BUILT
The Landing Flaps
The wings required a little more attention. In my case, this was because
I added extended landing flaps to my model. I removed the flap sections in
the wings precisely according to panel lines and I sanded down the inside
surfaces of the upper wings to allow the flap structure installation. It helps
here to use the flaps as a template, traced onto the inside surface of the
wing, giving an idea of the area limits that need thinning. The area was simply
ground down and fine sanded. The wheel well has a relatively large number
of parts, but it all goes together quickly and with no issues. One minor piece
of advice: don’t install the entire piece that is C7. Cut off the back of it that
goes up against the rear wall of the well. The guns then can be installed after
painting and you won’t have to worry about breaking them during assembly
and painting. Don’t forget to open up the gun openings for the outer cannon.
The instructions are a little ‘quiet’ on this. There are molded in troughs for
these items, but they tend to disappear on gluing the wing halves together
and the gun locations are difficult to locate after that. I added spent ammunition casing chutes on the inside of the wings to prevent there being just
a hole into the space inside of the wing. The subsequent gluing together of
the wing halves went together without any problems. Then, it came time to
attach the wing assembly to the fuselage. This also went off without a hitch,
but I ran CA glue along the leading edge of the wings. The subsequent fit of
the cowling and the fuselage gun covers was like the proverbial glove.
Problem-Free Details
Once the instrument panel shroud is attached, the gunsight can be added as well. That puts the main assembly behind us. The windscreen
can be added, requiring just the removal of the part from the clear
sprue, and the application of the mask. The frames can be treated
with a surface, if desired. The masks fit as they should, streamlining
the entire process. The addition of the rudder, ailerons and the cowl
ring really don’t need to be mentioned here…very straightforward.
Glue and align…
The other fine details such as the propeller blades and landing gear
bits are the same. Just separate them from the sprue, clean up any
mold separation lines, and run fine sandpaper over them. This is
all pretty routine, and no parts offer any opposition to being put in
their correct place. The only thing is to just be as clean as possible
with the glue.
I don’t think I need to go into the application of the paint in this article. We all have our preferences and procedures. I enlisted the help
of Hypersol during the placement of the decals, and nothing else. The
application is very standard….water, separate from the backing paper,
position, squeeze out the air bubbles and go over them with the Hypersol. I didn’t peel off the carrier film from the decals, as it came across
to me as unnecessary. So, in closing….
…it went together well…
Aircraft is probably WNr. 5888 manufactured by Arado in Warnemünde at beginning of 1943. Camouflage consists of
brown and green colors on upper surfaces, RLM 76 on undersides with spinner in RLM 70. Stotz was born in Austria
in 1912 and in 1933 entered Austrian Army. From 1938 he belonged to Austrian aerobatic team. In Luftwaffe, Stotz
was assigned to 1./JG 76 (later 4./JG 54 "Grünherz") and scored first victory in November 1939. He scored 12 victories
during French campaign but suffered injury during Battle of Britain. After Balkan campaign he fought on Eastern Front
and in June 1942 received Knight´s Cross after 53 victories. Oak Leaves followed soon after he scored his 100th victory
in October. From April 1943 he led 5./JG 54 but was missing "Black 7" after brief head-on encounter with enemy
fighters on August 19th, 1943. His original "Black 5" was probably flown by his wingman Uffz. Herbert Koller (50 v.)
who made belly landing. "Black 5" (WNr. 5888) was finally lost on October 7th, 1943 with Lt. Karl-Heinz Lüchau (12 v.)
wounded. Final score of Stotz was 182 victories. He was promoted to Hauptmann posthumously.
INFO Eduard - April 2021
eduard
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