Azur/FRROM 1/72 Douglas DB-7 'French Service', by Scott Van Aken

In 1937, the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) issued a new specification for an attack aircraft. To meet this requirement, the Douglas team, now headed by Heinemann, developed the Model 7B, with a similar layout to the 7A, but was powered by 1,100 hp (820 kW) Pratt & Whitney R-1830-S3C3-G Twin Wasp 14-cylinder engines, and carried a bombload of up to 2,000 lb (910 kg). It faced competition from the North American NA-40, Stearman X-100, Martin 167F, and an unbuilt design from Bell Aircraft, the Model 9. The Air Corps invited all five companies to build prototypes at their own expense and to submit sealed bids for production of their aircraft.

The prototype Model 7B made its first flight on 26 October 1938. The model attracted the attention of a French Purchasing Commission visiting the United States. The French discreetly participated in the flight trials, so as not to attract criticism from American isolationists. The Model 7B crashed on 23 January 1939 while demonstrating single-engine performance, killing the test pilot and seriously injuring a French observer aboard the aircraft. The presence of a foreigner on a test flight for an aircraft still under development caused a scandal in the press. Despite the crash, the French were impressed enough to place an order for 100 production aircraft on 15 February 1939, following this up with an order for 170 more in October 1939.

DB-7s began to be delivered from Douglas's El Segundo, California production line on 31 October 1939, and the passing of the "Cash and Carry" act on 4 November 1939 allowed the aircraft to be handed over in the United States to the French, who would then be responsible for delivering the aircraft. The DB-7s were shipped to Casablanca in French North Africa where they were reassembled and tested before being handed over to operational units of the Armée de l'Air. When the Germans attacked France and the Low Countries on 10 May 1940, about 70 DB-7s had reached North Africa, equipping three Escadrilles (squadrons), which were transferred from Africa to the French mainland in response to the German attack. They flew about 70 sorties against the advancing Germans during the Battle of France, with at least eight aircraft being lost, but before the armistice surviving aircraft were evacuated to North Africa to avoid capture. Here, they came under the control of the Vichy government and briefly engaged the Allies during Operation Torch, the Allied invasion of French North Africa in November 1942.

THE KIT

MPM/Special Hobby have already released just about all variants of the A-20 over the past few years. What has not been released is the earlier French DB-7. These aircraft were different in a few major ways, including a different fin/rudder and engines to the later offerings. These differences would require some additional tooling to portray these features accurately. Now, with the release of this kit from Azur/FRROM, we can now model an accurate French DB-7 in 1/72 scale.

It should come as no surprise that some of the sprues of this kit are identical from the other releases, so those who have built the later variations will find quite a bit to be familiar. The kit provides a nicely detailed cockpit and rear gunner's area with these areas being the first to be built. This is followed by the main landing gear wells. There are inserts for the cockpit side panels and a note cautioning the builder to test fit those before applying cement. Note that the instructions call for all the gear wells and interior to be basically US interior green. While this works for most, others may wish to paint the gear wells with chromate green, which can be a slightly different shade.

Instructions mention the need for 10 grams of nose weight, but, a wise modeler will want to pack as much as possible in the space under the cockpit and behind it. With the halves closed, the wings are glued together along with the tailplanes. Those are then attached. The next steps involve building up the engines along with the nose and main landing gear. Since each main gear is seven pieces, these may prove to be the most fiddly part of the build. Once those are attached to the lower wing, the rest of the nacelles can be added along with the engines and cowlings. Gear doors are next. The final bits are the clear pieces, props and weapons.

Instructions are well done with Gunze color information provided. All three markings options are in green khaki, dark brown, dark grey-blue over light blue-grey. The box art plane is from GB II/32 operating in France during June 1940. The other two are in early Vichy markings with GB I/32 and II/32 in North Africa during 1941. The decals are nicely done and in perfect register.

Despite having pretty much every boxing of the 1/72 A-20 by MPM/SH, it was this Azur/FRROM release that motivated me to actually build one. Now this is a short run kit, so one has to be somewhat careful during construction. This means removing all the bits of flash (which for the most part are little more than exaggerated mold seams), and test fitting everything. Not doing these is a guarantee to cause issues during the process.

