**** DONE: 1/48 Arado Ar234B-2 - Jet/Recon/Transport GB

[Crimea_River]

I was one step ahead of you Terry and checked my references for the very reason you said and it looks to be closed:

 

[Crimea_River]

Here's a question. Does anyone have a reference showing the underside of a wartime Ar234 that confirms that the rear undersides of the engine nacelles are natural metal? Hasegawa's instruction call these area up as NMF but Me262s with the same engines appear to have these areas RLM76 from front to back on the undersides.

 

[fubar57]

How's this one Andy.

I'll search some more and email them if you want. I thought I saw one with NMF but I'll recheck.

Geo

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks Geo. I watched a video on the 234 and it looks like some of them may have had the rear panels unpainted. I may just go with that to add further interest to the paint scheme but unfortunately pics of F1+MT don't allow a definitive answer. Your pic above shows that there's at least one example of 76 over the full length of the nacelle!

 

[fubar57]

I found a camouflage pattern of the -B in the Monogram Close-up book that says "This provisional pattern appears on most examples of the Ae234" and show the back 1/3 painted RLM22. Seeing as this is all written in English, take it for what you will. I've got one more book to look through.

Geo

 

[Crimea_River]

A little bit to report on my Blitz today.

Work on the upper canopy as partly done. The rivet decals have been applied and the periscope added and painted. Also, I masked the frames on the inside and spritzed on some RLM66.

With the colours left over in my airbrush from work on my Dora, I started on the 81/82 splinter scheme:

Thanks for looking in. Should get some more done over the rainy weekend.

 

[A4K]

Great work Andy, she's gonna be sweet!

 

[Wayne Little]

Well done Andy looks great!

 

[Wurger]

I echo Wayne's post.

 

[Airframes]

Good catch on the rudder actuator Andy. Don't know if these will help or hinder re the engine nacelles - from 'War Planes of the Luftwaffe'.

 

[vikingBerserker]

Here's a question. Does anyone have a reference showing the underside of a wartime Ar234 that confirms that the rear undersides of the engine nacelles are natural metal? Hasegawa's instruction call these area up as NMF but Me262s with the same engines appear to have these areas RLM76 from front to back on the undersides.

The pictures from Arado AR 234C by David Myhra show it both ways, though I am not sure it if was painted or just turned a dark color due to the heat.

 

[Gnomey]

Looks good so far Andy!

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks guys and thanks for those references Terry. I'll take a closer look at the photos of my particular rig and make a decision.

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Not sure if these will help Andy, but the show the exhaust area as a darker colour but in other pictures I have there is also the continuation of the camo to the end of the exhaust. My gut feeling is that initially they would be all factory fresh paint but with use the heat from the exhaust may have necessitated replacing the exhaust cone due to heat distortion or cracking, hence the possibility of bare metal.

 

[Crimea_River]

Cheers Vic.

 

[woody]

Looking good Andy.

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks Jerry. Here's some pics of the major progress achieved today.

First off, with the engines situated the way they are, I needed to mask off a good portion of the underside so I could paint the sides of the nacelles.

One of the disadvantages of doing the flaps the way I did is that the damned things are in the way for painting. Even without these, it's pretty touch getting the airbrush into the inside nacelle walls.

After all this was done, I proceeded to spritz on the 81/82 camo. The 82 was remixed from the other day and is now Tamiya 3:XF-51+2:XF-64. All paint has been done freehand with my Iwata HP-C.

..and after that cured, on went the Future to sit for a day or two.

I've decided to go with the metallic parts on the rear of the engine but it occurred to me know that I'm not sure how Alclad II will go over an acrylic finish. Don't want to ruin this now!

8:42 tee time tomorrow and the weather has taken a turn for the better so I'll give this one a rest for a bit and maybe work on the Dora tomorrow afternoon/evening. Thanks for the continued interest guys.

 

[A4K]

Looks great so far Andy!

 

[tigerdriver]

does look very good indeed

 

[Wayne Little]