Arado Ar-234 P5 Swept Winged Turbo-Prop Nightfighter - Completed

[PR19_Kit]

Wowee, those props/intakes are truly awesome, super work there. 

[DogfighterZen]

Wow...

[trickyrich]

thanks for all the nice comments they're very much appreciated, glad everyone is enjoying the build, I am for sure!!

Ok back to the beast after a little break.

So more of the same to start, sanding filling sanding again, and more filling.......plus a little bit of panel re-scribing, then repeat of the first two!! Till I was at a stage I was happy with, actually I'd had enough of the filling and sanding! Time to get ready for painting.

So on with all those little PE bits that are just waiting to get knocked off or squashed! Those PE bits for the trim tabs were tiny and such a pain to put on! I would like to say now that all the PE bits have survived what's was coming up.....but I did manage to squash the DF loop....so it's been removed and will be panel beaten later on!




The periscope appears in the drawings for most the other version but not this one, so I'm tossing up whether to leave it on or remove it. In which case I will have to fill up the hole for it!



I'm also tossing up when to fit the Naxos (FuG) -350, which needs to go on the canopy, to the right and slightly behind the pilot. It might be beat to leave this to last!

Ok with that all done a undercoat of Lt. Grey acrylic was applied.



Next some banding followed by some pre-shading. I still can't airbrush straight lines to save myself!



Now the under surface colour. I am for the first time using Vallejo Model Air paint, RLM 76 in this case. I have read some horror stories with this paint so I was a bit nervous using it. I used it straight from the bottle at the correct air pressure ~18psi and it worked a treat!!! It would have to be some of the best paint I have ever used, even better than the Life Color!!!! It just went on so easy and smoothly, I'm just so happy with the finish. The only thing I noticed is takes just a little bit longer to dry.



The results below speak for themselves! Just in case anyone was wondering, the banding was left unmasked on purpose.....and why is there banding? All will be revealed once the paint job is complete. The remaining colours I'll be using are in the background and there'll be diagonal banding!



And the boy's altogether! The Arado does look like a Viking!

[dumaniac]

nive pair of jets - what is the other one?

[trickyrich]

That's a Douglas A2D Skyshark

[zenrat]

I use Vallejo paint and prefer it to Gunze Sangyo or Tamiya acrylics (interesting fact - if you mix Vallejo & Gunze acrylics you get a gelatinous mess).  I've had no problems airbrushing the Model Air range straight from the bottle (usually at about 30 psi).  It's when i've tried thinning & airbrushing the thicker Model Color that i've had problems - usually due to thinning them too much.
The one thing i'm not convinced about is the accuracy of the shades.

These all look great.

[NARSES2]

That's a Douglas A2D Skyshark

Anigrand as well I presume ? I enjoyed my build of it

[trickyrich]

I use Vallejo paint and prefer it to Gunze Sangyo or Tamiya acrylics (interesting fact - if you mix Vallejo & Gunze acrylics you get a gelatinous mess).  I've had no problems airbrushing the Model Air range straight from the bottle (usually at about 30 psi).  It's when i've tried thinning & airbrushing the thicker Model Color that i've had problems - usually due to thinning them too much.
The one thing i'm not convinced about is the accuracy of the shades.

These all look great.

since I've started using acrylics I had only been using Tamiya or Gunze, which I found really nice to use as up till then I'd only use Testors Model Master enamels. But on my last build of a RAAF Lightning I used Life Color acrylics and I was amazed just how nice and easy they were to use, almost fool proof for me and even thinned nicely. Now these Vallejo ones appear to be just as nice as well. Though someone has mentioned they can life pretty easily, but hopefully I have a nice base coat for them to bind to.

Here's the RAAF Lightning done in Life Color acrylics, as it's not a whiff can't do a full post on it.

[dumaniac]

nice lightning

[zenrat]

RW Build!?!? ARRRRRGHHHHHHHH MY EYES MY EYES!!!!!!!



Vallejo does scrape off easier than Tamiya & Gunze but I prime pretty much everything which helps and it is actually a bonus when painting canopy frames by hand.

[trickyrich]

yes I have noticed that, it's no where near as tuff as the Life Color paint!

[NARSES2]

I'm a great fan of Lifecolor. Just a shame they are not the easiest to get hold of in the UK. You can get the sets (of which I have a couple) but individually can be tricky. I need to stock up at SMW which had the benefit last year of a very attractive young lady behind the stand helping this "old man" to get to the ones on the bottom row 

I've only used a couple of Vallejo colours but have to agree they are very good

[trickyrich]

Well the major painting is now pretty much completed!

I will start by saying this is probably not what anyone was expecting for a nightfighter! But as I had mentioned that I had changed the path of this project and it's now evolved into an all-weather fighter, hence the scheme.

Ok now the scheme....I will admit it is different but it actually based on an actual aircraft colour scheme and fits in nicely to where I am taking this project now. The scheme was originally on a Me-262 A1 of Stabsstaffel JG7. The original aircraft was part of Kommando Stamp before it was disbanded and incorporated into JG7. One aircraft in particular had this unusual diagonal colour scheme as well as the double chevron of Kommandeur, so it was possible assigned to Major Gerhard Stamp. These Me-262's were also fitted with the WGr 21 Air to Air mortars and were tasked with attacking allied bomber formations.

So for my build/history the Me-262's were replaced with the newer and more advanced Ar-234 P5's in a similar role though now they could operate in all weather. The additional power of the new turbo-prop engines along with the quicker power delivery of a turbo-prop engine made them perfect for this role.

Ok the paint job, its all Vallejo paint, which I must say, was a breeze to go on, but boy is it fragile!! Compared to Life Color or Gunze/Tamiya acrylics it' just falls off if you touch it wrong! I had heard it also can clog up the nozzle and can be a bit difficult at times, but I didn't have any of these issues (though I did run through a wee bit of Vallejo air brush cleaning before paint job). The paint job is nice and uneven as I was aiming for, though it so does look like a model at the moment, just screaming or for some detailing and weathering!






Doing the blotches was another matter and did give me a bit of trouble, though this is the first time I have tried this with a double action airbrush, normal I would do this with my old single action one. If they annoy me too much I'll re-do them!!

The bands are not perfect and a bit blotchy, but this doesn't matter as they will be partially covered with over spray, to reduce their visibility as seen on quite a few aircraft.




I don't think I'll leave the props their silver colour, I'll probably go for something more like the colours used on prop aircraft. I'll be much happier once a clear coat goes on to help protect to paint!

Oh and other thing is I'll be I'll be painting on the markings for this build, another first for me. Plus I did manage to knock off most of those fine PE bits along the way as well!

[tc2324]

Nice work Rich. 

[PR19_Kit]

That's getting better and better, the props are the icing on the cake.