gmat Posted December 20, 2009 Share Posted December 20, 2009 Hasegawa released the TBM-3S2 last Friday and it has probably disappeared from the shelves by now. Here is a close up of the parts. New rear canopy. U-1 New radar operator crew station U-5 Searchlight pod, U-4 and clear nose, U-3. UR-7, UR-8, instrument consoles, UR-12, ECM antenna on left side of fuselage, UR-13, dorsal antenna, UR-14, ventral antennas and UR-11, right fuselage antenna. UR-12 should be more tear drop shaped. Grant Quote Link to post Share on other sites
gmat Posted December 20, 2009 Author Share Posted December 20, 2009 Tail hook, UR-9 UR-10, radar shackles Seat, UR-6. New lower rear window fairing, UR-2. Note new scribed windows on rear face. I wish that Hasegawa had done this as injection plastic parts, as I think that they could have released US, Canadian, RN and French versions and all would have sold very well. They could have repopped it every four or six years. Best wishes, Grant Quote Link to post Share on other sites
johnsan Posted December 24, 2009 Share Posted December 24, 2009 I saw this last Saturday in Yellow Submarine. They had 2. I fondled one, carried it around the shop for about 10 minutes and ended up putting it back on the shelf. The yen to plastic ratio was too high. Almost immediately someone else swooped in and snagged both kits. Kinda wish I'd bought it. Oh, well. It looks like a decent kit. The clear parts in the one I looked at didn't look quite so rough. The decal sheet looked really nice, although a bit limited in choice. Thanks for posting the photos, Matt. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
gmat Posted December 24, 2009 Author Share Posted December 24, 2009 John, I did the same thing at Yellow Submarine last Friday. I held the kit and put it on the shelf while deciding if I wanted to get another one. I had already reserved one at Sunny Hobbies. By the time I had walked around the store and came back, someone had taken it. I quickly got mine at Sunnys. Both shops had it discounted around 20%. Sunny didn't use to do that so you could find those special kits there for about a week longer. Leonardo had two for 5000yen last Friday. The hobby shop in the department store at Nishi-Ogikubu doesn't mark down their kits, so you might find one there. They used to be outside of the department store, but moved about four years ago. If you are near Yokota, try the shop outside of the gate. They get the new kits and no one seems to buy them. That's where I got the recent F-111C/G kit in August, long after they had disappeared from the shelves in downtown Tokyo. You can also order Sprue UR for 4500 yen. Ouch!!! The decal is 800 yen. I thought that the Avenger might disappear quickly as HLJ had stopped taking orders about a month before it was first due to be released in November. I've been wanting to do that version for a while, so I would have gotten a kit either way. I want to do it as a FALLWEATRAPAC (Fleet All Weather Training Pacific, previously VCN-1) TBM-3N, based out of Barbers Point with PA tail code. There is a good color picture in Wing of Fame, Vol. 13, with the article on the Avenger. A B/W cropped shot appears in the Detail and Scale book, but it is not identified. The photo next to it of a VCN-2 aircraft show details of the antennas. You would need to add a dagger antenna on the fuselage side just behind the fairing for the ventral gunner. Both USN TBM-3S and N had that antenna, but apparently foreign versions didn't. Pictures show it on the left side, but I suspect there was another on the right side. The blade antenna on the -3S belly is not on the TBM-3N but there is a thin T shaped antenna at about the same position. I believe that it is a ELINT direction finder antenna and is not the shorter and thicker T shaped height antennas found on many aircraft. There is also light colored tear drop antenna on the right side on both TBM-3S2s and TBM-3Ns. I think that this is a jammer and should be on both sides for all round coverage. If you have the Hasegawa kit, you should note that the instructions err in orienting the last antenna vertically. It should be horizontal. The kit shape is wrong and should be tear drop shaped. JMSDF TBM-3S2s apparently had the right antenna replaced with a angular antenna as per the kit. If you look at close ups of AD-1/2/3/4Q and Ns, you can get a better view of the antennas. TBM-3Ns had a scope mounted above the forward instrument panel in the operator's position. The TBM-3S did not mount the scope here. The hole for the rear seat is not solid but open, so you would be better off scratching your own. The resin external tail hook rod is a too wide so it looks too flat but given the nature of resin, I don't think that they could have made it thinner with having it easily break. The metal hook on the Night Avenger