Nachtigall on Speed Arado 234 B-2N by DocRob - FINISHED - 1/32 - Fly

[DocRob]

Time and motivation are a bit sparse in the moment, but I managed to apply some color onto the Arado. After re-spraying the gloss black of the canopy after sanding, the whole canopy section was masked.
The underside of the plane received a coat of RLM 76, followed by a very long masking session, a job, I really don't like.
 

 

This was followed by a coat of RLM 82 Dunkelgrün (dark green) I decided against pre shading, because of the double coating in the RLM 81 Braunviolett areas. All camo colors are from AK's Real Color range and spray very fine and smooth with the added Mr. Leveling thinner. After drying, I will apply the camo masks, which are pre-cut luckily.

 

 

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

The hard edge camo is done. I sprayed the brown violet over the masked dark green areas and got a sharp result. I used a dedicated masking set, made by LF Models. The masks are made from vinyl and It took some effort to lay them down perfectly, to have no color running under it. The manual is a bit vague in places, relatively small and some codes were printed blue on green, hard to read. Definitely an area for improvement. I always remove my masks rapidly after application, before the color is properly hardened through. Luckily on first inspection, I couldn't make out severe mistakes. After proper drying, I will have a closer look.

 

 

 

Cheers Rob

[Canute]

Looks good so far, Rob.

[DocRob]

On 6/15/2023 at 1:40 AM, Canute said:

Looks good so far, Rob.

 

Thank you Ken, let's hope it stays this way .

 

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

After a proper drying time, I inspected the paintjob and found only some minor flaws, which will be corrected by brush. The constantly pressing on of the vinyl masks payed in the end.
To unify the camouflage a bit better, I used a 6000 grit sanding sponge and wet sanded the whole model. It's interesting, how this seemingly unnoticeable effect integrates the different hard edged colors better.

I now have a very smooth base and have to decide, if I go the painful route with the 1ManArmy masks or if I use the kit decals. Some markings for my plane are not included in the mask set, so I decaled the Arado's serial number and the kit decals behave exceptionable well. Thin but robust and easy to slide and position. I will evaluate after drying, which way I choose with the markings and stencils.
 

Cheers Rob
 

 

[DocRob]

My test decal on the tail silvered and that meant masking time, hooray . The OneManArmy masks are cut absolutely precise, but it's a lot of tedious work. With the Arad, some masks require three layers of masking and color, phew. Masking the walkways on top of the fuselage and wings was not so easy, with trimming the strips to size and align them with a ruler and good eyesight.
The larger markings like the crosses were applied with frisket film on top, which makes alignment and placement easier, a lesson learned with my Corsair build.

 

Now I have to think about the airplane codes on the side of the plane, where I don't have the proper masks for. Silvering decals? A false code and hoping nobody recognizes it? Browsing through my masks and try to find something appropriate? Decisions, decisions... 

 

Next will be masking the masks , which will be an equally annoying job, before it's spraying time.

I hope my new airbrush will arrive soon, which will be helpful with the fine markings and other filigrane airbrush work, but more about that later.

Cheers Rob

 

[Canute]

Rob, I have an old source book on the Luftwaffe and may be able to dig up some codes. Then again, I don't think these jets actually flew combat missions, so the codes would be speculative.

[CDW]

The masking looks fantastic, Rob. Love it!

[DocRob]

12 hours ago, Canute said:

Rob, I have an old source book on the Luftwaffe and may be able to dig up some codes. Then again, I don't think these jets actually flew combat missions, so the codes would be speculative.

Thank you Ken, I have some books about the Arado as well and there are enough side views provided with the codes on. The material about the Nachtigall (nightingale night fighter version) is a bit sparse though. 
I have only the kit decals for the correct fuselage code and they do silver, so I need another solution. I may use a false code for my plane, which is supplied with the 1ManArmy masks, but  you haven't heard that from me .

