Arado Ar E(555) Display Project

Cockpit pre installation to fuselage 

Cockpit pre installation to fuselage 

Cockpit with fine detail 

Drilling various 0.5mm holes in and around cockpit & inserting optic fibres 

Lighting test #1 

Weights added to front of wing with blu-tack, all sealed with masking tape.
Optic fibres (8 strands) gathered & sealed with black shrinktube with solid white LED. 

Lighting test #2 - Wing mounted landing lights & bomb bay lights (fibres)
2 x Pilots lights & 2 rear instrument lights (fibres) 

Rough test of phase 2 lighting - RED 'cause it looks good!! 

2 fibres facing up under jet pod, 2 fibres facing out toward rudders, 1 fibre inserted into rear gunner periscope - will blacken out front of periscope later. 

Taking an 8mm drill to a 1:72nd model!!!!!
That's gotta hurt!! - in scale that'd be 0.57metres!! 

In that huge hole goes the socket for the power for the lighting.
Plug shown to see where it fits into bomb bay! 

Clamping some of the wires & shrink-tube to the inside of the hull 

It's getting a bit busy in this hull-space - more gluing wires in place. Will leave that to set overnight.
Tomorrow will be soldering the 4 pairs of wires to the socket...................................prior to throwing the whole thing out the window?!?!?!? Nah! - She'll be right!! 

Hey, it aint pretty but it works!! 

Finally worked out what sort of "base" I would show the Arado on - Found a concrete-slab hard-station section that I was happy with, attaching that top a Balsa/PVC frame, coated it with the print, and add some more around the edges  

test fit of closing fuselage with all that wiring inside.
Hey! this is really heavy now!!
The seam on the right is where I got too close with the gas soldering iron.... will need some filler there!! 

Rubber bands - Top View 

Rubber bands to hold all - showing landing lights, bomb bay lights & Wheel well lights 

Looking into the rear cabin - all lit up now!!! 

Gluing this large wing together in one go called for a new approach (for me), so preparing to try out SMS extra thin glue, I securely lashed both halves together with many rubber bands, and a couple of clamps. I then ran this liquid glue all the way around the seam, using capillary action to draw the glue into the seams. This seam has had a light sand to finish the job 

Another leading edge seam 

All plugged up with tissues, masking tape & masking liquid to cover the fibre optics 

A trailing edge seam 

rear 3/4 view ready for primer coat.
The yellow around the jet pod is masking liquid, and around the periscope on top too. 

Searched the internet for some sort of airport fuel line connector that I could copy, and planned how the components would work together, while still allowing my wiring feed to go through it. 

First attempt looked too bulky, so dropped the 8mm tube for 6mm - superglued on some 8mm and 9mm tub "washers" to give it some detail - used a 1/12 PE Cable Tie to secure the mesh tube over the top - more superglue! 

Created the hole for the switch to feed through & reinforced that with PVC to make it more robust. 

Trimmed the "Fuel Hose" to the right length to get to the Arado. 

Positioned the Arado & held it in place with some tape, so I could work out my pattern placement.
Here you can also seen the battery cradle reinforcement. 

There'll be room for a couple of support vehicles too. 

Next I started applying the camouflage........with DECALS!!!
I've scanned in the hard-station print, did some re-colouring & printed out DECALS with white background. and I think it's gonna work! 

So here's my story of the Arado Ar E (555): Project 555 involved the use of an Eastern France airfield which had not been in service for many months. It had previously been equipped with square hard-stations for another project which never got to fruition (?!). These Arado bombers had been developed with sufficient capability to cross the Atlantic, reach Trump Tower in New York (it was much smaller back then) and return to France. The mission(s) left France in the dead of night, gained sufficient speed and altitude so as to outpace & outclimb any allied fighters which may have been scrambled. It then dropped out of radar range (which only covered South & East of England, anyway). Upon return from the successful mission, the Arados would return to their base before dawn, drop out of radar again, and just disappear. Aerial reconnaissance missions failed to find anything. And now you know why?!?!?!?! [Pity they weren't successful, huh??]
I'll finish the other half of the decalling soon! 

I also tried another new technique (to me anyway) on the cockpit canopies, so as not to detract from the lighting I had included in the cabin.... 

I applied liquid masking with a toothpick, and magnifiers, to each pane and very carefully "nudged it up to the framework. Must have taken 30 minutes of effort & concentration. Several days later, I started colouring the framework with a fine-felt-tipped permanent BLACK marker. Several more days later, I delicately (and delicate aint easy for me!) removed the masks with a sharpened probe. Voila! 

I also tried using metallic felt-tipped highlighters on the instrument panel, which then attaches to the canopy. I wont be bothering to detail any wiring to the instruments!!! !;^) 

Here's the results of trying the "decals" on the jet-pod - too many surface angles, so gave up after one pass - will have to try something else 

Time to try being an artist - played around with 'bronze' and 'yellow gold' colours, added some oil-spot-stains, then went 'dotty' with a few different colour felt-tip pens (black, browns, orange). Added a few 'slab-cracks' here & there, now to start adding the "mission" decals - had forgotten just how small 'stencil' decals are in 1/72nd.......  

Hydraulic rams & bomb paintshop. 

Main undercarriage legs - Cockpit green & MOLOTOW Chrome pen. 

Finally found a use for these tine wooden pegs - assorted hydraulic rams.
Cockpit green & MOLOTOW Chrome pen. 

Lots of wheels & tyres - Tyres painted with Tamiya Rubber Black - Rims coloured with Bronze Metallic Sharpie, then centre of wheel treated with a drop of black panel liner to provide depth. 

Decided to add MOLOTOW chrome to the underside of the Jet Pod to increase reflection from the LED/Fibre-optics - Love these pens!! 

Upper surface complete & airbrushed with Tamiya Semi-gloss clear. 

Lower surface airbrushed with SMS Chassis Black (semi-gloss) 

Rear undercarriage with hydraulics 

and the other side 

Front undercarriage complete with doors & hydraulics - relatively easy.... 

Left rear undercarriage doors complete with supports - Gravity is NOT your friend at this point.... 

Right Rear undercarriage complete, with door & supports. 

EVERYTHING Assembled - just another aerial photo check - needed more altitude, and less overhead skylight. 

a quick snap of the rear, with the lights on, but you might have to look pretty hard...Decided NOT to install Bomb-bay doors as they would be too close to the power supply, and would only get bumped off when plugging/unplugging. 

So that's the Arado part of this diorama completed, with lights on.
Hope you enjoyed the ride.....so far!!
Need to work out how to display this to full effect.....
Inside a tall box with a top-view periscope, plus a peek-a-boo front window???? Now that Melbourne Expo has been delayed to October, I have plenty of time........
any ideas welcomed?!?!?!?!
Also very happy with the weight I added, sits very nicely on all wheels! 

Final Diorama Stages - Bolted the wheel chocks (x3) into places on the base - pinched the Airfix chocks and superglued an M3 bolt inside. It's between to 2 sets of wheels on each of the main Landing Gear sets. 

Another wheel chock bolted in place.
(Very happy with the canopy & bombardier view clarity, btw!) 

Finally worked out my crew layout. Trusty fuel/supplies truck and 6 guys. 

Overall view 

and from another angle
Note the decals on the truck to aid in camouflage.
Spent way too much time on that truck!!! 

Focussing on the Fuel hose crew - added some PE handles to the hose/filler mechanism - the 3 guys in in these positions work well, so they're glued in there for life! The guy in the background is guarding secret measuring equipment!!! ...lol 

These 2 guys are inspecting the rear remote controlle 

More fuelling guys 

Final overhead - and I'm calling that DONE!!!
(and they say I never finish anyth..............) 

So much for DONE - Now incorporating the diorama into an "Arado Viewing Tower", ready to display at Melbourne's Model Expo 2021 (Covid willing...) (Everything in the display is now secured to the base, some glue for the vehicles, and a nut glued into the bomb-bay.) 

The Ground Floor - "German Bombers, German Trucks, German Schwimmwagens.......and some Germans!!!" 

Display Tower framework completed - That's 1.252m tall! 

With a mirror on Top!! 

I'm afraid the tablecloth rather confuses this - the view thru the mirror has the desired effect 

Zoomed in - looking into the convex mirror, down to the diorama - There's an Arado there somewhere????? 

There it is.............still more work to go on the tower. 

and now you know why!! 

Even the cat helped!!! 

Settled in with the lights on. 

Overview photo 

Need to add some blackout cloth over the top, but you get the idea 

Can't quite make it out......... 

Internal Acrylic mirrors finish it off..............Lockdowns in Melbourne might mean that it doesn't get shown until 2022!!!
DONE!!