THE PROTOTYPE PAGE
By TOM “THE BEEMASTER” STEAD IPMS# 39989

Building the Revell of Germany Arado E-555 in 1/72nd scale
 

As you all know, I’m a diehard Luft ’46 fan, so this kit is a godsend.  There are a multitude of fighters out there but this is one of the few bombers in the futuristic Luftwaffe.  One can only be glad the Revell of Germany

MODEL: Arado E-555     SCALE: 1/72^ND              

ORIGIN: Germany     MFR: Revell of Germany

ASSEMBLY:

1)   As always we start with the cockpit.  This essentially snaps together with only a few changes being necessary.  Specifically, the bottoms of the seatbacks should be sanded down, otherwise you can’t fit the canopy on.  Also don’t install the nose gear at this time.  It is easy to highlight the gauges by drybrushing.  Personally, I would rather add decal or PE seat harnesses rather than use the molded in ones.

2)   The next step should be the painting of the upper and lower wing planforms.  Assemble the landing gear, fin/rudders and paint these as well.

3)   The engine assembly is next.  Dry fit and follow the assembly directions!  This is just about the only tricky part of the kit.  You cannot fit the forward tapered engine cowlings after gluing the upper and lowe engine halves together.  Glue them to the lower half than add the top.  There will be a little tricky sanding to be done here.  Unless you want to do a lot of tricky masking, paint this assembly now.

4) Time to start bringing things together.  Glue upper and lower wing planforms together, add the engine assembly and fins.  Whew!  It almost looks complete!

5)   Legs next.  The nose gear should be installed as Step 1.  Unless you like making repairs, do it this way: cut off one of the side pins in the base.  Now you can assemble the gear and install it later by just putting in one side pin and wiggling it into position.  The main gear can be completely assemble and installed as well.  The gear doors are a little tricky as they have to be cut apart and come out at an angle before dropping vertically.  I found that by cutting a groove, adding a little liquid cement and some gentle bending at a 45° angle will do the job nicely.  The detail on these doors, the l.g. wells and doors is great and just needs a little wash and dry-brushing to bring it all out.  This also applies to the bomb bay and it’s doors.  When adding the actuator arms, keep track of the numbers.  The longer arms go to the rear and the shorter arms on the forward “shelf”.

6)  Assemble and paint the bombs (three 500Kg and two 2,000 Kg.) and install.

7)  As always, add guns, antennae and transparencies after painting and decaling.

PAINTING & DECALING: 

 There are two schemes given but not much choice: overall RLM 76 with your choice of large patches or overall small mottles of RLM 75.  That’s it.  The only other color is on the fn tips and the front cowlings of the jet engines (red or leaf green(?).  There are yellow stripes for upper and lower wing tips.  Of course I did a different scheme, Dark and Black green splinter with Lichtblau undersides.

 The decal sheet is amazing!  Wing walks in dark red, upper and lower Balkencruz, tons of stencils and fuel triangles and hypothetical unit badges for KG 100 and KG 200.  As always, you’ll have to find swastikas elsewhere.

SUMMARY:

Overall a great kit!  I did some mods to make mine a marine raider of KG 40 by adding two Henschel HS-293 glide bombs under the wings, a Fritz-X in the rear bomb bay and FuG 200 radar in the nose.  Add a “wellenmünster” squiggle cammo and a unit badge from the old Revell FW-200 kit and you’ll have something even more radical.

This is an easy to build kit which would serve as a perfect intro to the world of Luft ’46 modeling.  The only thing that I suggest is to watch the fit of the clear parts which is marginal.  Other than that little caveat, I highly recommend this kit.

I’m building two (maybe four) more in various guises, including a regular level bomber, Mistel, passenger aircraft and even a possible ground attack aircraft!