Bismarck Pack 1 – Stage 3

[WonderWoman]

Stage 3: the first Arado AR 196 sea plane

Before starting work on the plane, I fitted the lower part of the hull to the hull section from stage 1, screwing the pieces together. When fitting the hull components, I made sure I had a flush fit before placing the screws. You’ve got to keep checking the outside of the hull, and then tighten the screws when you’re happy it looks flush.

Now for the sea plane. The parts for this are super-tiny, so a magnifying glass and tweezers might be useful!

I started by gluing the two fuselage sections together.

Assembling the engine and propeller: the propeller shaft is in the packet of screws if you can’t find it!

I placed the shaft in the engine, then pushed the propeller on the end. I found it easier to do this by holding the shaft in place at the front of the engine with my screwdriver. Once the propeller has been added, you can push the parts together quite firmly, and I found they held without glue, eliminating the problem of too much glue preventing the propeller from spinning. The fit feels quite secure, but if necessary, I'll add a spot of glue if the propeller keeps coming off.

Then the engine fixes to the fuselage. You should check the colours on the underside of the bodywork are aligned correctly.

For this next bit, I needed a magnifying glass – to cut the control lever, pilot’s seat and machine gun off the sprues and then glue them to the cockpit before gluing the canopy on. Let me know how you get on with this! Take a deep breath, and enjoy this moment of surgical precision...

Next – the floats:

The slots in the floats face innermost and the shaped end faces backwards. I started by resting the feet of the side struts in the slots. Then glued the struts into the slots, making sure the strut with pegs on faced forwards. 

It's a good idea to test fit the floats to the underside of the fuselage before applying glue. Also test-fit the catapult launch carriage to see how both parts fit into the holes as the holes are tiny and it's easy to get them slightly out of place. 

Stage 3 complete! This is a little plane that served Germany well. There's more interesting info about it here: https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/arado-ar-196-a-5/nasm_A19610128000