 

The Arados flew different types of combat missions, as reconnaissance plane, as a bomber and some attempts with the night fighter as a Mosquito hunter, but without success. The plane proved not to be practical for the role due to lot's of reflections inside the glass house canopy and absolutely no protection for the pilot.
It may have been one of the best reconnaissance plane of it's time though, with a high altitude and speed and an unmatched stable base for the cameras due to the non-prop engines. These duties started in June 1944.
More than 200 were built, but not all of them saw action.

 

Cheers Rob

Edited June 21, 2023 by DocRob

[DocRob]

12 hours ago, CDW said:

The masking looks fantastic, Rob. Love it!

Thank you Craig, it's tedious, but it pays, as you don't have to deal with the usual decal problems. The kit decals behaved well, except for silvering, therefore, I opted for the masks, with a heavy heart.

 

Cheers Rob

[Canute]

I read somewhere that the Arados were used as recce birds over the Remagen bridgehead.

[realworkingsailor]

Andy

[Egilman]

Interesting, but although it might have been unknown to the ground troops, the high command and fighter command sure as heck knew about them....  There are several reasons that the knowledge of these flights was kept secret... #1 was the state of radar development at the time which was a more closely guarded secret than the Manhattan project... #2 was the estimated effectiveness of the intelligence gathered, not very effective as the video commentator admits... To be honest, the overlord operation placed 1.6 million troops ashore with all their equipment in under two months, there was no army on earth that could have stopped such an operation once the beachhead was established... #3 The missions came randomly chosen, completely inconsistent times of day, there was no way to plan an interception, and believe me they had the assets to intercept such flights, but from leaving the ground they were gone before the interceptors could get there... The High command made an operational decision that it just wasn't worth the effort to intercept them...

 

The Germans had a perfect photographic record of their destruction, I'm sure they were overjoyed....

Edited June 22, 2023 by Egilman

[DocRob]

The Arado 234 was a fascinating airframe in many aspects ahead of it's time, but obviously flawed in some aspects, as the development was rushed, material and fuel was sparse.
It was an extraordinary reconnaissance platform, but I think, it's value was a bit overrated in the video. One of it's advantages was, it could fly higher and faster than the Allied fighters and could therefore act in a theater of enemy air superiority.

 

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

This is getting out of hand. I'm running out of masking tape and patience. Because there are stencils everywhere, you have to mask around them, which actually means, covering the whole plane in Kabuki. And that's not all, after finishing masking around the stencils, some of them need to be covered, because different colors will be sprayed . It's really hard to make no mistakes and leave a spot uncovered for example the tiny number of each stencil. 

I needed two exhausting bench days to get to this point and I'm not ready yet. By this time I cut a zillion patches of Kabuki tape and my eyes are hurting from placement work.

Are these masks great, yes they are definitely, would I use them on a bird like the Arado again, NOOOO. I used 1ManArmy masks for my Corsair build and this was way easier done due to the placement of the stencils and the used colors.

 

Cheers Rob

[CDW]

4 minutes ago, DocRob said:

This is getting out of hand. I'm running out of masking tape and patience. Because there are stencils everywhere, you have to mask around them, which actually means, covering the whole plane in Kabuki. And that's not all, after finishing masking around the stencils, some of them need to be covered, because different colors will be sprayed . It's really hard to make no mistakes and leave a spot uncovered for example the tiny number of each stencil. 

I needed two exhausting bench days to get to this point and I'm not ready yet. By this time I cut a zillion patches of Kabuki tape and my eyes are hurting from placement work.

Are these masks great, yes they are definitely, would I use them on a bird like the Arado again, NOOOO. I used 1ManArmy masks for my Corsair build and this was way easier done due to the placement of the stencils and the used colors.

 

Cheers Rob

I admire your work and patience. I bought one man army masks for my Border Models Lancaster. Now I’m wondering how complex those are going to be. 

