This is my
Ar234B-2N Nightfighter, which, according to the kit instructions is the
aircraft of Leutnant Kurt Bonow, based at Oranienburg in March 1945. I
confess I didn't know anything about Lt. Bonow so I turned to google
and even then was able to find very little. Lt. Bonow finished the war
with 10 kills and was the commander of
Nachtjagdgeschwader 100 for a time.
The kit is up to the typical (very good) Hasegawa standards. Not being
a rivet-counter, I will just say that it sure looks like an accurate
A234. There are 172 parts (160 molded in light grey and 12 in clear)
parts on 11 sprues.with 2 marking options. I had started the kit when
it first came out a few years ago and had progressed as far as
completing the cockpit but for some reason got tied up in another
project. I dug it up again back in the summer and decided to try and
finish it in time for Granite Con XV in New Hampshire. I managed to
finish it on time and came away with a first in multi-jet aircraft.
Needless to say I was very pleased, I had not only managed to finish
what I think is one of the coolest looking late-war aircraft, but some
of my fellow modelers liked the job I had done on it as well.
The kit cockpit is very complete and thankfully looks very busy through
the large greenhouse it's housed in. The only thing I added were Eduard
photo-etched seat belts. All the instrument faces have molded on detail
that came out nicely with some dry-brushing. There are also a total of
6 decals for the various instrument faces in the front cockpit, that
gives you some idea of the cockpit detail. The main instrument panel
itself attaches to the very front of the clear nose. I had to be very
careful gluing it on as there is so much surrounding clear areas. The
clear parts had all been dipped in Future but I was still very careful
not to get any excess anywhere. By the way, the clear parts were very
clear but I've gotten into the habit of dipping all my canopies in
Future for clarity as well as protection. The cockpit tub itself also
comprises the nose gear bay and fits between the 2 forward fuselage
halves which are molded in clear plastic. I left off attaching the
front clear part with the radar antenna till the very end. You also get
a rear cockpit for the radar operator that has some nice molded on
detail as well, there's also 4 decals for those that wish to go that
route. This area is a little hard to see as not a lot of light gets in
through the overhead clear panel or the side portholes. One note,
remember to drill out the holes for the portholes on the sides of the
fuselage, Hasegawa give you indentations as guides to help with
this.
The main gear bays, which have good detail considering you can't see
much of them, were glued into their respective fuselage halves and
after installing the radar operator's cockpit in the rear of the plane,
the two halves were glued together with Tenex. At this point the
recessed bay for the under fuselage cannon was also added, no fit
problem here either. The fuselage halves go together beautifully and
all that was required to finish the seams was some light sanding and
steel wool. There is a clear insert on the bottom of the fuselage that
you can paint without masking as it's only clear on the recon version.
These 2 inserts (the upper one was added after the wing was attached to
the fuselage) required a bit of care installing and more than a little
sanding to blend them in. I was able to save almost all the surrounding
detail and had very little rescribing to do. I deviated from the kit
instructions by next gluing the forward fuselage with cockpit and it's
associated bulkhead to the rear section. Remember to add sufficient
weight behind the cockpit to prevent tail sitting.The fit here was
pretty good and didn't need a lot of clean up.
The wings and engine were next assembled and again the fit was very
good with only minor clean up required. The front part of the engine
nacelles are one piece so we are spared any difficult seam clean up.At
this point I also installed the fuel tank pylons to the bottom of the
engine nacelles. The engines fit perfectly to the wings and once the
Tenax residue had been polished off with steel wool the completed
wing/engine assembly was attached to the fuselage. There is as large clear part that fits
over the
spine behind the wing trailing edge that incorporates the upper window
for the radar operator. I masked the window and then sprayed RLM66 for
the interior colour. The tail planes were next added and fit flush to
the tail.
Now the remaining assemblies were completed. The Walther Ri-202 'Rauchergeraet'
RATO pods are covered in very convincing
detail. However, care must be taken when assembling the RATO pylons. I
didn't test fit mine as much as I should have and ended up having to
butt glue them to the underside of the wing as I could not get the
corresponding attachment holes to line up. The parachute packs that
attach to the front of the RATO pods are very realistic and required
some careful painting to highlight the straps. The under engine fuel
tanks and the 20mm cannon pod for under the fuselage were no problem.
After washing the completed kit,
I painted it according to the kit instructions with ModelMaster enamels
and after a coat of gloss the decals were applied using the micro scale
system. There aren't many decals so this step went by fairly quickly.
After a couple of light coats of clear flat I removed the many canopy
and window masks and added all the remaining bits and pieces. It was at
this stage that I realized I had screwed up the RATO pylons
and ended up butt joining them to the wings. After all these bits and
pieces were added, it was time for the final and most important task.
The radar antenna are such an obvious and important part of this
project that I knew it would make-or-break the whole thing. I left the
instrument panel till last and applied glue to the antenna attachment
points inside the nose and added the antenna one at a time, allowing a
couple of hours for one to dry before adding the next. Finally, they
were all on and as a bonus there weren't any glue smears inside the
large clear nose. The clear nose section was attached with white glue
and by and large the fit was (thankfully) pretty good. All in all, a
very enjoyable project and looking at this unique plane on my shelf
made it worth while.