FROG F417 Arado Ar 234B-2/r or C-3 & Fieseler Fi 103 (V1)

KIT COMMENT
LASTWAR LATECOMERS
F8F BEARCAT AND ARADO 234 FROM FROG
GERMAN JET

Frog gets top marks for combining the Arado 234B-2 twin-engined Luftwaffe bomber with its four-engined variant, the Ar 234C-3 in the same box but to add to the interest they have produced the version that had a Fiesler Fi-103 flying bomb mounted piggy-back fashion on top of the fuselage. This uses up their mould of the famous V-1, which originally appeared with the Spitfire XIV, although this version of the Ar 234 did not see service before the war's end.

But that's as far as it goes. Those of us who have built the Lindberg model of the Ar234 have always complained that it was inaccurate and on the whole rather a poor kit. We can report that the Frog one is not a tremendous advance.

Our first problem came with the cockpit. This is well glazed and the interior can easily be seen but there's almost no detail supplied. The instrument panel is provided and so is the pilot's seat but no control column. We spent a lot of time adding our own interior which made the job more interesting but will be difficult for the newcomer after having had the,experience of some of the latest Airfix kits for example.

We accept that much of the detail is deliberately missed off to keep the model within a specific price range but unfortunately Frog's competitors have set new standards in recent times and, in the same way that these remarks apply to Matchbox kits, we feel that a greater effort should be made to provide this sort of added interest.

Construction of the model was no great problem though lead must be added to the nose to get the aircraft to stand on its undercarriage. We decided to make the twin-jet Ar234B-2 to replace our Lindberg one and found that although body putty was needed in various places this was not too much of a task to undertake.

Other unfortunate parts about the model are the thickness of the wing trailing edges which although coming to a thin edge are tapered wrongly on the rearward side. Other over scale size parts are the mass balances that fit on the tail unit. These are particularly heavy and it makes one think that the designer did not have sufficient reference material when making these in the first instance. The model as a whole is rather 'chunky' including the panel detail which is a little on the heavy side.

Having criticised the model fairly heavily let us say that it is not quite as bad as it may appear. The general accuracy of outline seems within bounds and with a little extra work and some scratch building here and there is better than the Lindberg model. One plus point, for example, was the correct addition of the underwing Walter rocket motors provided for extra power on take off. The bombs and drop tanks under the jet nacelles and fuselage are also correct and so is the undercarriage.

The model has two sets of decals though only one of these is of an operational aircraft for obvious reasons. This is the Ar 234B-2 which served with 9 Staffel, III/KG 76 Achmer in February 1945.

The painting of this version was also a difficult task as at that time the Germans hastily painted their aircraft in order to get them into service quickly. The aircraft depicted has a very rough two-tone green on the upper surfaces through which the Hellblau shows. Airbrush techniques are the only ones that can adequately deal with this type of paint work and we had to make several attempts to get the rough appearance to look satisfactory.

This is not one of the best kits that Frog has produced, but at 75p for two different versions of an aircraft one cannot really argue with price.

Aviation News Vol 4 Num 24 30 April-13 May 1976

Reviews
FROG ARADO Ar 234

Frog's recent kit of the Arado Ar 234, which was the world's first operational jet-bomber, has come in for some stick in certain quarters, and some of the criticisms made must have left the Frog design team feeling very frustrated and wondering just how to please the minority of 'mad' modellers!

It is perhaps unfair to be too critical of what is really a very welcome addition to WW 2 aircraft kits, as in this reviewers opinion the men from Margate have done a first-class job. It is not so very long ago that keen plastic modellers would have given their right arms for any kit that provided alternative parts and was acceptably accurate as well as being cleanly moulded. Maybe we are a fickle bunch who are always looking for something a little better than we deserve, or spend too much time thinking the grass over the hill is always greener.

Agreed the panel lines maybe a little heavy, and the span is about 15" too short, but to offset this the transparencies are excellent, the underwing rockets for assisted take-off are correct, and the decal sheet is excellent. The cockpit leaves room for improvement, but then very few kits don't have this shortcoming, the nose wheel would have been better moulded separately from the oleo, and the bombs could be better.

