Let's Begin!
Breaking the aircraft construction into interior and exterior and then by location. Items common to all will be posted here and those which are different will be noted here and linked to the particular build(s).
Exterior
Fuselage
Nose - The AMT B/C kit includes a good representation of the nose. For my
A-20B build, I decided to make it into a gunship. For the A-20G-1, I needed to scratchbuild a gunship nose as introduced with this series. It should be noted than the 20mm cannon armed ships didn't have ejection ports for the spent shells.
However, this was introduced later upon switching to .50 Cal machine guns in lieu of the 20mm cannons...
and then, with spent shell retention, all ejection ports weren't used as a plastic box collected the links and empty shells. A big hint are those side .50 Cal gun hatches which bulged about 3 inches:
Note that the side ejection ports are in place (as it lacks the three inch out bulges) but the open ejection port for the four central guns are no longer there:
Canopy - Early Havocs, until the start of the A-20C production, didn't have the horizontal brace on either side of the windscreen. Why the change? Perhaps it was reinforcement for the addition of the flip down armored glass added to the windscreen.
Body - Some panel lines changed as equipment was moved around. Will document later. It should be noted that panels were lapped in some areas
and proud rivets used in some sections.
Nacelles - Some production batches, to include the A-20B and the first 250 A-20G-1-DO Havocs built, had rear aimed .30 Cal nacelle guns fired by the upper gunner:
Wings
Surfaces -
Wingtips - wingtips changed from having navigation lights on top and bottom:
To the rear half covered in clear for the formation lights while still having the tear drop shaped navigation lights starting with the A-20C:
A-20C-DO Manual:
A-20G-1-DO Manual
Then fully clear wingtips for the navigation and formation lights starting with the A-20G-25-DO:
Be wary of museum pieces which may have parts from their demilitarized variants such as the one at the national USAF museum restored from a C-20 (cargo variant of the Havoc):
Flaps -
Ailerons -
Rudder - Rudders were removed on two of the kit parts to use two sets of Kendall Model Company's (KMC's) replacements:
However, the kit and KMC parts lack the doped canvas look. Luckily, the doped fabric look (not the texture but the underneath framework visibility) is very light so maybe making masks with my Cricut and spraying some coats of primer will be delicate enough:
Elevators - Elevators were removed on two of the kit parts to use two sets of Kendall Model Company's (KMC's) replacements:
However, the kit and KMC parts lack the doped canvas look and the bottom of the elevators the drain grommets (former is hard, latter quite easy) to add. Luckily, the doped fabric look (not the texture but the underneath framework visibility) is very light so maybe making masks with my Cricut and spraying some coats of primer will be delicate enough. As for the grommets, simple punched disks of styrene with the center poked with a needle will suffice in this scale:
Interior
Cockpit - Aside from different instrument panels and consoles, there were at least two distinct seats seem in period photographs and manuals. While some also mention others, these may be postwar additions for the C-20 (cargo variant converted from war-weary and demilitarized Havocs). There may be a case in which the two seats were designed based on the customer. The A-20A being only for the USAAC had the American seat while the A-20G-1 (and Havocs as illustrated below with the Sutton harness) had the 'export' seat.
A-20A seat:
Early export seat, note the British Hutton seat belts (the same seat is used in the A-20G-1-DO):
So, what the kit offers is neither but closer to the domestic use seat... Eduard's PE replacements are further off and the vacuum-formed 'export' seat.
Gunner's Station - Until the advent of the A-20G-1, the upper rear gunner had a set of flight controls.
This was eliminated with the A-20G series although the A-20G-1-DO to A-20G-15-DO all had the open upper gunner's compartment. While I don't have a photo, at the moment, of the gunner's forward wall, we can see that the aileron controls, affected by stick movement, do not reach the gunner's compartment so there is no stick there:
Nacelles - On all five kits, the top of the landing gear bays had their mounting holes moved forward one quarter inch. This was done by creating a simple jig (let me know if anyone wants to see it), to ensure all ten (each aircraft has a pair) were identical. The rear of the upper bay was removed and structural details added to the inside of the upper wing as it would be visible. The Eduard Undercarriage detail set, 48127, does provide for this but buying five sets for flat details didn't seem practical.
Eduard's set also offers an incomplete set of formers and stringers. Refer to this to see how short it falls:
Well, we can now determine that this aircraft is either an A-20G-5-DO or an A-20G-10-DO as it lacks the cannon to be an A-20G-1-DO and lacks the vent for the pilot to be from the A-20G-15-DO batch or later:
