HK A-20

[leoasman]

Following in ChuckDs footsteps, I’ll be staying one step behind to ensure proper fit!  I couldn’t help working on the ip. I decided to thin down the panel, drill out the holes and use the decal from behind. I cut out a couple of the placards and added them to the front of the panel as well.

 

[leoasman]

[LSP_Kevin]

Wow!

 

Kev

[Steve Eagle]

Looking good. 

[Dpgsbody55]

Impressive.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[Sturmbock]

Good idea, looks great!

Lutz

[ChuckD]

Nice!  Mind if I shamelessly steal your fantastic idea? 

[leoasman]

Major interior painting done. I tried to keep in mind how little of my B-25 interior is visible and really only focus on the cockpit area. 
 

[monthebiff]

This is really nice, looking foward to more progress.  I have mine on its way to me but will hold back a bit before starting as I'm interested to see what other decal sheets become available.

 

Regards. Andy 

[leoasman]

This is a very nice kit in my opinion. The only difficulty I’ve encountered is of my own making. The tolerances are very tight on the interior pieces. So when I super glued the weights in without thinking, the glue blob messed up the cockpit fit. Likewise with the bomb bay.   If the pieces are not very tightly joined it will cause problems with the halves coming together.  I had to sand the outside edges to get a good fit after I failed to notice the sidewalls were not 100% seated.  
 

Also I broke part of the nose gear pushing the sidewall pieces together trying to get everything in place. I’ve recovered, but frustrating. And as I’ve said it’s all my fault. 

Edited July 1, 2023 by leoasman
Misspelling

[ChuckD]

Bummer.  Sorry about the frustration.  Most of mine has been my own doing too, so I sympathize with you.  You're absolutely right about the interior tolerances - they are very very tight.  I found that with the large locator pins for both the cockpit and the bomb bay assembly, I didn't need to use glue to secure them.  I stuck them to the pins, then closed the fuse around them and glued the halves together.

 

I did use a little liquid super glue to get the weights to stay in place though, so I was able to avoid the problem you've experienced.  

 

Keep persevering!  It's a great kit and, once the fuse is together, it's really smooth sailing from there on.  

[leoasman]

Getting ready to button up the fuselage. There are several little bits that can make this difficult!  In the step below, note that the cockpit and bomb bay go in at the same time. This is important because the little air bottle on the back of the nose wheel well will keep you from putting them in separately. It’s a bit tricky, but I had to hold them together and slide it in to place as a single unit. Then add the walkway as that can also hang up the bomb bay from sliding in easily. 
 

Also, I taped some foam to the side of the fuselage to keep it from rolling onto the nose gear. It can break easily as we’ve seen!  

 

[leoasman]

[leoasman]

[leoasman]