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1/48 Hasegawa Arado 234 Blitz-More Cockpit Progress-01/10


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It's been a while since I've been on this one because I've been working on finishing my OOB Beetle Bus build but we're back at it.  Got the side walls installed and the IP painted and slightly weathered. Just gotta pick out some details, do a little touch up and fade the entire IP a little bit and we're good to go it looks like.

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Edited by mustang1989
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  • 2 years later...

Back on this one again after 2+ years. Let's see....where did we leave off. lol

Oh yeah..... bodywork. I broke out the pin vise to restore all of the rivet detail that got sanded away at the front part of the fuselage. I've still got the section behind and on the sides of the fuselage at the wing root to go and that's not to mention re-applying the panel lines that are gone as well. Here's 45 minutes worth of sanding and re-riveting.

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I finally opened up the Aires engine set because I'm at that point to where I want to work on the engine mounting for the starboard engine as that's the one I'll be displaying opened up. I was just getting over all the goodies in the kit (these engines look fabulous BTW) when I turned my attention to the instructions of how these beauties mount up to the wing. At first I wanted to put everything back in the box and move on. :bag:
You guys know about where I'm at with the build right now so you can imagine how I felt when I saw this in the instructions:

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Yeah. That's what I said too.

I did, however , think about it over a cup of coffee and came up with this plan:

I took this:

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and cut the locating pins off of the base and sanded the back side down until I was left with the center strip and the offset mounting hole, made all the cuts and holes in the wing like I was supposed to and inserted everything into the openings and holes in the wing from the outside.

The results? Something I think I can live with:

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Ok.....made it past that hump! Movin' right along now.................................

 

 

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I got the elevators/ stabilizers mounted up and the necessary body work at the joints completed. This is with the prep stage completed so I can shoot an automotive style semi gloss black paint job on this one to black base it. After that I'm going to try this whole marble pattern out for the first time to see just how well that system works.

Any how here we are all masked off (except for the landing gear struts) and ready for the black base.

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and here's with the black base applied and in the drying/ cure out stage:

I'm pretty happy with this:

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I got the gray primer ready this morning and shot my attempt at a marble effect on.

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and then I came back over the whole thing with my Badger 150 with a little tighter pattern for the marble effect. We'll be jumping from here on the rest of the assembly and camo scheme.

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You're one heck of a builder Joe.  The details are just stunning.  I saw this jet at the Smithsonian Air & Space at Dulles Airport.  If you haven't been there but you can visit, I highly recommend it. Will be looking for your future updates.  Congrats sir on a wonderful start.  cheers, tim

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Thanks Codi. I've been trying to get back on this one for the last few days but I've either been too busy or haven't felt all that well. Hopefully I'll get my chance this weekend. :D

As far as seeing one in real life , I would love to have the opportunity to see not only this one but other rare WWII birds that reside there as well.

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Hi Joe, it's a 2 hour drive for me but I've taken my kids on 3 different occasions.  You'll always miss something.  Great warbirds from every period and to see a real Blackbird and Space Shuttle up close is truly something to see. Almost forgot, they even have a Horton they're restoring and you can overlook their restoration shops from the 2nd floor. I know it's a long haul for you from Texas...be fair to yourself and plan on an entire day there.  Fly directly into BWI and it's a super short cab ride to the museum.  Food is very limited (McDonalds onsite) but you'll never regret it.  Cheers sir!

Edited by Codi
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One of these days I'm really gonna have to make that trip.

Ok gang. I spent the better half of 3 hours this morning applying paint. I already know I'm going to hear it from somebody because I've been telling myself all morning long that I must like to make things difficult. I have applied these colors in patches rather than go over most of the bird with the predominant color. I made the mistake of applying the predominant color once on my Stuka and I didn't much care for it because when I went back over the base color with the second camo color it looked to thick. So I opted to do things this way. I've also opted not to put the cockpit on just yet. I'll get to that in due time and in my own fashion...……..the hard way. I do like the benefits of the marble pattern and will more than likely continue that trend. There is a couple of touch ups that I need to do between the camo colors but I do like this way even though it is time consuming. I spend more time masking than I've spent on any other area of the model.

