Arado Ar 234C-3

Revell

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QuickLook Preview by Brett Green

Revell's 1/48 scale Arado Ar 234C can trace its recent origins to Hasegawa's Ar 234B series kits.

Indeed, Hasegawa moulded the "C" specific parts too. What we see here is the result of a marketing agreement, with two of the giants of the model industry co-operating to ensure the maximum plastic for we lucky modelers. With the emergence of new, high quality manufacturers from China, I expect that we will see many more joint ventures and marketing agreements in the next few years. But I digress.

General Comments and Packing

Revell's new Arado is much more than a few parts substituted on the Hasegawa Ar 234B. In fact, the wings, engines, cockpit, forward fuselage and nose wheel are all totally new. Some smaller details are also inserted in the original rear fuselage part, including the rear-firing cannon in a ventral panel.

The quality of all the parts is excellent, with crisply engraved panel lines and delicately rendered details. All the new sprues are illustrated below:

Click the thumbnails below to view larger images:

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The kit is presented in a gigantic box with very attractive artwork. At 505mm x 355mm the box is more than twice the size of the Hasegawa Arado packaging. Apart from being a bit misleading about the size of the contents, this unnecessarily large box will add to shipping costs.

All the new sprues are packed into a single bag. Because Hasegawa's plastic is quite shiny and somewhat brittle, many of the larger parts have scratches and scuff marks as a result of this packing technique. Fortunately, the new clear sprue merits its own bag.

Cockpit / Forward Fuselage

The basic layout of the Ar 234C kit cockpit will look familiar to modellers who have built the Ar 234B, but most of the parts are new. The seats, side consoles and control column are all excellent. The new style of main instrument panel, however, is oversimplified. It looks more like a chunky crash pad rather than the complex panel it represents.

The tricky rear bulkhead that caused some problems in the earlier kit is not used on the Ar 234C, so the fit issues in this area might not be a problem in this kit. I still recommend that  plenty of time is allocated to test fit the main fuselage to the nose.

The clear parts are simpler than those in the Ar 234B kits. The top and sides of the canopy are moulded thinly and clearly as a single part. The new nose piece shares the same problem as the original kit though - a very noticeable seam line top to bottom along the centreline.

Wings and Engines

All-new parts are supplied for these aspects of the kit. The production standards equal the earlier kit - in other words, excellent.

My only issue with the new parts is that the shape of the intakes for the paired BMW engines. The intakes seem to gape too wide open, and the characteristic slope at the top of the intakes does not look pronounced enough to my eye. In fact, the shape of the intakes on the box art looks right to me, but it bears little resemblance to the shape of the kit supplied items.

Decals and Instructions

Instructions are typical Revell. Construction is called out over 39 steps and colour references are made solely to Revell paints.

Markings are supplied for three aircraft. The decals are printed by Revell and feature their (slightly frightening) flat finish. If you plan to use these decals, make sure you are applying them to a very glossy surface.

In summary, this kit is as good as Hasegawa's Arado 234Bs in almost every respect.

A question hangs over the accuracy of the shape of the intakes, and the instrument panel might benefit from some extra work, but Revell's 1/48 scale Arado Ar 234C-3 is generally an excellent kit, worthy of our attention.

Recommended.