TBM-3 kit is too thick. It should be thinner. TBM-3E, SK-401, TBF/TBM Avenger in Action, page 43, shows added details. It has the data link antenna on the tail like the TBM-3W as well as a shorter triangular blade ventral antenna on the bomb bay directly below the pilot. Possibly there were two methods of mounting the searchlight pod. One is under the wing and the kit has provisions for this set up with pod and pylon. Wings of Fame, vol. 13, page 88 has a photo showing this mount. Koku-fan also shows a drawing that had the pod mounted by a pylon attached to the left fuselage above the bomb bay. I searched a while back and may have seen a photo showing this mount. Photos of the pod are rare and most don't show the pod very well. TBM-3S SH-3, page 46 in Avengers in Action seems to show the pod in this position. One final unknown about the FALLWEATRAPAC TBM-3N is the under wing mounts for the rockets. It should be two stubs, fore and aft, but the photo appears to show a solid long pylon. There is no gap between the fore and aft stubs. The earlier VCN-2 aircraft has the normal stubs. Possibly it could be a thin mount/bomb rack connecting both stubs. A good reference is looking at the Canadian TBM-3S kit at the Belcher Bits site, but as most were converted by the Canadian Division of Fairy Aircraft Company from TBM-3Es, arrangement of the instruments may differ from the USN. Best wishes, Grant Quote Link to post Share on other sites
johnsan Posted December 24, 2009 Share Posted December 24, 2009 Hi Matt. Good info there. I'm still not sure whether I'll pick one up. It's kind of hard for me to justify the price. Still doing one from Barbers has its attractions. Now if I find photos of one from Atsugi, I'll be all over that bad boy. I'm close to Atsugi, so I'll check Sunny and Lucky Bay Fort. Usually have pretty good luck there. Any plans on how you'll be doing yours? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
gmat Posted December 24, 2009 Author Share Posted December 24, 2009 One possibility for a TBM-3S at Atsugi would be VS-21 and possibly VS-23. Link to VS-21 deactivation article: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0IA...7/ai_n14708193/ It mentions that VS-21 was shore based in Japan during their first cruise at the outbreak of the Korean War. Wings at War, Vol. 13, page 65 has a photo of a VS-21, BS-17 and a VS-23, MI-17 TBM-3S captioned as "on the runway at Johnson AFB, Yokota, Japan." Apparently Atsugi was run down until reactivated during the Korean War and Iwakuni was used by the RAAF. I don't know where the USN put aircraft ashore before the Korean War. Some points of lesser interest, the writer of the Wings At War article confused Johnson and Yokota AB. Johnson Air Base, not AFB, was located about five miles from Yokota AB and is now Iruma Air Base. Best wishes, Grant Matsuoka Quote Link to post Share on other sites
johnsan Posted December 24, 2009 Share Posted December 24, 2009 Oh, jeez. I just noticed I called you Matt instead of Grant. So very sorry. I was excited in the subject and lost track of more important matters. Again, most sorry. Thanks for the pointers about Atsugi. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
gmat Posted December 25, 2009 Author Share Posted December 25, 2009 John, Sorry, you didn't have to apologize. That wasn't my intent. Sunnys still has the Avenger kit for 4368 yen. I saw it this afternoon. I was going to go back and pick it up but upon inspecting the kit at home, I had second thoughts. I won't be using much save the canopy. I also wasn't satisfied with the shape of the back part of the rear canopy. I think that it should be a little higher. I think that I should build it up and make a vacu-form canopy. I would have used the kit canopy to make vacu-form one anyway. I don't care for resin, and would try to replicate some of the parts using sheet plastic. Other parts would be differ from the sprue UR parts. But it probably would be nice to have an extra one. Best wishes, Grant Quote Link to post Share on other sites
gmat Posted December 25, 2009 Author Share Posted December 25, 2009 john, I broke down and got a second one. If you want I can let you have the resin parts after I'm done with them. Best wishes, Grant Quote Link to post Share on other sites
sierrascale Posted December 25, 2009 Share Posted December 25, 2009 Great info and review, Grant! How possible would it be to do a JMSDF -3S2 from the 1/48 AM kit? I have the Belcher conversion - the rear canopy looks quite similar. I could use the Hasegawa kit as a guide to create the additional details. I know MDC has conversion sets for the USN and JMSDF versions, but I've never gotten around to getting them. Decals would be a problem. Would it be possible, Grant, to get a hi-rez scan of the Hasegawa decal sheet? bob sierrascale Quote Link to post Share on other sites
