Special Hobby A-20A/B/C/DB-7C Havoc/Boston "Early Gunships" 1:72 Special Hobby

[Julien]

 

A-20A/B/C/DB-7C Havoc/Boston "Early Gunships"

1:72 Special Hobby

 

 

The A-20/DB-7 Havoc, known in Royal Air Force circles as the as the Boston, was a light bomber developed by the California-based Douglas Aircraft Company. Designed to a US Air Force specification issued in 1937, the aircraft’s first customer was actually the French Air Force, representatives of which had been impressed by its performance whilst visiting the USA as part of a pre-war purchasing commission. Those aircraft not delivered to France by the time the armistice had been signed in 1940 were taken up by the RAF instead. The Soviet Union was a major user of the type, with the Soviet Air Force and Soviet Naval Aviation acquiring nearly 3000 Bostons before the end of the war. 

 

 

The Kit

It Was back in 2009 first iteration of this kit was released under the MPM Production label. The kit has been re-released about 20 times since then, including a re-box of the Boston Mk.V by big boys Revell. This time around the kit includes extra parts in resin, plastic and photo etched brass for earl;y gunship versions featuring extra guns in the nose. Inside the box are the usual five sprues of grey plastic and two sprues of clear plastic (the original sprue plus a new sprue for the turret transparencies. Together they hold over 160 parts, which is very respectable for a kit of this size. The mouldings look crisp and clean and there are no flaws in the plastic as far as I can tell. Surface details are comprised of fine, engraved panel lines and convincing textures on the rudder and horizontal tail. Although Special Hobby have had their money's worth out of these moulds, they seem to be holding up well and the overall impression is pretty good.

 

 

The cockpit is rather well-appointed for a kit in this scale. It is made up of a floor, seat, rudder pedals, two-part control column, instrument panel, sidewalls and bulkheads. Details on parts such as the instrument panel are picked out with fine, raised details. The bomb aimer/observer position is just as good and includes a very nice bomb sight. The rear gunner's position is just as good, with nice extra details such as spare magazines for the lower defensive machine gun. The engine nacelles are made up at this point also and put aside for later.

 

 

 

 

Once the fuselage halves have been joined together, the wings and horizontal stabilisers can be assembled and fixed to the fuselage. Unlike some limited run kits, the parts have location tabs and slots to help ensure a positive fit. The prominent nacelles, which house the large Double-Cyclone engines, are each made up of seven parts, while the engines themselves are made up of three parts – two rows of seven cylinders and the reduction gearing. They are nicely detailed and should look good once assembled. New resin cowlings are included for some of the decal options. 

 

 

The undercarriage looks well detailed, but frighteningly complex. Each of the main gear legs is made up of no fewer than six parts, plus the wheels themselves. I would recommend taking great care over these stages in the instructions as you don't want to end up with a wonky aeroplane when you come to rest it on its boots. The main gear legs actually fit directly to the wings, and it is possible to fit the rear engine nacelles over these parts afterwards. This should make things a little less frustrating as you will be able to place the parts precisely rather than having to stuff them inside a cramped undercarriage bay, but it will obviously make the task of painting the model a little more laborious.

 

 

The remainder of the build is concerned with the addition of the transparent parts and some fine details such as the the radio antenna and propellers. The transparent parts are thin and clear and shouldn’t present any problems, although I have not been able to check to see how well they fit at this point in time. Different parts for the different nose gun options need to be fitted into the nose the decal option being modelled. Side blisters with additional guns are also added where needed.

 

 

 

Decals

Markings for five aircraft are provided on the decal sheet.

 

• A-20 13357/14 "Dirty Gertie" 47th Bomb Group, Tunisia 1944
• A-20A 0166/13 "Little Hellion" 89th Bomb Sqn, 3rd Bomb Group, Port Moresby, 1942. This aircraft crashed and was repaired, later it was renamed "The Steak and Egg Special"
• As above but sporting the "Steak and Egg Special" Officially a non existent airframe re built from 2 crashed aircraft (and bits of others including Japanese ones) by mechanics. 
• Again as above but stripped of its camo., and polished, the name was shortened to "Steak & Eggs" This aircraft then crashed of Low Wood Island Australia, where the wreckage remains to this day. 
• Boston III, RAAF A28-9 "She's Apples" 

 

The decals are nicely printed and look quite thin and glossy.

 

 

Conclusion

This is the only modern tooling of the Boston in 1:72 scale, so it’s fairly easy to recommend it to modellers interested in adding the type to their collection. It looks good on the sprue, although opinion seems to be divided as to how easy it is to build. Some people have reported fit issues whilst others have stated that the kit practically falls together. Nevertheless, it is still the best Boston out there and with the interesting twist of the new gunship marking options, it can be firmly recommended.

 

 

Review sample courtesy of

 

[Sydhuey]

Everything is in this kit to do all the versions but those who don't know A-20/Bostons may get the parts mixed up, it doesn't help that the artwork on the box is wrong , A-20B 'Dirty Gertie" runs the same engine cowls as A-20C's with multi pot exhaust out the rear of the cowl , not a single exhaust as in the artwork (Single exhaust outlet only run on A-20A and DB-7B Boston III's), A-20A 40-166 Little Hellion, the  2x Steak and Eggs and the DB-7B (Not DB-7C) Boston III A28-9 run the single exhaust cowl with the tropical cooling holed engine cowls (in real life the smooth and tropical holed engines cowls are the same thing , the holes are 8 x removable panels removed on machines in the desert and pacific but left in on machines in Europe  DU-K Sqn codes should be White or very light Sky Blue (almost white) not medium Blue. also of note A28-9 DU-K never did 186 missions , she flew a total of 77 during the war were the 186 came from was a propaganda newspaper article in late 1943. 

DK decals are about to release decals of 89th BS A-20A Gunships and RAAF 22 Sqn  DB-7B Boston III's to match with this kit

 

Edited February 11, 2021 by Sydhuey

[Hook]

Would anyone more knowledgable than me be able to say if this boxing would be correct for a Dutch Indies DB-7? I think, but am not sure, that the resin nacelles would be appropiate. 

 

Cheers,

 

Andre

[alt-92]

It should  A28-9 / ex-AL891 was used as D-66 while in MLD service.

[Hook]

Excellent - thanks!

 

Cheers,

 

Andre

[Sydhuey]

To do a MLD DB-7B just use the std cowls from the kit not the tropical resin cowls , the 8 small cover plates (to form the Tropical cowl) were not removed before capture, photo's of captured DB-7B's also show them fitted and early RAAF Boston photo's also show them fitted, they were removed when RAAF Boston's went to New Guinea.

Dutch DB-7B's retained their RAF serial under the tail (ALxxx) the Dutch D-xx number was on the nose , std RAF paint scheme DG/DE over Sky, Dutch triangles applied to fuselage sides and under wing over RAF roundels, not applied to upper wing, RAF roundel on upper wing and fin flash over painted, side gun blisters also not fitted before capture (as noted on aircraft when delivered to RAAF).   

[3DStewart]

Does this have the parts to do the French DB-7s?  It looks like it might, provided the clear part is correct for that type.

 

Edit: I've just realised it doesn't have the narrow fin of the early DB-7.

 

Edited November 4, 2023 by 3DStewart