LetLetLet ~ Warplanes
Let Let Let - Warplanes => Aircraft Modeling => Topic started by: Second Air Force on January 12, 2016, 07:19:16 PM
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So this excellent little Arado has been in my collection for some years, having been among the kits I bought at an antique store. No.1 has stirred my creative ambitions by his profiles of the Ar 234 and I'm going to build a four-engine night fighter variant that never actually was built. A little start and some planning is going on now:
(http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w117/2AF/IMG_2675_zpsjpddudx9.jpg) (http://s174.photobucket.com/user/2AF/media/IMG_2675_zpsjpddudx9.jpg.html)
(http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w117/2AF/IMG_2674_zpsqj1b9azh.jpg) (http://s174.photobucket.com/user/2AF/media/IMG_2674_zpsqj1b9azh.jpg.html)
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Great!! Go ahead mate :-clap
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:-ok
I love what-ifs...
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Me too--imagination to see how we would design one!!
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After planning the modifications to this one some painting and assembly began. First thing was to figure out how to add the necessary ballast since the entire nose is clear. Some goes into engine nacelle fronts and some just behind the cockpit. In the second photo you see the belly fairing which I made from a very old drop tank out of the spares bin:
(http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w117/2AF/IMG_2676_zpsh94ugy1j.jpg) (http://s174.photobucket.com/user/2AF/media/IMG_2676_zpsh94ugy1j.jpg.html)
(http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w117/2AF/IMG_2677_zpsnvh1n1q4.jpg) (http://s174.photobucket.com/user/2AF/media/IMG_2677_zpsnvh1n1q4.jpg.html)
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That's spirit :-clap :-clap :-clap :-clap
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:-ok
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Final assembly of major parts and some more modifications underway:
(http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w117/2AF/IMG_2678_zpsybvvxvdq.jpg) (http://s174.photobucket.com/user/2AF/media/IMG_2678_zpsybvvxvdq.jpg.html)
In the interest of trivia, the nose radome was constructed from an old 1/48 500 pound bomb from a B-17 kit....... I simply glued it to the clear nose cone of the kit part. Also I've modified the main canopy to reflect my idea of a possible design that could have been used by Arado. Since this is a "what-if", the design will be simple but should have been effective in service.
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Nice!
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Excellent conversion mate!!!
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Primer day and cockpit installation:
(http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w117/2AF/IMG_2686_zpsvu8enuw1.jpg) (http://s174.photobucket.com/user/2AF/media/IMG_2686_zpsvu8enuw1.jpg.html)
Some small fine-tuning of the seams is now ongoing before masking the canopy parts and then it'll be on to the paint.
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Fast!!!
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:-ok
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Transparencies masked and installed, and then sprayed with RLM66 followed by some primer. This will need some filler as you can see:
(http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w117/2AF/IMG_2688_zpslr6aedoz.jpg) (http://s174.photobucket.com/user/2AF/media/IMG_2688_zpslr6aedoz.jpg.html)
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Not much filler, this is normal situation :)
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:-ok
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Here is the final "What If" Ar 234 variant. As most of you know, I've been involved with researching the B-29 Superfortress for many years and decided to incorporate a little of that research into this Arado. What I've done is imagine that the war went on longer, possibly into 1946, and the Germans were able to acquire more knowledge into radar and antenna design. I've supposed that maybe some espionage agents found out about the APQ-7 "Eagle" radar that was used on the B-29B and took this info home for redesign into a night-fighter aid. The Eagle was a phased-array radar that dispensed with a dish and used the small wing to house the antenna elements. On the B-29B this was for bombing and mounted between the bomb bays on the belly, but the possible use by the Luftwaffe would have been on the top of the airplane, looking for Lancasters in the night sky. After the wing antenna acquired the bomber stream, the nose radar would guide the Ar 234 to attack position.
The wing came from a scrapped Ju 87G flap and nose radome is a 1/48 500 pound bomb. The rest of the kit is relatively out of the box. I tried a new top camouflage scheme of squiggles but it ended up more or less like the normal nightfighter schemes used late in the war.... The wavy demarcation between the top and bottom colors is also reminiscent of the Renton factory-applied B-29 black belly camouflage (done simply because I like how it looks).
(http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w117/2AF/IMG_2714_zpsx8nswnrn.jpg) (http://s174.photobucket.com/user/2AF/media/IMG_2714_zpsx8nswnrn.jpg.html)
(http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w117/2AF/IMG_2711_zpsydfxvweq.jpg) (http://s174.photobucket.com/user/2AF/media/IMG_2711_zpsydfxvweq.jpg.html)
(http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w117/2AF/IMG_2713_zps0ykfmwfx.jpg) (http://s174.photobucket.com/user/2AF/media/IMG_2713_zps0ykfmwfx.jpg.html)
(http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w117/2AF/2AF002/IMG_2717_zps0ypdhuzz.jpg) (http://s174.photobucket.com/user/2AF/media/2AF002/IMG_2717_zps0ypdhuzz.jpg.html)
(http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w117/2AF/2AF002/IMG_2716_zpsladhv7y4.jpg) (http://s174.photobucket.com/user/2AF/media/2AF002/IMG_2716_zpsladhv7y4.jpg.html)
This was a very fun diversion--more What Ifs are in my planning stages!
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Very nice! Excellent work Scott! :-ok
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Excellent!!!
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Fast and excellent !