The Arado-196 was a highly successful seaplane design which served as a reconnaissance plane for the Kriegsmarine. Although most units had operated from coastal air bases, but the aircraft is best known as the catapult launched scout plane of the German navy.
Design work began in 1936 with the Reichs Air Ministry issuing a specification for a new floatplane to replace the obsolete Heinkel-50, then in service with the fleet. By the onset war, trials for the Arado-196 had just entered its completion stage. Later, history would show that the Arado-196 was destined to become one of the finest floatplane designs of the war. By wars end, several variants had been produced and it was also the last fighting floatplane to be built in Europe. The final version had upgraded armament of twin MG81 machine-guns in the rear cockpit.
Beginning with the Admiral Graf Spee, all the other German capital ships subsequently received the Arado-196, including the battlecruiser Gneisenau and the famed Bismarck. This little plane enabled the capital ships to scout ahead at distances of over a few hundred kilometers, increasing the effectiveness of the raiding party. When an Allied convoy is sighted, the convoy location and any accompanying warships is radioed back to the mother ship, which would then steam to intercept.
In addition to reconnaissance, the Arado-196 also served a multitask role, including sea-rescues, coastal patrols, inserting agents behind enemy coastal lines, and even in combat situations. With its heavy armament of two forward firing 20 mm cannons, twin 7.92mm rear machine guns and two 50-kg bombs, the Arado-196 can intercept and attack lone Allied aircraft. In 1940, two Arados managed to attack a crippled British submarine, inflicting enough damage to prevent it from submerging, and enabling the Kriegsmarine to close in for the capture. Another noteworthy mention is in 1941, when the Bismarck launched its Arado-196 to drive off a shadowing RAF Catalina.
Constructed primarily of metal framework, the Arado-196 was of modern design utilizing an enclosed cockpit and twin floats to aid in its stability. The floats were fitted with rudders and also served as extended fuel tanks and storage space for other emergency provisions. The extended fuel tanks enabled the scout plane to remain in the air for up to four hours at a time, which for scout planes was a more important factor than long range.
A nine cylinder BMW radial engine producing a high power output of 960-hp also placed the Arado-196 as the fastest in its class. Coupled with a sound airframe design, it also had the highest ceiling height compared to its British and American counterparts. This is of innumerable advantage, as a greater ceiling height enabled the crew to scout over greater distances.
The Arado-196 served in all maritime theaters of war with operations ranging from the Arctic to the Black Sea. It also served with coastal units in Norway, Denmark, Bulgaria, Finland, Romania and the Mediterranean.
I have started to trim and wash the resin parts of the launcher. If you notice on the work bench there is a selection of brass stock. I have elected to make the catapult 'sled' that carries the aircraft out of brass. The reason is that the resin parts are a bit miss shapen and I have read that it is a bit weak. So I will be firing-up the solder gun for that phase of the build.
All the parts were washed with Dawn soap to remove all molding and sanding residue. After reading good things about a primer paint by Badger named Stynylrez and recomended by our resident product Guinea pig, Paul Wilford, I was looking forward to using it. It does spray at higher pressures. That being said I was expecting to use alot of paint. I went a long way, layed down well and does have good adhesion on the resin and metal parts I put it on. I did not have the Badger thinner for clean up and used tamiya X20. I found clean up took more work than I prefer. I will be getting some of their thinner to expedite the clean-up phase.
These are the compressed air cylinders. They consist of resin end caps and a metal pipe. They were primed with the Stynylrez black. I then painted them with Model Master enamyl aluminum. I wanted a tougher metal finish than I felt Alclad would provide. They have been sealed with Gloss laquer to protect them from the chipping fluid and subsequent weathering that will occur.
FFL
Just some resin parts primed and sealed.
Looking good. I don't really like working with resin, so more power to you!
Was able to work on the base abit. Rough assembled the base, which included the stanchions and hand rails. Fabed new hydo line carriers and hydro line on the side of the launcher rail. Th resin cast ones did not cut it. Did some painting and metallizing on some fiddly bits that will get installed later.
Actuall this has been a good resin kit. The adhesives have to be gotten used to.
