Arado 234 Nachtigall on Speed

[DocRob]

On 7/1/2023 at 5:05 PM, belugawhaleman said:

Wonderful work Rob! Looks amazing.

 

On 7/1/2023 at 8:12 PM, Bomber_County said:

Rob, absolutely stunning congrats, those stencils looked daunting but completed flawlessly…….

Thank you Paul and Phil. With all the effort, I put into this kit, it was only a little bit extra work for the stencils .

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

On 7/2/2023 at 12:26 AM, GazzaS said:

with tanks and pod...   I have to wonder what happened to overall speed.  still, the model looks ultra excellent with all of that gear hanging off.

I guess, the speed dropped down dramatically with all the clutter on board. I assume, in a night fight, only the gun pod will be left for drag. I wanted to show the Nachtigall in starting configuration, with everything destroying the image of a sleek and slender airframe.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

Progress is slowly, as there is not much bench time and I started another in between project, but I finished the underside of the Arado, adding pitot tub, antenna, the parachute release ropes for the starting rockets, steering horns, ... I also touched up the underside color, where necessary. 

Flipped to the other side, I started decaling the canopy framing with the supplied rivet decal strips, a task, I wasn't looking forward to. I don't like to work on canopies, but the Arado needed it all, sawing, sanding, painting, masking, gluing, drilling, in other words, many ways to potentially damage the canopy. Luckily this was not the case and the decals behaved mostly well, some, I hope to lay down better with following coats of Micro Sol, fingers crossed. The framing isn't finalized, which will be done, after the decals have thoroughly dried.

Cheers Rob

[harv]

Awesomsauce....harv 

[Landlubber Mike]

Wow, really nice job Rob!!  That cockpit work is absolutely fantastic.  I saw a Hasegawa Arado 234 on one of the FB model selling sites this weekend, and was very tempted to pull the trigger given your model.  Thankfully I exercised some restraint, as I would have blamed you   

[BlrwestSiR]

Great job on the canopy decals. I chickened out and didn't apply them to my build. 

[DocRob]

2 hours ago, harv said:

Awesomsauce....harv 

 

2 hours ago, BlrwestSiR said:

Great job on the canopy decals. I chickened out and didn't apply them to my build. 

Thank you Harv and Carl, I first thought about omitting the fastener decals as well, but then, I looked at pictures of the real thing and found them very prominent. I started with some strips on the underside, to see how they behave and if the canopy can cope with Micro Sol. After all efforts, I put into the Nachtigall, it would have been a shame to leave this feature out. After all, the decals work well enough, some broke, but it was an easy fix.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

2 hours ago, Landlubber Mike said:

Wow, really nice job Rob!!  That cockpit work is absolutely fantastic.  I saw a Hasegawa Arado 234 on one of the FB model selling sites this weekend, and was very tempted to pull the trigger given your model.  Thankfully I exercised some restraint, as I would have blamed you   

Thank you Mike, believe me, I can take the blame, I have wide shoulders . Of course, I studied some builds of the Hasegawa build, but I would have liked to see, what you do with the Arado. I would go for another Fly kit, if I build a second one. The kit has it's flaws, but the resin is amazing and you only need AM for the instruments, provided by Jahu and seat belts, in my case from HGW. The rest is oob, all the detail is there. It only needs a courageous modeler to form a diamond from the partly crude kit.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

I finished decaling the canopy fastener strips, but still have to add more Micro Sol in some places. I used the sawed out clear hatch and decaled the fasteners framing in and outside.
Left of the canopy, you can see a hatch for the operators compartment, which was cut and bent from some clear food container. I will add an opening lever later.

On the upper fuselage, I added the ring antenna and the Naxos radar with it's clear cupola. The antler radars got also glued together and are awaiting some color.

Cheers Rob

 

[GazzaS]

Brilliant job, Rob!  That canopy is the cat's meow.

[DocRob]

1 hour ago, GazzaS said:

Brilliant job, Rob!  That canopy is the cat's meow.

I hope, it stays like that Gary, there went a lot of work into it. At least, everything remains visible with the Arado.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

I call  the Nachtigall done . You can find the final pictures under the link below. 

Cheers Rob

 

 

[Peterpools]

Rob

Absolutely a stellar build. The rivet work is perfectly done and compliments the canopy with just the right touch of detailing.  Awesome project and kudos on an incredible build and journey. So glad I was along for the full ride.

 

[DocRob]

20 hours ago, Peterpools said:

Absolutely a stellar build. The rivet work is perfectly done and compliments the canopy with just the right touch of detailing.  Awesome project and kudos on an incredible build and journey. So glad I was along for the full ride.

Thank you Peter, it was indeed a long journey and I am relieved that the Arado is done. I started to get a bit careless with the build, a clear sign to close the book. In the end, I like most of the result and I am a bit proud to have pulled through.

Cheers Rob