1/48 Hasegawa Arado 234 Blitz-After 3 years..Finally Completed

Tojo72

I can't believe its been that long since you left off on the 234

 

I've been thinking looooong and hard about this one as of late. It has stayed, for the last 5 years, in plane....er plain sight at the right hand side of my work bench behind glass.



While it's true that I stopped building aircraft models 5 years ago in favor of my interest in automotive subjects, I had also reached a point where I started wanting more out of my paint jobs on aircraft. I consider my D-9 to be somewhat of a success story for me but I wanted even more than that. When I took on this 234 I had fears of it being "just another paint job". You know what I'm talking about, one that looked like it just rolled out of 1:1 paint shop and I just couldn't have that. I have recently watched paint jobs come together with processes that have been untried by me on aircraft such as marbling and black basing and feel that I am ready to "tip in" so to speak. I feel really comfortable (and perhaps too comfortable) with the mirror like automotive finishes that I set out on learning how to pull off some 5 years ago now and am ready for my next challenge in modeling.







After finally learning how to get consistent results with a shiny paint job I feel that I am now ready for the next challenge of learning how to master a war/ weather worn aircraft finish. I've got a lot of catching up to do on this build and it IS going to have to wait until the completion of my holy grail Silverado 454 SS build but I think we may be giving this one a "GO" next. Stay tuned........

Boy! You aren't kidding when it comes to the quality of detail. The quality is indeed quite eye popping. Nice "stumble" on to the paint. It appears to work wonderfully. I did not realize that it was a gloss acylic. That in itself was a bonus in itself in that you did not need a gloss coat for the Mig wash. You have a really fine base to work off of now Joe. Let the detailing begin!!!!

Mustang

Great looking engine. Is the Mig wash any different than a home made oil paint and thinner wash?

lawdog114

Awesome work! Mig Dark Wash eh? I may have to look into that stuff.

 

Thanks Joe for the great compliment. What looks like a seam line there is actually a line I think for exhaust temperature measurement but will be able to identify it properly in the coming days during the engine assembly.

Up to this point its been a lot of body work but I think we're getting into the "meat and potatoes" of the build now. I was going to go for primer stage this week but it's been raining and cool out so I'll wait until fairer weather hits us. That'll take us to the engine build up stage. Folks I just can't express enough how much I enjoy building up resin engines from Aires. I mean you've gotta watch 'em and plan out the build around 'em as some times they'll throw a "curve ball" at you in regards to fit but you just can't beat them for the "wow factor" as a builder as they pack a punch in terms of detail.

I black based the compressor section and ignitor sections and then shot them with Testors Aluminum enamel but it was waaaay too grainy for my tastes. So I was in search of a more smooth and true aluminum look without it having that automotive aluminum intake manifold texture to it. What I found next was by pure (and a lot of us run into this in modeling) accident. My wife is a mosaic artist and uses all kinds of paints and things of that nature in her "builds". She was working with some letter decorations last night and was showing off this neat acrylic silver paint that she had and once I saw it there was a "ding" .

 So I used her silver paint over the enamel that I had already sprayed on and after that had dried I used some Mig Dark Wash (which folks, I haven't found  a better wash out there yet for coverage and bringing the most out of details) and the results were mind blowing to me:

 Here are the materials:

and here are the results on my Junkers Jumo 004 engine. I've still got a lot of detail work and detail painting to do but THIS.........is gonna WORK.

Good to get an update from from you Bro. Looks like solid progress is being made. That resin engine is indeed very impressive. That is going to be a real beauty after you get your skillful hands on it. I really am excited to see the finished product. Appears from the pics that there may be some tricky clean up on the mold lines there. But, i know that you've got this. You are doing awesome.

This morning saw more sanding and filling of the engine nacelles to wing joins and so far it's looking acceptable to me. I've started cutting the casting blocks from the 004 engine, cleaned the parts up a little bit and started test fitting. All I've gotta say is that these engines are works of art right out of the box. LOTS of detail:

The three main parts:



and all together:

Thanks fellas!

Brandon: Thanks and who days I didn't? lol

Nathan: Oh hell no you didn't just say that!! lol

Everybody: Ok gang....It's Monday which means we're back on the Arado once again. I got the engine nacelle installed on the starboard side and did ALOT of test fitting and trimming for the displayed port side engine.

Here's where we are today.

All of the sanding, filling, and cutting is really awesome.  I love the amount of detail you're adding onto this build!

