Reviews : Academy USN TBF1C Battle of Leyte Gulf Bomber

This is a very good kit. The fit is excellent and no putty is needed. The clear pieces all fit well. The provided masks are pre-cut and easy to use. The instructions are mostly clear. Though the painting call outs are insufficiently detailed. The only things to be careful with are the installation of the turret. It does fit but it takes some care. Also, assuming that you're installing the bomb bay doors as open, you cannot just bend them as the instructions state. You must actually cut them. The decals are good. The only real weakness to this kit is the lack of a decal for the instrument panel. Its a reissue of an older Accurate Miniatures kit but you'd think they'd have done a decal for the instrument panel. So I did buy the Eduard panel (which also comes with seat belts) and that is a nice addition to the kit.

This is still one of the best kits in this scale of the Avenger. First issued by Accurate Miniatures in the late 1980's it is still a very good kit. I used my old AM instruction sheet to build it because the color callouts were more accurate and it helped to address some of the vague areas in the Academy instructions. I painted the pilot's cockpit Bronze Green and the rest of the interior Chromate Green. The only thing I didn't use were the kit decals because I wanted to use aftermarket decals. Overall it still fits well for moulds that are almost forty years old.

This is a great model of a big airplane. This is a good size model and is straightforward to build. This model does provide a challenge on building the interior. When painting the interior, do plenty of research. The interior is the most challenging of the assembly. The instructions are straightforward but can be a bit confusing when doing the interior. This is still a great kit overall and provides a great challenge for all builders.

Absolutely the worse set of instructions ever. I have more then 200 1/72; over 30 1/48 and 4 1/24 assembled models. All the popular brands. Pictures don't match words, pictures without words. Landing gear does not match model. Several steps deleted. Radio compartment all wrong. Where does the radio man sit? No more Academy for me. Without the internet to refer to actual TBF1 images, it would have been impossible to assemble.

Wanting to add a TBF Avenger to my carrier wing, without congressional budgetary approval, I settled on this kit. Although I did have some minor fit issues, but overall, it was a pleasant build, and the end product looks nice on my deck.

decent quality kit. a small amount of flash to be removed.