gmat Posted December 25, 2009 Author Share Posted December 25, 2009 Bob, I couldn't find out what the canopy for the Belcher Bits looked like. If it is the short canopy, then it should be OK for a JMSDF Avenger. Looking at the MDC parts, there are two or three different parts that I don't recognize, but I don't think that they would add much to the Belcher Bits kit. The main additions to the Belcher Bits kit would be replicating the searchlight pod with it's non-symmetrical rear shape as well as the tear drop ECM antennas on the fuselage sides. The blade antennas would be easier to fabricate. The Hasegawa kit advises to install the seat in the middle cockpit, but it should have a rack for electronic equipment in that space. I think that it is the part with the large and small 'black box.' I believe that it would be mounted half-way between the cockpit floor and the canopy sill. Since I installed Snow Leopard, I can't get my computer to recognize the scanning functions of my HP copier and Photoshop Elements 6 and haven't yet tried to sort out why. So no scans at the moment. I can mail you the decals and you can return them when you are done. I will look through my older issues of Japanese aviation magazines to look for photos of JMSDF Avengers. No interior shots and most are rather poor, I'm afraid. Best wishes, Grant Quote Link to post Share on other sites
dragonfly Posted December 25, 2009 Share Posted December 25, 2009 Wow...those clear parts don't look very good. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
gmat Posted December 25, 2009 Author Share Posted December 25, 2009 I guess that the clear parts could be buffed to make it look better. But there is nothing better at the moment, sigh... Here is a link to a Korean site with a build of the Trumpeter 1/32 Avenger. Not a TBM-3S but useful for details including the equipment rack in the center cockpit. http://www.mmzone.co.kr/album/view.php?id=27867 Best wishes, Grant Quote Link to post Share on other sites
sierrascale Posted December 25, 2009 Share Posted December 25, 2009 (edited) Bob,I couldn't find out what the canopy for the Belcher Bits looked like. If it is the short canopy, then it should be OK for a JMSDF Avenger. Looking at the MDC parts, there are two or three different parts that I don't recognize, but I don't think that they would add much to the Belcher Bits kit. The main additions to the Belcher Bits kit would be replicating the searchlight pod with it's non-symmetrical rear shape as well as the tear drop ECM antennas on the fuselage sides. The blade antennas would be easier to fabricate. The Hasegawa kit advises to install the seat in the middle cockpit, but it should have a rack for electronic equipment in that space. I think that it is the part with the large and small 'black box.' I believe that it would be mounted half-way between the cockpit floor and the canopy sill. Since I installed Snow Leopard, I can't get my computer to recognize the scanning functions of my HP copier and Photoshop Elements 6 and haven't yet tried to sort out why. So no scans at the moment. I can mail you the decals and you can return them when you are done. I will look through my older issues of Japanese aviation magazines to look for photos of JMSDF Avengers. No interior shots and most are rather poor, I'm afraid. Best wishes, Grant The Belcher set has both long and short canopies. Mailing the decals is fine- address is 1620 Bonnycastle Ave., Louisville, KY 40205. Thanks. Interior is not that important - the belcher set has a bunch of interior mods. I'm saving all your comments for ref. Bob sierrascale. Edited December 25, 2009 by sierrascale Quote Link to post Share on other sites
caiotfjr Posted December 26, 2009 Share Posted December 26, 2009 I guess that the clear parts could be buffed to make it look better. But there is nothing better at the moment, sigh...Here is a link to a Korean site with a build of the Trumpeter 1/32 Avenger. Not a TBM-3S but useful for details including the equipment rack in the center cockpit. http://www.mmzone.co.kr/album/view.php?id=27867 Best wishes, Grant I can just imagine the kind of comments if this piece of rubish was done by Trumpeter But it's "holligawa"... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
gmat Posted December 26, 2009 Author Share Posted December 26, 2009 Understand your feelings. I believe that the resin parts are not produced by Hasegawa but an outside source. Gartex has produced some of the earlier resin parts. I also think that the clear parts are probably also clear resin. Notice no runners into the parts. I searched my magazines and haven't found any of the pictures yet. Will send the decals. Best wishes, Grant Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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