SPA Modeler

Many beautiful builds!

My oldest and untouched builds did not survive the move...

My prides and joys, may they rest in pieces.......

1/48 Hobbyboss TBF (Avenger) ‘Tarpon


1/48 Accurate Miniatures TBF Avenger (a must have kit!)

Incredibly beautiful models, Kevin.
Requiescet in pace.

pzl66 wrote:Many beautiful builds!

My oldest and untouched builds did not survive the move...

My prides and joys, may they rest in pieces.......

1/48 Hobbyboss TBF (Avenger) ‘Tarpon


1/48 Accurate Miniatures TBF Avenger (a must have kit!)

Wow... those are gorgeous builds!

I still have a few surviving kits from my youth years. I posted them here somewhere.

Man those Avengers are awesome!!

Thanks gents!

I still have a TBF and a TBM Avenger in the stash, both AM brands. They can still be had brand new which Italleri has the TBF molds and Academy has the TBM version. Supposedly AM is rising back from the ashes last I checked but don’t know if it got any further. The AM was the first kit I did that was so well engineered and detailed that you could build a really good model with out much assembly effort like filler. I did many paint schemes with the Avengers that I do not know which one I want to do next. The Hobbyboss version offers the folding wings which is cool but the plastic is fairly soft compared to the AM line and not as sturdy in my opinion. Eduard masks are a must though.

TBF & TBM can be used interchangeably. They are the same aircraft, just made by different manufacturers- respectively Grumman (F) and General Motors Eastern Aircraft Division (M). Both companies produced -1 and -3 versions. That’s where design differences come in, but most are internal.

Stikpusher wrote:TBF & TBM can be used interchangeably. They are the same aircraft, just made by different manufacturers- respectively Grumman (F) and General Motors Eastern Aircraft Division (M). Both companies produced -1 and -3 versions. That’s where design differences come in, but most are internal.

I usually shorten TBF-1 to TBF and TBM-3 to TBM, even though GM produced the -1 model, if I recall GM was the only manufacture of the -3.

My oldest untouched model? It is 50 years old now. It was the second model I built (the first one I had help from my mom and it broke up very badly during "missions") The oldest untouched one currently in my collection is the first one I ever built and painted by myself following the instructions. You want to see it?






Brace yourself. It's........ not good........









I was six........










Here it is, the old MPC Profile Series Focke Wulf FW-190 D-9:




Yes, I still have it. I also still have my first untouched armor model that I built a year later:





Okay, there's mine...

Duke Maddog wrote:My oldest untouched model? It is 50 years old now. It was the second model I built (the first one I had help from my mom and it broke up very badly during "missions") The oldest untouched one currently in my collection is the first one I ever built and painted by myself following the instructions. You want to see it?

I was six........

But Duke, that is absolutely stunning work if you were only six years old!

Here is my "work" when I was about the same age.. Decals added on perhaps a year or two later, after I had painted everything with some sort of wall paint...

Still saving it... but what a mixture of decals... German and Portugal ! Not to mention the wing... or other weird things...




- Kari

Duke, I agree, great work especially at 5. Mine look like that now
Kari, I believe you were an aeronautical engineer in the making. Putting the wings on backwards was a stroke of genius