CDW

I visited the Smithsonian museum in 2016 but I don't recall seeing the Arado 234 on my visit. Maybe it was there and I just missed it. I was rather rushed through the visit because my wife, daughter, and granddaughter were with me and as one can imagine, their interest in aircraft didn't nearly match my own. One can spend several days in DC and never begin to make a detailed study of the sites to be seen there. The air and space portion needs at least a full day all on its own.
What he was telling me about, in general, was how the canopy sections fit together and the black gasket material that was between the sections. There was more, but I just don't recall everything he said about it.

I visited the Smithsonian museum in 2016 but I don't recall seeing the Arado 234 on my visit. Maybe it was there and I just missed it. I was rather rushed through the visit because my wife, daughter, and granddaughter were with me and as one can imagine, their interest in aircraft didn't nearly match my own. One can spend several days in DC and never begin to make a detailed study of the sites to be seen there. The air and space portion needs at least a full day all on its own.
What he was telling me about, in general, was how the canopy sections fit together and the black gasket material that was between the sections. There was more, but I just don't recall everything he said about it.

There was an elderly gentleman at the IPMS show I attended earlier in the year who told me some facts concerning the Arado 234 that is part of the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC. He said he had worked there helping to restore that particular aircraft. I wish I had written down everything he told me as he was explaining facts about how the canopy parts fit together but I could not follow without a clear visual image of what he was talking about. Maybe one day I will run into him again and have him tell me about it one more time. This time I will take notes. He had donated a 1:48 Hasegawa Arado 234 and detail sets which I won in a raffle held at the show. Maybe one day I'll get around to building the 1:48 version.
Your model looks great at this stage. Keep up the beautiful work.

There was an elderly gentleman at the IPMS show I attended earlier in the year who told me some facts concerning the Arado 234 that is part of the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC. He said he had worked there helping to restore that particular aircraft. I wish I had written down everything he told me as he was explaining facts about how the canopy parts fit together but I could not follow without a clear visual image of what he was talking about. Maybe one day I will run into him again and have him tell me about it one more time. This time I will take notes. He had donated a 1:48 Hasegawa Arado 234 and detail sets which I won in a raffle held at the show. Maybe one day I'll get around to building the 1:48 version.
Your model looks great at this stage. Keep up the beautiful work.

While waiting for the wind to die down, I did a run of Jax Flemish gray on my MK 1 PE brass.  I like it.  It's a bluish gray and will blend well with the "Navy Blue--Rust-oleum 2X" hull color.  The Buships instructions for Measure 21 say to paint over the standard Navy gray on the vertical surfaces but not to worry about coating all the surfaces of smaller structures.  I read that as "Don't sweat the small stuff", so this Flemish gray should be a good match to the hull paint for the PE details I will be adding.  There will be a little PE excess at the attachment points (less and less as I get better), but a final coat of Matte clear over all surfaces, as I did for Bismarck, should render that invisible( fingers crossed).  All this in aid of reducing paint-masking of PE details.
 
Roger--I'll have a look for the Humbrol blue stain, but it will have a hard time competing with an $8, 1/2 pt can of Min-wax.  It's oil-based, so I don't expect any curling of the thin wood veneer deck from MK 1.  I'll do a test on a left-over piece of Yamato decking, first.  I'll have to stain the deck pieces before attachment to the flight deck, though.  There will be inevitable excess PVA glue at the edges of the many, many deck pieces, which would not absorb the semi-transparent stain.  I have to use stain as I want to preserve as much of the printed-on details as possible.  The MK 1 detail set also has PE stainless steel for the  separators/tie downs on the flight deck.  Way too silver and bright.  I gave the Jax chemicals a try at changing the color of the SS to blue or black.  Went thru Flemish gray, gun blue, steel black, pewter black and aluminum black with no results.  Unless someone knows of a blackening agent that will work on SS, I'm going to have to do a very light spray of the SS PE sheets with paint, before assembly.
 
As to the process I used for the Flemish gray:  First step was to do a wash of the PE sheets with dishwashing soap and rinse.  Then an overnight soak in White Vinegar.  I used a pyrex rectangular dish with a flat bottom and separated each PE sheet with a couple of pieces of left-over sprue.  That allowed me to do all of the PE set in one go.  After another rinse, I repeated this with the Jax Flemish gray.  The graying happens quite quickly, but I left the pieces in the solution for about an hour just to see what else happened--nothing.  I had bought a gallon of the Jax Flemish gray, after seeing how fast the 2 oz bottle I bought on e-bay got used up when I gave this a try on Yamato.  In the pictures of the PE sheets you can see a few "holidays" where the chemical process had not taken.  By process of elimination, I determined this was due to sheets of PE brass sticking together in the chemical bath.  A subsequent rub with a Q-tip resolved most of those problems.  However, there were a few edges of PE pieces that turned copper-colored.  I am guessing that this was due to imperfections in the brass sheet that I will have to deal with if it's visible after assembly with a dab of paint.  The next time I do this (on Missouri), I'll dip each sheet individually for about a minute each and see how that works out.  The coating seems a lot like anodizing.  You can't rub it off, but can scratch through it.  Looking forward to seeing how this ends up on the completed model.
 
Picture shows the 2-cans of primer I used and a gallon jug of the Jax Flemish Gray.  This go of coloring used about a quart of the chemical, which I saved to see if it's still reactive if I need to do some more parts.
 