[Egilman]

9 minutes ago, DocRob said:

This is getting out of hand. I'm running out of masking tape and patience. Because there are stencils everywhere, you have to mask around them, which actually means, covering the whole plane in Kabuki.

Yep, much like PE cockpits/interiors, on some of them you have to ask if all the work and stress you just went through executing them was worth it...

 

For most it isn't, but for the most exacting modelers, the results cannot be argued with...

 

Nice work brother....

[DocRob]

22 minutes ago, CDW said:

I admire your work and patience. I bought one man army masks for my Border Models Lancaster. Now I’m wondering how complex those are going to be.

It depends on the stencil layout Craig. With the Corsair it was easier to mask around the stencils and for many, I used reusable Kabuki templates with a rectangular hole in it to mask around the stencil. 
With the Arado and multi colored stencils, the walkways with surrounding stencils and the overall stencil distribution, the masking has to be  done a bit more thorough. Masking has to be done relatively precise, as there is not much room around the cut stencils.

 

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

21 minutes ago, Egilman said:

Yep, much like PE cockpits/interiors, on some of them you have to ask if all the work and stress you just went through executing them was worth it...

 

For most it isn't, but for the most exacting modelers, the results cannot be argued with...

 

Nice work brother....

Thank you Egilman, sometime it's about “A man's got to do what a man's got to do.” . Where would be the fun in modelling, a completely time and effort wasting hobby, when the spent effort wouldn't be maximized with unnecessary tasks. There is no way to explain what we do to an outsider, it's only us nerds, modelling is important to, so let's keep this little island afloat with some self flagellation.

 

Cheers Rob

[popeye the sailor]

hello Rob......thought I'd pop in and browse......your log caught my attention.  I recall building an He 219 in the past....this is one plane I've never seen before.  even in war time pieces,  there are subjects that are rarely touched on or modeled {yea,  I'm drawn to them too  }.  I've rarely done short run kits.......I have one on the table still.  Special Hobby is another company from the Czech republic,  and they are not known for locator pins or tabs either.  I really like what your putting into this model.......going to be awesome when finished!  an offer of a book reference was put out there........and I happen to have a Luftwaffe book as well.  it fits the rool this plane performed...Luftwaffe KG 200.  in the back of the book,  it lists every plane that the KG 200 flew on thier missions.  most of them were B 2 variants...there are about 15 listed.  they wer already pre coded.......the 200 never changed them.  they were in service for a relatively sort amount of time,  given less than a year before they were reported crashed or shot down.  I'll browse the text to see if there is any info on them.

 

meanwhile,  your doing a superb job thus far,  and I'll be follow'in along  

[yvesvidal]

2 hours ago, CDW said:

I bought one man army masks for my Border Models Lancaster. Now I’m wondering how complex those are going to be. 

 

oh oh !!! This is going to be epic when you start a Build Log.

 

Yves

[popeye the sailor]

I took a picture of the page for you,  but in reviewing it,  I though it came out bad.  once transferred to my computer,  I saw that it didn't look as bad as I thought........so here it is.  it might give you ideas for code lettering.

not sure what the V5 / V7 and the V15 / V17 is about.......perhaps possible variants.  there is also an S12 listed.  hope you can glean anything frm it  

[DocRob]

17 hours ago, popeye the sailor said:

hello Rob......thought I'd pop in and browse......your log caught my attention.  I recall building an He 219 in the past....this is one plane I've never seen before.  even in war time pieces,  there are subjects that are rarely touched on or modeled {yea,  I'm drawn to them too  }.  I've rarely done short run kits.......I have one on the table still.  Special Hobby is another company from the Czech republic,  and they are not known for locator pins or tabs either.  I really like what your putting into this model.......going to be awesome when finished!  an offer of a book reference was put out there........and I happen to have a Luftwaffe book as well.  it fits the rool this plane performed...Luftwaffe KG 200.  in the back of the book,  it lists every plane that the KG 200 flew on thier missions.  most of them were B 2 variants...there are about 15 listed.  they wer already pre coded.......the 200 never changed them.  they were in service for a relatively sort amount of time,  given less than a year before they were reported crashed or shot down.  I'll browse the text to see if there is any info on them.

