<> 1/48 Arado Ar196A - WW1 / WW2 over Water.

Good start Andy, yeah a dry fit to see what's worth tackling...

Good work so far Andy!

Always like the AR 196

Time to dust this one off again and see if I can get his build squeezed in before June 4. I decided that I did not like the build up of the center console with the radio equipment so tore all that apart to rebuild it. I found out that those loopy parts behind the pilot are actually lift cables whose shackles get stowed in a box behind the pilot - nothing like what the kit part looks like. So being the stickler for detail that I am, I will build this area from scratch. Hopefully that will be all I will need to address.

We await your scratching Andy...

Pics later today. Meantime, I was at the LHS yesterday to stock up on glue and paint and saw this kit on the shelf. Check it out.

Yikes, hope you bought the Eagle

Not sure what you mean by that Geo but, yes, I did not buy my kit retail. I got it at a vendor table at last year's model show for maybe 25 or 30 bucks. I would not want to pay more than that, I'll tell you as it's a VERY average kit, being of Italeri origin rather than a Tamiya tool so the quality is not as high end as one might expect in a Tamiya offering.

Anyway, here are some pics of work that I've done over the last little bit. First off, take a look at this rather unpleasant mould seam that will obviously warrant some careful removal. 120 bucks eh......?



I decided to give riveting a go since the panel lines are not all that crisp. For this, I dusted off my riveting tool that Terry kindly gave me back in 2015 at the Duxford show and ran it along the edge of a scribing template. As this was my first foray into riveting and to get the hang of it, I started on the lower wing so that any mistakes would not be as readily seen and worked my way up to the top surfaces. I did not have any detailed drawings for the pattern but made a judgement call based on the panel lines that were there and applying my limited knowledge of aircraft structures to add more in between. I'm rather pleased with the outcome, though I did wander off course on two or three occasions that will be easily fixed with surface primer and a redo. (Jeez, I need to clean that camera lens.)



Here's the butchered cockpit awaiting my scratch building efforts. It will be a bit of a wait until I get in the right mood.



The floats were assembled some weeks ago and these proved to be very tricky to minimize the seams. I think a bit more strategic placement of the seams would have helped to hide them. As it is, I have to clean up pretty much the whole length of the seam between the upper surface and the two halves on the bottom on both sides. There is a pronounced step on both floats, despite my best efforts to avoid them. I did however have the foresight to ensure that the outer, more visible side of each float was made as flush as possible and that the step showed up on the inner, more hidden side. Nonetheless, I will do my best to clean these up. The pics below show the raw assembly with no seam work attempted yet.



Since the above pics were taken, I've glued the upper and lower wing halves together and set them aside to dry. If all goes well and I have some decent bench time, I may get this done in the next 3 weeks or so. Thanks for your interest everyone.

Looks like a lot of clean-up work is required on that kit - hmm, that sounds familiar !
Th riveting turned out well, nicely done.

Thanks pal. It's not bad really but if I had paid over a hundred buck for this kit I'd be pretty pi$$ed.

I don't blame you !
A bit like some of the re-released early Hasegawa 1/32nd scale kits, at stupid prices, for example their Bf109E at around £35 ($62 CDN), and it's an inaccurate, ex-Frog kit from the late 1960s !!
Italeri used to produce some reasonable kits at relatively low prices, compared to other manufacturers, but they seem to be hiking up their prices for sometimes mediocre kits these days.

I have noticed prices on kits going up all across the board. Is there a shortage of styrene or something? Great work however, those seams on the floats look like some real work ahead! Love the riveting job!

riveting looks ....riveting 9I will get my coat). I know we covered this some time ago, but any chance of a shot of this riveting tool? I might look for one but I have no idea of even what it looks like.....

Here you go Michael.
This is the Trumpter riveting tool, the same as Andy's, which is supplied with four 'wheels' providing different sized / spaced 'rivets'.
They are marketed by a number of manufacturers, and sometimes known as a ponce, or pounce wheel, a tool originally used for leather craft and soft-metal jewelry or ornament decoration.
It's used by running the tool along the line required to be 'riveted', with light pressure, when the wheel revolves, and the 'teeth' leave small indentations in the relatively soft plastic.

Boy, wouldn't want to be paying $120 for those seams

Nice work for your first go on the riveting Andy. The last few models I've built have been well detailed so I haven't tried it before either. Will need to get me one of those wheels though...

Thanks guys and thanks Terry for posting a description of the tool. It saved me running down to the shop and taking some pics. The nice thing about this tool is that it comes with interchangeable wheels. The one downside is that the wheel itself is hidden from view when running on the surface so one is blind to where it's actually going. It's therefore important to feel the wheel running up against the straight edge. The other tool I've seen, used by JKIm, has an open wheel that's completely visible and allows one, if so inclined, to apply the rivets freehand without a straight edge.

Had a golf game lined up this morning but cancelled due to lower back issues. I may get some bench time on this model instead so stay tuned.

it does make the panels look terrific I have to say, but some care and skill required for good results is what I'm hearing.....

Hope the back pain eases of quickly Andy.

The type of pounce wheel with a visible wheel is much easier to use, and with a little practice can be used 'freehand' without having a straight edge as a guide, as the 'teeth' will hold a straight line and can be guided by eye. It is, of course better to have some form of guide, even if only a piece of tape, or a pencil line.
There are many types available, and a quick search under 'model rivet tool', or 'pounce wheel' will show a variety of types and quality, with prices according to the latter.
The one below, the 'Rivet R', from RB Productions, is fairly typical, and there are also the single pin type, which have to be used to make individual 'rivet' marks, but leave a very realistic flush rivet pattern.