Toshi

What? Your not decalling yet?

All the cutting you have done looks nice and clean Joe. Excellent work. I like your approach for painting the engine intake. As you well know, the time investment into that tedious work is going to pay great dividends. For all of us.

Agreed, nicely done on the save. I think I would have had a melt down like a 4 yr old in the toy store who was just told no. Well done.

BK

Lot's of cutting and sanding going on as of late. I've got the port side engine pod minus all the panels about ready though. I still have some sanding and filling to do at the front and rear but I feel fairly good about the progress so far.......it's just taking forever to get anywhere past all the cutting. lol

Cut and sectioned out:



I cut the center strip out of the left over engine pod root and got the halves glued together this morning:



I didn't foresee being able to paint the engine air intake area on the starboard closed up engine uniformly so I cut the starter assy out of the center of the air intake to paint it and will reinstall it after painting.



That's about it for now but I still have one more day this week to make some progress on this bad boy.

'Preciate that Bob!

Thanks Greg and Johnny! I'll see about those rivets when the primer coat goes on.....till then..............fingers crossed.

mustang1989

Thank you all for the encouragement on this bad boy. It's much appreciated .....especially when I have times at the bench like I've had for the last couple of days. I mean.........I pulled this next stunt off but it was a bit frustrating to me.

I finally opened up the Aires engine set because I'm at that point to where I want to work on the engine mounting for the starboard engine as that's the one I'll be displaying opened up. I was just getting over all the goodies in the kit (these engines look fabulous BTW) when I turned my attention to the instructions of how these beauties mount up to the wing. At first I wanted to put everything back in the box and move on.
You guys know about where I'm at with the build right now so you can imagine how I felt when I saw this in the instructions:



Yeah. That's what I said too.

I did, however , think about it over a cup of coffee and came up with this plan:

I took this:



and cut the locating pins off of the base and sanded the back side down until I was left with the center strip and the offset mounting hole, made all the cuts and holes in the wing like I was supposed to and inserted everything into the openings and holes in the wing from the outside.

The results? Something I think I can live with:



Ok.....made it past that hump! Movin' right along now.................................

 

Just got myself caught up on this one.

Good work as usual, Joe.

Going back a little ways, I surely don't see anything wrong with your re-scribe/re-rivet job. To say the least.

Nathan T

Thats what happens when you build too quickly

Thank you Ernie and Joe. Hopefully I can get underway with the engine nacelle to wing fit now.

That is definitely an oustanding solution to your unexpected issue. I hope it works out as planned. Do we have a new bend in our learning curve now? Seriously, excellent work my friend.

Simply outstanding work Joe, I specially drool over the pit pictures. 

Nice recovery Joe. Thats what happens when you build too quickly, and try and add too much dang Resin. There's too many instructions to not follow...at least thats my problem!

Thank you all for the encouragement on this bad boy. It's much appreciated .....especially when I have times at the bench like I've had for the last couple of days. I mean.........I pulled this next stunt off but it was a bit frustrating to me.

I finally opened up the Aires engine set because I'm at that point to where I want to work on the engine mounting for the starboard engine as that's the one I'll be displaying opened up. I was just getting over all the goodies in the kit (these engines look fabulous BTW) when I turned my attention to the instructions of how these beauties mount up to the wing. At first I wanted to put everything back in the box and move on.
You guys know about where I'm at with the build right now so you can imagine how I felt when I saw this in the instructions:



Yeah. That's what I said too.

I did, however , think about it over a cup of coffee and came up with this plan:

I took this:



and cut the locating pins off of the base and sanded the back side down until I was left with the center strip and the offset mounting hole, made all the cuts and holes in the wing like I was supposed to and inserted everything into the openings and holes in the wing from the outside.

The results? Something I think I can live with:



Ok.....made it past that hump! Movin' right along now.................................

Okay Joe, after our discussion this morning and having a close look at your pics, your rivet work appears quite acceptable and nicely done. I concur with Nathan in that once you have the paint and weathering in place you won't much notice the difference in rivet spacing. Now, as for you, accept that it looks excellent, let it go and move on. It's all good my friend.

Looks great from here Joe, you'll get that warm fuzzy feeling once its all painted and your wash brings out that nice detail. How did you like the RB rivet wheels? I really like my set, but it is time consuming to change out wheels, and it ties up another exacto handle, but the price sure beats those expensive Rosie the Riveter sets!

Looks pretty darn good to me!

Mike