AMT/Ertl A-20 kit

Anyone have any experiences to relate building AMT/Ertl model kits, for better or worse? I picked up a 1/48 scale A-20 Havoc kit today and will start it on Wednesday, am just finishing up a Revell 1/32 scale Corsair (an old friend from my childhood) and looking forward to this new kit…hopefully it goes together as well as it LOOKS like it should…

Mark

The A-20G kit is pretty good. I vaguely remember that one should glue the nose halves to the fuselage halves before cementing the fuselage together to prevent fit problems and that I had a minor problem with the bomb bay doors not fitting quite right. I recently picked up the same kit to build again..

Voisin Type 8 bomber

Also known as the Voisin LA.P, appeared in squadron service at the end of 1916. P = 220 hp Peugeot 8a in-line engine. More than 1,000 were built, of which 8 were being used for training by the A.E.F. by the end of the war, the remainder in French squadrons.

Hmmmm…interesting….looking over all the paperwork in my kit (and at the box) all I could find was ‘made in USA’ and ‘AMT/Ertl company, Dyersville, Iowa’…the box LOOKS brand new like it just rolled off the production line (in fact there was a whole line of just these size models, all AMT/Ertl, including the P-40F, JU-88, and a few others at this shop)…wonder if I have an older kit or one that just ‘aged well’ since the company quit doing planes…?

Mark

If it’s any help, there’s a review of the A-20C kit at:

http://m2reviews.cnsi.net/reviews/allies/us/leduchavoc.htm

heh heh, heard a similar story about a main wheel dropping off one and chasing a bunch of ‘erks across the airfield.
Pity you have lost touch with him, theres going to be quite a reunion at Hunsdon on the 22nd of May for the memorial dedication ceremony.
Basil Cheverton of 1451 flight Hunsdon (1941 1942) lives in Ashcroft road Luton, dont suppose you know him too do you?.

No I don’t know Basil Cheverton.
At this distance in time I wouldn’t really know where to find Mo.
He might still live in Stevenage I suppose.
Cheers
Andy

heh heh, heard a similar story about a main wheel dropping off one and chasing a bunch of ‘erks across the airfield.
Pity you have lost touch with him, theres going to be quite a reunion at Hunsdon on the 22nd of May for the memorial dedication ceremony.
Basil Cheverton of 1451 flight Hunsdon (1941 1942) lives in Ashcroft road Luton, dont suppose you know him too do you?.

Andy,
I believe thats right about the tricycle U/C, another snippet I have heard was the Havoc turbinlite was a handful to land due to the full Bomb bay of Batteries 😮

Hi Denis
Mo spent a lot of time at Hunsdon.
Later he was there with a Mosquito squadron.
The bit about T/L Havocs being difficult to put down might well be true.
Mo also used to tell a little story about how the flight commander (a Squadron Leader I think) folded the nosewheel on landing at night and had to leave the aircraft at the end of the runway and have a long walk back to dispersal.
Mo reckoned that on his arrival back he said to this bloke ‘everything alright Sir’ to be answered with ‘No, it f*cking well isn’t!’

Sadly I lost touch him about 15 years ago.
I reckon if he’s still with us, he must be about 85 by now.
Cheers
Andy

Didn’t they impress the GAL Cygnets (inc East Fortune/ex Strathallan example) to use as tricycle undercarriage trainers for the Boston. The only other early tricycle undercarriaged plane was the Airacobra but that hardly entered RAF Squadron service

But did the RFC use Voisins in the First World War with a tricycle undercarriage??

Andy,
I believe thats right about the tricycle U/C, another snippet I have heard was the Havoc turbinlite was a handful to land due to the full Bomb bay of Batteries 😮

Man, that had to screw up the pilot’s night vision, did’nt it? Did this system make it very far? I know the P-70 Nightfighter version saw action, but not a lot of it…

M

Mark
years ago I used to work with a bloke who’d been an instrument fitter on the Turbinlight flight.

First time I ever met him he said ‘You reckon you know about planes, I bet you’ve never heard of a Turbinlight’.

Smart-*rse Jones responded with ‘I have, it’s a Havoc with a searchlight in the nose’

‘B*gger me’ came the response, ‘I’ve been posing that for 35 years and you’re the first to say yes’

After that we were firm friends.

His name was Ron Mosley–Mo to his friends.
I learned a lot from him–mostly about how absurd life really is.
(Oh, and a bit about engineering).

He also used to say that the Boston/Havoc was the first aircraft to serve with the RAF to have Tricycle undercarriage.
Does anyone agree that this is the case?
Cheers
Andy

Man, that had to screw up the pilot’s night vision, did’nt it? Did this system make it very far? I know the P-70 Nightfighter version saw action, but not a lot of it…

M

It’s been a long time since I made any models, but I suppose I could give it a try at converting it to the Turbinlite configuration, it would be a different approach to what I thought was a great aircraft.

Hmmmm…mine is an earlier model, no power turret included, and includes RAF or USAAF markings, so a bit different….looks like it’ll be a good project and will be fun to build….I do have several different leftover decals so maybe I can cobble together some different markings….

M

These build articles might be of interest:

http://www.kitparade.com/features00/bostonbg_1.htm

http://www.kitparade.com/features00/a20gmm_1.htm

I’ve never made it but for those who want to, the old AMT/Ertl A-20G kit (which is not that common in the UK) has just been released by Italeri.

http://www.hannants.co.uk/search/?FULL=IT2637

Anne.

Its an excellent kit, with just a few fit problems on the nacelles. Mind you, I never finished mine!

Bruce