1/32 Trumpeter Avenger

Gallery Article by Soren Wolff on Nov 1 2011

 

It was the one hundredth anniversary of U.S. Naval avaition this year, so... to commemorate this I built the Trumpeter 1/32 Avenger.  Quite a kit as I am sure many of you know from building it yourself or reading the reviews. 

 

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The build was straight out of the box more or less.  No after market stuff other than the Montex masks used for the main canopy, rear gun turret and all the insignias.  The ignition wires on the engine are fly tying wire.  The kit was painted with Tamiya acrylics that were mixed down to what I felt looked accurate (as far as I could tell).  I used the Squadron "walk around" as one of my painting guides as well as reviewing many online photos.  Depending on what light the photo was taken in, the colors would change, even using FS# for painting they never looked right, relative to many of the photos.  You will see in one of the photos some of my color tests on the inside of the wing halves prior to building. 

Weathering was was first done with the pre-shading as well a paint bleaching by tinting down the pre mixed colors.  I then would go back and forth with panel line shading and bleaching to get a dynamic affect.  I am still up in the air as to what is enough or not enough panel line shading.  The contrast between the dark lines and the bleached out areas creates a more interesting surface.  After painting the insignias I washed down the whole aircraft with an oil wash to fill the engraved details, then a final dry brush.  I could have pushed the weathering more, but my patience started to wain towards the end of the build and I wanted to finish. I would definitely recommend this kit to anyone with the time. It finishes out to a very impressive build.  

Soren Wolff

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Photos and text © by Soren Wolff