I got the idea of submitting this
model when I was going through this old Airfix cataloque I have and saw some of
the amazing box-art in it. For instance the B- 29 Superfortress by Roy Cross, his
painting of the D3A1 Val bombing an American carrier and off course the Firefly
landing on a British carrier. Most modelers know Airfix as the ground breaking
company where kit aircraft are concerned. A lot of their kits nowadays lack
abundance in detail and photo-etched parts but they still hold a lot of
nostalgia and fun memories for 'older' builders.
Click on
images below to see larger images
Some information
about the Avenger I found in the 1997 Dutch naval air service calendar (provided
to me by my uncle Arie who was a fire fighter with our naval air service).
Mutual defence assistance program (mdap) was the name of the deal the Dutch
government had with the USA. In the 50's it provided SBD's to our navy.
They
served in the Dutch Antilles (Hato airbase at Curacao) as patrol aircraft and
submarine killers. They operated in so called hunter-killer pairs. The SBD I
made served in Curacao in 1958-'59 in nr.1 squadron.
I added some detail to this awesome old Airfix-kit, like a formation light,
arial and some cockpit-detail (all straight from my good old scrapbox). The
cracked windshield is no added detail but was caused by accidentally sitting on
it in the process of building. Maybe I will ever change it for a brand new one.
Decals are from a fantastic company called 'Dutch-decal' who have unfortunately
ceased to exist. The setnr. is 72018 (I can recommend it because it holds
decals for a Mitchell, Neptune, Wasp, some more SBD's, Tiger Moth and of course
the Firefly you can see in the big picture and is also an Airfix kit). The
kit is painted by hand with Humbrol gloss sea blue.
I hope you have enjoyed this submission!!!!
Jeroen
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