Introduction

The Grumman TBF Avenger was truly one of the greatest Naval aircraft of WWII. It was also used in a variety of roles, including torpedo bomber, straight and level bomber and even to a limited extent, a dive bomber. The Avenger was originally designed and built by Grumman, but as the war progressed, production was shifted to General Motors (designated TBM instead of TBF) so that Grumman could concentrate on building F6F Hellcats.
The Avenger entered service in 1942 and saw its combat debut in the Battle of Midway. It's debut combat record was inauspicious to say to the least. Five of the six Avengers which took part in the raid were lost. It, did however, go on to be the most widely used torpedo bomber of the war and was responsible for sinking 30 Japanese submarines and was instrumental in the sinking of the battleships Yamamoto and Musashi.
The Avenger was a large plane, in fact, the largest plane on aircraft carriers in WWII. It had a wingspan of just over 54 feet and a length of just over 40 feet. It had a crew of three; a pilot, turret gunner and radio operator/tail gunner/bombardier. It was armed with (3) .50 caliber machine guns, two controlled by the pilot and one by the ball turret gunner. A .30 caliber machine gun was used as a "stinger". It could also carry a wide ranger of munitions, including a homing torpedo, bombs, mines, HVAR rockets and depth charges. Later versions were also equipped with radar.

The Kit

Just as the Avenger was a very large aircraft, so is Trumpeter's 1/32 version of it. The kit comes in a very large and sturdy box, with a total of 17 light gray sprues containing 489 pieces. It also comes with a PE and 2 clear sprues. The detail is very sharp and the rivets and panel lines not overdone as had been the case on several previous Trumpeter offerings. The level of detail is outstanding, from the engine to the front and rear cockpits. This may be Trumpeter's best kit up to its date of release. Weapons included in the kit include bombs, torpedo, rockets and an auxiliary fuel tank. Unfortunately, much of the extensive rear cockpit detail will be difficult to see once the model is "buttoned up" but I intend to keep the large access door open.

The Cowling

The cowling is large and there is a fair amount of room in it even with the engine installed. I plan on opening a panel in the cowling so I added internal structure using a combination of 0.080" and 0.040" U-channel and strip styrene. I scratch built the carburetor inlet trunk out of laminated sheet styrene and shaped it with the Dremel and a carbide shaping bit.

The Engine

I have to give Trumpeter credit when it comes to the engine. The engine is nearly a kit unto itself. Trumpeter engineered the engine sprue to maximize detail, especially in the small parts. The push rod covers are separate pieces, allowing a greater amount of detail to be molded. The accessor section is extremely well detailed, with all the various accessories faithfully molded. The cooling fins, of course, are coarser than on the actual engine, but this comes as no surprise as nearly all model manufacturers are guilty of this. The injection molding process does have some limitations. The reduction gear housing has a hole in the center where the pin from the end of the prop is to be inserted. I preferred to have the propeller shaft depicted so I filled in the propeller spinner with resin and cut off the pin. I have a propeller shaft silicon mold that has all of the splines, so I cast one and inserted it into the hole of the reduction gear housing. I then drilled a hole in the back of the propeller hub. Now the propeller can be removed to highlight engine detail. The ignition ring appeared to be too thin and as soon as I tried to drill holes into it to solder to simulate spark plug wires, it started to break. I just scratch built another one, problem solved.

The Firewall

There is a lot going on with the firewall. There is the oil tank, oil cooler, numerous boxes and a lot of wiring and plumbing, much of it not included in the kit. Since I will be opening two panels on the port side of the fuselage, I will need to add the missing items.