Cry (HKM A-20G) Havoc and let the fly the decals of (miniature) war(planes)!

[ChuckD]

Hi, everyone!  Because I just can't stop building big twins for which I have precisely zero room, it's time to add the HKM A-20G Havoc to the display shelf!  My SprueBrothers pre-order just arrived today (sans the promised mask set, which SB is already fixing) after several months' waiting.  To say I'm excited for this kit is an understatement.  I have a soft spot for SW Pacific gunships and when I heard that HKM was doing an A-20G, I vowed that it would be a bench clearer... and here we are.

 

My aim for this is to build the kit out of the box with the exception of the paint scheme and markings which will likely be custom done via my mask cutter.  I will be doing something from the SW Pacific, but exactly what is yet to be decided.  My super awesome wife bought me the Pacific Profiles A-20 volume for Father's day, so that should be here soon and will help me decide which aircraft I want to model.  

 

I'm going to try to document pretty much every step as I go along so that those who follow in my footsteps may learn from my (admittedly often self-induced) mistakes.

 

Here's the box.  Everything is nicely packed and arrived unharmed.  Note the nose weights in the small bag stapled to the inner box (far left, just barely visible).

 

I like the way HKM seals their bags.  The adhesive strip on a flap makes it easy to get at the sprues without having to cut everything out.

 

Everything is out, organized and ready to go.  I'm not going to dive into detail on the sprue layout or molding quality as that's been covered in quite a few places in the run up to release.

 

Steps 1 and 2 have you build the cockpit.  Here is the factory seat and PE seatbelt.  The PE is nice and thin and, after annealing, sat nicely.  Note that I think the lap belts are illustrated backwards in the instruction manual.  I believe I have them placed correctly here with the square tip across the seat and the triangular anchor at the side of the seat.  The instructions are a little small for the seatbelt PE, so take your time and test fit.  It's not overly complex like an HGW set, so it's fairly straight forward, but for some reason, the way the instructions were laid out for the PE was hard for my brain to visualize.

 

 

Basic dry fit.  I tend not to glue bulkheads together until I can see how they slot into the fuselage halves.  Nothing like getting all the way through an interior build just to find that you glued them together incorrectly and now the interior parts don't fit into the attachment points of the fuselage.  

 

The armor plate aft of the pilot.  This part contained the only ejector pin marks that I've thus far felt compelled to cleanup.  Ejector marks don't bother me too much if they're in an area that won't be seen after construction, so I don't bother cleaning them up.  There are a few on the aft bulkhead behind the seat, but they'll be invisible, so there they shall stay.

 

And the doodads and whatsits behind the pilot's rear bulkhead.

 

Step three has you move on to the nose landing gear.  It goes together well without any major fuss, though the fit of part H54 (the little knob sticking up off the side of the strut isn't super well illustrated in the instructions.  

 

You can see it more clearly in these shots.  On H54, there is a small cutout for a corresponding knob on the gear strut which wasn't obvious in the instructions until I got out my magnifying glass.  Here you can see it in the proper position.

 

The nose landing gear fully assembled (but mostly dry fit).  

 

The nose tire has very nice molding detail for the treads and sidewalls.  The hub is keyed to the yoke so that the tire's flat spot (presumably) sits right where it'll need to.  You can just see the flat spot on the bottom of the "axle" which provides the key in the photo below.

 

Here we have the instrument panel.  A decal is provided for the instruments, so we'll see how that turns out.  I've had mixed luck with decals over IPs in the past.  If I were patient (I'm not), I would have waited on building this kit till I could get the aftermarket IP that... someone... (I forget) is coming out with soon.  Outside of that, the molded detail is very nice and crisp and should paint up splendidly.  I've left everything dry fit here so just in case the decal IP goes to hell in a handbasket, I can replace with aftermarket as necessary.

 

This pic also shows some of the detail molded onto the back of the seat... which will absolutely never be seen once the cockpit is together.  
 

 

That's it for tonight.  I'm pretty jazzed on this one, so I intend to move pretty quickly on it.  Be sure to follow along!

Edited August 31, 2023 by ChuckD

[denders]

 

I'm thinking that I want the Airscale set when it's available. But I'll watch and see how yours turns out.

[Martinnfb]

Oh boy, I am hooked

[Dpgsbody55]

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[ChuckD]

11 hours ago, denders said:

 

I'm thinking that I want the Airscale set when it's available. But I'll watch and see how yours turns out.

 

Yes, that's the one!  The name escaped me last night and I was too tired to go poking around to find it.  I've still got a ways to go before I pass the point of no return for the IP, so we will see how things play out.  

 

My concern is that the recessed for the gauges in the kit IP are very deep and getting any decal to sit properly will be... problematic at best.  So, my other option is to punch out and place dials individually - something I've also had mixed luck with.  I may order the airscale part and try for the best with the kit pieces and see what happens.  

[scvrobeson]

It looks like a fantastic kit, and you're off to a great start on it!

 

 

 

Matt 

[scott_t]

Watching closely ! I have the kit and I'm waiting for the Airscale set.

 

-Scott

[Jim Barry]

The New England Air Museum in Hartford has an A-20. The visitors can inspect the cockpit. It’s so beautiful! 

[Jboldt007]

well... just when one thought it was safe to go outside (and not buy another large scale kit)! Jeepers. I love the A-20... but ... maybe would hold out for a glazed-nose Boston or equivalent. But it's good to see the HKM bits look pretty good. i only have experience with the Lancaster Nose Job and it is a mix of brilliance and a few bizarre inaccuracies.  I used the Airscale dash for the Lancaster and it is superb (the kit had no decals). One thing about the A-20 is if the canopy is able to be positioned open, then the visibility of the cockpit is quite high and perhaps worth the extra effort. 

