1:48 Grumman TBM-1C Avenger

A torpedo carrier with 20 mm armament

The form designated by the numeral one and the letter C brought a fundamental change in armament: instead of the machine gun in the fuselage the aircraft was given a pair of cannon built into the wing. The fire was therefore considerably more effective in attacks on shipping and against ground targets, where the machine was used more often than the name torpedo bomber would suggest. It was built in the same plants of an automotive corporation as the later version, but with the original engine and an unstrengthened wing.

Its period of service falls roughly into 1943 and 1944, that is into the time of the fighting for the Solomon Islands, the campaign toward the Marianas and the great air battle in the Philippine Sea. In color that means the change from the two-tone blue-gray coat to the three-layer scheme, in which the shades were graded from a dark blue on the upper surfaces to white beneath the fuselage.

It is precisely into this range that the subjects on the sheet lead. The markings on these machines tend to be more restrained than in the last year of the war, because geometric identification of the parent carriers was not yet in use and the unit was betrayed mainly by the number on the fuselage and the vertical tail.

Working with the sheet is a calm business until you come to the frame of the observer's glazing. There it pays to cut the film exactly along the edge of the frame and to press the rest down with a cotton swab moistened with softener, so that the marking is drawn into the corners.

It is also worth noting how much space stayed free inside the aircraft. The bomb bay took a torpedo weighing around one ton and the machine could still take off with it from the deck of an escort carrier, that is from a vessel built on a merchant hull. A model therefore looks good with the bomb bay open and a weapon fitted.