A-20G Havoc Workarounds Now with Chuck in the Pilot’s Seat

[chaos07]

Somehow I did not catch this build on the first round - looking forward to see how it comes along!

[ChuckD]

Just a little time at the bench today.  Full disclosure, Tom, you may want to skip this post with all the work you put into the nose gear. 

 

If you look at the reference photos (which I believe were taken at the same time), you'll notice the nose wheel is swung to the left.  A-20s, like a lot of tricycle gear aircraft of the day had free swinging nose wheels.  Steerable nose gear wasn't common then, so leaving the model's nose wheel at the default straight position just isn't going to work

 

So, out comes the razor saw.

 

Now, carefully drill corresponding holes and insert a small brass rod to serve as a strengthener.

 

A little super glue and...

 

Viola!

 

Fundamentally, I don't think there's anything wrong with the plastic nose strut, even though I managed to snap mine off on the first build.  Mine broke because it took a side load after I installed the horizontal stabilizers.  If you install those, any time you set the fuselage down, it wants to rotate and it's a fight between the stabilizer and the nose strut.  The former is infinitely stronger, so the nose strut will fail every time.

 

Once the kit is assembled, the plastic gear is plenty strong enough to support the weight of the model.  So, it's cool that HKM has included metal gear on the newer kits, but I don't feel it will really do much.  The real weakness in the nose gear lies in the original Douglas design.  It's just not very robust in that the main strut is sort of suspended and supported by smaller rods and such.  At no point does the main load bearing strut attach directly to the airframe.  So, the blame here lies with Douglas, not HKM.

 

All that said, the kit gear is perfectly workable.  Just be careful because it's delicate... Just like everything else in our hobby.    

[amurray]

On 9/12/2023 at 6:42 PM, Uncarina said:

I love HK Models for their subject choices, daring innovative designs (one piece fuselage, one piece wings for example), response to feedback, and overall great fit. Their Havoc is no exception, and the surface detail has to be seen to be believed. I am working on multiple subjects already, but I was immediately drawn to the kit.

 

You can build a wonderful kit out of the box. But I tend to be drawn to modeling challenges, and with this kit I identified three (well, one has nothing to do with the kit design really):

1) strengthening the nose gear;

2) moving the instrument panel closer to the pilot's seat so it can be more visible and aligned with period photos;

3) postdating the aircraft to later than Block 30.

 

After trial and mainly error I've managed to address these.

 

In reverse order, I will share the postdating project first. The most obvious difference between the A-20G post Block 30 and earlier Blocks is that the engine exhausts are not routed to the cowling flaps but emerge individually from around the cowling:

 

Block 30 and earlier, as depicted by the kit:

 

Post Block 30:

 

And my version:

 

 

To do this I used the kit exhaust fairings, sliced off the cowling flaps and trimmed to size. I then replicated the cowling flaps with styrene sheet.

 

To be continued!

 

Cheers,  Tom

 

 

 

Great work!  But please pardon my question.  You wrote: " . . . sliced off the cowling flaps and trimmed to size. I then replicated the cowling flaps with styrene sheet."

 

So, did you use the trimmed-to-size flaps or did you use them as a template to scratch new flaps?

[Uncarina]

1 hour ago, amurray said:

Great work!  But please pardon my question.  You wrote: " . . . sliced off the cowling flaps and trimmed to size. I then replicated the cowling flaps with styrene sheet."

 

So, did you use the trimmed-to-size flaps or did you use them as a template to scratch new flaps?

Thanks! The third photo in my initial post is a bit clearer than my explanation. I sliced off most of the cowling flaps and trimmed the remaining ones to size, then scratchbuilt the replacement flaps with the spacing modified to replicate the later version.

 

Cheers,  Tom

 

 

[Steve Eagle]

I also did the metal pin modification to the nose gear. Worked out well. Thanks for the info

On 6/16/2024 at 7:43 PM, ChuckD said:

Just a little time at the bench today.  Full disclosure, Tom, you may want to skip this post with all the work you put into the nose gear. 

 

If you look at the reference photos (which I believe were taken at the same time), you'll notice the nose wheel is swung to the left.  A-20s, like a lot of tricycle gear aircraft of the day had free swinging nose wheels.  Steerable nose gear wasn't common then, so leaving the model's nose wheel at the default straight position just isn't going to work

 

So, out comes the razor saw.

 

Now, carefully drill corresponding holes and insert a small brass rod to serve as a strengthener.

 

A little super glue and...

 

Viola!

 

Fundamentally, I don't think there's anything wrong with the plastic nose strut, even though I managed to snap mine off on the first build.  Mine broke because it took a side load after I installed the horizontal stabilizers.  If you install those, any time you set the fuselage down, it wants to rotate and it's a fight between the stabilizer and the nose strut.  The former is infinitely stronger, so the nose strut will fail every time.

