Arado Ar 80 V2 by Caz Dalton (Huma 1/72)

Arado Ar 80 V2
"Einer Der Zerüchbleibt"

by Caz Dalton

Arado Ar 80 V2
Germany, 1935

Huma's 1/72 scale Arado Ar 80 is available online from Squadron.com

Background

In 1934, the newly formed Luftwaffe sent out C-Amt (Technical Procurement Section) specifications for both light home defense and heavy offense fighters. The light home defense fighters chosen were the Arado Ar 76, the Focke-Wulf Fw 56, the Heinkel He 74, and the Henschel Hs 121. The eventual winner was the Focke-Wulf Fw 56 "Stosser".

In the heavy offense fighter, the main competition were the Arado Ar 80, the Focke-Wulf Fw 159, the Heinkel He 112, and the Messerschmitt Bf 109. As everyone knows, this competition was won by the Bf-109, which has long been history. Even the He 112 was good enough in trials (and many say even better than the Bf 109) to warrant a production contract for home and for export. The Fw 159 was dismissed from the outset due to its parasol wing and abominable retractable landing gear and Focke-Wulf engineers went on to design perhaps the ultimate piston-engine fighter of the war for Germany.

But what of the also ran Ar 80?

Designed by Dipl-Ing Walter Rethal, the Ar 80 was a sleek design, even for the Arado works. Not having any prior experience with retractable landing gear, the Ar 80 was designed with fixed gear and spats. The original prototype, Ar 80 V1, was powered by the Rolls-Royce Kestral V producing between 695 and 812 hp for take-off. The second prototype and the one represented by the model, Ar 80 V2, was powered by the Junker Jumo 210Ca, which offered 695 hp on take off.

The Ar 80 V3 was the first of the prototypes to be supplied with armament, which consisted of an engine-mounted 20-mm cannon firing through the spinner and two 7.62-mm machine guns in the cowling. The V4 utilized the fuel-injected Jumo 210Ga engine and featured an enclosed cockpit, yet retained the spatted undercarriage.

The series culminated with the Ar 80 V5, which was the first to feature a retractable landing gear. Both the V2,V4, and V5 underwent extensive testing at Rechlin for the evaluation of new instrumentation and then sent to the Tarnewitz armament test center(V4 and V5 only), finally being returned to Arado for defense of the company's airfield at Warnemünde. The Ar 80 V3 was fitted with a revised wing eliminating the inverted gull look and was modified as a two-seater. A proposed production version of the Ar 80 with a Jumo 210Ea engine and a fully retractable landing gear was discontinued upon the selection of the Bf-109 to fulfil the C-Amt requirement. "EINER DER ZERÜCHBLEIBT" is German for "ALSO RAN".

Construction

Cockpit

I spent the largest amount of time with this model correcting the cockpit. The model has it all wrong in the molding and the seat would fit under the windshield should one construct it that way, in addition to sitting too low.

I cut the cockpit floor and placed the front section in its correct location, then made a baffle for the front from sheet styrene.

I made an instrument panel shroud from circular styrene tubing and cemented the kit's panel to the shroud.

Some small detailing was done to the sidewall with styrene strip, rod, and sheet. The rudder pedals were represented with two from True Details photoetch sheet. Seat belts and shoulder harnesses were done from my paper printed belts (I'm going to have to do a small article on how you can do this some day, it works super for 1/72). The interior was painted Polly Scale RLM 02 Green-Gray, with the various instrument boxes painted flat black. The kits instrument panel decal was used and looks very well for the scale. I also used a few Reheat Models Control Panel decals.

Spats

Now why would I list these separate? Because they take a bit of time to get the right look, that's why. The wheel spat halves must first be cemented together and then carefully sanded and shaped up. I carefully etched around the tires in the spats to get a recessed opening. Next the gear legs must be fitted and carefully sanded to an smooth appearance, no panel line appears on the original at the spat, you see. I also had to cement the landing gear assembly to their respective locations and sand here a little also before priming.

Exterior

After closing the model up and getting the proper landing gear look, everything else was a piece of cake. The fuselage halves fit superb and requires only a little Mr. Surfacer (thanks Steve at NA). Wing to fuselage fit was just as good, but I needed a little filler in the horizontal tailplane mount after the cement had set up. Be careful here! Attach the wings first, so that you can maintain proper alignment with the tailplane.

The windshield, two side doors, propeller, spinner, spinner back, the pitot (which was actually square-ducted, I started to sub small wire), and tail wheel were painted separate and attached in the final assembly. Most were attached with Elmer's white glue in the final assembly, except the tail wheel, which is attached with CAN.

Paint and Decals

After masking the windshield framing with Bare-metal foil and closing off the finished cockpit with masking tape, all but the propeller received three light prime coats of Polly Scale RLM02 Green-Gray. Finding several flaws, I refilled, resanded, and reprimed the areas and finished with two light color coats of RLM02. After setting everything aside for a day, I gave the model three light coats of Model Master Clear Gloss Acryl and set it aside for another day before decaling. The propeller was painted Polly Scale RLM70 Black-Green.

Decals from the kit were use for everything but the vertical tail. Here I made the red strips using Superscale Red Trim film, the white circle from the kit, and swastikas from a Hasegawa sheet featuring such. The kit decals surprised me, as I was expecting them to be like Revell-AG decals, but they nestled down using only a little solvent in the recesses after slicing the recesses with a #11 blade. Otherwise, I used only setting solution on them.

After a day of letting the decals dry, I sprayed two finish coats of MM Clear Gloss and finished off with three coats of Polly Scale Clear Flat (still the best acrylic flat IMHO). After a day, I like to rub the flat out with a soft T-shirt, it gives the paint a proper sheen and not that dull matte appearance. Also, I couldn't help but prime a little Prieser Miniature 1/72 figure for the display. So who cares if Ar 80 pilots used a butt-chute?

Conclusion

Are you kidding me? I had a blast building this kit.

It had its problems, all in the cockpit engineering, none in the fit. But the Arado Ar 80 V2 is a unique looking plane and has its place in history - my history anyhow.

The kit was a delight to cure modeler's block, which I have had all summer. This is the first completed kit from my bench since mid-May. S'been a busy summer with the boys gang.

Additional Images

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