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

[Learstang]

Good work so far! I shall be following this build with some interest, as I can hear my A-20 beckoning me to work on it. I've gotten as far as cutting out the fuselage halves and that's it. Resistance is futile...

 

Regards,

 

Jason

[Steve Eagle]

Looking at your pictures has clarified where the ammo container is positioned in the rear gun section. Thank you. I was having a problem figuring out how the container was to be positioned.
 I am also in the process of assembling subassemblies. I agree that many of the ejector marks won’t be seen after assembly.

I have decided not to complete the bomb bay internals because I just want to close it up. Also will save some weight. Nose gear seems somewhat fragile. 

[ChuckD]

37 minutes ago, Steve Eagle said:

Looking at your pictures has clarified where the ammo container is positioned in the rear gun section. Thank you. I was having a problem figuring out how the container was to be positioned.
 I am also in the process of assembling subassemblies. I agree that many of the ejector marks won’t be seen after assembly.

I have decided not to complete the bomb bay internals because I just want to close it up. Also will save some weight. Nose gear seems somewhat fragile. 

You bet.  Yes, the rear ammo can's placement is super awkward and not obvious in the instructions.  And, I agree, the nose gear does seem kinda fragile.  Here's to hoping it holds up under the factory weights.  Brass gear legs would be a boon.

 

Here's the last update before I start laying down paint.  Unfortunately, I did hit a few fit issues during testing this morning, but nothing that was insurmountable.  My advice is, when fitting the fuse halves together, go slowly, test fit, and look closely for interference.  The tolerances of this kit are very very tight, so misalignment somewhere can bite you in big ways that are difficult to see as you're trying to close things up.

 

We'll start a bit of a journey.  The instructions have you fit the internals to the left fuse half then add the right fuse.  Immediately I came upon the issue that the bulkhead behind the pilot's seat wouldn't fit between the locating tab and the rear of the throttle quadrant arm rest.  I don't believe I placed the armrest too far aft, but again, tight tolerances.  To clear, I shaved down the rear of the arm rest just slightly and now the bulkhead snaps into place.

 

With the cockpit and bomb bay fit into the left fuse (they have very strong locator pins and stay in place nicely), the deck behind the cockpit bulkhead was nowhere near fitting. Notice how it's stepped up and sitting on top of the bulkhead.  The two corresponding grooves on the pieces should have them dovetail together.

 

I sanded the rear edge of the deck (and added the armor plating) and, boom!  Problem solved.

 

Happy with this progress, I moved on and fit the right side of the fuse.  Aaaaaaand, the rear deck didn't fit again. <facepalm>

 

More sanding got it to where it needs to be and it fits nicely, clicking into place.  Again, go slowly, test fit, and adjust as necessary.

 

I was initially pretty frustrated with the fuse fit because it required a significant amount of force to get the two to line up correctly.  It was like the right side of the fuse wanted to sit a half mm forward of the left half.  After test fitting cockpit and bomb bay sections into each half independently, I was able to find the culprit.

 

The turret framing (holed part inside the turret ring) was pushing the bomb bay assembly forward just enough to cause the bomb bay to exert a flex on the fuse piece, thus it would not line up with the other half.  Note below that there is zero clearance between the two parts.  Recall that this is the part I had to pry loose and relocate as I had originally installed it incorrectly, so I claim ownership of this problem area.  After sanding down both sides of the mating surface, the bomb bay clicks into place and the fuse half fit is much better.  It will still require some muscle to get it all closed up, but it's not nearly as bad as I first saw.

 

Note the small bit of clearance on this side of the turret frame.

 

Test fitting the halves allowed me to also test fit the turret which, happily, dropped into place.

 

Most parts of the fuse joins can be fit nicely without too much trouble.  This small join requires the most manual pressure to close, but I think some cement and heavy taping ought to hold it.

 

The belly fits well.  The gap here is just an artifact of the taping job.

 

There was discussion earlier in this thread about how much of the cockpit would be seen after everything is closed up.  The answer is, emphatically, not much.  The IP sits way forward and is almost invisible under the glareshield.  I suspect it will be even moreso once the canopy is all in place, so I think the kit decal will be more than sufficient.

 

It's the sidewall doodads that will be the stars of the show here.  They will be quite visible and HKM has done a nice job modeling them.  I'll probably gussy them up a bit with a cockpit placards decal set I have floating around somewhere.

 

Again, I'm not bothered by ejector pin marks, but the ones on this bulkhead will be cleaned up as they might be visible from the lower gun hatch.  HKM did the modeler like me a solid and placed the EP marks on the sides of those bulkheads that face away from the upper window, so they will not be visible through that.

 

I moved on next to the canopy.  To get the framing piece to sit correctly, I had to thin down the inner faces of the two end flanges.  The piece is keyed, so it's impossible to assemble incorrectly, so that's nice.  I've left it unattached from the clear upper canopy so that I can paint everything without worrying about interference from the assembled components.

 

Sprue Brothers sent me the ASK mask kit as promised ( <3 SB) and I spent some time getting those in place this morning.  The masks for the rear upper window simply cover the whole piece and ignore the interior framing, so I made my own mask easily by cutting and placing very thin strips of tape on the inside.  The EP marks on the upper canopy part are on the inside and will be invisible once the framing piece (above) is installed.

 

Okay... Here we come to one of the most baffling engineering decisions of this build: the gunsight.  On the left is part H66, the gunsight base.  No problem.  On the right is part H62... the gunsight reflector glass.

