- The Airfix Tribute Forum -

farmroad38 · Last edited by farmroad38 on Wed 04 Jun 2008 18:38 pm; edited 1 time in total

Progress of Digs' build can be followed here.
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Cheers,

Adrian

Digs · Posted: Wed 04 Jun 2008 17:55 pm Post subject:

This is my subject - the Arado Ar 196 float plane

A nice old boxing. The lid is OK, but one side of the box had woodworm! Bought off Ebay a year or two ago and sat in the stash.

Sprue shots: nicely moulded on a quick look. The canopies are pretty good too except for a terrible scratch on one section.

Old style instructions:

But the decals are in terrible shape - so yellowed that it takes direct sunlight to see any difference in hue between the 'white' of the markings and the yellow of the carrier film. They also have the air of something that will explode on contact with water. They're currently taped to the workshop window but I can't say I'm too optimistic.

But then with time to plan ahead, I found some replacement ESCI decals on Ebay. And that started me looking for other aftermarket stuff... with the result that I purchased two sets of PE (because they look to cover overlapping areas of the aircraft to some extent, and neither set is designed for the airfix kit). So here's the final material awaiting the middle of June:

XN923 · Bronze Star Joined: 16 May 2008 Posts: 1176

There's an article on the Arado in Model Airplane International this month - lots of photos and colour profiles

Digs · Posted: Wed 04 Jun 2008 21:19 pm Post subject:

Ha! Thanks for the heads up. I'll be in town tomorrow so I shall go in search.

Cheers

Paul

Digs · Posted: Mon 09 Jun 2008 18:56 pm Post subject:

Well isn't the internet wonderful - I totally failed to find the magazine in town today but 5 minutes on the net without getting off my backside and it's in the post!

Paul

Digs · Posted: Sun 15 Jun 2008 18:42 pm Post subject:

Work has started!

Faced with two sets of etch to tart up the cockpit, it was decision time. A fairly easy decision - the Airwaves set is clearly designed for a kit that already has some interior detail as it's basically a set of frames to stick onto the interior of the fuselage halves. In contrast, the Eduard set has a large sheet that folds up to supply floor pan, rear bulkhead and sides. Just what's needed for the gaping hole that is the interior of the Airfix kit.

But would it fit?

So I chiseled away the various locating pins and ledges from the fuselage interior and took a chance and folded the etch up (a risk because it'll need to be flattened again to glue the myriad of interior details in and too many cycles of that and it'll fall apart into several separate bits!).

One fuselage half scraped, the other as Airfix intended at this point.

(The eagle-eyed amongst you will notice three separate pieces of one of HMS Hotspur's guns also in the frame - more of that in a separate thread for anyone who's interested.)

And then the test fit:

And it fits very nicely! Hooray!

feanor · Posted: Sun 15 Jun 2008 20:06 pm Post subject:

Ayup Digs...

Nice start..

I'm jealous that you managed to have one to build.... I gave up looking...

_________________
Airfix Member 022... Jolly Boy.

Remember: 'The Dude Abides'...

'It's GOOD to be the King !'

Sgt.Squarehead · Posted: Sun 15 Jun 2008 21:29 pm Post subject:

I'm with Feanor on that!

I'll be fascinated to watch you adding the various etch components to your model.....I've almost overcome my fear of the stuff, at least where tanks are concerned and I keep getting the urge to try really going to town on an aircraft.

All the best

Heinkel51 · Posted: Mon 16 Jun 2008 02:24 am Post subject:

Good start there Digs, with such a big 'Greenhouse" the cockpit cries for extra detail. Looking forawrd to your next installment.

Digs · Posted: Sun 29 Jun 2008 21:24 pm Post subject:

Well, slow progress - work, and a slipped disc, which has made life rather painful and working at a bench pretty much impossible for quite a while. Here's where I'm at anyway:

Most of the cockpit PE is together, just a couple of small sub-assemblies left to go. I lost count of how many bits were involved in making it - a lot! I just hope I can do it justice when I paint it next!

feanor · Posted: Sun 29 Jun 2008 22:01 pm Post subject:

Ayup Digs...

Nice start.

Hope the disc starts easing...
_________________
Airfix Member 022... Jolly Boy.

Remember: 'The Dude Abides'...

'It's GOOD to be the King !'

Sgt.Squarehead · Posted: Sun 29 Jun 2008 22:39 pm Post subject:

Ouch.....Hope you recover speedily!

Great looking etch work and very interesting to follow.....Most inspirational.

All the best

thomasweir · Posted: Mon 30 Jun 2008 10:16 am Post subject:

The etching looks great

Digs · Posted: Tue 01 Jul 2008 15:39 pm Post subject:

More work on the cockpit:

I undercoated it with Hu64 from a can, then painted it Hu92, then gave it a wash with diluted black oil paint to dirty it up a bit and try and bring out some of the detail. Peculiarly, the oil wash refused to wet some patches of the floor pan, but I didn't worry about that too much as it wouldn't be a pristine finish anyway. The instrument panel was painted satin black (Hu85) and then the dial surrounds highlighted with red, some dots of orange and green paint and a bit of drybrushing with aluminium. Ditto the side instrument panels and so on. The seats had some cushions added and this is where it's at now:

It all looks a bit monochrome in the downsized picture but there are some splashes of colour to liven it up a bit, honest!

Digs · Posted: Tue 01 Jul 2008 21:44 pm Post subject:

And a couple more pics of the next stage - the tub is now closed up and most of the remaining parts in place - instrument panel, seatbelts etc. The bits off to one side are the gunner's seat and an odd contraption that bridges from the back of the pilot's partition and supports a map table. The gunner's seat will be fitted after the tub is in the fuselage so I know how wide to make its supports, the map table will be left until the very end as it sticks up proud of everything else and would never survive masking and handling.

Since the pics I've glued the tub in place (tricky to get it in, level and the fuselage sides done up - still a work in progress in fact.

It's going to seem a bit strange swapping back to working with plastic after all that etched metal!

XN923 · Bronze Star Joined: 16 May 2008 Posts: 1176

That looks amazing!

Brews · Posted: Wed 02 Jul 2008 08:36 am Post subject:

It's good that you found that PE. I wouldn't have thought of it!

Don't forget that you can get a Falcon vac canopy for this.
_________________
“The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see.” Winston Churchill

Digs · Posted: Wed 02 Jul 2008 08:39 am Post subject:

Hannants order placed yesterday afternoon! Having spent all that time on the cockpit, a quick test fit of the Airfix canopy wasn't totally reassuring about how much detail would ever be seen again...

Cheers

Paul

Brews · Posted: Wed 02 Jul 2008 08:42 am Post subject:

Eduard's PE says it is for the Revell Ar 196, but I was not aware that Revell issued one!

What paints are you using for your RLM 72 and 73?
_________________
“The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see.” Winston Churchill

Digs · Posted: Wed 02 Jul 2008 08:59 am Post subject:

According to sources on the web

http://www.fortunecity.com/meltin...971/Reviews/luftwaffe/ar-196a.htm

the Revell kit is a rebox of the Heller kit.

I was thinking of using Hu30 & 91 for the splinter camouflage?

Paul