Douglas P-70 Havoc, 39-737/68, Training Unit, USA
This was an unplanned completion. A neighbor who is 12 came over to build a model and I offered him a choice of Hobbyboss, Airfix, Revell or Matchbox…the latter three being of the older generation. He chose a Revell Havoc/Boston and and had lots of fun with his first glue bomb.
He was obviously interested in multi-engine types…so I pulled a few more and opened the Revell P-70. Turns out it was started! The wings and fuselage had been glued and prepped and really only needed to be assembled and painted. Even the canopies were on, blended in and ready for masking.
The Subject
Only 59 P-70’s were manufactured, based on the A-20A attack bomber, chosen because it had sufficient excess power to handle the weight of the radar and guns.
There were other variants of the P-70, based on later variants of the A-20 series.
Most P-70’s were used for night fighter crew training in the USA, but a few were actually assigned overseas until more capable night fighters were available. 9737/68 is one such example of the P-70A variant used for training crews.
The Model
This is an old kit. I have no idea where I picked mine up at. Likely a model shop sometime back in the 80s when they existed and it was on sale. At the time the Revell A-20/P-70 was the only kits of the early type, with the Matchbox being the only late variant as the A-20G.
I honestly do not remember ever starting this kit. However, given I’d sanded off all the rivet detail and polished the canopies in situ, I can reliably time this to the early 90s while aboard USS INDEPENDENCE (CV 62) as something I would mess with for about 30 minutes before heading to my rack. I remember working on an Airfix B-26 (more on that in another post) at that time and after I had a port visit to South Korea and acquired a lot of Academy kits with finely recessed panel lines, and was able to get cheap Hasegawa kits in Japan I decided to step away from sanding rivets…
With the modern internet I was able to not only find a photo of a P-70, but one of this subject. It looks natty and one quirk was the antenna pole was not vertical, but at sort of an angle. Now that’s different.
Other than weight, and thinning the radar antennae to look slightly less telephone pole sized, the only challenge I made for myself was weathering all that black paint. How boring can an all black model be?
After priming with black Mr Surfacer I put a coat of RAF Night (Mr Color Midnight Blue with some black added) on the upper surfaces and some Tamiya NATO Black on the undersurfaces. I made sure the overspray was quite wide so the colors blended. I then put a coat of X22 Gloss Clear on and applied the kit decals (not bad given they were pushing 30+ years old). Another coat of Gloss Clear and I used Tamiya Panel Line Accent Color Gray on what panel lines existed, giving the entire model a bit of a wash and wiping in the general direction of air flow.
I also added a bit more exhaust staining but that’s not visible in the photos.
Summary
I had fun!
Not something I’ll win awards with, but I like the look of it on my shelf.
Thanks for looking…
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