Havoc! The Douglas A-20G in 1/32

The Douglas A-20 Havoc needs no introduction to WW2 aviation enthusiasts, as this versatile workhouse could be found in just about every war theater except the CBI where the NA B-25 held sway. This sturdy, fast and agile attack bomber was used by the USAAF, RAF and other commonwealth air forces, Armee De L'air and in very large numbers by the Soviet VVS, who regarded the Havoc as one of their very best weapons. The A-20 was also well-liked by their crews, with the pilot sitting high and in front of the propellers in a roomy albeit narrow cockpit which give him excellent vision all around him.

In the PTO, USAAF General George Kenney couldn't get enough of them. Major "Pappy" Gunn of the 30th BG added 50 cal machine guns to the noses of his glass-nosed A-20's to create powerful strafers and Gen Kenney's 5th AF groups roamed all over Japanese held territory in New Guinea, Hebrides' and the Philippine's skip bombing shipping, attacking coastal traffic, scattering frag bombs on Japanese airfields and generally creating all kinds of meyhem for the enemy wherever they could be found. The A-20's soldiered on all the way to VJ Day although many bomb groups were converting to the more advanced A-26, with many A-20's flying 100 missions or more.

One such A-20 is the one I chose to model, A-20G-25-DO s/n 43-9126 'Ravin Rachael/ California" of the 389th BS, 312 BG flying out of Gusap, Papua New Guinea in late 1944. Flown by 1/Lt James Rutledge, this bird flew an estimated 170 missions(!) before being lost in a mid-air collision in May of 1945. Although most of the squadrons of the 312th carried a skull and crossbones on the tip of their noses, apparently the 389th did not...but I added the markings anyway as a way to honor the entire group of intrepid pilots that blasted their way to VJ Day.

Hong Kong Models released their first A-20 in their 1/32 series, the G model, back in 2022 and it is quite a hit! The moldings are stout with outstanding detail including a realistic oil-can effect on the surfaces, subtle riveting and panel lines and excellent internal and external details as you would expect from a large-scale kit...but Neil Yan and company Got It Right! on this one! The dimensions, shapes and details are for the most part quite accurate, with a few exceptions that I'll outline below...

This won't be a blow-by-blow build, as most who read this article are likely moderately experienced builders. I will point out some of the salient issues I found in building this kit to help smooth out the rough spots...
A: The nose wheel on this kit is wholly incorrect, although it's an exact replica of the one on the only current A-20G flying in the world today the Lewis Air Legends A-20G, which features the exact wheel on the kit. It appears to be a truck tire and looks nothing like the original donut shaped tire on wartime Havocs. I replaced mine with one from Eduard's corrected resin set. This has been addressed in the A-20J kit with the correct wheel.
B: The instructions remind me in some degree to DML/Dragon, requiring that you pay close attention to parts orientation and location. The location of some of the cockpit consoles are totally wrong in the instruction sheet, but the kit has the correct locations molded in place, so test fit before glueing!
C: Step 13 is the assembly of details in the fuselage, and I could not figure out how to orient H52 into the fuse side, or how the tunnel ammo can (E1/2) was to fit onto it. The instructions were completely useless for that setup, so I fudged it.
D: The nose gear. The build sequence requires that you assemble in place the nose gear in its well below the cockpit early in the build. The issue is that the yoke strut H21 contact points to its supporting a-frame H20 are very very small and easily broken with the slightest bit on mishandling. Forewarned is forearmed! This has also been addressed in the A-20J kit with a set of metal landing gears. I would up reinforcing the joints with some Bondic cement.
E: The rest of the build proceeded fast once the fuselage was joined together. Very little filler was used anywhere and the fit of the wings to the fuselage was very tight, which is something Hk's kits are known for. The engines are excellent replicas of the Wright R2600 Double Cyclones and just need harness wiring to complete them. I used some thin solder, doubled over and flattened with some needlenose pliers at the bend, and glued to the harness with Bondic and the engine wired.
F: The instrument panel is mounted too far away from the pilot. This has also been addressed in the A-20J, but I wasn't too put off by that. I used Eduard's LOOK ip detail set to make the cockpit really pop, along with the included harnesses.
G: The Martin turret is very nicely done, but for some reason the 50 cal belts to the guns were omitted!? I found an old set for vinyl gun belts from a 1/32 Trumpeter P-47 the fit perfectly and used them. It pays to have a well-stocked spares box!

For large scale kits I like to paint whatever markings I can. I used the Zotz 32/084 Havoc in the PTO WWII decal set which includes 8 distinct Havocs from the 312th and 3rd Attack Groups, all with colorful nose art. I chose Ravi Rachael because it had large atrwork on both sides of the nose, but the decal set includes vinyl masks for both the stars and bars and the croc teeth for "Jack's Hack", a nice touch. I sprayed the white for the "L" and the white strip on the tail and masked them off, and used Edurd's 32 scale masking set for all the clear parts, then...

Pondered on how to paint weathered OD.
Sounds like it would be easy, right? Just grab a pot of Tamiya OD and spray away...except Tamiya OD is too dark, and I'm finding out that other acrylic OD paints are too fragile to hold up to repeated handling during the painting process. So after reaching out on various forums and getting no response I did some research and found the OD 41 is a mix of black and yellow, so in order to lighten OD, add a shade of yellow. I wound up using Tamiya desert yellow in a 80/20 ratio of OD/DY. I varied the color to finish the fabric covered control surfaces and added mottling to age the look. I used AK RealColors Medium Green for the green on the wings and tail, I sprayed the wing walk markings in red. I used the hairspray technique to chip the wings, cowlings and the beautiful props. After a couple of coats of my dwindling stock of Future I applied all the marking, which are done by Cartograph and of the highest quality, and I was really pleased at how this Big bird was shaping up!

I had Eduard's redone resin nose and main wheels to use. They are just outstanding replicas and really look the part, with the mags being 3d printed. I did use the nose wheel but opted to use the kit main wheels due to an issue I've had using resin wheels on other HK kits: The axles are keyed to allow the flats on the kit wheels to contact the surface. The resin wheels are not, so they tend to wobble or splay while the epoxy dries, and on such a large kit that would be very obvious. So I used the kit wheels, which aren't bad at all, and will use the Eduard wheels on the A-20J.

I could not be more pleased with this model! It's BIG, Bad and Beautiful and is now waiting for a 5th AF Base to sit it on! If you have the space for this bird, I can Highly recommend this kit!

14 additional images. Click to enlarge.