Italerei (ex-AMT) Douglas A-20B Havoc

Started by Tom Cleaver · 55 · 2 years ago
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    Tom Cleaver said 2 years, 8 months ago:

    Of course you did! 🙂

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    Eric Berg said 2 years, 8 months ago:

    @tcinla and @fiveten: I would like to address this cowling business one more time just to confuse things up. I plan on building the RAF C version or Mk III. These were mostly build by Boeing as I understand it for France under the designation DB-7 but the RAF ended up acquiring these and I believe the rest went to Russia.

    Upon doing a little poking around, I learned that most of the late B models and all of the C's had just one exhaust stack poking out of each outboard narcelle. The rear of the cowlings featured cooling flaps. Some cowlings seem to show aligned air or exhaust vents on the sides of the cowlings which were pretty smooth looking overall. Take a look at these photos and you'll see 'em. Therefore, I gather there were no small exhaust stacks on the rear of the cowlings on RAF and LendLease Havocs as AMT/ERTIL molded them for the B/C versions. What do you all say?

    2 attached images. Click to enlarge.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 2 years, 8 months ago:

    By netting, all pics of RAF Bostons I found sported the one big exhaust at the rear sides, my friend @eb801 and NOT the individual exhaust stacks. I also did NOT witness the small exhaust vents circumferentialy in front of the exhaust. Had I to decide, I would go for the single exhaust and NO small cooling openings for a "RAF" Boston.

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    Eric Berg said 2 years, 8 months ago:

    @fiveten: I think this box art from Special Hobby (ex-MPM) spells it out. Says on cover A-20A/B/DB-7C Havoc/Boston. What do you say, Tom@tcinla?

    Now I got to figure out how to conjure up that single exhaust.

    1 attached image. Click to enlarge.

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    Tom Cleaver said 2 years, 8 months ago:

    eb801 - those are early Bostons - the cowlings are what was there for the A-20A and DB-7. That's not the same.

    Also, I have photos of A-20Bs that do not show the single exhaust, and you can see that area. This one is the airplane in the kit.

    1 attached image. Click to enlarge.

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    Tom Cleaver said 2 years, 8 months ago:

    Here it is masked, then preshaded, then painted - about six different hues of "faded Olive Drab", using Tamiya XF-82 RAF Dark Green, which is an exact match for early was US Green-base OD, both being based on the WW1 RAF color PC10.

    From studying the one photo of the US airplane on the decal sheet, I am convinced this is early in its North African career, since there is no modification of the bombardier's canopy for sun shade, and no yellow surround on the fuselage insignia, meaning it is OD/NG. Other all OD A-20s in the 47th BG(L) show them very sun-faded, which is what I went for.

    6 attached images. Click to enlarge.

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    Eric Berg said 2 years, 8 months ago:

    Tom- Thanks for the cowling explanation. I get it now.

    Looks like you’re using a paint technique similar to what you did with that olive drab Dora Wings Lancer. Si?

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    Tom Cleaver said 2 years, 8 months ago:

    @eb801 - yes, exactly, When you have a monochromatic scheme, the thing to do is break up the monochrome, so "wearing" the paint through use and sun fading and such is the way to go.

    This is going to get a lot of scuffing and "dings" on leading edges, etc.

    Here's what I'm going to aim for looks-wise.

    1 attached image. Click to enlarge.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 2 years, 8 months ago:

    Love the paintwork, @tcinla! Amazing representation of the faded paint.

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    Eric Berg said 2 years, 8 months ago:

    @tcinla - that's a great photo that explains where you're going with the faded paint. First time I've ever noticed the adjustable open and shut louvers in the carburetor air intake scoops.

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    John vd Biggelaar said 2 years, 8 months ago:

    Looking great, Tom @tcinla

    Preshading and the paintwork afterwards looks perfect.

    @fiveten, @eb801, @tcinla, thanks for the discussion on the cowlings, that will be of great help for future builds.

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    Tom Cleaver said 2 years, 8 months ago:

    Decals on.

    Now to "scuff it up."

    2 attached images. Click to enlarge.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 2 years, 8 months ago:

    The decals "livened" it up nicely, @tcinla!
    Looking forward to the weathering!

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    John vd Biggelaar said 2 years, 8 months ago:

    Nearly done, Tom @tcinla
    Decals look nice and I'm eagerly waiting to see those masks being removed.

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    Pedro L. Rocha said 2 years, 8 months ago:

    It’s looking terrific! Good hint about the OD shade