Again, research on Measure 21 says that the Hanger deck floors were standard Navy gray, but the walls were White.  I came on this after I had masked the hanger deck and decided to just paint the whole interior of the Hanger deck Navy gray.  This is forewarning for future builders.  If I were to do it again, I'd follow this process:  Before gluing in the ceiling girders over the Hanger deck, paint the walls white.  Then, mask the walls off and paint the floor Navy gray--this is a lot easier without the girders..  If you are going to paint the girders (Navy gray), do it before assembly.  I didn't paint them because they will be impossible to see through the side roller doors once the Flight deck is attached.  Finally, assemble the girders with CA glue as all the plastic is covered with paint and plastic solvent won't work.
 
A further note for future builders:  As I mentioned earlier, I omitted the roller doors to allow sight lines through them to the interior of the Hanger deck, where I will have a few of the aircraft included in the Trumpeter kit.  I did place the roller doors in any place where there was nothing to see through them, but I forgot the ones directly beneath the Island.  There is a solid structure on the part of the Hanger deck directly beneath the island and there are three roller doors in the Hanger deck starboard bulkhead where I neglected to install the roller doors.  Too late now--they are just black holes now, unless light is shining directly on them.

Pontos only provides photos of the model with the photo etch attached. Sounds a lot like Mk-1 in that sense. Indeed, you are correct, reference materials are needed.

Use the voice recorder app on your phone or buy a cheap digital  pocket size "tape recorder".  I have one (micro cassette) in my camera bag. 

There was an elderly gentleman at the IPMS show I attended earlier in the year who told me some facts concerning the Arado 234 that is part of the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC. He said he had worked there helping to restore that particular aircraft. I wish I had written down everything he told me as he was explaining facts about how the canopy parts fit together but I could not follow without a clear visual image of what he was talking about. Maybe one day I will run into him again and have him tell me about it one more time. This time I will take notes. He had donated a 1:48 Hasegawa Arado 234 and detail sets which I won in a raffle held at the show. Maybe one day I'll get around to building the 1:48 version.
Your model looks great at this stage. Keep up the beautiful work.

There was an elderly gentleman at the IPMS show I attended earlier in the year who told me some facts concerning the Arado 234 that is part of the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC. He said he had worked there helping to restore that particular aircraft. I wish I had written down everything he told me as he was explaining facts about how the canopy parts fit together but I could not follow without a clear visual image of what he was talking about. Maybe one day I will run into him again and have him tell me about it one more time. This time I will take notes. He had donated a 1:48 Hasegawa Arado 234 and detail sets which I won in a raffle held at the show. Maybe one day I'll get around to building the 1:48 version.
Your model looks great at this stage. Keep up the beautiful work.

Overall, I am satisfied with the way the rear wheel came out given it's a first try. Practice makes perfect and I've learned a few things giving this method a try. 
Will move on to other areas of construction and continue with the front wheel later.

I can't tell you how happy I am, to have reached this point. The Nachtigall is not done, there is a lot do do until she is finished, but adding the subassemblies to the underside and remove the masks from the canopy was a major step.

The canopy had some staining on the glass, where I'm not sure, where they came from. Luckily,  could rub them carefully away with a cut toothpick. The framing needs to be decaled with rivets, the black color is only the base level.

I hope the landing gear holds up, as the Arado is a really heavy bird with all the heavy resin bits inside and the heavy nose weight as well.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Cheers Rob

The Hussar looks amazing. Great job on that OC.

Very fine brush work OC

Your figures look great OC. Very realistic

Your figures look great OC. Very realistic

Maybe try Mr Color metallics. Theirs are some of the most durable paints I have discovered. Super Silver has a very fine pigment and looks convincing.

The challenge of masking over metallic paint is always there. It's so frustrating to invest all the time and effort then see the paint underneath the mask deformed by the tape. I feel your pain.

Overall, I am satisfied with the way the rear wheel came out given it's a first try. Practice makes perfect and I've learned a few things giving this method a try. 
Will move on to other areas of construction and continue with the front wheel later.

No wonder they were out of stock.... It took me two months to get 6 cans of that Automotive Primer.... 🙂
 
Yves

Overall, I am satisfied with the way the rear wheel came out given it's a first try. Practice makes perfect and I've learned a few things giving this method a try. 
Will move on to other areas of construction and continue with the front wheel later.

Great to see/hear from you, Lou. 
I decided to give it a try after I saw an Asian modeler reveal his technique for it. Other methods had you building a jig and using a different type of flexible wire. While both methods had merit, the one I chose seemed the path of least resistance. The trick became sourcing the stainless-steel wire and aluminum tubing of sufficiently small gauge. I found that insect specimen pins came in a variety of small sizes from 5-0 all the way up and readily available on Amazon. The micro aluminum tubing I found from a hobby shop on Ebay. 

Great to see/hear from you, Lou. 
I decided to give it a try after I saw an Asian modeler reveal his technique for it. Other methods had you building a jig and using a different type of flexible wire. While both methods had merit, the one I chose seemed the path of least resistance. The trick became sourcing the stainless-steel wire and aluminum tubing of sufficiently small gauge. I found that insect specimen pins came in a variety of small sizes from 5-0 all the way up and readily available on Amazon. The micro aluminum tubing I found from a hobby shop on Ebay. 

the bike rims look really good......gonna add to the detail for sure  

Yes, it is worth the few hours you spent on that wheel. Incredible differences.
 
Yves

Overall, I am satisfied with the way the rear wheel came out given it's a first try. Practice makes perfect and I've learned a few things giving this method a try. 
Will move on to other areas of construction and continue with the front wheel later.