Arado Ar234 winter camo

[VolkerR.]

I am currently building Hasegawa`s kit. I would like to do the winter camo since it is a very attractive scheme. Here are my questions:

 

Was the colour over the 81/82 white or RLM76?

Was ist brush applied or sprayed?

Was ist applied under the tactical markings ( factory applied?) or around the markings?

 

I have several fotos and the aims decal sheet  but none of them answer my questions. Hasegawa says RLM76 in the instructions, but I am not convinced.

 

Is there any reliable info?

 

Volker

[11bravo]

No idea on questions one and two but on three, this paint typically was water-based and designed to be scrubbed off at end of winter.  As such, I highly doubt the hard-working ground crews would have taken the time to re-paint all the tactical markings on top of the white.   They would have just painted around them, either using tight masks or just winging it and leaving some of the underlying camo visible.    They would have done the same with any servicing markings (or more likely, simply painted over them completely). 

 

John

[FG2Si]

I took a look in the recent book Blitz Bombers  by Eddie Creek and on page 126 it has photos of a shot down Ar234 (F1+MT) in winter camo. The winter camo is sprayed on and overlaps most of the aircraft's markings. I would imagine then that service markings would have been painted over. One thing they note is that the upper wing was not covered in the winter camo.

 

Hope that helps. 

 

Carl

[Denford]

'Jet Planes of the third Reich' by Richard Smith and Eddie Creek on page 333 has the (well known) photo of the engineless Ar234 F1+MT at RAE Farnborough with the caption '...The aircraft had patches of temporary white paint over its dark green upper surfaces for winter operations.'

 

Another sometimes depicted (drawing only - I have yet to see a photo) machine is 4U+DH. 

 

Airframe Album No 9 (by Richard Franks) profiles it with the note 'Top areas painted over in either a diluted white distemper or (as some sources claim) one of the lighter greys.'

Aeromaster 72-087C claims '... given an irregular coat of white or RLM76 to better blend with the snow covered fields, although the basic camouflage shows through the most of the airframe.'  It also depicts a curious canoe like fitting (rather like those sometimes carried by R5A Vigalinties) under the fuselage.  I've never seen this depicted elsewhere.  The (well known) subject above is claimed to have  'attacked the bridge on the Remagen River which rather makes me doubt details of 4U+DH...

[Crimea River]

Sprayed over markings I would say.

 

 

 

[warhawk]

On 10/12/2020 at 9:30 AM, VolkerR. said:

Was the colour over the 81/82 white or RLM76?

Was ist brush applied or sprayed?

 

Being keen keen on the same camouflage on my future model, I've already went through the inter-webs, and found no definitive proof what was the light color (or colors) used.

I've even come across RLM 77 being mentioned as a possibility!

 

Having said that, and the period in question being the very end of the war, I lean towards the only logical conclusion - lighter color(s) was/were NOT standardized across all Ar234 units

(keep in mind that bomber and recce units were separate)...

On the few usable photos I have, it seems sprayed at the front by free-hand, the lighter fields often not filled-in uniformly

 

However, I stand to be corrected.

Aleksandar

[VolkerR.]

Thank you all!

 

So I guess any white/light grey sprayed over the markings will do.

That leaves the problem with the upper fuselage/wings area.

17 hours ago, FG2Si said:

One thing they note is that the upper wing was not covered in the winter camo.

 

That really strikes me. Why should they put camo on the sides, against approaching infantry? From the air the aircraft would have been very visible parked in a snow covered environment.

 

Volker

[Denford]

And there's another possibility.  The white overpainting was applied by US forces!

 

Imagine the situation: a 'top secret Nazi warplane' has been captured intact.  Something akin to the near intact Zero found in the Aleutians.  The response from Headquarters, Air Intelligence or whoever would have been to hide it, conceal it, camouflage it asap so the enemy can't destroy it before it could be recovered.

 

Now there are plenty of photos of 'uncamouflaged' Ar234s on snow covered airfields and this machine may well have been like them.  I don't know  if there even are white camouflage nets and if so any were available. But white paint certainly would been and used accordingly.