After a long, long time I set around April this year to finish this great kit from RS. It only had to have its final clear coating, using Revell's 1 gloss varnish, rigging and final bits. I used Aeroclub rigging material, which for some reason failed to glue to the kit with my usual cyano. After some intensive use of coarse language and chain smoking, the rigging was done. And here's where things get funny: I set it some 4 feet away from the kitchen fire to tighten the rigging several times. Since it didn't work, I went down to 3 feet. The rigging snapped, a pushing rod for the starboard aileron deformed badly, and the same did the tail strut from the same side. A cabane strut wrinkled crazily. Not to mention the mess I made of the undercarriage legs. Laid the kit in a box and put it away, not wanting to "warp six" the critter when doing stupid things came down to me...
Flash forward to early October. Taking advantage of a few days off the hook, took the Arado to the working bench, decided to finish it. After removing the wrinkled rigging and offending struts and actuator, I measured some Aeroclub profiles of the same size, cut them and glued them to the kit. Cracked open Modelmaster's RLM 02 and brush painted the replacements. Turned out ok.Then came the underdarriage. Took a long look at it and decided to let it be. Too many things could go wrong when remaking the undercarriage, so I'll have to live with it. Not that it tortures me in the night, though.
With that out of the way, and using stretched sprue, I replaced all of the rigging. To tighten it up I followed the advise of a friend and used a hair dryer. Sadly, it was not powerful enough for the task. So, after a while of blowing hot air on the rigging with no results (and reckoning the strength of the biplane airframe glued with Revell's Contacta) I resorted to lighting up a bit of a pyrethrum spiral. Utter fail: didn't tighten some of the rigging and snapped the remaining strands. I reached out for some old guitar strings and picked a metal e' string which would do the job. After removing the rigging for a second time and not happy about it, lengths of string were measured, cut and glued into their holes. It was also used on the aileron pushrods going from the fuselage to the upper wing, next to the cabane struts. They were all painted in RLM 02, since they look light colored in the few pictures available.
Final bits were glued to the airframe: the finished propeller, wheels and windshield. The tailskid was made with a piece of wire bent to a V shape and glued against a small lenght of guitar string. A bit of plastic sanded to shape was used for the skid itself. Some drybrushing with Humbrol H-33 was used to replicate the very particular BMW exhaust stubs discharge pattern.
Frontal shot, showing to good avail the propeller and radiator. And the pugnacious nose lines of almost every BMW VI equipped aircraft.
Classical 1930s shape and oultlook for a very nice modeling project.
Undoubtedly the fuselage is the centerpoint of the model, with the red cheatline, Tsar Boris cypher and bulgarian V.V. badge
View from the rear.
Now, the starboard side
Looks like a carnival with all that color, and would be instrumental in the development of the Ar-68, the last biplane fighter of the Luftwaffe. To close this submission, two overhead shots showing the proportionate and graceful lines of the machine, accurately rendered by RS.
So, now that it's done, after a three-year stint on and off the kit, some other "Immortals" like Fujimi's F1M and Commando5's Waco CSO might be finished. The kit is great, with lots of space in the cockpit for super detailing, easy to build and RS has three boxings of it. All with very different and distinctive color schemes. Worth the money you spend on it of course, but (and there's always a but) not to be rushed by being impulsive, like I did. Food for thought.
Until our next installment, take care and good luck,
The Modeling Underdog.
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