P-70

The P-70 was a "stopgap" solution to providing a night fighter during the protracted development period of the P-61. It was modification of the A-20 attack bomber. The prototype began life as an A-20 (39-735) and was adapted for night fighting duties under the designation XP-70. Two non-supercharged 1600 hp Wright R-2600-11s replaced the turbo supercharged R-2600-7s. RAF experience with the modified DB-7 Havoc was used as a guideline. British AI Mk IV radar was mounted in an unglazed nose, with an arrow-like transmitting antenna located in front of the nose, the azimuth antenna located on both sides of the fuselage and the elevation antenna mounted above and below the left wing.. All bomb racks and all defensive armament were removed. The crew was reduced from three to two, the second crewman being a radar operator seated in the rear cockpit. Four 20-mm cannon with 60 rpg were installed in a ventral tub. Other changes included a 24 volt electrical system, a 250 gallon fuel tank in the bomb bay and more extensive crew armor plate was provided. The success of these modifications led to a USAAC decision on October 15, 1940 to have fifty-nine more of the A-20s on order modified as P-70 night fighters.

    The entire aircraft was painted flat black as were the early British counterparts of the day. The first units deployed were sent to the Pacific theater. At this time everything was new. Not just the equipment but the crews and the concept of GCI (ground control intercept) as well. It took upper level commanders a while to understand the requirements for successful operation and during that period of time not a lot of success was had. Two problems came to light early on. One was the reliability of the airborne intercept radar gear which tended to be unreliable above 22,000 feet and the other the ability of the P70 to attain altitudes above 27,000 feet. It didn't take long for the Japs to figure that out and operate at altitudes around 30,000 feet. Short comings of the P-70 and associated problems with equipment and the learning curve involved with it resulted in relatively little success and many of the aircraft ended up being used for intruder and bombing missions.

The Kit

Before beginning the review for this kit I want to note that there are accuracy issues with this kit. It is a some what typical example of a kit maker attempting to get the maximum return on investment of their die money. The result is some what of a bastard in that it really doesn't accurately represent any version of the P-70. The nose which is contained in the kit has the framework lines of a glazed nose which would make it most like the original fifty P-70's except that it has a gun port on both sides on the lower nose and while it has the nose and fuselage mounted antennas, it does not have that antennas that were mounted above and below the port wing. The artwork on the box which utilizes one set of the kit supplied decals, shows a different style nose than what is supplied and would be more like what was used on the P-70A-2 except that it should have more than two machine guns in the nose and no ventral tub. Unfortunately photos of P-70's are difficult to find and it's not beyond the realm of possibility that the artwork is based on an actual aircraft as there were a lot of field mods done on these aircraft. If that is the case then a second nose piece should have been supplied and more information about the prototype would have been helpful. I suspect lack of documentation was the reason that no radar operator equipment was supplied. For a known accurate version the best bet would be to fill in the two nose gun locations and add the missing wing antennas. The kit decals for the 1942 version has the correct serial number to represent one of the original P-70's. 

Update !

A recently published photo vindicates AMT and it appears that someone really did their homework. The photo below was published in the October 2008 issue of Flight Journal shows a P-70 in the markings provided in the kit with the nose configuration provided in the kit. The box art itself is still incorrect as it shows a different style nose but at least one can build the kit using the supplied markings with the confidence it represents an actual aircraft. There are still some missing details that need to be added but that becomes a much more trivial issue.

Now lets look in the box.

The AMT kit comes in a two part top open box with dramatic artwork of a P70 getting a kill, something that didn't happen much in real life. Inside the box are three bags, two with the parts molded in a light gray color and the other with the clear parts. This kit was derived from the AMT A-20 series of kits and except for a few parts differences is the same kit. The parts have a smooth finish and have fine recessed panel lines. Most of the parts had relatively little in the way of flash except one sprue with the gear doors on it which looked like maybe the die halves didn't close all the way. The sprues also appeared to have been cut from a much larger sprue either to fit the box or to separate the specific P-70 parts from the A-20 parts. I did not find any sink holes or other surface defects on the outer surface of the kits and AMT did a good job with ejector pins marks in keeping them where they wouldn't be seen. There are some on the insides of the main gear doors but they line up with the lightening holes on the door so they aren't that noticeable and the ones on the inside of the fuselage aren't in the cockpit area. The cockpit area is moderately detailed but could stand some photoetch to dress it up. One of the issues with the kit is that AMT left out the life raft which was stowed on a shelf directly behind the pilot. Another issue is the exaggerated tire tread pattern they used on the wheels. Fortunately both can be dealt with with aftermarket items discussed later. 

