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Playing in the Sandbox Group Build Sept 1, 2024 - Jn 1, 2025

1/32 Arado Ar 234 A - V6 (Four BMW engines)


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In the spring of 1940, the German Reichsluftfahrtministerium's (RLM) Technical Office asked the Arado company at Brandenburg/Havel to undertake the design of a bomber/photographic reconnaissance aircraft to be powered by the new turbojet engines under development at Junkers and BMW. No performance details were specified, except that the aircraft should be capable of covering Britain as far north as the naval base at Scapa Flow. The design work at  Arado resulted in the first design E370 (Erprobung). On basis of this design the first prototype Arado Ar 234 A - V1 (Versuchsobject) was constructed and flown for the first time on July 30. 1943.

Later it was considered to use the less powerful BMW 003 turbojet engines in two more prototypes with four engines. On  the prototype (V6) Wrk. Nr. 130006 four BMW engines was mounted separately under the wings, using the mounts for the rocket boosters for the outer engines. This was to become the worlds first four engine'd aircraft. Wrk. Nr. 130006 was given the code GK+IW and it's maiden flight was done on the 25. April 1944.

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The prototype of the Arado Ar 234 A (V6) Wrk. Nr. 130006 GK+IW with the characteristic 'take off dolly'...

The base kit for this build is Fly Models 1/32 Arado Ar 234 B-2. The build required some massive conversion to the kit.

 

1) Fuselage was narrowed. The fuselage was later widened to accommodate the landing gear of the production models.

2) Engine nacelles have a different shape to fit the early BMW 003 engines. Landing skids under each nacelle.

3) Complete 'overhaul' of the cockpit, incl. canopy and instruments.

4) The characteristic 'take off dolly' had to be scratch build.

5) Kettenkrad by Zoukei-Mura.

 

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Thanks for looking: Kent

 

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Wow Kent, you built a beauty here. Looks like a lot of scratchbuilding to convert the FLY base-kit. The figures look nice and give a scale for the dimensions, as the Arado always seems to be bigger than she is, at least to me. I have the nightfighter version in my shelf and therefore like to know, if you used the provided decals for the canopy struts?
A close-up of the cockpit detail would be welcome, if that's not too much to ask.

Cheers Rob

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Thanks Rob, yes everything is ether rebuild or scratched. I didn't use the decals from the kit as the photos I've got of the V6 doesn't have black frames. I made my own printet on clear printing paper with only the bolt heads, as the canopy glass was mounted directly on the dark gray frames.

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Regards: Kent

 

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Many thanks for the detail photo, Kent, the cockpit is looking great. I wouldn`t have the courage to scratch almost everything during a build, so mine will be a plain nightfighter. I didn't like the look of the decals provided by FLY, but printing them myself is out of question for me, but maybe tin foil with some added bolt detail might be a solution. The clear parts look a little, like there are some distortions, did you polish them or did you use Future to make them appear better? The kit parts don't look bad, but far from perfect for such a glasshouse.

I can only raise my hat to your skills, thanks for sharing

Cheers Rob

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