Douglas P-70 Nighthawk

The A-20 Bomber that the nighthawk was based on provides most of the contemporary reference material. The P-70 was not successful and not many were built in the end. 

This A-20 colour photo provides info for undercarriage and engine details that would be the same in the P-70. Interestingly it also demonstrates that the finishes applied were more satin that matt. 

An actual P-70 cockpit, very helpful for colour details. 

Instructions say 20g Noseweight, my balance tests said more required. I think there's about 25g of golf club weights packed around the fuselage walls and wrapped around the nose gear well. I put another 5g in the nose too. 

The rear section was quite tricky to put together right, there are no locator ridges or channels in the upper section at all, Lots of test fitting required to get it right. Also had to shave the back of the upper plate as it didn't fit the fuselage quite right. 

It's unlikely anyone will ever see that detail again, 

The instructions and the kit design disagree on placement of that forward bulkhead. This seems to fit fairly well. Also had to dry fit the cockpit to position that instrument panel in a way that would allow the fuselage to be joined. 

More pics of the night fighter radar screens. 

Really pleased with the finish on the floor, It's Tamiya rubber black, early in the build, with plenty of handling to give that used floor look. 

Don't be too impressed, that's the Kit instrument panel decal, which is an art in itself to get to sit right. Then Microsol'd. 

Another view of the rear section that no-one will ever see again. 

Fuselage halves ready to go together. The wing root moulding runs way back to the rear section interior and needs filling (at least I need to fill it) took quite a lot of filler. You can see on the upper section where it's white under the paint how wide the channel was at the point it crossed the bulkhead. 

This fuselage needed so much work to fill and blend the poor fit, I just left it on the side and did a bit at a time, then put it down again. As such, I didn't take any photos of the process. The nose cone was a different shape to the fuselage, and needed a lot of filler to build up the lower section to blend correctly. 

Top view. The fuselage halves left joins that needed quite a bit of filling, plus at the ends of the seams they had massive gaps that took several layers of filler to fill. 

Underside wasn't too bad, but lost a lot of panel line detail that I'm going to need to go back and fix. But, I'm not a rivet counter, so some panel lines that look about right will be just fine. The gun pack has no positive location to work to, and the instructions don't help much, so I put it where panel lines seemed they might indicate. The gun pack also has a good 5g of lead in the front to help the nose balance.
Nose wheelwell needed a fair bit of filler, and there is a little bit more to even off.