This is an update to my thread a few pages back where I posted the finished engine pics. This is the Accurate Miniatures TBM-1C Bush Avenger. Now I’ve mounted the engine to the airframe and did a little plumbing in the engine compartment. But I spent more time working to get the cowling to fit over the engine. The Verlinden engine, though detail is excellent, is a little over-sized for the scale and it takes a lot of sanding on the inside of the cowiling as well as sanding down the tops of a couple of the cylinder heads to get the cowling to fit. I did limited detail in the engine compartment because it’ll all be hidden behind the cowling. I’m not going to open any panels, just the Eduard cowling flaps I added will be open. My intent is to take photos and post before I sanded down the cylinder heads and painted the inside of the cowling and closed up the engine compartment. And I have to say that it took a lot of sanding on the cylinder heads and it was painful.
I really like this photo.
The finished cowling. I had to do a little extra work to the two bottom cowling flaps to make them look right. I’m not sure if this photo shows it very good.
I like this photo too, so I posted it.
This photo I posted to show something I found a couple days ago while cleaning up the tail. There’re some significant sink marks (I think that’s what they’re called) on the tail running vertically from the top of the tail almost to where the tail planes are attached. There’s also a deep sink mark on the part at the bottom of the tail directly below where the rudder will sit. These sinks marks are present on both sides of the tail. However, I’ve recently discovered the usefullness of Mr. Surfacer and these areas are now smooth as a NMF.
This posting is significant and I separated it from the other thread because this month marks one full year that I’ve been working on this build. Albeit the time I have to work on it is limited. In fact, I’ll be away from my bench for the best part of the next three weeks because of my paying job.
As always I welcome and solicit comments and critiques. Hope you like the photos and thanks for looking.
This has certainly been a year well spent, your work is outstanding! I have this kit in the queue, and I sincerely hope that I can do even half the justice you have done! My hat is off to you, and thanks for sharing!
You’re gaining on it Steve, and I must say your work is impecable. That’s a shame about having to sand the engine heads. It’s too bad AM manufacturers don’t get it right. The engine is beautifull btw, and definitely adds to what is sure to be a real head turner. Looking forward to more progress.
I don’t recall weather you mentioned it before or not, but the aircraft interior detail gave me even more grief then the engine/cowling fit.
As an aside, isn’t it kind of funny that for such a detailed engine compartment, just like the interior, they did not mold seperate access panels so you could show it of fto your buddies?
Oh well…
Installing the rear turret is downright weird, but it will go in! It seem to finally go into place when you least expect it to! [%-)]
Thanks all for the great comments, I appreciate them.
Tom T - the interior wasn’t too bad for me, though i spent significantly more time on it than on the engine and engine compartment. The interior required a fair amount of scratch-building especially the interior fuselage spars and ribbing I added in the radio operator and ventral gunner’s compartment. An earlier progress thread I posted a while ago covered the interior work. But one wuld have to go back at least 35-40 pages in the aircraft forum to find it.
The Accurate Miniatures online build feature for the Avenger gives pretty good instructions on how to install the ball turret, so I’m looking forward to using them when I get to that step.
This build has taken a long time but my goal is to finish by summer.
Thanks again for the comments. I’ll try post more progress pics as soon as I can.
