Douglas DB-7B
RAAF Boston Mk.III

by Arrigo Babini

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This is my Douglas DB-7B Boston III from the AMT/ERTL 1:48 kit.

I bought this kit years ago, and from the beginning I decided to finish it made in Australian markings. For a long time I was not able to find decent photographs of a good subject, but I saw an article about 22 Squadron, RAAF, published in the May 2002 issue of Scale Aircraft Modelling, with a lot of good pictures.

One of them gave me inspiration, that’s the one of DU - F in a well weathered earth brown and dark green scheme, which shows many interesting features of this particular aircraft, such as replaced wingtips, ailerons and tailplanes.

The 1/48 scale AMT kit represents an A-20B/C and is accurate enough, with an acceptable fit of the parts and basically correct interior details (not in the gunner area, which has been almost entirely scratch built).

The overall construction isn’t too complicated, even though some filling, sanding and rescribing is required. However, some corrections and modifications are necessary to convert it into a DB-7B, mainly in the engine nacelles area.

Exhaust fairings in the cowlings have been sanded and nacelles drilled to accept the typical exhausts of the DB-7 (scratch built from a drink straw), and the barrels of the four Browning (obtained from an Evergreen rod) were added in the nose section.

The model was painted with mixtures of Tamiya gloss acrylics. Decals come from an Aeromaster sheet (MicroSol and MicroSet were used), but the upper wings and fuselage roundels – such as the “F” code letters – were painted with adhesive masks.

Panel lines were highlighted with thinned oil paints, and a coat of Model Master matt clear enamel was then sprayed overall.

This model wouldn’t have been built without the help of Dave Edwards, who – kindly answering to my post on Hyperscale forum – sent me fantastic images of a restored Australian DB 7, with all the details I needed.



 

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Model, Images and Text Copyright © 2003 by Arrigo Babini
Page Created 28 March, 2003
Last Updated 17 March, 2004

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