 

Once the kit is assembled, the plastic gear is plenty strong enough to support the weight of the model.  So, it's cool that HKM has included metal gear on the newer kits, but I don't feel it will really do much.  The real weakness in the nose gear lies in the original Douglas design.  It's just not very robust in that the main strut is sort of suspended and supported by smaller rods and such.  At no point does the main load bearing strut attach directly to the airframe.  So, the blame here lies with Douglas, not HKM.

 

All that said, the kit gear is perfectly workable.  Just be careful because it's delicate... Just like everything else in our hobby.    

[ChuckD]

Hello, everyone.  Back with an update.  I'm not going to go into super detail regarding the main build of the A-20 kit.  I did that a year ago when the kit first came out, so if you'd like to see that build thread, you can find it here:

What I will be highlighting in this build thread are major milestones or other more unique aspects of this project.

 

That said, here's the cockpit complete with Eduard harnesses and IP.  Notice the holes in the floorboard behind the IP - that's where the kit's IP should have been located.  As Tom mentioned early in this thread, he wanted to move it aft to be more correct and to be more visible under the glare shield.

 

If you look at the source image of the Gladstone Flash, it appears that someone has rigged up some sort of cloth/canvas sunscreen on rails in the upper canopy.  Using the Airscale parts, I have tried to replicate that to some degree.  First, I had to drill tiny holes for the wire rails.

 

And here they are test fit into the canopy. 

 

And here it is after painting - obviously dry fit.  I tried a couple different experiments as to which material to use for the cloth.  Copper foil and aluminum foils both proved to be crinkle too easily in a way that didn't look like cloth.  I ended up going with the old standby of MagicSculpt.  That was a real challenge as the putty isn't attached to anything other than the two thin wires, so it was very difficult to sculpt.  Thus, it's passable, but perhaps not my best effort.

 

 

The gunsight installed with some clear acetate sheet for the reflector glass.

 

Nacelles and engines are all built and painted up.

 

Landing gear with lead wire brake lines.

 

The roof of the nacelles, precisely none of which will be visible once assembled, but hey, whatever.

 

And the current stance.  Wings, engines, cowls, nacelles, and tail components are all glued on and seams filled.  I had to make the same modifications to part L21 (the firewall) on the right engine as I did in my build thread from last year.  It's still bizarre to me how HKM didn't catch the fact that the firewall components need to be handed (or at least mirrored). 

 

At this point, I'll get it primed, clean up any remaining bodywork issues then it's off to the paint booth!  Using my other A-20 as a stand-in, I've gotten a feeling for which size of base material to use for the vignette.  I think it'll be fairly small, so the ground work should be pretty simple.  As paints and finishes are drying, I'll pick away at that and sculpting the crew chief figure. 

Edited July 6, 2024 by ChuckD

[monthebiff]

You've been busy Tom! Looking very nice indeed.

 

Regards. Andy 

[LSP_Kevin]

Lovely progress, Chuck!

 

Kev

[amurray]

An amazing build!

[Uncarina]

9 hours ago, monthebiff said:

You've been busy Tom! Looking very nice indeed.

 

Regards. Andy 

Thanks Andy, but credit for making her come together goes to Chuck!

 

Cheers,  Tom

[ChuckD]

Hi, all.  Back after something of a hiatus with a decent update.  If you saw my thread in the general chat forum, you have likely seen that I’ve been bitten by the flying bug lately.  As a result, since mid July or so, my focus has been on 1:1 scale aviation, and the Gladstone Flash has been sitting neglected, but not forgotten on the bench.  Over the last couple weeks, however, I’ve been able to make some pretty good progress.

 

It started with pre-shading with MRP’s Schwartzgrau paint.  Every single rivet and panel line got some kind of attention.  I know a lot people have ditched pre-shading in favor of black-basing, but I still prefer this method.  It takes a long time, but it really helps modulate and break up monotone colors.  Similarly, you end up using a lot less paint when going over it with the base coat.

 

So, after many (many) hours…

 

I went heavy around the inspection panels as the subject plane seems to have a ton of grime around them.  I figured it would be best to start the weathering here.

 

This week has been spent getting the base coat down.  All are MRP.  The upper coat is a 1:1 mix of OD Green and Dark Yellow.  I find MRP’s OD green alone to be way too dark for most applications.  It’s subtle, but I also did a pass with straight dark yellow thinned heavily to help fade the upper surfaces some.  I wanted it to be sun faded, but not as washed out as what I did with STINKY.  This seems to strike a good balance.  

 

The props are just stuck on for aesthetics and still need their yellow tips done.  Though, reference photos don’t show the large stenciling and decals as suggested by the kit decals.  I also spent this afternoon designing the markings for the nose art, squadron markings, and insignia, so some good progress there.  

 

My next step will be to experiment a bit with reproducing the tape residue from around the hatches in the nose.  I’m going to take some plastic sheet, scribe some panel lines and such in it, then paint it with the base coat and experiment in reproducing the residue.  Here’s to hoping I can come up with something.  That stuff features on so many SW Pac aircraft, it behooves me to figure out how to replicate it reliably.

