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Revell Arado Ar 196 B 1/32


holzemjo

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Hello folks, here comes my first WIP thread featuring Revell's Arado Ar 196 B! :frantic:  The Ar 196 A was the standard catapult plane of German warships during WWII and was equipped with two floats, the B version was equipped with one large central float and two small ones on the side:

Yl3AX0w.jpg?1

The set lets you build D-OVMB, which is the fourth prototype of the Ar 196, that was tested in Lubeck and Travemünde in 1938. Unfortunately, the plane crashed during a landing accident in december 1938 and was lost in an engine fire.

The kit gives you a lot of options for open panels and cowls, wings can be shown in flying position or swept back, etc... Since I am relatively new to the modelling business, I will have everything closed and the wings in the forward position, as this seems the easiest.

I am however using some aftermarket parts, namely the HGW seat and seatbelt set and the Eduard photoetch interior. I 'had to' (ok, I wanted to :innocent: ) order the Eduard set, because I ruined the kit decal for the instrument panel :oops:  and it was beyond my ability to paint it in any way that would look acceptable. The HGW set was ordererd, because the kit seats with the seatbelts moulded on joust wouldn't stand, they are hideous! Unfortunately, due to 'inexplicable reasons', the parcel with the Eduard set was sent back to the vendor TWO TIMES (thanks for nothing DHL :deadhorse: ), so I'm still waiting on that, it should finally arrive tomorrow! I don't think that I will use all the parts as I was already quite busy painting the interior and am quite happy with how some of it turned out. We will see...

 

So, what have I been up to? Well, mostly painting interior parts for now. Here's the cockpit floor with the two sides of the tubular steel frame:

CvwDcKS.jpg?1

I added some wear to the cockpit floor before I realised that the aircraft was only in service for eight months before the crash and probably wasn't heavily worn, will see what I do about that (maybe they just flew A LOT during those eight months :doh: ).

Here's some cockpit bits and pieces including the radio set, the HGW seats, control column and seat adjustment:

VEvnMVc.jpg?1

 

And here is proof that the kit seat really is not the way to go and that the 12 Euros for the HGW set are a good investment:

TJNVPFu.jpg?1

 

Closeup of the radio set (have to admit that I'm a bit proud of how that turned out :whistle: ):

5mqJHWN.jpg?2

 

Another thing that I've nearly completed is the engine, a very nice little kit all in itself:

dwf0hsz.jpg?2

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I hollowed out the air intakes and the exhaust tips with a drill bit and a knife. All that's left to do here is to weather it a bit (oil wash and some light chipping on the crankcase) and to find some sort of mesh to cover the air intakes. Those sould normally be linked by some kind of actuator rod for a flap inside the intakes, but the intakes are too short and hence there isn't enough space to replicate that...

 

I do have one question, hopefully there is some expert on board that can answer it: The HGW set features a third resin piece that I can't make sense of:

SwntIR4.jpg?2

There isn't any kit part that looks remotely like it and it is not mentioned in the instructions. Does anyone have any idea what that's supposed to be? If not, it just goes in the spare box to probably never be looked at again. :whistle:

 

That's all for now, thanks for your attention!

 

Greets, Jonas

 

Edit: The images seem rather big, shall I further reduce the size in future posts?

Edited by holzemjo
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Nice! I always wanted to do a dio, with the engine smoking separate from the airframe setting on the main float

Yeah, that would look great! If the kit engine mounts are to scale it really is no wonder that they broke, they are unbeliebly thin!

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So, there has been some progress! My Eduard Interior Set finally arrived and I dug right into it! This is the kit instrument panel, nice moulded on detail and I suppose it could have looked nice with the kit decal, hadn't there been an idiot who destroyed that :doh:

vaur4gr.jpg?1

After a lot of sanding and cutting, I ended up with this

5QjpQw1.jpg?2

Photoetch went on quite well, except I destroyed one part of the gun sight by superglueing it to my finger :rolleyes: I still have to put on some small levers and of course have to do all the other parts, but the instrument panel is a nice start:

eB3DJFi.jpg?1

 

I also started working on the floats. The small side floats went together very well, the larger one was putting up a bit more of a fight, but in general the fit is still really good (that thing is as big as the fuselage of a 1/72 Ju-52 :mental:) The top part is only dryfitted, as I still have to put some weight in the float to avoid her being a tailsitter.

rJwp36N.jpg?2

The top part leaves some small holes that will need to be filled:

ZRaBuUh.jpg?1

 

Hope you like it!

 

Greets, Jonas

Edited by holzemjo
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So, another bit of progress: I glued some coins (the only small heavy items I had) in the main float, then generously coated it all in white glue, so that I won't have a tailsitter. Revell says to give it 50 grams in the instruction, I went with a bit over 60 to be on the safe side, already read somewhere else that even that might not be enough when you want to display the wings in the folded position. As I won't be doing that, I think I'm safe:

4YJlqWM.jpg

 

I then continued to detail the cockpit and managed to put the important parts together, i. e. the main frame, instrument panel, radio equipment, seats,...:

0xFqj2E.jpg

I still have to put on some other parts (gunner's backrest, magazine rack, forward bulkhead) and paint the interior of the fuselage, but I think I should be ready to button up the fuselage during the next week :frantic:

vTWryLw.jpg

Question: I want to lightly drybrush the cockpit to enhance details. What color would you recommend? A slightly lighter shade of the base color? Or maybe something a little dusty-looking? Thanks in advance for your tips!

I will post some more pictures of the completed interior once I am home and have the time to take them. Hope you like it!

 

Greets, Jonas

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

So, some more progress! I managed to install the last missing parts in the cockpit (the rear MG ist still missing, will add that later) and then went on to close the fuselage. Big step! :frantic:  Things went rather smoothly, I slowly worked my way from the front to the back and the fit is overall very good! (Please ignore the mess in the background :oops: )

DQJsQc5.jpg

 

One area where there are small issues is the back of the wing joints, where some filler will be needed (Nothing I could do about it, it would fit either there, or everywhere else...):

0wekf1R.jpg

There is another small seam on the bottom of the fuselage that will require some filling, but nothing major.

 

Here are two shots of the finished cockpit in the closed fuselage.

bYDC7sJ.jpg

SOqhanM.jpg?1

 

Next step will be to install the engine and cowl rings (tomorrow, maybe?), then wings/horizontal stab/rudder. So far I am really enjoying the build, the kit is coming together beautifully, even with my somewhat limited skill set.

 

That's all for now, thanks for watching! Greets, Jonas

 

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