The instructions indicated the base needed 1kilo of weight. I went ahead and put 3lbs. in it to be safe as the aircraft is no light weight, especially after weighting the floats. I used old wheel weights glued into the base with construction adhesive. One revision to aircraft weighting is going to shift the CG aft rather than forward like the instructions for the aircraft prescribe. The reason is the way the plane sits in the launch-sled. But I will address this when building the aircraft.
Very nice! What exactly is the hydro line?
It is the white line running down the launcher rail side. (Hydraulic line). How is the Privateer coming along?
well...building out those blister turrets is about like watching paint dry! I don't have too many real detailed resource images, so having to kind of read between the lines, and make a few things up just for interest! Plus, by "building in place," I keep having to do a bit of install / paint / dry / install / paint... Once I get the two blisters done, and then the nose ball turret, the rest should be a cake walk and a few weeks time. Until then...!
"Implied Rendition" is equal to Creative License. The way I see it is if you have researched and found all you can, than you utilize implied rendition based on researched findings to do the best you can to show details. I do not believe anyone will call you out on it.
While in Hobby Lobby, I stumbled across this in the beading department. The photo does not accurately show how much it looks like steel cable. It is stainless steel that is coated. That coating may limit the weathering of the cable. I have not really messed with it much but will see how to weather it. Maybe evenattempt to remove the nylon coating. It is relatively flexible/moldable.
Kurt is the catapult the one from the company in eastern Europe that does the 1/48 scale XB-70 and B-36? I think it's Hph models or something like that.
I like what I'm seeing.
You are correct sir.
http://www.hphmodels.cz/hph/custom-made-models/?lang=en
It is just stacked and laid together. I have gotten the primer and some initial sub-assemblies pre-shaded with one of the initial colors. Soldered-up the ladder per the instructions. I have a few more pieces to make for it. HPH does require fabrication of some smaller details.
Happy New Year to fellow modelers. May your styrene addiction lead to a healthy and happy new year.
Just some early pre-shading. Have not worked on anything due to holiday activities. Tommorrow is meeting night for the first gathering of the new year. See you then!
Same to you, peerless FFL! I have had some success modeling over the holiday - need to post some updates on the blisters and I'll bring them to meeting tomorrow night (got the main fuse halves together.
I went 'old-school' and started with some salt weathering. The salt was selectively put on before the top coat was painted. The second photo shows the initial results after removing the salt. Hand railing and stantions were fitted. The compressed air cylinders and control console are just laying in-place temporarily. I also made up the display base that the model will be put on.
Hope your builds are going well........Paul and his He-111 too.
Looking great! One thing I'm looking forward to if/when I secure compressor and start using an airbrush is to try the salt technique.
Wow!
Wow what? Are you saying Wow because you are clearing your bench? Or the size of the salt chrystals? I say wow when I realized all table salt is very consistant in size. That being realized after the base and 1/2 the catapult launch rail was salted, I crushed the salt into more random chrystals size to gain more of a random pattern to start with after the salt is removed after base coating.
Court, what are you working on?
Thank you both for your comments.
Wow to your dedication in randomizing salt crystal sizes. 🤣
As for what I'm working on didn't you look at the picture I posted? There is a M26A1 Perishing, a M4A4 Sherman Crab, a M4 105 Sherman, a Bf-109F4, a FW-190A8, a F-105D, a F/A-18E and the Dragon from Dragonslayer and her chew toy.
I got to use the Flory Washes on the Catapult. I sealed the base coat with my normal flat Dullcoat. I applied the initial wash, in black as indicated in the video. As Mr. Flory says it looks real bad. It did. I then proceded to try to remove excessive wash and move it around. Well it was not working as easily as it did in the video. I worked with it for a while but was not achieving the finish I was working for. Continued working with it but at this point I resorted to 'pressure washing' it and using a natural sponge to get it to the weathering I was trying to achieve. This is one of the initial reasons I was attracted to this product, problems in the finish are easitly recoverable, you just wash it off. The air brush cleans up easily with water and a last flust with alcohol.
To say the least I was a bit perplexed why finish had not gone as planned. I realized that the dull coat finish was the root of my problem. I gloss coated the launch-rail, cut the wash in half and lightly coated. Once again I removed the excess wash and it was exactly what I was hoping.
I will be looking forward to using it on an aircraft.
Great! You just keep on experimenting, so I can get all the kinks out watching you!