 

Anyway, the Flash is still moving, just not at a speed commensurate with its namesake.    Stay tuned for more!

[LSP_Kevin]

Lovely progress, Chuck!

 

Kev

[scvrobeson]

Great to see this one back on the bench. The paint really does look good

 

 

 

Matt 

[ChuckD]

Hey, not so bad!  I ended up hand brushing future floor polish and a drop of green acrylic paint on to duplicate the dope waterproofing. Looks pretty good!

 

 

 

[ChuckD]

Hello, all.  Back with another update.  Been a bit, but I've not been entirely idle.  I've remembered to snap some photos along the way, but I just haven't been super diligent about posting them.  When last we left, I'd done a reasonable facsimile of the dope tape waterproofing on the nose and was getting ready to move onto the markings and decals.

 

First came the markings.  No one makes decals for the Flash, so pretty much everything here is masks save for a couple things I'll talk about in a bit.  I used my trusty Cameo cutter to cut out the masks and attack the markings.  The nose art was somewhat challenging as the outlining of the lightning bolt left for some very very thin strips of vinyl masking material.  In my experience this is always a pain in the butt because the thin strips tend to either tear or pull away from the backing sheet during the cutting process.  Using some techniques learned during my palm frond cutting bonanza on my recent Corsair build, I was able to set the cutter to a low and slow setting that helped mitigate that issue somewhat.

 

The trouble with the nose art was exacerbated by the fact that I initially inverted the colors of the lightning bolt and had to oh so carefully re-mask and repaint.  It didn't help either that I suffered from some paint adhesion issues in that area (and - naturally - only that area) that caused some paint spots to lift when removing masks.  Good times. 

 

The other three markings - mission count, pilot/crew chief names, and a/c serial number are decals that I printed myself.  The bomb markings aren't as accurate as I'd like, unfortunately, but I had to just move on.  I couldn't get my cutter to cut stencils with the microscopic fidelity that I needed and printing yellow decals is something of a bust if you can't paint a white background.  So, I had to use some bomb marks from the the spares bin that are an approximation.  To get the white lettering on the pilot and crew chief art, I first printed the decal on clear decal paper with white lettering (which the printer just doesn't print), then sprayed a small white patch where the decal would go.  Then, when the decal was placed, the underlying white shone through with the letters.  Modern problems require modern solutions.

The photo above also shows three unique(ish) items I had to recreate for the Flash as evidenced in the period photo below.  First, the blast tubes on all 6 .50 cals.  I'd not seen that on other period photos, but fortunately had a length of brass tube that was just the right diameter.  So, after cutting and filing to length, they were painted and glued over the .50s.

 

Second is the small repair patch aft of the left cheek gun which was pretty straight forward.  Then last are the... unknown thingies... under each cheek gun.  I suspect they're tubes to maybe redirect falling belt links from the .50s, but as there's no corresponding hole in the under skin of the fuselage there... I don't know.  But, using copper foil, I was able to recreate them and glue them in place.  Though not too visible in the pictures in this post, they're there and they more or less look the part. 

 

 

 

The tail markings, national insignia, and wing walk areas were all masked and painted. 

 

Yes, I broke the damn pitot tube off of this build too.  Batting .1000 on that particular faux pas, but much like I did on STINKY, I'll fix it in post production.  Stupid Douglas for putting the pitot tube on the tip of the tail.  Why didn't they think of us modelers when they were doing this?

 

This is one of the first photos to show off the 1-Man-Army stencils.  Tom included them with the kit and I'd never used them before.  Their fidelity is amazing.  I can only assume they're laser cut as no mechanical cutter could ever do what these are doing.  Note in these pictures how stark the national insignia is against the green of the fuselage. 

 

More stencil work; yes, it's readable even at that size.

 

Here I started fading the markings a bit with the airbrush and a very thin mix of the base coat.

 

After all the markings were finally done, I started the chipping process with a sponge.  I don't really have any indication that the Flash was very heavily chipped at the time of the above photos, so I went relatively light and small.

 

And this morning, I started with the oil filtering.  Here you can see the left wing starting to dry after the treatment vs the right wing that hasn't been touched yet.  The difference is subtle, but it brings out a richness in the underlying base coat that is really pleasing to the eye.

 

After that, I started the oil paint rendering process (so called by Michael Rinaldi) to further lowlight panel lines and begin to add the basics of weathering and staining.  I don't normally do this type of work with oil paints on aircraft models - I typically only use it on armor models - but every indication is that the Flash is an exceptionally dirty aircraft, so I'm going to be adding a lot of layers of grime, oil, and crud to this.  So, better to start here. 

 

The upper surface of the left wing is done at this point, but nothing else yet.  OPR is a tedious process and it'll take me a while to get through it, so it's best to nip off little bits at a time.

 

The right wing hasn't been done yet, so you can see the difference already.

 

Edited October 20, 2024 by ChuckD