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1/48 Hasegawa Arado 234 "Blitz"-After 3 Years...Completed


mustang1989

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If you ask anybody closely associated with me in the modeling realm about my thoughts on landing gear, they'll tell you that I cannot stand this part of an aircraft build. To me it's the one thing that can absolutely make or break an aircraft build outside of a really obvious flaw or wing dihedral especially when it comes to shows. I judged aircraft at the last show I went to back in February and it was the one area of the build that was the deciding factor in a lot of the aircraft that were candidates for an award. Outside of the show and award realm, it's really irritating to spend a lot of time and put all kinds of work into a build only to see it either lean because the gear wasn't set up right or to see two landing gear legs that are waaay off in angles. I've got an Fw190 A8 build that I had such an experience with. It still sits in my display cabinet but has the flaw of incorrectly angled gear. I put all that time into the build and neglected to get the angles right and it really shows when it sits right next to my Fw190 D-9. So I get really nervous during this part of construction. This build is no exception to that rule and is IMO a lot harder to get the angles right because the gear has to be assembled in separate pods and then inserted into the fuselage as the halves are joined which is one aspect of this kit that REALLY sucks. I think I've got it though after a lot of time aligning and making sure everything was just "so-so". I didn't care for the RLM 02 that turned to more of a 66 after my shadowing attempts though, I can tell ya that!! :hissy:
Here's this (and last) weeks progress so far:
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Joe,

     Those gear look great despite the colours.

 

i agree with you about landing gear.  I really think they should always tie on after the majors have been assembled.  My recent ICM Mig 25 build had lg that had to go in early.  What a pain!

 

Gaz 

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7 hours ago, Gazzas said:

Joe,

     Those gear look great despite the colours.

 

i agree with you about landing gear.  I really think they should always tie on after the majors have been assembled.  My recent ICM Mig 25 build had lg that had to go in early.  What a pain!

 

Gaz 

 

That's whats happening here with this one. These go in first and you good sir....are correct. It is a pain.

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I got the fuselage together and the camera upper and lower fuselage clear panels glued into place as of last week. This weeks progress so far has seen the installation of the wings.  Posted below is the progress so far with the problematic seams noted in red. Lots of filling and sanding in all four areas.......

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I broke out the pin vise to restore all of the rivet detail that got sanded away at the front part of the fuselage. I've still got the section behind and on the sides of the fuselage at the wing root to go and that's not to mention re-applying the panel lines that are gone as well. Here's 45 minutes worth of sanding and re-riveting:

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I finally opened up the Aires engine set because I'm at that point to where I want to work on the engine mounting for the starboard engine as that's the one I'll be displaying opened up. I was just getting over all the goodies in the kit (these engines look fabulous BTW) when I turned my attention to the instructions of how these beauties mount up to the wing. At first I wanted to put everything back in the box and move on. :bag:
You guys know about where I'm at with the build right now so you can imagine how I felt when I saw this in the instructions:

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Yeah. That's what I said too.

I did, however , think about it over a cup of coffee and came up with this plan:

I took this:

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and cut the locating pins off of the base and sanded the back side down until I was left with the center strip and the offset mounting hole, made all the cuts and holes in the wing like I was supposed to and inserted everything into the openings and holes in the wing from the outside.

The results? Something I think I can live with:

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Ok.....made it past that hump! Movin' right along now.................................

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Lot's of cutting and sanding going on as of late. I've got the port side engine pod minus all the panels about ready though. I still have some sanding and filling to do at the front and rear but I feel fairly good about the progress so far.......it's just taking forever to get anywhere past all the cutting. lol

Cut and sectioned out:

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I cut the center strip out of the left over engine pod root and got the halves glued together this morning:

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I didn't foresee being able to paint the engine air intake area on the starboard closed up engine uniformly so I cut the starter assy out of the center of the air intake to paint it and will reinstall it after painting.

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I also got the engine nacelle installed on the starboard side and did ALOT of test fitting and trimming for the displayed port side engine.


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  • 2 weeks later...

I got the elevators/ stabilizers mounted up and will do the necessary body work at the joints and then I'm going to shoot an automotive style semi gloss black paint job on this one to black base it. After that I'm going to try this whole marble pattern out for the first time to see just how well that system works.

Any how here we are all masked off (except for the landing gear struts) and ready for the black base.

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Ok gang. I got the gray primer ready and shot my attempt at a marble effect on. I heard on the radio that it's National Scribble Day today so it's fitting. :giggles: We'll be jumping from here on the rest of the assembly and camo scheme.

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Edited by mustang1989
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18 minutes ago, LSP_K2 said:

Rock on, brother.

 

Well to be perfectly honest I couldn't resist and I went back over it again in a much tighter pattern with my Badger 150 after not using it for the past 5 years due to not having the patience or skills necessary to use it. I was alot happier with the results the second time around.

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To here:

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6 hours ago, Gazzas said:

Looking good, Joe!

 

I spent the better part of 3 hours applying paint. I already know I'm going to hear it from somebody because I've been telling myself all morning long that I must like to make things difficult. I have applied these colors in patches rather than go over most of the bird with the predominant color. I made the mistake of applying the predominant color once on my Stuka and I didn't much care for it because when I went back over the base color with the second camo color it looked to thick. So I opted to do things this way. I've also opted not to put the cockpit on just yet. I'll get to that in due time and in my own fashion...……..the hard way. I do like the benefits of the marble pattern and will more than likely continue that trend. There is a couple of touch ups that I need to do between the camo colors but I do like this way even though it is time consuming. I spend more time masking than I've spent on any other area of the model.

 

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