[Gazzas]

Great start on a cool looking kit.  The parts look nice.

[TimW]

Looks great so far!  I'm waiting on the Airscale set...or am I.  Definitely will want some PTO decals.  I hope somebody does them soon.   312 Bomb Group would be ideal.

 

Great memoir about flying the A-20 in the PTO:

 

https://www.amazon.com/Wreaking-Havoc-20-Williams-Ford-University/dp/1603447377

 

Cheers,

 

Tim W.

[Warbird Kid]

On 6/14/2023 at 3:08 PM, Jim Barry said:

The New England Air Museum in Hartford has an A-20. The visitors can inspect the cockpit. It’s so beautiful! 

 

Minor correction. Its an A-26 Invader not an A-20.

https://neam.org/pages/416th-bombardment-group-memorial

[Jim Barry]

Thanks for the correction. Tis indeed the Douglas A-26 Invader there,  (the successor) 

 

BTW, that kit is SICK and Chuck, you are doing a great job with it! 

Edited June 16, 2023 by Jim Barry

[TimW]

Man, I may just have to start anyway...

 

Tim W

[ChuckD]

Hello, and welcome back!  

 

Happy to report that there has been significant progress since the last update.  I am super happy with this kit so far.  I desperately hoping I'm not jinxing things, but so far, it's going together with Tamiya-like quality.  The only issues I've encountered so far have more or less been of my own doing.  My only complaints - very minor though they are - are that sometimes the instructions are so small, it's hard to see how parts go together.  Again, very small complaint (pun fully intended).

 

After completing the nose gear, you move on to the nose gear well.  I've only glued a few pieces together here.  

 

Again, dry fit.  This, however, allowed me to glue the supporting strut on the nose gear now that I was able to fully establish the proper angle.

 

Once the nose gear bay is done, the instructions have you install the cockpit section on top of it.  I held off for now to ease painting.  After that, you move on to the upper turret.  This went together nicely and without any major surprises.  

 

I did find that when I tried to install the turret glass, it wouldn't fit.  With the forward portion positioned properly, there was interference that precented the rear portion from dropping onto the turret ring.

 

Sanding the two frame arms here and a little on the front of the turret ring allowed the glass to pop into place perfectly.

 

Perfection.

 

The rest of the turret went together flawlessly.  Instructions have you install the gun barrels at the end of the turret build.  This is, so far, the one place I can say I'm disappointed with the kit.  HKM has had a history of underwhelming detail on their MG barrels and this kit is no exception as you'll see later.  Suffice to say, I placed an order from Sprue Brothers today for the Quickboos B-17 .50 cal barrel kit.  

 

Once the turret is done, you move on to building the bombs and racks.  The PE here is nice and in the pics below the bombs are dry fit to the racks.  Again, everything went together very very nicely.

 

From there, you move on to the bomb bay.  The build itself is straight forward, but getting the left and right halves together is very challenging due to the number of attachment points.

 

My recommendation here is to fit all the parts onto one side piece, fit an end piece, fit the other side piece (aligning all the locating pins carefully), then doing the other end and top piece.

 

Once you get everything lined up, it more or less snaps into place.

 

With the bombs in place.

 

This is always a fun part of any a/c build - cutting the fuse halves off and getting them around.  

 

As some reviews have noted, there are a decent number of ejector pins throughout.  This is to be expected for pieces this big and for those of you triggered by EP marks, you may want to skip this thread for a while.  I'm not going to address most of these as they'll be completely invisible once the final assembly is done.  I included these photos for those of you who will address them and want to be prepared for what you'll be up against.

 

Most of the pin marks up front are obscured or covered by other parts, as you'll see.  

 

On to the build... The cockpit is nicely detailed and the fit is flawless.  Pretty much everything has a unique pin or recess that marks its location.  

 

After completing the sidewall build, you move onto the rear fuselage.  Instructions aren't super clear on where to install the framing for the turret (the holed piece in the top left of this photo), so I ended up installing it incorrectly.  There are also three ejector pins that interfere with the fit of the sidewall piece, so I scraped them off and...

 

... viola!  The sidewall piece is now installed correctly.  And here, I've fixed the turret framing.  Make sure it sits directly on top of the three vertical ribs as shown below.

 

With the right fuse done, we move onto the left.  Some of the instructional drawings could use a revision as - at 1:1 scale - some of the lines overlap to the point of being very unclear.  Just for the record H70 goes in the middle slot, H67 goes on the outboard slot.

 

Here's the left side of the fuse fully detailed and with included nose weight installed.

 

Moving onto the rear fuse, you repeat the turret framing and the and the lower side pieces.  You add a few bulkheads and ancillary bits, then you're pretty much done.  Most everything here is dry fit to aid in painting.

 

The last step before gluing the two fuse halves together is to build the lower gun.  Again, this is one place where HKM is a bit underwhelming.  You can see here the .50 for the belly and its barrel.  If you're super concerned about details here, you might want to look into an aftermarket .50 and barrel.  This will likely be invisible once the kit is fully realized, so I will settle for replacing the barrel with the QB set I ordered.  But yeah... not HKM's finest work.  

 

That said, the main fuse is complete and will be moved to the paint booth.  I've pointed out a few week spots and negative points here and there, but I can't stress how nice this build has been so far.  Everything fits cleanly and with a solid, positive, nearly click-together fit.  The typical problem areas like wing roots, fuse halves, and cowlings are still on the horizon, so I'll reserve final judgment until I tackle those areas, but I'm cautiously optimistic.  

 

Bottom line, if you're on the fence about this kit, just snag one.  It's pretty phenomenal.