#Havoc battle group boston how to#
#Havoc battle group boston serial number#

Simmons' Havoc #41-3141 was one of those losses. On that day the 47th suffered its greatest single loss in its entire history, before or after: three aircrews lost in one day as the BG flew multiple sorties to turn back the Germans, who approached their airfield from two directions. There was one especially dark day, however: Washington's Birthday, February 22, 1943-75 years ago today as of this posting. Truth be told, coordination between ground and air forces was terrible, and at the risk of denigrating what was surely a valiant effort, the USAAF was probably looking for a bright spot in an otherwise dismal episode when it awarded a Distinguished Unit Citation for combat actions during the battle. The 47th performed vital service during the Battle of Kasserine Pass, flying low-level bomb runs and harassing German forces in what would ultimately be judged as a mitigating rather than conquering effort. In the process some of the nose canopy was painted over to provide shade for the bombardier (a close look at the photos shows that nose canopies on some planes were more covered than others).

It seems pretty obvious that they were painted a dark green upper/neutral gray underside originally, but then hand-painted with sand splotches for camo purposes according to no specific pattern. The long and the short of the presentation is that it mirrors as best as I can tell the planes as they were delivered to North Africa with field modifications made by ground crews shortly thereafter. The log of my progress on these modifications can be found in the 'Groups' section, under the Kasserine Pass Group Build. Surfacer paint-on primer (both 1200 and 500) to fight the Battle of the Seams, and much less use of putty, though I needed it a couple of times. I used liquid mask for the sand splotching effect. The paint is with Tamiya rattle can lacquers, sometimes dispensed so I could use an airbrush for control and effect, and sometimes straight from the can enamels and acrylics come in on some details.

#Havoc battle group boston serial number#

I chose the B/C version because of its presence in some iconic photos I've appreciated since childhood.Īdditionally, I scratch-built the rear gunnery nest interior (which was pathetically underdone in the stock kit), added ignition rings and copper wiring to the engines, modified the interior of the bombardier's area to make it more detailed, created shims and hinges for the aftermarket control surfaces, added exhausts to the nacelles (again, Tom Bebout pointed out the need for this as the stock kit entirely missed them), modified the landing lights with Bare Metal Foil and Krystal Klear, and pirated figurines from other kits (and modelers 🙂 ) I printed my own serial number for the tail to square with the particular aircraft I was reproducing (see below).

AMT is really the only kit out there (Italieri being essentially the same kit). This was my opportunity to try and do it justice. I love the A-20 and consider it woefully underrated and under-represented amidst all the models out there. These friends made my final result better, no question about it.Īs previously, I will begin with the model and move to the story behind this particular aircraft, because it does have a story.īuilding a 1:48 A-20 has been a bucket list item for me since I was a kid.

#Havoc battle group boston how to#

Also, special thanks to Greg Kittinger, who coached me on how to mount the bird for a clean 'wheels up' presentation. Before I get into my own contribution, I would like to offer special thanks for Louis Gardner for his general coaching and encouragement on this build for a resurgent modeler such as myself, and to Tom Bebout, whose experience and sage counsel with the 1:48 AMT Havoc kits saved my bacon on several occasions, not to mention the loaner of his Havoc manual. First, a thanks to all who've participated in the Kasserine Pass/Tunisia Campaign Group Build, which has been a blast and has already seen some remarkable submissions with more to come.