One issue with the kit is that of the radar operators position. In the P-70 he sat in the rear gunners location. AMT include the normal gunners position which I assume comes from the A-20 kit and made no effort to duplicate the radar operators equipment. The landing gear struts are nicely rendered including brake lines. The gear doors are molded in the closed position and need to be cut to use them with the gear down. The engines aren't bad but we'll discuss options there as well later in the review. The wheel wells are boxed in and have some detail in them. The shell ejection chutes in the lower gun tub are open but the openings for the guns are just half hearted indentations. There is a spar that fits through the fuselage that will aid in getting the wings set to the proper dihedral. Altogether there are a total of 74 gray pieces. The clear parts are thin but only moderately clear, a coat of Future should help. Both the pilot's canopy and gunners position are two part so they can be displayed in the open position. Altogether there are 9 clear parts bringing the total to 83 parts. See photos below

The decals are for two aircraft, one rather plain from 1942 and the other with some nose art from 1943. The one from 1942 matches tail numbers known to be issued to the first 59 aircraft. There was no history provided in the instructions but on the outside of the box it notes that the marking include a P-70 of Detachment A, 6th Night Fighter Squadron based at 3 mile Airstrip, Port Moresby, New Guinea during May of 1943.. Other than the prop manufacturer marking, a fire extinguisher location decal and a propeller warning stripe no other stencils are supplied. See photo below.

The instructions are printed on a large sheet roughly the size of a "C" size drafting paper that is folded to provide multiple assembly panels. One panel has a color chart with color names and FS numbers and as I mentioned above there is no history or specifications on the instruction sheet. The box top lists the dimensions, weight, horsepower, ceiling, range and armament.

While this kit is no longer available from AMT, Italeri has released the A-20 under their label so it's possible that they may eventually release the P-70 as well. One can only hope that if they do, they do their homework and supply the necessary parts for an accurate model. Now lets look at some of the aftermarket goodies that can be used with this kit.

After Market Goodies

True Details Wheel and Raft set [48059]

As mentioned in the above review two of the issues of the kit are lack of the life raft in the area behind the pilot and the overdone herringbone tread on the tires. In this case both can be problems can be solved with this set. While I'm not real keen on TD wheels, they always look a little too flat to me, in this case they are a major improvement over the kit parts and the raft is a nice bonus. See below.

Interior detail photoetch set from Eduard (48-126)

This set and the next one are both sold for the A-20 but will work just fine here. While it's mostly cockpit detail and aimed at the A-20G it does include a few external parts that could be used as well. The instructions are the usual Eduard A4 size page printed on both sides with pictorial diagrams. See below.

Undercarriage detail photoetch kit from Eduard (48-127)

While titled as undercarriage it's more of a wheel bay detail set which includes a lot of structural details to spruce up the wheel wells, the only undercarriage part is a torque scissors for the nose gear strut. The instructions are an A4 size page printed on one side. See below.

I had planned to use a pair of beautiful Wright 2600 engines from Vector but after checking I would need to grind the tops of the cylinder heads down to below where the pushrods attach to the heads and that was too much for me !

This kit will be a tail sitter if one doesn't add weight to the nose area. For that I plan to use a Terry Dean nose weight.

The Terry Dean weights are really slick. They are cast to fit specific models and provide enough weight to keep the nose firmly on the ground. You don't need to guess or mess around stuffing shot, wheel weights, fishing sinkers or nuts and bolts into nooks and crannies and hoping you have enough. Weights for other planes fit in noses or wheel wells and are made for aircraft in 1/72 and 1/48. If you haven't checked these out for yourself, give them a try. He doesn't have a website but you can see and read about them at this link over at Modeling Madness. The weight for this kit fits around the nose wheel well. Note: the light colored area is a chunk of wood inserted in the weight to retain it's shape during shipping and until it's ready to be installed. See photo below.

Canopy mask set from Eduard (EUEX064)

While the canopies on the P-70 aren't all that complex I hate masking so I opted for one of these.

Links to kit build or reviews

While there are no reviews for the P-70 that I have found there are several for the A-20 which pretty much the same kit. Note the first link is a review / build that uses the Eduard sets above. They can be found here,  here, here and here.

References

There is not a lot of info available on the P-70 due to the low numbers built and limited usage. Most of my information was gleaned from "Queen of the Midnight Skies" by Garry R. Pape and Ronald C. Harrison, an excellent book which also covers the other aircraft used by the Army Air Force during WWII including the Beaufighter, P-38, P-61 and Mosquito.