MACH 2 1:72 ARADO AR 232B
'INBOX Review'

 

Reviewer: Tony Cook (rec.models.scale)   

This kit makes up into a model of the 4-engined variant of this fascinating aircraft

The kit comes in a stout cardboard box with an illustrated lid showing a side profile, and also a 1/72 upper plan view of the camouflage scheme commonly used (RLM70/71/65) on the type.

There are two large medium-grey sprues holding 134 parts plus one transparent frame with 20 clear-ish parts. The instructions cover 1 side of an A4 sheet and are basic, to say the least. For the price of this kit, I am disappointed, although when it originally appeared on the market (1993) I looked in a box and the transparent parts looked frosted. I can just-about see through them now. At £32 then, that made it a no-no to me. I found my kit for £20 at the Aviation Hobby Shop in the UK a few weeks ago (late 2005) although Hannants list it as £38.80 now. I don't feel it is worth that.

There are quite a lot of sink marks on the fuselage halves and wings, fortunately most are inside! Panel lines are nice and refined – slightly recessed for the most part, although the ailerons are not as recessed as the rudders and elevators.  The surface texture is good – not too smooth and shiny.

Wings are conventional – upper and lower halves each side, and a good feature is that the wheel-wells have inner linings with ribs depicted.

The famous kneeling undercarriage? That is shown in the lowered position, so the airframe is resting on the 11 pairs of wheels attached to the fuselage underside.

The flight deck has 7 parts, but is completely wrong, according to David Myhra's book on this aircraft. There is a central doorway into the  cabin in the kit... on the actual aircraft there was a housing for the retracted nose-wheel here, with the upper gun-turret behind that! In the book, the doorway is actually behind the left-hand pilot's seat . There is no other internal detail.

There is an unfortunate join right down the middle of the large cabin transparency; although there is a frame-line there, it just feels like a possible source of problems in assembly – watch this space- I plan to build this beast!

Some parts, such as the undercarriage retraction jacks, are malformed, although they just look like straight bits of plastic... these can easily be replaced with sprue if necessary.

The markings provided are very basic.  Crosses for upper and lower wing and fuselage sides, swastikas (!), codes white U and black H and numbers 73... that's it! As the type flew with TG4 and KG200, an alternative would have been nice.

I also have the Airmodel Vac-form kit of the Ar232A – the 2-engined version... maybe I may start on that?

Bibliography – posh word for references used...

 

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