Bill Cross treats us to a display of his Revell 1/32 Arado AR 196 stowed folded on its shipboard catapult.

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If you have comments or questions please post them here.

Thanks!

Hi Bill,

Excellent effort.

The plane looks good on the catapult ,very nice effect.


Thanks

Michael

Hi Bill

Lovely build! I agree with Michael - it looks great mounted on the catapult!

All the best

Rowan

Very,very,nice!!
good job

Amazing job Bill, I love it !

Cheers, D

Beautiful work, Bill!
Cheers, Guido

Thanks, Jessica, for the generous amount of photos. You made the thing look good.

Michael, Rowan, Ryszard, Damian and Guido, thank you so much! Nothing makes me feel better than the praise of other modelers.

Hi Bill, in a word OUTSTANDING!! I love this kit and the catapult, you are to be commended. I plan on doing something similar in the future and only hope I can meet the high standard you have set. Thanks for sharing. I must say, for a self-proclaimed "tread head" you are also an accomplished aircraft modeler. Take care

Jim

Bill

Excellent work on that Arado. Love that weathering you did. Both the plane and cat look stunning!
I have a question. On picture #27 there's a red cover or light on the leading edge? I'm building this kit and was puzzled as to the actual part itself which is also found on the other wing.

Thanks, Jim, I try to keep my propeller-head tendencies in the closet when around other tread-heads!

Ernie, that's supposed to be a landing light. There is a green one over on the other wing. I probably should've scratched a clear lens for it, but....

Fantastic model! Great work on the weathering and detailing. The catapult really gives it more character than a simplea beaching dolly would.



Well, as the fairings are for the MG FF autocannons, I'd make a some-what-educated guess that they're protective plugs for the weapons.

quote]
Well, as the fairings are for the MG FF autocannons, I'd make a some-what-educated guess that they're protective plugs for the weapons.

[/quote]

Bill

Not the tip lights but looks as Emeritus suggested the covers for the wing cannons. Revell just numbers the part as 98 with no description.

You may be right. Maybe that's why this model didn't place at the last IPMS show it was entered in, LOL. I believe RoG indicates lights, since I could SWEAR they indicate a color, but maybe it was a senior moment. There are no cannons included in the kit.

Didn't place in an IPMS show? You got to be kidding! Your plane is a beauty and should have won. Yes, unfortunately the kit brings no cannons but I just looked at the box art and you can see them so the red thingies look like the covers for them.

Thanks, Ernie, I will be sure to paint them over. Too bad someone isn't offering the cannons as an AM thing.

And thank you for the kind words about the plane. I have retired from shows permanently, and will focus on doing photo features for places like Aeroscale and Armorama.

Beautiful build with excellent details!

Thanks for sharing

Hi Bill, or anyone else for that matter, where can I pick up the resin HpH Catapult that is the companion to this kit? Any guidance from any and all would be greatly appreciated.

Jim

Bill,
That's a beautiful build, you just made it harder for me to resist this gem of a kit... I've managed upto now but seeing your build... eek!

Keith

Jim, try here. I don't know of any vendors selling it, and HpH are fine folks to deal with. The entire catapult kit with shipping came to around $100. It's not cheap, but it's a very specific item that's quite well-made IMO.

Jesper, Keith, thanks, it's an excellent kit, and other than the Eduard interior PE, doesn't need a lot to make it a show-stopper.

I know it is some 6 years later since this was posted but I was doing some research and my goodness, what a beautiful build! This is a great subject and the execution is magnificent.

My only question is how the center mount float would have fit on the catapault.

Thanks for sharing Jim! Amazing!

Patrick, I don’t think there is a centreline float. One of the images is a front view and shows the mounting frame on the catapult with a float either side.

I remember when this was first posted, it really is a beautiful build and worth going through the images again.

Cheers, D

Thank you both for your nice comments. I loved building this model, and would recommend it to anyone who likes planes.

The AR196-B was a single-float version (Revell has released a kit of it, too, though it hasn't sold well because it was mainly used before the war). This version was a twin-float set-up because of the greater stability provided.

The floats did not come in contact with the catapult, but hung free. The plane had mounting studs and was attached to the sled used to launch it.



The challenge in building the resin catapult was that it didn't "marry" to the Revell kit, so I had to do some scratch-building with the sled mounting arms. All's well that ends well, however, and the result remains very satisfying to me.