Arado 234 Nachtigall on Speed

[Ryan]

Looking fine Rob, close away.

[BlrwestSiR]

Looks great Rob. I used pennies for the counterweight but can't recall how many I used. They were placed behind the cockpit bulkhead before it was installed. 

Carl

[DocRob]

14 hours ago, Ryan said:

Looking fine Rob, close away.

 

8 hours ago, BlrwestSiR said:

Looks great Rob. I used pennies for the counterweight but can't recall how many I used. They were placed behind the cockpit bulkhead before it was installed

Gracias Senhores, yes, I see the Arado closed soon. I think, I will use old screws as counterweight. There is enough space and I emphasize, I won't need a ton .

Cheers Rob

[KevinM]

Looking Good Rob and I think looking at a couple of builds may get me on the move again Kevin

[DocRob]

Thanks Kevin, looking at builds by fellow members here is inspiring to me too and as a bonus you receive a lot of help when you're stuck.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

I told you in the beginning, this will be a long term project, but I decided to continue a bit with the Nachtigall and like so often, I have a question for you experts out there.

How should the upper fuselage side on the night fighter from Oblt. Bonow look?  My two Kagero books do not cover the night fighter variants and the Fly building manual, cover art and painting plan are not conclusive either, as are the model pics, I found in the net.

Variant 1: with the radar in front of the wingroot (of course build in flush with a clear part covering it)

Variant 2: With what looks like a perioscope under a drop shaped canopy in the shown position or a bit more to the cockpit.

or Variant 3: are there both or none build into the specific plane.

So far, I closed the fuselage, but not before adding some nuts and washers as extra weight with two component glue. Looks messy, but never will be seen again.

I tried to glue the fuselage halves together as good, as possible, but with all the innards, there were small steps after curing. So for the first time, I added black CA too the seams as putty, which will be leveled later. I did the same on the leading edges of the wings, where it's already grinded.

I also added the tiny round windows for the operator, which I put in from the outside, after step by step, widen the hole in the fuselage, until it fitted.

 

As I will prime some components like the nacelles and jet intakes and exhausts next, I assembled the Rato jets with their fragile mounting frames, which are built of four parts each. I glued these together and before the glue settled, tried to align the parts in the correct angles, matching the attachment points on the wings.

Cheers Rob

 

[Peterpools]

Rob

WOW! I never saw this build before and quickly jumped to the beginning and read through the entire project to the present. My compliments on some superb building and trouble shooting. All simply looks spot on to me and I can appreciate the work that has gone into the build to this point. So glad the Arado is back on the bench and moving forward.

Keep 'em comin

Peter

[BlrwestSiR]

Great to see this back on the bench Rob. I'll check my references and see if I have anything about the radar fit. 

Carl

 

[BlrwestSiR]

Rob, here's the most I could find in the Valiant Wings book. Everything else I have just seems to cover the recce and bomber versions. 

[DocRob]

3 hours ago, Peterpools said:

WOW! I never saw this build before and quickly jumped to the beginning and read through the entire project to the present. My compliments on some superb building and trouble shooting. All simply looks spot on to me and I can appreciate the work that has gone into the build to this point. So glad the Arado is back on the bench and moving forward.

Thank you Peter, it's a plane, which always fascinated me, as I think it's the most advanced design of it's time, which really flew. The build is not an easy one, but on the other hand, I was never really frustrated with it.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

1 hour ago, BlrwestSiR said:

Rob, here's the most I could find in the Valiant Wings book. Everything else I have just seems to cover the recce and bomber versions. 

Thank you Carl, for browsing through your sources. Sadly it seems to add more fog to an already misty area. The graphic from the Vailiant Wings book seems to indicate towards a glass topped radar star, like on the HE-219. 
The profile of the SM FE coded plane, the one, I will build, is not clear in that point, but shows the bombsight under the nose, where I read, this was not equipped on the nightfighters.
I seem to hunt a mystery plane and you are absolutely right, the night fighter Arados are not well documented, but that's maybe because they were a fail and only a handful were converted.

Cheers Rob

 

[Bomber_County]

It’s been awhile since we saw this one. Will be following as ever. 

[GazzaS]

Oh, nice, Rob!  This must have been brewing before I came to LSM.  I'll go back to the beginning and have a read on thru.

[DocRob]

13 hours ago, Bomber_County said:

It’s been awhile since we saw this one. Will be following as ever. 

Indeed Phil, but it was meant as a build, with others in between. There are kits on the SOD, where I ask myself, why I haven't binned them, but others like the Nachtigall, which always magnetizes me to continue.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

11 hours ago, GazzaS said:

Oh, nice, Rob!  This must have been brewing before I came to LSM.  I'll go back to the beginning and have a read on thru.

Good to have you on board Gaz, and yes, the thread dates a while back .

