I was in Worksop today and as usual when I'm there I dropped into Model Base, the only model shop in the area. Ray the owner is an ex soldier, same as me and we also live in the same village. I therefor give him as much custom as I can. Today made this very easy for me. I had gone in hoping he had the new Italeri 1/48 Spitfire Mk XVI and he had, and at £10.99 a wonderful buy. On the way into the shop something in the window caught my eye, no not the Trumpeter Condor, although I'll be going back for that, but an Italeri TBM/TBF 1 Avenger. I hadn't heard that Italeri were bringing out an Avenger and I was sure they hadn't done one in the past so I asked Ray if it was an Accurate Minitures mould. He said he believed it was and I asked to look in the box. I didn't have my glasses with me but it certainly looked like an AM moulding and at £13.99 It was definately worth having. When I got it home I compared it to my original AM Avenger and the mouldings were identical. I then saw the AM copyright markings, on the original and checked the Italeri boxing, yep there was the copyright My missus can't understand why I'm so chuffed, He has another one which I'm planning on getting.
So if you see this kit snap it up, there is only one thing to look out for and that is the instructions. AM instructions are in a class of their own giving lots of information and instructions on how to proceed. There are a few glaring omissions in the Italeri instructions that can only really be addressed using the written word, as AM do. However if you do pick up one of these kits and don't have an original AM Avenger as I do, to look at the instructions, you just need to ask on here
It does have a nice decal sheet for 6 versions.
I have had a grin on my face all day and I might even start this kit later
Mal

Hi Mal

Watch out for the review tomorrow!

I was going to post earlier in the week - but got sidetracked by a certain Vindicator...

All the best

Rowan

That is great! I hope that AM got a pretty penny for their mold. It will be nice to get it cheaper, but I also hope they are being well rewarded for their original work.

Just out of curiousity. On another site someone posted wondering what the best / nicest kit was that is out there. The AM avenger received quite a few votes along with the Tamiya Thunderbolts. Have you built the avenger and do you rank it this high? I only have it in the box and am amazed at how good it looks. Someday...

Leon

Hi Leon

I've built the AM Avenger when it first appeared and still rate it among my all-time favourites! The detail is second-to-none for an injection-moulded kit.

All the best

Rowan

I have just picked up the same kit, and would appreciate the extra information if at all possible, please.

@markvs - Accurate Miniatures have a lot of their instruction sheets on the website to download. The TBM-1C George Bush version instructions are there, is this the same model of Avenger as the Italeri kit?

Accurate MIniatures TBM-1C Instructions

Cheers
Wiz

Hi Wiz

The Accurate Miniatures and Italeri kits are basically the same. Here's the Review of the Italeri version.

All the best

Rowan

Hi Rowan

Cheers for that but when I said "same model" I meant as in tbm-1c as opposed to tbm-3 for example. I wasn't sure if there were other tmb-1 versions that may have been around that differed from the tbm-1c...

I remember all the articles when Italeri issued the kit and was quite excited by the price difference. Funny enough, after all that , I ended up buying the AM kit on evilbay (combined shipping with a Dauntless).

Cheers
Wiz

Hi again

Well, Italeri list a TBM-1C among the many decal options, but I'd want to check my refs (Detail & Scale is a good starter) before saying which of them the kit is correct for OOB - e.g. one of the options is for a Tarpon, but the lack of bulged waist windows leaves me doubtful about it...

All the best

Rowan

I just bought this kit just because I like Avengers. Glad to see that this is a highly rated kit!

I got the Avenger a few months ago.I also got the B25 Mitchell .If you check the moulds they have the AM trade mark moulded on the wing inside.The latest one from Italeri is the Sturmovick.

Hi all!

This is one of the very best kits out there, and in a Italeri box It´s a bargain!

Altough I already had two AM Avenger boxings, I couldn´t resist Italeris rebox just for the decalsheet!
A big, colorful and wellprinted sheet (by cartograf) AND such a great kit to a very low price!

If you find it, get one (or two), you won´t regret it!

Agree with the instructions, though!
AM had a well tought-out assembly sequence, that is advisable to follow closley.
This goes for all AM kits!

Cheers!

Stefan E