The first thing I did was to break out the paint. The instructions would have you paint the interior bits and gear wells/doors with interior green. There is actually a fairly prominent shade difference between interior green and chromate green (the latter of which is used on gear wells/doors). For the interior green, I used Mission Models paint and for the chromate green, it was Testors model master enamel. These two colors were brush painted as I didn't feel like doing the more time consuming air brushing. For the black parts, I used Stardust Hikari RC absolute black, which dries to a semi-matte.

Then I started assembling stuff. This meant the wheels, wings, horizontal stabilizers, and interior parts. The cockpit has a white instrument decal for the main instrument panel. The clear surround on this decal is extensive, so a bit of trimming is needed once it is in place. During this process, I also started assembling the rear gunner's compartment. One thing that is typical of MPM/SH/Azur instructions is that they are a bit on the vague side when it comes to parts placement. This is why dry fitting is so important so you can fix errors before the glue sets. I packed as much weight as I could as far forward as possible, including putting some under the bombardier's position. It turned out this was just enough, though it will tail sit if the shelf is given a good bump.

During all this, the wings and stabs were done, tested the fit of them in the fuselage halves. Not surprising is that the openings in the fuselage had to be enlarged somewhat to get these items to fit. I also noticed that the stabilizers were thicker than the mating surface on the fuselage. On the inside of the forward fuselage is an insert on both halves. These pieces need to have a short ejector pin removed from the mating surface and have the length shortened a small amount to fit into the recesses.

Next, I built up the main landing gear. This is a fairly complex and fiddly construct which suffers from a lack of really positive attachment points. If one perseveres, the end result is mostly quite sturdy. I was warned that the main legs were easily broken with careless handling so treated the kit with kid gloves during the rest of the build. The engine nacelles are another place where fit is not good and required some rather hefty sanding and filler to smooth out. Once this was done, I built up and attached the engines and cowlings. Fit is pretty much like the rest of the kit in that it takes some fiddling to get things in place. This is particularly true of the exhaust as the slot through which they fit in the cowling needs to be enlarged. I also drilled out the exhaust.

At this time, I installed the small lower windows in the fuselage and the landing lights. The transparencies were then masked using a set designed for the A-20B/C. These fit well for the cockpit and gunner's position. No joy for the forward section as it was considerably different on the DB-7. Eventually, by using what was provided and scraps, I got everything masked, but it won't be pretty. Then all the clear bit were attached. Fit is not very good and in the front I had to trim a lot from the bombardier's position. I filled most of the openings with Silly Putty and headed for the paint shop.

I primed the kit with Tamiya grey and then started applying the four color camouflage using the Hataka paint set I recently previewed. As always, the paint goes on beautifully and while I had to do quite a bit of masking, eventually all was done. Then it was time for decals. I'd been told that one doesn't need to gloss the airframe before using any decals. So I decided to give it a shot on this one. I chose the second markings option for aircraft #0 with GB 1/32 in North Africa shortly after the French Armistice. The first Vichy markings were a white surround to the fuselage roundel and a white longitudinal stripe. Decals came off the backing fairly quickly and use of setting solutions seemed to do the trick on the semi-gloss paint. This was then clear coated.

As always, there are some things that need to be done. First, I removed the masking and was less than pleased with the nose area as there was quite a bit of bleed under. I got most of it off with a sharpened toothpick, but it won't be winning any awards, that's for sure. The gear doors were attached along with the props and that was it.

Let me start by thanking Azur/FRROM for producing a proper DB-7 as I've always liked the initial production aircraft. That being said, they updated what is basically 17 year old tooling. This, along with my poor construction skills is probably why I ran into so many build issues. However, it is a limited run kit and that has to be taken into consideration. Now that I know what to look for, I should have an easier time with other kits in the series that I have in my stash. Bottom line is that this is a kit for experienced modelers who want a model of the initial A-20. Only 1,000 kits will be produced so if you want one, you need to grab it while it is still available.

KIT #:	FR 0052
PRICE:
DECALS:	Three options
REVIEWER:	Scott Van Aken
NOTES:	2024 release