Revell 1/32 Arado 196A-3

[stona]

Veeeeery nice Vaughan. This looks like it will come out just fine.

Cheers

Steve

 

[Vaughan]

Hi All

Whilst waiting for some of the wing components to dry I went back to the fuselage to dry fit the the nose section. Once taped in situ I then added the inspection panels. All lined up well with the exception of the base of the nose. This hangs too low and if you apply pressure to line it up the panels start to gape. What's odd is that nose lines up perfectly at the top panels sit just right. There is also a locating tab at the base and this fits perfectly too despite the over hang. There seems to be no room for further adjustment anywhere else. So this could be a sanding job to remove the step. I also tried the engine and cowlings which looks fine in situ. Hopefully Stephen won't come across the same issues with his build. I don't know if there are always going to be fit issues with Revell kits or wether it's just my lack of modelling skills. Anyway I will keep plodding on.

Vaughan

View attachment 40209

View attachment 40210

View attachment 40211

View attachment 40212

View attachment 40213

View attachment 40214

View attachment 40215

 

[Vaughan]

Today I have sorted out the fuselage. Lots of careful sanding has remove the step without changing the shape too much. The wings and tail plane are glued including the control surfaces. The next step will be to secure the nose of the fuselage which will require inserting a pair of engine supports and a panel that fits on the inside of the machine gun. This could be a little fiddly.

Vaughan

View attachment 40220

View attachment 40221

View attachment 40222

View attachment 40223

 

[Vaughan]

Hi All

Have made a start on painting the wings. This is my first real attempt at pre shading it's a lot harder than I thought it would be. Seems to have worked with the RLM 65 but not so sure wether it has work with the camo.

Vaughan

View attachment 40239

View attachment 40240

View attachment 40241

View attachment 40242

 

[papa 695]

Hi Vaughan i think the pre shadings worked very well on the camo as well look v good so far

 

[Ian M]

Looks pretty good to me too.

The Undersides will always work better due to the lighter colours. The Top, camo painted sides are if you ask me always a bit hit and miss. I normally end up post shading the camouflage as the darkness of the colours hides the pre-shade very quickly.

I know it is often hard to get a good photo of the pre-shaded paintwork but your efforts have not been in vain.

I am quite looking forwards to seeing this bird finished. It has been an interesting build.

Ian M

 

[treyzx10r]

Looking great Vaughan,really like the engine detail!

 

[Vaughan]

Hi All

A small amount of progress yesterday. Because I'm using RLM70 and 71 (modelair doesn't make RLM72)for the camo the contrast is too great and not green enough. So I've sprayed a very light dusting of highly diluted dark green over the wings(see image top one is slightly greener). It's a subtle change but I think it makes a difference. The float struts are glued to the fuselage using the floats taped to the stand to aline them properly. I will still leave the engine and cowling off until I have sprayed the fuselage and then reattach once all the painting is done, as to try and mask it will be near impossible. The nose to the fuselage is now attached along with the engine mounts. At the same time I have also fitted the pre-painted machine gun back plate as it would have impossible to mask the gun and try to spray around it once in situ.

Vaughan

View attachment 40632

View attachment 40633

View attachment 40634

View attachment 40635

 

[Vajled]

fantastic work... just fantastic...

 

[stona]

RLM 70 and RLM 73 are very similar,certainly on a model. RLM 72 is a bit more olive/brown than RLM 71.

I think yours looks fine and the whole model is really coming along now. It's going to be an impressive beast.

Cheers

Steve

 

[Vaughan]

Further progress today. The float tops are on and I have made a start on the rigging. I have managed to use the same thread to make the vertical "X" on one side and the horizontal "X" between the floats. This just left the vertical "X" on the other float. All are just taped at the moment. But once I'm sure they're how I want them I will glue them in situ with some medium Cyanoacrylate. Then all that remains is to add the bottom halves of the floats. The next step should be to mask up the cockpit area and spray on the surface primer.

Vaughan

View attachment 40657

View attachment 40658

View attachment 40659

View attachment 40660

 

[spanner570]

Sure is one heck of a build Vaughan.

It's a pleasure watching it come together. Nice one!

Ron

 

[Vaughan]

Thanks for that Ron

I have at points thought have I bitten off more than I can chew with this build. It's been quite a challenge what with the rigging and all.

The rigging is now glued and bottom halves of the floats attached. I've used the stand again to ensure that all lines up.

Tried another dry fit with wings, engine and prop. It's going to be a real beast. I'm definitely glad that I chose to have one wing folded!

The primer will be next.

Vaughan.

View attachment 40697

View attachment 40698

View attachment 40699

 

[stona]

That is looking very impressive. Good stuff. Well done on the rigging,it scares the crap out of me.

Cheers

Steve

 

[yak face]

Really looking excellent now vaughan, keep the pics coming, cheers tony

 

[Vaughan]

Hi All

Pretty much no progress over the last 4 days. Gills not been well recently, several trips to the doctors and hospital, with possible kidney stones and my thyroids gone up the chute into the bargain. So not much time for modelling I think your health comes first in these circumstances. So what I have managed to do is add the locating points on the float that will have the folded wing and masking the canopy. The canopy comes in separate pieces which need to be constructed on the fuselage to achieve the correct angles pre masking I think was the best bet. Klearfix is not that strong and trying to mask once in situ might be tricky. I will eventually get round to priming the model.

Vaughan

View attachment 40865

View attachment 40866

 

[Vaughan]

Hi All

Well finally I'm back on the case although there's not much progress. The decals are down on the wings after two good coats of Klear, there were no real problems there. Revell decals are slightly on the thick side so you do have to use a fair bit of decal soft to get them to conform to panel lines and inspection covers that protrude. Then I followed up with some more Klear to seal them prior to weathering the wings. I'm using florys dark dirt. I think it's turned out well on the underside of the wings but it's not so evident on the upper side. This is most probably due to the darker colour of the camouflage. I've still to add the aileron counter balancers and bomb cradles as they are rather delicate. The canopy is complete but I think Revell missed a trick with this one as there was no logical reason for making each section in three parts. It works fine with the front section but the other two you can see the joins along the top edge and there is no way of covering it up. The only way I've found round this is to mask beyond the joins but on the downside the frame will be rather thick. I think I'm going to go for this option otherwise the joins will look really unsightly. I've still yet to prime the fuselage and floats but at the rate I'm going The Arado is not going to be finished this side of Christmas.

Vaughan.

View attachment 41525

View attachment 41526

View attachment 41527

View attachment 41528

View attachment 41529

View attachment 41530

 

[treyzx10r]

Vaughan thats really looking awesome,the wings are perfect!!!

 

[Vaughan]

Hi All and a Happy New Year

Well it's been 3 weeks since I last posted anything a combination of Christmas, New Year and cold weather have got in the way.

Here's the progress so far.

The underside is now sprayed with RLM 65 and the next step will be to mask off ready for the camo.

I've masked the canopy with a combination of tape and foam sponge (thank goodness you can buy ten for a pound from Asda) and sprayed it with a base coat of RLM 02.

The float tips have been masked and sprayed red.

The engine cowling has been masked and sprayed with a base coat of white followed with a coat of yellow.

The camo will be next but I'm going to have to work out the best way to mask it off as it could get quite complicated working around the floats and struts.

Vaughan

View attachment 42310

View attachment 42311

View attachment 42312

View attachment 42313

View attachment 42314

View attachment 42315

View attachment 42316

View attachment 42317

View attachment 42318

 

[yak face]

Looks mighty fine vaughan, cant wait to see the final camo, cheers tony