History

With the war with Japan dragging on past 1946 with the Japanese war machine still fairly intact and the atom bomb delayed by developmental problems, the US Navy has decided to change its strategy in naval warfare and develop a long range strike capability. Using Col. Jimmy Doolittle's raid on Tokyo as a base concept, the Navy sent out a request for medium bomber-sized aircraft capable of carrying a bomb load of 4,000 pounds or a torpedo as well as a heavy forward armament for interdiction. The new airplane had to have folding wings and excellent low-speed handling. With the upcoming deployment of the newer, larger Midway-class carriers, the new aircraft would give the Navy an effective range of 1,000 miles. Douglas was the first to arrive with the proven concept of the A-20 Havoc, already in use with the Army Air Force and Royal Air Force. With the technical issues already behind them, Douglas was able to concentrate on navalizing the aircraft rather than designing a new aircraft from the ground up. Redesignated PBD-2, the Destroyers carried six forward-firing .50 caliber machine guns, as well as a 37mm cannon in the nose. The nose was replaced with armored plating, and the rear compartments were removed and replaced with fuel tanks. In essence the PBD-2 was 2-seater, the pilot and the gunner in separate compartments.

Kit Details

The base kit for this model is the AMT/Ertl Douglas A-20J Havoc. Out of the box the kit features fine, recessed lines and the fit is generally very good. The only complaint I would have of this kit is that the wheel wells and bomb bay (especially the bomb bay) could do with a lot more detailing. The fit of the bomb bay door is also very poor if you choose to close it. Another thing to watch out for is that the landing gear must be assembled as according to the instructions - the landing gear is very difficult to install after the engine nacelles are installed.

For the "conversion" I swiped a set of torpedos from an Accurate Miniatures Avenger kit, as well as the decals, and the gun blisters from the Monogram B-25. I also had to scratchbuild a few new details, like the cannon blister, cannon, arrestor hook and life raft. I also had to make adjustments to the lower fuselage in order to accomodate the torpedo racks.

To make the life raft I rolled up a piece of tissue until it was the desired size and held it in place with two strips of masking tape. The masking tape will also represent the straps. After that I brushed on white glue to solidify the roll, and painted it a dirty yellow. After the cockpit was assembled, weathered and sealed, I glued the life raft to the back of the cockpit. Overall I think it looks really good and brings a touch of color to the model (which is quite colorful as it is)

I also had to fill in the clear nose pieces in order to make the solid nose for the PBD-2. I sanded away all the detail and filled the depressions left by the windows. Heck, I had to use CA glue to hold the noseweights in place, so the clear pieces would have fogged up anyway. Besides, who would sit in a glass nose that's going head-on with a ship shooting back at you?

The gunpacks were basically positioned and then holes were drilled into the fuselage. I couldn't find anything for the cannon blister, so I ended up using a block of balsa, carved it to shape, and then covered it in CA glue and Mr Surfacer to get rid of the wooden texture. When I was satisfied with the shape I drilled a hole in it and inserted the gun barrel, which is made of stretched sprue with another hole drilled into it (hmm, a hole within a hole....) The funny part about this was that I didn't account for the props when I put the gunpacks on, instead focusing on how mean the plane would look depending on where I put the gun packs. When I finally put the props on I was relieved to find out that I was lucky - the props miss the gunpacks by a good 3 scale inches! I'm very happy with the guns though - at the business end it looks like something an enemy ship (or any target) would want to avoid.

I made the arrestor hook out of plastic rod, heated slightly for bending, and then boxed in by strip styrene. Unfortunately the bends are at different angles, so for a while my arrestor hook was skewed to the right a little before I had to take a risk and heated it a little (while it was glued to the fuselage) to bend it back in place. In hindsight I should have just glued the back of the hook on to the fuselage. The other "navalization" that I did was to scribe the wings where there was a single panel line running across the wing. I figured that the line would be the wingfold area so I made sure that the line was obvious, but at the same time not too heavily as to separate the wing as the plastic was very thin.

Finally, I added the torpedo as the main armament (it was loaded up to support an upcoming battle). I made a few cuts on the underside of the fuselage, which were essentially mounting tabs for the flat surfaces of the torpedo racks. The torpedo itself was painted Model Master Metalizer Steel on the front, and the rear was painted Acryl Gunmetal (which is a little bluish compared to the Metalizer stuff). Again, I didn't account for the droop from the way the torpedo is mounted, so I'm lucky that the torpedo's warhead isn't dragging on the ground! The plane certainly armed to the teeth with all the weapons on board.

The paint scheme is basically white undersides with US Navy Blue Gray with a touch of Dark Sea Blue mixed in for the mid-color, and Gloss Sea Blue for the uppersides. The wheel wells are painted zinc chromate green (I couldn't figure out what else I should have done it in) but it actually looks pretty good (to me, anyway).

I swiped the decals from the Accurate Miniatures TMB-3 Avenger Aeromaster limited edition sheet. The nose art, however, is actually a 1/72 decal that Aeromaster did for Hasegawa on one of their limited release P-40s (I'm not sure which one, I swiped it from my buddy Don). With the yellow background it stands out, and gives it a more personalized look the the plane. The catch is that I don't think I've seen many naval planes with nose art on them, except for President George Bush Sr's Avenger, which had the name "Barb" written on the cowl. Oh well - you have to agree it looks quite cool.

Weathering was done with the usual brown and black pastels mixed with a touch of water and soap. I sealed it and thought the plane looked a little too uniform so I sprayed on layer of light dullcoat, then resprayed it in patches, and then repainted one of the wing tips to make it look like it was replaced. I also added some paint chips around the crew areas. Finally, I added the wire antenna (which is always the final step for me) out of 2-pound fishing line, and painted it with MM Metalizer Steel.

Well, that's about it I guess. The whole project took me a few weeks, mostly involving painting and detailing it accordingly. So far it's the biggest What-If I've ever built, and hopefully when I get my Tomcave (my fiancee's giving me the basement when we get our house) I might try for bigger What-Ifs. Hope ya enjoyed it!

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