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