Aka The Wurm that turned...

I dragged the Mach Two Arado Ar 232B out of the loft a few weeks back.  Now a lot of the hard work seems to have been done at least 25 years back.  The bulkheads are in, the wings and tail surfaces are assembled and filled, as are the mainwheels.  Can this be a quick build?

Don't be silly!  Mach 2 remember?  The canopy is vile, the plastic surface is rough and requiring much sanding.  The small wheels underneath... put it this way, I took one off the sprue and promptly gave up.  Most didn't have their axle holes and all were mismatched.  Luckily, they are just about the right size as a Spitfire wheel, so a dig through the spares box yielded a number of solid hub wheels which look good enough.

The wings and tail surfaces have been primed and are just about ready, having had more filling and sanding, plus some rescribing.  Some sanding of the bulkheads allowed the fuselage to close up.

Pics will follow soon.

After reminding myself what the Ar 232 was I'm looking forward to this 

Wasn't aware Mach 2 did one.

A search in the loft for something yielded a pair of replacement control columns and yokes.  The Mach Poo ones are terrible and unusable.

I also found a load of props that could be better than the kit ones and the spinners might fit.

The Arado 232B Tausendfüßler  is  quite remarkable for the number of wheels,  and I wish you the best of luck finding quality replacements in such quantity

I have more than enough Spitfires and Seafires to strip them from.  Only need four more.

The Spitfire wheels have all been cleaned up.  I opened a pair of Xtrakit mk 12s to get the last two pairs, dsscovering that one box held two kits.  Which was nice.

The rear glazing needs a little more clean up and I can get the fuselage closed up.  I'm replacing the kit seats with a pair of the resin cast armoured seats I'm putting in the He 277, whilst the badly moulded control columns are replaced with a pair of Italieri Ju 188 seats.  The same spares box has also yielded some Matchbox Ju 188 props and spinners, replacing the dreadful kit ones.

The fuselage is now closed up, filled and sanded back, but a few areas will need some remedial treatment.

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The top wasn't too bad but underneath needs a great deal more. It's filled the holes for the multi-wheel undercarriage struts, so I'll borrow another kit as a template.

The worst bit is the glazing.  The turret is replaceable and the portholes I'll just use Krystal Kleer, but the nose section just doesn't fit. Well, it does. Badly, and there are gaps, so I may just fill it with Milliput and get it vacformed over.  So this is now more a long term project.

I did make a start on cleaning up the engines, but one is too full of plastic between the cylinders and the cowlings are a bit meh.  I still have the ones from his Ju 352 and several Do 24 ones to strip, which means I do have some other options.  I'll have to do some more research online for the shape of the cowls.  I don't want the same nonsense I had to do with the Ju 352 all over again.

That fuselage looks similar to that of a Mil-8.

Looks good so far.

Oddly, I've been thinking similar thoughts. The fuselage shape struck me last night.

A few minutes research proved that the cowlings are indeed the same as those on the Ju 352, so I have to go through the same rigmarole as with that, but with an extra one.  But it also revealed that canopy is wrong too, but those errors oddly make the kit one fixable.  I think...

Quote from: Gondor on August 13, 2024, 07:18:54 AMThat fuselage looks similar to that of a Mil-8.

Was thinking something Helicopter-y myself.

Quote from: The Wooksta! on August 13, 2024, 08:02:41 AMBut it also revealed that canopy is wrong too, but those errors oddly make the kit one fixable.  I think...

Well that's a bonus, then - saves the faff of redoing one from scratch.