Arado 234 Night fighter from a FROG 1:72 kit

[phat trev]

Looking at altering an old FROG Arado 234 jet bomber into a Night fighter version. It will involved scratching parts and altering the cockpit?

Can anyone help with some details?...

* what was the layout of the cockpit when the radar gear was installed, I had read the aircraft had side-by-side seating but I have not found any images showing how I can achieve this...

* Looks like I am going to make the bolt-on gun pack!

[Graham Boak]

The actual night fighters that saw action (two airframes? Or just one?) had the radar operator in the rear fuselage. The intended production night fighter had a new forward fuselage - I presume it was side-by side but confirmation should be straightforward.

[Nick Millman]

I had read the aircraft had side-by-side seating but I have not found any images showing how I can achieve this...

Can you remember where you read that? It is difficult to envisage such a radical alteration to the airframe just so that the radar operator could sit beside the pilot. What advantage would that have provided to justify the work involved? In the two modified examples flown on operations the radar operator (and his equipment) supposedly occupied the rear fuselage camera bay facing rearwards. There is a cutaway schematic showing that in the Model Art book on Luftwaffe night fighters but I have no idea what it is based on. That provisional positioning is also touched on in this modelling feature here:-

http://www.hyperscale.com/galleries/2001/ar234crbs_1.htm

An extended cockpit with the pilot and operator in tandem like the Hs 219 would seem more likely for the proposed production version.

Nick

[bil]

Unless you feel like scratch building a new cockpit and nose to make one of the projected P versions, there are two possibilities for nightfighter conversions:

B-2/N - a couple of airframes modified (SM+FE and SM+FF). fitted with FuG 218 antenna in the nose/canopy, FuG 16 in the lower forward fuselage, and Naxos homing device on the upper forward fuselage (approximately where the wing leading edges meet the fuselage). The Naxos installation was covered by a teardrop-shaped streamlined clear fairing. There was a new (second) crew station in the rear fuselage, to be occupied by the radar operator. This station was somewhat primitive; it featured a plexiglass access hatch on top of the fuselage and a plexiglass porthole in each fuselage side. The radar operator was provided with a Naxos display, a FuG 218 control unit and a FuG 218 display. The operator faced aft. The aircraft was armed with a "Magirusbombe" twin ZWB 151/20 weapons pod (ZWB = "Zusatz-Waffen-Behälter" with MG 151/20). Current consensus seems to be that they were left in green camo rather than being repainted in nightfighter greys.

C-5/N - references differ whether this was ever built, but it would appear that modifications to those applied to the B-2/N would have been made.

[MilneBay]

Anything that concerns the Napkinwaffe is a WIF - you could do it any way you liked.

[dogsbody]

http://wp.scn.ru/en/ww2/b/444/2/1

[Graham Boak]

Even in WIF, there's a legitimate difference between the genuinely possible (at least technically) and the more "off the wall". In this case I thought that not merely the proposed but the actual night fighter was intended.

The best source is the Monogram Monograph on the Arado 234, but bil seems to have summed it up adequately. The suggested layout for the P-variant will be in there as well.

[brewerjerry]

Hi

the side by side seater was the projected C-7 version

one reference on this page

http://www.century-of-flight.net/Aviation%20history/WW2/Arado%20Ar%20234%20Blitz.htm

cheers

jerry

[The wooksta V2.0]

Dragon kitted both nightfighters - the B and the P. Shouldn't be that hard to find either.

[bil]

I assumed thet you wanted to go down the route of converting the Frog (also issued by Revell) kit. That gives you the option of making either a B-2/N or a C-5/N (if you ignore the dubious twined engines).

As the Wookster said, there are other options:

Dragon's B-2/N omitted the upper fuselage Naxos blister and the entire rear radar operator's position. They also offered a spurious night-fighter greys scheme.

Dragon's P got comments about the fit of the revised canopy. IIRC it required some surgery to fit a new nose onto their C molding. This was the 2-seater cockpit, albeit staggered.

Airwaves produced a conversion for the Dragon B-2 (before Dragon's own B-2/N offering); no Naxos and they missed the portholes in the fuselage sides. And suggested a "greys" camo!

Edited June 27, 2014 by bil

[Mark Mackenzie]

n/m

Edited January 5, 2020 by Mark Mackenzie

[phat trev]

Looking at the B-2/N variant (no interest in the P as I want an in service version)

Another question.... The rocket boosters (for take off?) on each wing have odd looking packs on the front? can anyone help me in telling me what these are???)

[Graham Boak]

Parachutes for a soft landing and reuse.

[bil]

If you want to use the Frog rocket packs, don't forget that they were attached by an open tubular structure; you'll need to remove the webbing Frog so generously provided.