the little window on the starboard side of the fuselage was round on British Avengers and not oval as on the American. Should be on the clear sprue.
Italeri brought out the AM-Avenger a few years ago (I think the kit is still in their program) and they have a great decal sheet also with an FAA-Avenger. Maybe you can get that sheet somewhere ....

Happy modelling!
Torsten

Thanks much. There is indeed an oval window on the sprue and shown (but not mentioned) in the instructions. So some version of the model must have been intended for FAA use. You're right about the Italeri kit and I would have bought it if I would have known about it. (Got their rebox of the AMT P-40 and it has splendid decals for several services.) As for the decals, we'll make do I think. I'm thinking this plane might have flown for Coastal Command when they started putting on the screws first over the Bay of Biscay and then German exits after the U-boats left France, or hitting German shipping in that nasty little war going on east of the Channel. (Someday it will join an Academy B-17 MKI - which is the Italeri version of an Academy 1/72 B-17B I just bought - which is too pretty not to build even if it left something to be desired as a bomber.) I know there some internal changes made but it doesn't sound major.
Researching this has been great fun. I've got a load of Pacific Theater stuff and let's face it - war is the enemy of art. The Japanese planes are neat, but the US stuff, whether it flew or floated, is all blue of some type. (Some of the very early war stuff excepted.) One can get too much blue. The US put SBDs on some their U-Boat hunters and they sport a very nice white/gray scheme. (Could of done that with the TBM too, but the FAA scheme is even better.) And from the sounds of it, the Atlantic based CVEs and aircraft were kept very busy. I'm definitely going to send my Laffey to the Atlantic. Better colors. More to do on leave. Pity there's no USS Bogue to build.