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A-20G Havoc "STINKY" of the 3rd Bomb Group, 12th Bomb Squadron, New Guinea


ChuckD

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On 9/3/2023 at 6:16 PM, ChuckD said:

Hello, everyone.  If you've been following along the build thread, you're well aware that I was nearing the finish line on Hong Kong Models' new A-20G Havoc kit after starting it the day it arrived in June.  If you haven't been following the build thread, but want a painfully verbose treatise on the inner workings of this brand new kit, feel free to dive into it and its ~350 photos.  If you'd just like to see the photos, here's the gallery.

 

Anyhoo, as I've stated in a number of other threads, I'm fascinated by the SW Pacific campaigns in the early-mid war years.  I'm also a fan of big twins in attack configurations.  Thus, when I heard that HKM was coming out with an all new A-20G Havoc in gunship configuration, I was excited to say the least.  Unfortunately for me, their boxing was strictly marked and built for the European theater.  Not to be deterred, I decided to embark on a bit of a journey.  For this build, I'd be doing several firsts.  To make a Pacific bird, I'd have to scratch build wing bomb racks and teach myself the art of printing my own decals.  I'd also push the idea of masking farther than I had ever done before, so that was fun too.

 

In the end, I'm very happy with the results and they feel pretty close to the original.  The photos turned out a little weird, unfortunately; I suspect that's due to my camera trying to compensate for the failing evening light.  So, things like the speckling on the nacelles and the dust pigments on the wings are much more pronounced than they are in real life.  I found a few close up pictures of A-20s with extensive oil spatter all along their fuselage and nacelles aft of the engine, so that was the inspiration there.

 

Anyway, here's "STINKY" of the 3rd BG, 12th BS in New Guinea.  According to Michael Claringbould in Pacific Profiles vol. 3, this aircraft survived hostilities and was scrapped in situ after the war.  The photo below is one of two taken of her supposedly while she was in Sydney, Australia.

The squadron insignia and serial number were the first decals I ever printed for myself.  The nose art was done with a mask.  I painted the dark drop shadow, then moved the mask to the 10 o'clock position and painted the yellow.  Turned out pretty sharp.  :) 

Awesome build, Chuck!

May I post it on the website?

:clap2::clap2::clap2::clap2:

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5 hours ago, LSP_Ray said:

Awesome build, Chuck!

May I post it on the website?

:clap2::clap2::clap2::clap2:

Of course, Ray.  Would you like me to write up a more comprehensive article highlighting some of the build and the final product?  Might take me a week or two, but I'm happy to contribute to this site.  :)

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12 hours ago, ChuckD said:

Of course, Ray.  Would you like me to write up a more comprehensive article highlighting some of the build and the final product?  Might take me a week or two, but I'm happy to contribute to this site.  :)

That would be great! Couple weeks would be fine, I have a lengthy backlog. So many fine builds!

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