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).
Ar 234 Night Fighter What-If
Ar 234 Night Fighter What-If
Ar 234 Night Fighter What-If
Ar 234 Night Fighter What-If
Ar 234 Night Fighter What-If
This was a very fun diversion--more What Ifs are in my planning stages!