 

meanwhile,  your doing a superb job thus far,  and I'll be follow'in along  

Thank you Popeye for providing all that insight and the planes codes. The V-designation means 'Versuch' and indicates the prototypes and test planes in order of the numbers. Up  to V8 the Arado's were A-models with a starting trolley, from V9 on B-models with retractable landing gear. The development of the 234 was constantly going on, for the airframe itself and for it's assignments in a reconnaissance role first, then the bomber variant and last the night fighter with the added rear operator place and radar equipment and finally the four engine -C variant, where only two prototypes flew in the last days of the war.
My code letterings are not on your list. Mine should have worn the SM FE code, but I opted for GM BC, as I have no masks for the correct one. I'm not so much of a rivet counter, but I want to know, what is wrong with my builds and here it is deliberately.

I also own Zoukei Mouras He-219 along a lot of add-ons, including a dreaded 1ManArmy mask set, because the decal sheet doesn't look too promising. It will take a while until I start this one after the Arado, but the Uhu always attracted me in a similar way like the Arado and some other weird and technological advanced planes. It appeals the engineer in me for some reason.

Short run kits, well, this is one, definitely. My evaluation of kits has changed. I do like to build some shake and bake Tamiya kits once in a while. You can fully concentrate on painting, weathering and learning new techniques on them with a relatively narrow time frame of building time.
The not so easy to build kits, I have in two categories, good and bad, as simple as that. Good means, I absolutely want to build it, no matter what, like the Arado or my MikroMir Fokker D.VIII. With these, I open the box and feel the urge to build them and try to find solutions for their shortcomings. The Arado had so many super detailed resin parts for the cockpits an other details, which besides the technical attraction made me want to build it. She sat on the shelf for some time, but I was sure, I will finish the build.
The bad ones, I try to omit. I don't buy Italeri kits for example, I don't like the idea of a mayor company issuing so many mediocre or bad kits. They are buildable, but that is not satisfying to me. 
I have several Special Hobby kits in my stash, but have to admit, I never built one until now, but there is no other reason, than my building schedule. I like their kits, which surely need some extra attention during the build, but what is modelling without a challenge .

 

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

More plane bondage. It doesn't look like much, but I finished the basic masking all over, including the external tanks and sprayed the crosses and white markings first, then the yellow triangles on top and finally a dot of blue for the oxygen inlet stencil. All these steps include permanent over- and remasking . My next build will be Kabuki free.

 

Cheers Rob

 

[DocRob]

Stripping off the masks revealed, that there are some touch ups needed here and there but nothing mayor, like paint running under masks or other gruesome incidents. The de-masking took about four hours in a sleepless night. The masks behaved perfect, adhered well and were removable residue free, at least here...
 

 

For black markings and crosses, I used a mix of two thirds flat black and one third Nato black, the white got a tiny drop of sand added and was only sprayed 90% opaque.
 

 

Super fine markings, heavily macroed:
 

 

With the last step of de-masking, I experienced something unexpected. While removing the masks of the external tanks, I found, that the 1ManArmy stencil masks were nearly impossible to remove, completely contrary than on the airframe and left they sticky residues onto the surface. 
First I suspected the red color to be the culprit, but it was the same Tamiya XF flat red, I used onto the plane, thinned with Mr. Levelling Thinner, where it worked flawless. When I removed more masks made from my stock Kabuki tape without issues, it became clear, that somehow the adhesive from the 1ManArmy masks must have been reacted with the base layer of Matte Aluminum from AK's Extreme Metal range. Normally these behave absolutely perfect and it was not the aluminum color which was affected. The masks were only for some hours on the tanks.

Warning be careful, if you plan to use 1ManArmy masks over AK's Extreme metals for a NMF paintjob possibly. I would recommend some testing on a dummy.
 

