Revell's 1/72 A-20C Havoc/Boston III.
This is an old build that I made back around 1988. I remember having a great time building this kit. I recently gave this a good clean and repaired a missing aerial and loose main wheels. Not too bad for a model made 35 years ago.
Back in the 60's Airfix and Frog already had an A-20C in their catalog. Then Revell released another 1/72 A-20C/Boston Mk.III in 1967 for us modelers to build. I've seen all three builds displayed and I felt Revell was the better kit, But Airfix is a very close second. My build is from Revell's 1973 boxing, not a bad kit but It does have some issues and I went ahead to do some corrections:
- I sanded down all of the rivets,
- Scratched built extra details for the cockpit, bombardier, rear gunner areas and made a life raft that was placed behind the pilot.
- Made clear lens from clear sprue for the wing tip lights.
- the propellers came from the snap together Monogram B-25.
- Widen the engine cowling inlets, scribed the cowl flaps, cooler doors and reworked the carburetor inlets .
- Had to fix the tail plane, it was too swept back. Shimmed it to the correct position, filled in the old elevator's hinge lines and re-scribed the new elevator's hinge lines.
- Added aerials, pitot tube and navigation lights.
- Reworked and cleaned up the undercarriages and used cut stretched sprue to add the toque links.
- All of the clear parts for the cockpit, bombardier and rear gunner were glued into place and sanded down then polished.
- Decals comes from an old ESCI set and what came with the kit.
This Boston MK.III is from the No.107 squadron and flew missions from England for the next two years, attacked German airfields and transport targets in occupied Europe. In February 1944 the Bostons were replaced with the Mosquito FB.VI.
Cute as can be Bob,congratulations!
Thank you Marcus, she's a cutie!
Another superb build, Bob!
Well done!
Thank you Spiros.
Very nice. What do you sand and polish the clear parts with ?
Thank you Bernard, I wet sanded by using 220, 500 and 1000 grit wet/dry sandpaper. The clear parts on the canopy, bombardier and rear gunner's position had rivets on the frames so I wanted them off. Then with an old cotton T-shirt I polish the sanded clear parts with tooth paste, any brand will do and the final polishing is done with this extremely old can of Permatex Plastic Cleaner.
2 attached images. Click to enlarge.
Thank you. Will try that .
Nicely done Bob. I like these older builds.
Thank you Robert, I really enjoy the older stuff too!
She looks still amazing after 35 years, Bob @v1pro
It even looks like to be a fresh build.
Thank you John, I got lucky with this one.
Stood the test of time well Bob 😊 great build and even better still being able to admire it after 35 years, nice one 👍
Thank you Guy.
Nice work, Bob. That was one of the better early Revell 1/72 kits.
Thank you John. Yes this is one of their better kits from that time.
Nice refurbish job. Sometimes an old build just needs come cleaning, new antennas, pitot tubes, and polished up clear parts.
Thank you Chas, I have a few more to refurbish.
Another oldie but goodie! Excellent project.
Thank you Greg, yes an Oldie but goodie!
Very nice looking Bob @v1pro. You did a terrific job cleaning this oldie up and bringing it up to snuff.
Thank you Eric, it is nice to see this kit look happy again.
This A-20 looks great, Bob @v1pro ,
Th build quality and nice paint make this old kit really stand out.
Thanks Jay @ssgt. This is one of my favorite builds from that time.
The old girl cleans up nice, Bob (@v1pro). I have plans for a couple of 1/48 Havocs coming up soon in the queue. Thanks for the inspiration.
Thank you George, looking forward on your A-20 builds.
It's a classic!
Thank you Emberson.
Very nice result!
Thank you Lis.
Man, that looks very fine Bob! Great looking WWII twin, sir @v1pro! 🍻
Thank you Gary @garybrantley. Yes the A-20 is a great looking WWII twin.