Cheers Rob

[HubertB]

On the other hand, nobody will be able to tell you which is the right configuration. 
It’s like a wedding ceremony «  speak now or shut-up forever », so you can say « I do » to whichever choice you want

Hubert

[DocRob]

29 minutes ago, HubertB said:

On the other hand, nobody will be able to tell you which is the right configuration. 
It’s like a wedding ceremony «  speak now or shut-up forever », so you can say « I do » to whichever choice you want

Freestyling without consequences, right down my alley, Hubert . If you cant do it right for sure, declare yours as right. Earnestly, that started to be my thinking too.
I've not decided on the variant as of now, but have to do soon, so still every input is welcomed.

Cheers Rob 

[Kaireckstadt]

Nice project Rob! Great that you continue.

Will follow this for sure

[DocRob]

Today was elbow grease day, lots of sanding, virtually everywhere and a bit of airbrushing, to assemble the nacelles with their resin inserts. 

I thought about, how to paint the cones green, after I sprayed the fan deep into the intake with steel color. I formed a ring of Panzer Putty and pushed it in, which did the trick.

 

All halved plastic components had little steps or tiny gaps, which I covered with black CA and sanded and sneezed a lot, not without destroying a lot of panel lines, which lead to another task, I'm absolutely not comfortable with, rescribing. I managed to achieve a so so result. which I hope will be sufficient under primer and paint.
I never scribed so many panel lines before and after starting with the needle, I switched to the razor saw, wherever possible.

Cheers Rob

[GazzaS]

Nice work, Rob!  I hate rescribing too...  because I suck at it.  I've learned a few tricks...  but none that make mine look as good as the molded lines.

[BlrwestSiR]

Nice progress Rob. I'm not a fan of re-scribing either. I've got a pair of Tamiya Tomcats that will need to be scribed. One day. 

Carl

[Kaireckstadt]

Your sanding and rescribing reminds me of my Mirage build. 
But all the effort will pay off in the end!

[DocRob]

8 hours ago, GazzaS said:

Nice work, Rob!  I hate rescribing too...  because I suck at it.  I've learned a few tricks...  but none that make mine look as good as the molded lines.

 

8 hours ago, BlrwestSiR said:

Nice progress Rob. I'm not a fan of re-scribing either. I've got a pair of Tamiya Tomcats that will need to be scribed. One day. 

 

2 hours ago, Kaireckstadt said:

Your sanding and rescribing reminds me of my Mirage build. 
But all the effort will pay off in the end!

Thank you Gentlemen, with all that volcanic ash in the air, you need only a piece of cloth to sand down plastic . It's not that bad, fortunate winds made the ash hit my island only for two days, but there is a permanent acid taste in the mouth and that's not caused by the kit.
I've no idea, why I never had to scribe a lot on my kits, as there were bad ones among them, but until the Arado I got spared. Yeah I know, learn something with every build, but I have to do better with the scribing. 
BTW: what are your favorite scribing tools. For straight lines on konvex surfaces I like the razor saw, on others, I used the needle, sometimes guided with Dymo tape, but feel very uncomfortable, because I sometimes loose track and slip with the needle.

@Kai, I don't think the Fly kit is as bad as the Mirage, it's demanding and far from perfect, but where I expect to have lots of swearing with Italerie's shortcomings, it's just a 'let's do it' approach with the Arado.

Cheers Rob

[Peterpools]

Rob

Enjoying following your progress on a difficult kit to say the least. Knowing me, mine would still be on the SOD❗

I’m what seems to be a lifetime member of the I Hate Scribing Club’ and no matter how hard I try fail miserably at it. On my current two builds, I’m crawling due to the need to replace panel lines and if anything, I’m running out of CCA - Extra Thin filling in my mistakes and then trying again. I have loads of scribers and seem to prefer the set from UMM, Tamiya .2 scriber and their J blade scriber. I use Dyno Tape and templates and the results are frustrating at best. Circles and curved lines; a sharp needle in a holder. Oh do I long for the days when there was no such thing as scribing👌

keep ‘em comin

Peter

[DocRob]

13 minutes ago, Peterpools said:

Enjoying following your progress on a difficult kit to say the least. Knowing me, mine would still be on the SOD❗

I’m what seems to be a lifetime member of the I Hate Scribing Club’ and no matter how hard I try fail miserably at it. On my current two builds, I’m crawling due to the need to replace panel lines and if anything, I’m running out of CCA - Extra Thin filling in my mistakes and then trying again. I have loads of scribers and seem to prefer the set from UMM, Tamiya .2 scriber and their J blade scriber. I use Dyno Tape and templates and the results are frustrating at best. Circles and curved lines; a sharp needle in a holder. Oh do I long for the days when there was no such thing as scribing👌

Thanks Peter, is there still a free place in the IHS-club, I'm even willing to bully myself in . I will look up your tools, as I only have the two, I described above. I do have lots of PE templates and metal rulers to produce straight lines, but what I scribe with my tools is by far worse than the kit provided scribings.

The good news at least to me, is that most of the tiny mistakes, which are easily seen with a magnifier on the bare plastic under good lighting, will hide somewhere under paint and weathering mostly.
In the end, it's the appearance of the hole model, when finished and that's a sum of applied skills and scribing panel lines is only one of them.

Cheers Rob