Vintage Airfix GB - Arado AR196 Float plane - 1:72

[pjgtech]

My 2nd build for this group build will be an old Airfix (1970's kit) Arado AR196 float plane (German).
Obligatory pics....

Box is faded and decals are yellowed, bit of flash on the sprues, but overall looks ok.





Cheers

[Geoffers]

Interesting choice Peter, good luck with your build 👍

Geoff.

[HAWKERHUNTER]

Following along Peter

[Airborne01]

I love this beast; built one in 1/32 and, no matter what the scale , the end result is very impressive, following this one with interest!
Steve

[PaulTRose]

Ooooo.....the light blue plastic!....... remember it well

[pjgtech]

So we start......
Cockpit started, not yet finished, main fuselage looks like it lines up ok, some very slight warpage, so will need clamps when glueing.
Started priming some bits, still more to do....
Basic paint scheme only uses about 5 paints, light/dark green, pale blue, black and red, so I might add a few more colours for variety.
Seems to have the option to have flaps in different positions and also the main canopy open or closed.
Depending on how well, (or not) I paint the cockpit and crew I might leave it open.
Few little bits of flash, but not much TBH, so not much cleaning up needed, (so far!)
Pics....

[Nicko]

Another old favourite... following along....

Nick

[pjgtech]

Finished a bit more priming.... and painted up the little (tiny) crew figures, I remember why I like 1:35 so much more now, they are so bloody fiddly, but manage d to get enough detail on, found few pics of Luftwaffe crew, they seem to have various uniforms, and trim, so went with bog standard Luftwaffe blue/grey and brown boots, fur collars and hat trim.




Theres no decals for the dashboard display, and very little actual details on the dash piece, other than couple of tiny circles, so just added a tiny touch of black, red and white to give the impression of some dials.

Then also started some actual assembly, eg: main fuselage, which as expected did need some help due to small amount of warpage, so judicious use of clamps seems to be doing the trick.
Also put the flap/ailerons onto the wings and tail piece, not glued, so they can be adjusted, think I might go for a flaps down look?

Thats it so far today..... 8-)

[Geoffers]

Good start Peter 👍

It looks a nice little kit despite it’s age.

Geoff.

[pjgtech]

Nuther hour or so on the bench...
Wings on, went on ok, just required a bit of cleaning up around the wing insert points on the the fuselage and around the tabs that stick out from the wings where they connect, but lined up well enough, with not much of a gap.

Next up was the tail, again a bit of sanding/clean up required, but went on quite easy and seemed to align well.


Then I have painted the frames on the canopy (two sections). Did not tape up as the lines were quite easy to do by hand, might have to scribe a tiny bit of paint off when its dry. Maybe make them a bit thinner?
Also painted the red tip on the propeller, I did tape that up to hopefully get a nice clean line, we'll see when I take the tape off.

And lastly I assembled the two floats, I had previously primed these and then painted (1st coat) the lowers sections.
The box/instructions do not list the paint other than general (eg: pale blue), so I had a sort through my paints and found this one.

The upper body sections will be a mix of dark and light green in a camo pattern.
The box art is old and faded but appears to be a plain dark/light green mix, but I think I might go for a mottled camo effect?
Doing a bit of googling showed there were lots of different paint schemes for this plane, so not one "standard" scheme.

[colin m]

Great progress Peter, all looking very good.

[pjgtech]

Primed the rest of the main body today, using my Acme, cheap as chips, extractor fan paint booth and a rattle can!

And then put first coat on the lower body, will probably need three or four (brush) coats to get it even/smooth.

[flyjoe180]

Looks good Peter, you're pumping these old kits out

[pjgtech]

Small update yesterday, finished the lower fuselage and today started painting the upper fuselage.
Having seen a few online photos, there seems to be quite a variety of colour schemes for this plane, and the instructions are less than helpful, just stating "light green" and "dark green" for the camo pattern. The box, being quite old is also quite faded, so also not helpful.
In the end I just picked a couple of colours!
I have gone for a sort of muted light blue lower colour (for lower fuselage) and for the upper fussie, a light green as the base colour and I will then be going over it with a darker green, probably in a mottled camo pattern.
Lower fussie paint now done, for the upper fussie I think this is the second coat... 1st one being very patchy. It will need at least one more coat.





You can see the dark green I will be using in the small paint jar in the background....

[HAWKERHUNTER]

Shaping up nicely Peter