HK Models 1/32 A-20G Havoc

By Charles Norton

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 above is one of two taken of her supposedly while she was in Sydney, Australia.

If you hadn't been following my build thread in the Work in Progress forum 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:

HK Models 1/32 A-20G Havoc

By Charles Norton

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