Background

On November 1944 the Arado design bureau at Landeshut in Silesia began development of a fighter incorporating the latest in aerodynamic technology. The called this project E.581. Featuring a typically Arado wing planform designed specifically for high speed flight it was originally intended for the aircraft to be powered by the BMW 003 turbojet that it was in production at that time. It’s supposed that they decided to use this engine to get an aircraft built and in flight as soon as possible. The design team based their aerodynamic concept on of the E.555 is this new project. It was thought to been armed with two 30mm cannon.

The kit

The kit comes in a simple box with a photo of a finished kit glued on its top. The kit pieces come in sealed cellophane pouches. The kit consist of:

5 x beige resin parts
13 white metal parts ( I think they are made of lead)
2 x vacuformed canopies
It doesn´t come with decals

The resin has an exceptional surface finish. I didn’t find any bubbles on it. The fuselage and wing come all as a single piece. Two pieces for the tail-fin and two for the cockpit an engine air intakes. The different part goes together very well. I used cyano as in all resin pieces.

The kit doesn’t have so many details, it’s a simple kit with recessed panel lines. Construction itself is very simple, but not however the instructions. They don’t have any pictures or drawings, only a text that tells you the assembly stages. In this case the kit hasn’t have too many pieces - otherwise it may take a lot of work.

The cockpit comes in the same piece as the engine and it´s not very detailed.

Two vacuformed canopies are provided with the kit. The parts are clear and they have a good frame marking. I used Future to give more transparency.

Conclusion

This is a kit that's sometimes difficult to find, as all the Arba kits. It´s a good kit for beginners in resin if you don´t mind the difficult to understand instructions. Overall this is a nice kit to make. I finished it some days ago and it didn´t take too many days do make it. I think it´s a very interest kit for Luft 46 enthusiast.

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