This is how the tanks looked after nearly half an hour of peeling. I couldn't remove the residues any further manually. I tried an alcohol/aqua dest mix, which was not hot enough and a rub with IPA removed the red color completely. Now it's deep cleaning, respraying and decals .


 

Cheers Rob

[CDW]

3 hours ago, DocRob said:

Stripping off the masks revealed, that there are some touch ups needed here and there but nothing mayor, like paint running under masks or other gruesome incidents. The de-masking took about four hours in a sleepless night. The masks behaved perfect, adhered well and were removable residue free, at least here...
 

 

For black markings and crosses, I used a mix of two thirds flat black and one third Nato black, the white got a tiny drop of sand added and was only sprayed 90% opaque.
 

 

Super fine markings, heavily macroed:
 

 

With the last step of de-masking, I experienced something unexpected. While removing the masks of the external tanks, I found, that the 1ManArmy stencil masks were nearly impossible to remove, completely contrary than on the airframe and left they sticky residues onto the surface. 
First I suspected the red color to be the culprit, but it was the same Tamiya XF flat red, I used onto the plane, thinned with Mr. Levelling Thinner, where it worked flawless. When I removed more masks made from my stock Kabuki tape without issues, it became clear, that somehow the adhesive from the 1ManArmy masks must have been reacted with the base layer of Matte Aluminum from AK's Extreme Metal range. Normally these behave absolutely perfect and it was not the aluminum color which was affected. The masks were only for some hours on the tanks.

Warning be careful, if you plan to use 1ManArmy masks over AK's Extreme metals for a NMF paintjob possibly. I would recommend some testing on a dummy.
 

This is how the tanks looked after nearly half an hour of peeling. I couldn't remove the residues any further manually. I tried an alcohol/aqua dest mix, which was not hot enough and a rub with IPA removed the red color completely. Now it's deep cleaning, respraying and decals .


 

Cheers Rob

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.

[DocRob]

18 minutes ago, CDW said:

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.

Thank you, normally, I have no problems, masking over Extreme Metals. They are more durable than Alclads and very robust and I painted the tanks some weeks ago. I was so astonished, because the 1ManArmy masks behave like normal Kabuki masks in all other cases. On the tank I used two different types of Kabuki tape for the rest of the masking, without issues. Learn something new, every day . Better there, than on the airframe. I would have blindly used the 1ManArmy masks with Extreme Metals as a base, given my experiences with both, color and masks. Now I'm forewarned.

 

Cheers Rob

[CDW]

22 minutes ago, DocRob said:

Thank you, normally, I have no problems, masking over Extreme Metals. They are more durable than Alclads and very robust and I painted the tanks some weeks ago. I was so astonished, because the 1ManArmy masks behave like normal Kabuki masks in all other cases. On the tank I used two different types of Kabuki tape for the rest of the masking, without issues. Learn something new, every day . Better there, than on the airframe. I would have blindly used the 1ManArmy masks with Extreme Metals as a base, given my experiences with both, color and masks. Now I'm forewarned.

 

Cheers Rob

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.

[DocRob]

To subdue the camo contrasts a bit and to enhance the visibility of the panel lines, I applied Flory clay wash dirt type onto the whole airplane and wiped the excess away with damp paper towel and cotton buds. It's more visible on the underside naturally, but it ties the paintjob together. I will not apply more weathering, as I think, the service time of these night fighters was brief.

 

 

I resprayed and decaled the external tanks along the Rato rocket packs (not shown). There are no masks for the Ratos stencils provided by 1ManArmy. The gun pod was treated with clay wash as well and got it's resin barrels inserted. Now there are only some small works to do until final assembly, which I will start from the underside up, beginning with the wheel struts.

 

 

Cheers Rob

[popeye the sailor]

good you were able to sort out the tanks.  you a great job with stenciling........it looks so much better than with decals