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 Sorry for the absence this last week. I took off two days from work this week. Had problems with one of my teeth that gave me problems in the 7-8 on the pain scale range. Went to the dentist and he gave me these antibiotics that reeked havoc on my stomach wise and I had that "disconnected" feeling. Really sucked. I took two days off from work and pretty much slept both days.

BUT...………….I'm back in the saddle again my fine feathered friends.

Did ALOT of work today on this bird. The friggin' landing gear legs broke loose from their mounting and I had to re-glue those back on. :headslap: I've pretty much completed the camo scheme for this aircraft and have to say that this one goes down as one of the most difficult paint jobs that I've done yet with all the black basing, marbling and masking. Sheesh!!! With all that being said and aside from needing to paint the back of the engine nacelle a burnt black here's where we are now:

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and the bottom side.

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after the burnt black application on the engine nacelle we'll be off to completing the nose section and applying a gloss coat! My FAVORITE part. :yipee:

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  • 1 month later...
On ‎5‎/‎28‎/‎2019 at 7:11 PM, cobraman said:

Coming along nicely.

Thanks Ray. I've enjoyed building just about all of this kit except for the glass gondola installation to the fuselage. Real PIA to get to fit and look right together.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Ok gang...……...progress at last. It took me a while to get it all sorted out with an approach to this but I think I found one that worked for me. I had glossed the entire aircraft, applied the decals and then adhered the cockpit assy to the front of the aircraft and masked it off. From there I filled the huge lip that was on the top of the fuselage to cockpit join and worked it all in together by sanding and yet more filling. This resulted in the seam not disappearing from the top of the fuselage at the cockpit join so I added a seam in the name of uniformity. It's not "correct" but it looks uniform. After that I black based the entire sanded and filled area, applied the irregular gray pattern and went back over it in RLM 82. Still a little touch up painting to do on the starboard side of the affected area. Here's where we're at so far.

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4 hours ago, bisc63 said:

Fantastic build; that cockpit is really the bee's knees. Keep up the good work! It's worth the wait.

Thanks Rusty!

FINALLY...………...I've got this bird on wheels. One of the inherent weaknesses of this kit (and there are a few) lies in the main landing gear. Really flimsy parts and allow excessive "wobble" when loaded with the weight of the aircraft. I fixed this by putting a hidden shim between each main landing gear strut and the fuselage opening for the gear bays. I just cut a small square piece of styrene and slipped it between the strut and the rear bay wall. Can't even see it but it worked like a charm in making the main gear ALOT more sturdy. Gear doors have to be painted and installed and some touch ups are needed on the gear after gluing into place as well as a little weathering on the tires but the wheels are now down.

Folks I never thought I'd get this far with this plane. I consider it a small milestone in getting back to aircraft building as it was really hard to break away from the automotive stuff but I'm feel like I'm finally getting back in the groove to where I can at least have an aircraft build going while working on the auto subjects.

N E wayz…..Today's update:

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Sorry for the absence around here as of late but I've been spending ALOT of time at the bench trying to get this one finished. I'm down to the REALLY short list on getting the base aircraft finished so I can move on to the engine assembly and detailing. Only a few things left like main gear doors and struts, aerial antenna, painting the rivets on the cockpit framing and installing the pitot tube. I mean I've got a little clean up to do here and there but this part of the build is just about to a close. Really stoked about displaying the engine though.

Overall, I've got some mixed feelings about this kit here because of fit issues but mostly because it has now moved into the most difficult kit that I've ever built category. Just really don't care for it even though it's supposed to be the best 234 kit out there. No worries however, I'm saddling up and moving forward and have learned a lot from this build.

Here's where we're at now...…….close.....real close.

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On YouTube I subscribe to Scale-A-Ton and Plasmo because they are outstanding military modelers. I think I just found another. Really excellent work on the resin cockpit. Overall fit and finish is also quite fine.

 

Watching you watching me.

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