Imsjim - Strombecker A-20 Spotter Model

[lmsjim]

As many of you know Strombecker came out with six kits early in WWII that followed the scale and requirements for the Spotter Model requirement that came from the Navy. These had no metal parts, no props, no landing gears etc. they were meant to hang in ready rooms or used in aircraft recognition training. Anyway I just recently managed to pickup two examples there were already built. The first I am working on is the A-20 Havoc. I had also picked up a kit unbuilt some time ago so I had the instructions and paper insignia sheet. The only reason I bid on it was because there was an SBC-4 along with it. Since I got it free, well I feel it was, I decided to see what I could do with a Spotter model. I was never interested in finishing it as a spotter model i.e. black paint no markings so I started doing research on how to finish it.


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As received

After getting the model I evaluated it. The biggest problem was either the original builder or whoever removed the paint, it had been painted at one time, must have loved to sand because there was too much taken off many areas. Also the tail was mounted slightly crooked along with the wings. I went ahead and took the tail and wings off before starting to sanding. The other thing was the builder had made the air intakes over the engines too long.


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As far as I could disassemble it.

The early version of the A-20 had short air intake which did not go over the cowling. I cut these back to what the directions showed. I also removed all the white putty and some old glue and cleaned up all the lines. I then started reassembling making sure the wings were the correct angle along with the tail.


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After all the parts were back on I started filling with Green stuff and sanding. I also made a base out of pine and mounting wire from steel wire.


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Reassembled with new base

I then gave it three coats of sanding sealer. I have learned when I plane has already been painted once some of the oil or whatever will stay in the wood so it does not take sanding sealer as well. I then sprayed it with a light coat of Tamiya sky gray to use as a primer coat and also to identify problem areas I could not see otherwise. These were cleaned up and resprayed.



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More to follow

Jim

[lastvautour]

Nice going Jim. I have yet to see any old wooden models in Nova Scotia. Purhaps none were made or none are ready to be sold at yard sales.

Lou

[lmsjim]

Finishing Up

After cleanup and a respray of Sky Gray I sprayed the top area with Tamiya Olive Drab. I then sprayed the whole model with Future to provide a surface to apply the decals. Before adding the decals I took a Rapidograph O pen and drew the control surfaces.

DECALS
Again these kits had paper sheet printed in color which were supposed to be cut out and glued to the model. I scanned in the sheet and did some color cleanup then printed it out on a laser printer. The decals were then applied. Not surprisingly the nose and cabin ones were particularly difficult to get on. I ended up using a lot Micro Sol to dissolve the decals enough to conform to the model. I also had to go back and touch up a few gaps with light blue paint.


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After a lot of thought I finally gave in a made some propeller arcs out of clear acetate and stuck them on with pins.

Jim