1/72 Conair TBM Avenger (Belgian Civil Protection)

[Spey_Phantom]

this is gonna be my first build to start of in the new year  

Back History:

in 1961, a large fire broke out in the industrial region of Antwerp. a large explosion at a big chemical plant set the whole complex ablaze. fire services had a hard time fightering the flames, as the company compound was over 150 acres big. in the summer of 1965, a forest fire terrorised the walloon ardennes, something that never happened in Belgium before, but it was one of the dryest summers on record.

as a result of lessons learned of these 2 unfortunate events, the Belgian ministery of internal affairs isseud that there now was a need for fire fighting aircraft. the Belgian Air Force requested to step in if needed, using helicopters equiped with bambi buckets, but the helicopters were to slow and underpowered in those days.
in 1967, the awnser came, in the form of 2 secondhand Conair converted TBM Avengers. these 2 aircraft were to be operated by the Belgian Protecion Civile/Civiele Bescherming, under a trials program.

the first real test for the aircraft came in the summer of 1968, when another forest fire threatened villages in the Ardennes. the PC/CB was mobilesed to battle the fires and proved that fire fighting by air was the best way to deal with forest- and industrial fires. in 1971, when the Belgian Navy retired its Avengers after replacing them with the Breguet Alizé, 4 of them were transfered to the ministery of interiour and localy converted by Conair to fire bombers at the SABCA factories in Haren.

the Avengers stayed on duty until they were phased out in 2004, geing replaced by 2 Dornier Do228 water bombers.

The Model:

the model willbe build out of either an Airfix or Academy TBM Avenger (leaning towards Airfix).
modifications will include the removal of the rear gunturret and a slight modification of the bombbay doors.

below is a quick profile of the planned build  

[pyro-manic]

Heh, cool!

[Spey_Phantom]

ok, i started by looking for some decals, i happened to have some left over from a previous (almost realworld) project.
im still gonna check the spare decals box for tailcodes and maybe some cool nose art.
im curently having some trouble finding good pics of the firebombers bombay system (implemented on the US Forestry service's Avengers. guess i will have to invent one myself 

[pyro-manic]

From a bit of sniffing around, it looks like there were many different conversions made, so I would say do what you think looks good. Here are some links that might be helpful:

http://www.scalefirebombers.com/tbm.html
http://forestprotectiontbmavengers.wordpress.com/about/
http://www.aircraftresourcecenter.com/Gal10/9901-10000/gal9910-Avenger-Janssen/00.shtm

[Spey_Phantom]

thanks for the links, Pyro 
these have proved very usefull, i can work with these 

anyway, i got an update 

i just started on painting the cockpit and landingwheel wells, im gonna start installing fire fighting gear as soon as i get the main fuselage together, im also gonna be looking in the spare pilots box for a pilot to fly this beast 

here are a few pics, nothing special 

[Spey_Phantom]

had a little setback this morning, noticed that the old airfix kit my uncle gave me didnt have a portside aileron 
so i replaced both with a styrene strip and a bit of PSR  , just need to redo the underside of the wings 

[Tophe]

interesting and pleasant, build it...

[Taiidantomcat]

looking good so far 

[pyro-manic]

Indeed!

[Spey_Phantom]

thanks everyone, got a small update 

have been working all week, so i didnt have much time to continue on the build.
i just finished painting the radial engine and the landing gear.

earlier this week, i put the 2 fuselage halves together, added 2 conformal blisters on the bombay (just 2 feultank halves, nothing special yes, still needs some modification work), i did ad a sprinkler system made from spare spitfire merlin engine exhausts, but that didnt turn out good, so i removed them.
canopy is fitted, i added the frot windshield from a scrapped hasegawa F-18A to replace the tailgun turret, will be overpainted when the paintwork starts.

wing have recieved final PSR and are now ready to be painted 

pics...

[Cobra]

Awesome Job have you given your Aircraft a Name Yet? if not, Would  Protector work? Stay Cool & Can't Wait to see when it's Ready. Dan

[Captain Canada]

Great idea, Nils ! Looking good so far. You gotta love them old kits, eh ? Maybe the details aren't up to todays standards, but they sure seem to go together nice.

[Spey_Phantom]

i just fitted the landing gear under the wings, seems to come together nicely  



i also started some prelimenary paintwork last night, just to find any PRS problems, with the flash they are invisible  



but without the flash is looks like i will have to redo the PSR around the old turret location  



so tonight its gonna be sanding, tomorrow i need to go out and get some new masking tape, so i can start with painting the top fuselage and wings 

[Spey_Phantom]

after some additional sanding and a lot of white paint to fill some scratchmarks, the result finally was satisfactory.
been gone all day running some erands and got me a new roll of masking tape and orange paint (basecoat for dayglo). just taped off all the sections before applying the white paint (witch is going to ba a pain concidering the Blue plastic  )

[pyro-manic]

For painting the white, start with a grey primer - it's half-way towards white from the dark blue, and it'll help. The conversion work is looking good so far - I like the use of the canopy part for the rear decking.