Sunday, September 22, 2024

Unsuccessfully Seeking Solace in Styrene, Updated Lindberg Arado AR-234

I do so love the old school box art and would pay handsomely for the original painting

         Having painted the Indian elephants and a bunch of odds and ends that had attempted to go AWOL from their packages I again dug around in The Vault seeking the remaining elephants that I just KNOW are hiding somewhere. After a half-hour of searching I was left unrewarded and vexed. I decided to let the matter go for the time being and seek solace in some styrene. The first kit that came to hand was a garage-sale find that had set me back the princely sum of fifty cents; an ancient Lindberg Arado AR-234 that had been manufactured in the late sixties/early seventies and had been started by it's previous owner.

the previous owner's heavy coating of paint didn't help assembly
 and an unusually poor fit made this a unsatisfying build 
the amount of putty needed to close the gaps gave me a reason the sand away the huge rivets
 
 
I'm still trying to rescue this canopy; clear parts joined with styrene cement left a bad white joint line that even a heavy dose of acrylic floor polish couldn't help, the next step is 2000 grit and another coat of polish, failing that I might have to try heat-forming a replacement

       The poor design of the canopy which is split vertically instead of horizontally left a seam that runs straight through the clear panels where a horizontal split would have hidden the seam in one of the frames. This is an unusual mistake from Lindberg whose kits, while simple, were usually well thought-out. I really want to use the kit glass so that I can stay within my mission of "straight out of the box" builds, but unless I can make some progress clearing up the join I will have to try heat-forming a replacement. We will see how all this pans out.

UPDATE

           Well I figured that I would just go ahead and use the kit-supplied canopy so the next step was getting some paint on this bird. Checking references it seems that the chaos of the last few months of the war overcame the German tendency for order; colors, schemes, markings etc all seem to have been a pretty much as hoc mess. Combined with the ruinous state of the decals I found myself just winging it. I picked a likely scheme from one of the many that I found and dug around in the spares bin looking for decals. The decals didn't comply with the late-war "outline" crosses as the entire rest of my collection predates 1940, but by the time I had gotten to that point I was fed-up and just wanted to be done with it.

despite my going on it turns out to be a decent-looking model

only the staggering mismanagement of the Nazis (or the input of The Almighty)
saved the Allied from having to deal with a bomber capable of 500mph

 



 

       In the future I will examine my garage-sale "finds" a little more closely to ensure that I avoid (or plan for)  the string of misfortunes that accompanied this build.

2 comments:

  1. I built the kit back in 1965. It was fun then but that is looking through younger less discriminating eyes.

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    1. I did as well; then my brother, cousin and I promptly shot it to pieces with BB guns. It isn't a bad kit, this one has been harshly treated over the years. It just compares poorly to other Lindberg kits of the era.

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