I chose this jet, Arado Nachtigall, because I have not yet built a 1/48 scale twin-engine aircraft of WWII.
A decal was yellowing when opening a box to make Nahatigall a while ago—especially the clear area. I wonder when I purchased it. I do not have the spare decal, so let’s bleach the yellowish part in sunlight. Paste it in the window for about a week. If I stick a strange seal, it looks like a signal to contact Mr. X with the X-files TV drama; It’s ancient…
To smooth the process, I bonded the left and right parts first. Maybe it’s around September 2016? I did not think that I would leave so far at this time. Looking like this, it seems like acorns and carrots, radishes.
Because a few runners are in one bag, a scratch wound has been made to the main wing. Well, this is the unavoidable thing, maybe.
There are many outstanding parts around the cockpit. It is challenging to work because the nose canopy is large and transparent.
This kit was also left unassembled. The nose of the cockpit has entirely clear parts, and it seems challenging to paint the small flames, and compared with the ordinary aircraft models, the configuration of the parts is unique and challenging to proceed with. I had stopped the process halfway. I tried restarting work with the momentum, which advanced to completion at once, like the P-47N and the two-type water plane I made recently. It may be that there was moving in the fall of 2016, and concentration was interrupted.
Since the transparent part of the nose has a clear parting line, it is necessary to re-file it. But it’s not that much troublesome work. It was one factor that threw out on the way.
(25-June-2017)
Maybe it’s a reconnaissance aircraft. There are round windows for reconnaissance on both sides of the operator’s rear seat. We need to make a perfect hole by ourselves.
The Microscale liquid decal film is effective, even with a degraded decal that dries and decomposes in water. However, if you leave it in the water too long, it curls up in a cylindrical shape. It is challenging to paste while flattening it, so it is better to fix the position and paste it quickly. This time, I am recovering with a brush as much as possible later because some failed.
One of the models that absolutely should not forget to install the weight. If you forget the weight, you can change the wheel and pillar to metal by last means or push the weight in the gear compartment box part.
These are Junkers Jumo 004 jet engines and attached drop tanks.
The cockpit module and the fuselage were glued, with a large step difference. I needed a little more careful fitting, but I had to disperse my feelings in the assembly here and there. I am filling the step with putty or checking the surface with a surfacer. Well, it’s camouflage painting, and I compromise to a certain extent. Somehow it has become a form.
(26-June-2017)
I almost finished the assembly. The masking of the canopy was quite a tedious task, as expected.
Although the Steam summer sale began, I feel the discount rate is somewhat lower than in the past sale. I started again the Mount & Blade I bought a few years ago. This is quite a time-consuming game. Also, Bioshock, which had been left installed without knowing it was the Japanese language available. Skyrim has replaced the contents with a significant version upgrade. I am happy, but it is a complicated feeling that the version of the games I have on my PC without permission is upgrading automatically; I am worried about security. That’s why model-making does not proceed much.
It is a mottling camouflage paint unique to WWII German aircraft. Camouflage painting with an airbrush is a fun work as I’m painting a large number of German tanks.
It’s getting pretty cool.
The black on the underside is painted at the end because the cover power is strong. And it became such an exaggerated masking work.
I masked the big jet engines on both sides as carefully as possible since they were painted separately.
(01-July-2017)
In the title, I wrote as a reconnaissance aircraft, but it was a night fighter. It is a fighter plane with twin jets. It was equipped with a large antenna on the nose and a loop antenna on the back, so the reconnaissance ability was relatively high.
Ar234B-2/N has no battle record as a night fighter, and several aircraft are completed. The West and the Soviet Union succeeded in these technologies after the war, leading to further military jet aircraft development.
Hasegawa’s decal deterioration of the transparent part is earlier than other manufacturers. I’ve heard that this has been improved with recent kits. The yellow part of the transparent part was bleached by direct sunlight and coated with Liquid decal film, and it was able to paste without a problem. However, it is not a good feeling.
I thinned the rear-end edge of the wing slightly. If I scrape too much, it will be hard to restore, so I stopped it for a while this time.
When rubbing with the lacquer thinner, the part which I mistook for the canopy frame, the area turned white. Sometimes I can remove parts of the paint neatly… Since there was no choice, I polished it again with a compound. The masking tape, which can be pasted on the curve, is thick, and it is hard to paste the delicate parts, and the adhesion strength may not have been good. The condition would be better if I used Tamiya’s tape or the 3M’s.
The finish quality around the canopy was lacking something. It was good that the seat belt was additionally detailed. However, it is pretty fun to see the cockpit when peering through a lot of windows.
This aircraft is a German jet in the early days before the first generation of jets. It is unusual for a twin-engine jet plane of WWII. I think it’s not suitable as a first twin-engine kit choice. I think that there are a lot of skills required for the building. I’m not good at building, and I like painting.
Strangely, even with the kit left for a considerable time, my motivation came when I started installing a few parts. Motivation came out as the cockpit, which seemed to be the most difficult, was completed. Although it was challenging to work on the way, I managed to finish it.
The struggling model remains firmly in my impression. It’s like SMER Su-7 or Academy Mig-21 recently. It is pretty fun when I can recover from significant failures.
The silver object is the Walter Ri 202 assist rocket. As the maximum speed is 735km, it reached 600km in Imperial Navy fighter in late WWII, as expected the jet plane is fast.
Although Arad’s twin jet started to build with mottling camouflage painting exercises in a light feeling, it is a considerably more complex assembly process for beginners. There is polishing of clear parts of the nose cockpit because the original parts have a parting line in the middle. I think mottling camouflage itself was well done.
(04-July-2017)
