Ok time for another project, can’t have the production studio sitting around ideal now can we!!
Ok this is a project I had talked about previously and more recently with Arnold (Arniec), and well once I get an idea in my head I just can’t help myself.
I will do a background story for this but basically I’m taking the Arado Ar-234, which is one of my favourites and playing around with the design. Last time, well it’s still in progress, I took it to one extreme; Turbo Prop/Swept Wings/P5 Nightfighter nose. All were planned for it at one stage but probably never together!!
Ok this time a wee bit more saner ,sort of! We’re back to fitting props to her but this time the power plant is something less exotic…piston powered, though the Junker Jumo 213 was a pretty advanced engine.
Added to this I wanted a sort of simpler wooden body and wings…by some strange coincidence I had just purchased a Revell Focke-Wulf Ta-154 (the old Dragon one). This would become the donor for the engines and as I am a but lazy and didn’t want to mess around wing engine/wing mounts, the supplier of the wings as well.
I also had lying around an Ally Cat conversion kit for the Ta-154 to turn it into a production A-1 version with the Jumo 213 engine. Plus I have some resiny bit coming as well.
This is the look I am going for, someone else has done this modification before so that is where the idea come from.
The really cool thing is the wings for both model do swap over fairly easily and they are a similar distance apart as well.
So I had all the bits ready so let make a mess!
Ok this time all the conversion work will be done in plastic that will make life so much easier. First off the wings were built up, I need to join these two together to give me a stable support as undercarriage is now in the engine pods!
I added extra bracing between the wings, which should help with this, once completely dry I check how strong they are and add more if necessary.
I want the wings to be pretty much flat with the top of the fuselage so I had to cut out the fuselage to match. The wings are attached to the upper section of the fuselage as it comes with this model which helps make the alignment process so much easier.
The RO station will be moved from behind the wings to behind the pilot (actually just behind the nose wheel well). Because the main landing gear is quite forward I needed to do this for weight distribution. Also the main gear has gone from the fuselage so bigger fuel tanks can be fitted, so no drop tanks.
So this is sort of how she will look. Because the 234 was a sleek bodied aircraft in the first place she looks like a high performance beast and those big engines seem to suit her.
So another build is on the way, not sure if it’ll be as quick as the last two….just depends on how it all goes together.
Now I know what happened when I turned the lights off and where all that missing alcohol went!!
Oh and all the leftover bits?? An All-Metal Focke-Wulf Ta-154D2N with BMW 003 engines is on the way!!!!!