 

Gunsight reflector glass.

 

Glass.

 

 

Yes, for whatever reason, HKM decided to mold the glass reflector out of solid grey plastic.  <facepalm> 

 

Clear plastic film to the rescue.

 

A few minutes with some fine scissors and an exacto blade, and we're up and running with a clear gunsight piece that's closer to scale thickness anyway.  A drop of superglue will have that sitting nicely once the gunsight is ready to go on.  Still... what a super super strange design decision when the clear pieces are all molded so flawlessly.

 

Anyway, that's it for now.  I'm moving everything to the paint booth shortly to get the interior bits going and hope to make some good progress over the weekend.

[Nighthawk Calling 1]

Interesting build so far, will be watching the painting process. Thanks for trailblazing for all that will follow with their own builds.

 

 

[Learstang]

She's coming along nicely! That is strange about the gunsight but hardly a show-stopper.

 

Regards,

 

Jason

[ChuckD]

Heh... whoops.  

 

This is never gonna work.

 

 

Glad I noticed it before I started laying down paint.  10 years of modeling under my belt, you think I'd have it down by now.

Edited June 17, 2023 by ChuckD

[Learstang]

I did notice that, but I thought you had some cunning plan (a la Baldrick). Glad you spotted it! See, your build will not only show us what to do, but what not to do.

 

Regards,

 

Jason

[Steve Eagle]

I have been fitting the fuselage subassemblies, and fortunately haven’t run into fit problem with the cockpit/shelf or the turret ring that you had.
I’m a little behind you with everything.

But, the old carpenter’s adage, “measure three times and cut once” is something to keep in mind when you all out there start your kit. Still, I am quite impressed with the fit and detail HKM has delivered in this kit. 
One other thing I would recommend to those out there, anneal the seatbelts with a flame (I use a butane lighter for doing this).Heat carefully until red and immediately remove the heat. This will allow you to bend the seatbelts more easily. I’ll be quiet now

Edited June 17, 2023 by Steve Eagle

[Learstang]

Are you sure about that? I always thought it was 'measure once, cut twice'. Leastways, that's how I do my modelling. No wonder it takes so long.

 

Regards,

 

Jason

[ChuckD]

1 hour ago, Learstang said:

I did notice that, but I thought you had some cunning plan (a la Baldrick). Glad you spotted it! See, your build will not only show us what to do, but what not to do.

 

Regards,

 

Jason

 

You give me far too much credit. 

 

As Steve said, annealing the seatbelts is a must.  I did that as well, but forgot to mention it.  Thanks, Steve.  

 

I had another idle thought.  Having done HKM's B-17E and their B-25J, I wonder if it would be smarter to glue the nose halves to the fuse halves before joining the whole shebang.  I did that on the B-17 and it was a really good choice as the nose would've been a huge PITA had I not.  I don't recall what I did for the B-25, but I think I did the same thing.  

 

Hmmm.

[CRAZY IVAN5]

13 hours ago, ChuckD said:

Heh... whoops.  

 

This is never gonna work.

 

 

Glad I noticed it before I started laying down paint.  10 years of modeling under my belt, you think I'd have it down by now.

I was kinda wondering about that myself but I figured you had some plan that I wasn't privy to. You're doing a bang up job so far ,will definitely be a great help when I get to building mine. I'll be following this with a beer and popcorn ! Thank you kind sir for your assistance.

[ChuckD]

I think I might be able to use the errant taping on the frame to flow in some masking fluid.  That may be easier than trying to mask around the super subtle molded frame work.  

Edited June 18, 2023 by ChuckD

[ChuckD]

Okay, just a quick update for today.  I got the interior primed, pre-shaded, and sprayed with a zinc chromate primer today.  Nothing too exciting, but progress nonetheless.

 

My son has a tendency to pick up whatever water bottle he sees and mindlessly slam water from it without thinking... There's lacquer thinner mixed in with the water in the blue bottle as I use it to clean the syringes I use to mix paint, thus the rather ominous label.  

 

 

Pretty much every paint callout in the manual is zinc chromate.

 

I painted the ammo can and bomb racks in aluminum for some visual interest and am in the process now of masking the bombs so I can retain a yellow line when paint them overall OD green.

 

So, this idea looks promising.  Once everything dries, I'll probably run a new #11 blade around the tape lines and peel them up.  Hopefully I can do that without pulling the masking fluid up too.  If all goes to plan, I'll be left with the windows masked and the frame unmasked.  

 

Next up is painting the bombs, detail painting _everything_ and trying my hand with the IP decal.  More to come!

Edited June 19, 2023 by ChuckD

[Learstang]

Great to see you getting some paint on her! I'm still at the looking at the plastic stage.

 

Regards,

 

Jason

[mc65]

mmmmh....

my father used the label method, using very similar bottles for poison or fertilizer, all placed on the same shelf. 

now that I'm a father myself I insist on using dedicated bottles for hazardous materials, absolutely avoiding using containers normally used for food. 

my paranoia goes so far as to use coded containers for food (for example, a type of jar exclusively for cheese, black jar for one type of cheese, white jar for another) which does not protect me from internal saboteurs, so much so that I was recently able to cook a magnificent pasta with mussels and... coconut flour, instead of pecorino cheese. in this case I found it educational to eat, and to have people eat, a tropical rather than a Mediterranean pasta. 

 

sorry for the OT, I follow this construction carefully, the subject attracts/repels me in an unhealthy way, what better occasion than your excellent wip to understand it better? 

 

cheers, Paolo