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1/48 Hasegawa Arado 234-Now in Completed Section


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Ok folks I'm going to start off this post with what I'm building even though it's almost in the finishing stages now. I'll stick to the highlights of the build so I won't bore you all to death with some of the less useful parts of the build.

 

It's been a long while since I've done anything aviation related so it's been really difficult to decide on what I'm going to do for an ice breaker for the last few months. I bounced back and forth from Ta-152 to an Fw190 D series to a 190 A series to finally .........this:

A Hase offering of the 234:

 

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I bought two of these because every time I start hackin' on a build for detail add ons like cockpits or engine displays or anything like that I have inherent problem of messing something up along the way to the point of being unrepairable so I just head it off at the pass with a spare parts kit. .

Here are the upgrades:

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with a masking set:

 

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Edited by mustang1989
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I had started with one of my favorite areas on this build, the cockpit. My other fave being engines , I decided to save that one for the last part of the build.

 

Here we go:

 

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8 minutes ago, Greg Law said:

Excellent work. I'm looking forward to seeing this finished. I will be keeping an eye on it. I've one planned for the end of the year.

Thanks Greg. Just make sure that the cockpit to fuselage fit is a good one. That's where most of the trouble is with this kit. The landing gear is a bit weak as well but I'll cover the fix for that later.

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I have got metal legs for it. I also have the gear bay set, but I understand that isn't really needed as you can't see most of it and it is a hassle to fit. 

That is from a good build who has done one. 

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The OOB gear will work alright but it has to be sturdied up a bit. At least it had to be on mine. I went a little basic with my gear bay with only minor highlighting.  To me the landing gear is 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 a show in San Antonio, Texas in 2016 and this 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!! The macro shots don't help with any kind of justification but once the aircraft is assembled and completed it looks a heck of a lot better.
Here's this (and last) weeks progress so far:

 

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Edited by mustang1989
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On 06/07/2019 at 20:22, mustang1989 said:

I had started with one of my favorite areas on this build, the cockpit. My other fave being engines , I decided to save that one for the last part of the build.

 

Here we go:

 

 

 

 

 

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Note, the wiring bundles in the cockpit are yellow,  one the rear bulkhead  back wall too

Arado_Ar_234_Cockpit.jpg

just about visible here, and on the Aires box

Ar234_04.jpg

 

one other oft missed point,  the black frames are rubber sealant strips INSIDE the perspex,  with rivets from the outside,  look just in front of the red G at the bottom frame where the light reflects, 

once you know what too look for...  (you may already know this but it's an oft missed detail.)

Arado_Ar_234_Blitz_00004.jpg?bwg=1545299

You can also see the wiring bundles here a bit as well

 

from

https://www.net-maquettes.com/pictures/arado-ar-234-blitz-walk/

 

HTH

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10 hours ago, Troy Smith said:

 

Note, the wiring bundles in the cockpit are yellow,  one the rear bulkhead  back wall too

 

just about visible here, and on the Aires box

 

 

one other oft missed point,  the black frames are rubber sealant strips INSIDE the perspex,  with rivets from the outside,  look just in front of the red G at the bottom frame where the light reflects, 

once you know what too look for...  (you may already know this but it's an oft missed detail.)

 

You can also see the wiring bundles here a bit as well

 

from

https://www.net-maquettes.com/pictures/arado-ar-234-blitz-walk/

 

HTH

Troy I truly can't thank you enough for your efforts on the direction and help with this aircraft. I've got all of this build but the port engine finished with this build and didn't find out about the clear nose piece being installed over the whole framing until I was dang near finished with the build. At this point this is a highlights thread. I'll try to post a true in progress build on my next project.  It's truly amazing how much we find out about these subjects that we build and really frustrating when we find out too late. spacer.png Not a whole lot I can do about it now except to help the next guy I see build one of these out.

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1 hour ago, mustang1989 said:

Any how here we are all masked off (except for the landing gear struts)  after a TON of body work and prep and ready for the black base.

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Looks good!

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Black Based with my fave.....Testors Semi Gloss Black dispensed and shot through an airbrush. I use this as a base for all my black paint jobs on my automotive builds and it lays down smooth as a baby's butt every time.

 

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and then the irregular pattern with a light gray:

 

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and the start up of color application:

 

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You are making very good progress.  Lately I have been Black Mr Finishing Surfacer 1500 as my black base. It works real well as a black base while at the same time giving a final smoothing coat.

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2 hours ago, Greg Law said:

You are making very good progress.  Lately I have been Black Mr Finishing Surfacer 1500 as my black base. It works real well as a black base while at the same time giving a final smoothing coat.

Thanks Greg. May have to check that stuff out as well.

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1 hour ago, Ben Brown said:

That’s looking great! What paint brand(s) are you using for the camouflage? 

 

Thanks!

 

Ben

'Preciate it Ben. I'm using Vallejo Air Acrylic paint. It's a bit of a pain to work with in terms of build up on the AB needle but it lays down really well.

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21 hours ago, Ben Brown said:

Thanks for the info! I had similar issues back when I tried Vallejo paint. 

 

Ben 

At times it's frustrating but if it didn't work as well as it does I would've given up on it a looooong time ago. It certainly doesn't peel up like Model Master acrylic paint tends to for me and that's with using a good primer coat before applying the color.

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Thank you guys for the kind comments. Did ALOT of work today on this bird. The friggin' landing gear legs broke loose from their mounting and I had to re-glue those back on. I've pretty much completed the camo scheme for this aircraft and have to say that this one goes down as one of the most difficult paint jobs that I've done yet with all the black basing, marbling and masking. Sheesh!!! With all that being said and aside from needing to paint the back of the engine nacelle a burnt black here's where we are now:

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and the bottom side.

 

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Ok gang.......................this is the point where I FINALLY  installed the nose. It took me a while to get it all sorted out with an approach to this but I think I found one that worked for me. I had glossed the entire aircraft, applied the decals and then adhered the cockpit assy to the front of the aircraft and masked it off. From there I filled the huge lip that was on the top of the fuselage to cockpit join and worked it all in together by sanding and yet more filling. This resulted in the seam not disappearing from the top of the fuselage at the cockpit join so I added a seam in the name of uniformity. It's not "correct" but it looks uniform. After that I black based the entire sanded and filled area, applied the irregular gray pattern and went back over it in RLM 82. Still a little touch up painting to do on the starboard side of the affected area. Here's where we're at so far.

 

If you guys only knew what I've been through trying to figure out how to pull all of this off.  It has been this all along that had delayed this build for 3 years!!!  

Even though it's not officially accurate, this is definitely a "win" for me to have made it past this obstacle of this build.

 

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Edited by mustang1989
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