The Little World

Pardon the red eyes – I have been searching the images section of Google for particular views of the Douglas A-20 Havoc. There are a lot of pictures there and a lot of repeats – but if you look long and hard enough you can find photo evidence to support a build. My friend Warren calls it ” intel “, but after about two hours of Goggling I wonder at my own degree of intel…

But I got ’em. I got pictures that show me the particular Havoc model I want to build at a particular time and place during the WW2 period. Photos – not just paintings or illustrations or aircraft profile drawings – photos of the real thing on the ground on snow and in the air flying in aerial convoy. That should give a little clue to what the thing will be.

There was some doubt as to paint scheme and markings but fortunately there were two colour photos taken at the time as well – I realise that the older Kodachrome or other slide film has its own characteristic distortions, but I know what these are and can work backwards from them to real colours. And the insignia are simple enough to add – though to get enough to do three or four planes means I’ll need to print my own.

I must say at this point that people who are searching for coloured pictures on the net are also well catered for but the results are usually modern shots of preserved aircraft. This is fine if you are willing to accept either a sun-bleached wreck or a gaudily imaginative paint job applied by museum volunteers. Getting a real result that might reflect a service scheme is harder to do. Of course you can resort to the endless colour fights in the modellers forums on the net – or you can follow the colour call-out that comes with a kit. Or you can look at the better ranges of model paint and exercise your own imagination.

I’ve got photo confirmation for enough of the salient points and I’ll defend my assumptions after that with linked argument.

Oooh, and look what I just made today…