All parts are cleanly moulded in Frog's present offering of dark blue plastic and the instruction sheet leaves absolutely no doubt as to what parts go where for the three versions which can be produced from this kit.

To sum-up, a very welcome addition which makes up into an attractive and unusual member of any collection.
B.P.
Review sample courtesy of Frog.

The IPMS magazine, july/august 1976

Revell

Ex Frog kits reissued. 1/72nd scale. Prices vary.

ALTHOUGH the Russian manufacturer Novo has re-issued many of the Frog kits, it has refused to touch models of anything connected with Germany, Italy or Japan. Happily this state of affairs has improved of late as Revell has released eleven of the old Frog kits under their banner. These include two kits that Frog never generally released to our knowledge, the Nakajima Zero RUFE floatplane and the Heinkel He115C-1 both quite good kits and to form the subject of larger reviews in a forthcoming issue.

The other kits will be more familiar to our readers and they are the Heinkel He162A-2, Focke Wulf Ta152H, Fiat G55, Messerschmitt Me Bf110G-4, Messerschmitt Me410 A-1/U-4, Arado Ar234 "Blitz", Heinkel He111 H-1 and Dornier Do17Z.

No attempt has been made at cleaning up the models as far as we can gather; decals - remain the same and the poor box art is also retained, which could have been improved upon. Gone too, lamentably, is the familiar Frog full colour painting guide but these are well laid out on the detailed instruction leaflets which are indeed an improvement on the originals.

Reviews of most of the reissued kits have already appeared in post issues of SM so we resist the temptation to reiterate. These modellers to whom the kits will be new may care to look up the following references. We reviewed the Ta152 in the February 1971 issue, the Do17Z in the October 1971 issue, the Me110 in the September 1971 issue, the Heinkel He111 in the September 1972 issue and the Do335 in the July 1975 issue. Current prices range from 40p for the He162, Ta152, Rufe and Fiat G55, 80p for the Me110G-4, Me410, and Do335 to £1.15 for the Ar234, He111, He115and Do17Z. Interesting to reflect that the He111 was 81p six years ago, so the enthusiast has little to grumble about.

Someday, someone will sit down and write the history of the Frog kit right from its inception, via Penguins and up to the seventies- and it will make fascinating reading ...
ED

Scale Models Vol. 9 No. 101 February 1978

NEW AND IN VIEW

LINDBERG Me 410 and Arado 234 both to l/72nd scale, Hot yet available in the U.K., U.S. price 50 cents.

It is unfortunate that neither of these kits compares in either detail or accuracy with contemporary models from other manufacturers. The panel and rivet detail is kept to a minimum and the quality of the green plastic is quite good, but outline shapes are very suspect; the Ar234 is the more accurate of the two. The cockpit canopies are moulded in two halves which means that on the Ar234 the one-piece nose-canopy moulding is spoiled by a very obvious joint-line which is virtually impossible to camouflage or disguise. That on the 410 is similarly split into two halves and although we feel that this may have been felt to be necessary to obtain the correct bulged effect of the rear of the canopy sides, in fact they are not bulged at all! Again one has the thankless task of trying to disguise this obvious joint line. The instructions on the 410 are in error, in that the completed model illustrated has been incorrectly assembled with the wheel covers attached to the nacelles along their sides, whereas in fact they were hinged along their forward edges, and the wheels have been put on the outsides of the oleos; they should of course be on the inside, facing inwards. The characteristic angle of the wheels has also been omitted; these were not parallel to the oleo in front view but at quite a sharp angle to it. Though the average modeller could correct these faults, the errors in the wing shape, the spacing of the engines and the shapes of the spinners and tailplane are so great as to render this kit beyond redemption, especially in view of the imminent release by Frog of an Me 410. The Ar234 is worth getting, as no-one is producing a kit of this aircraft; with a good deal of work in tidying up the shapes of wings and cowlings it would be possible to make a fair representation of the original. We recommend that the drawing in "Famous Bombers of the Second World War" Vol.II be used for reference. From this, both the errors in the shapes of the parts and omissions from the transfer sheet will be apparent.

I.P.M.S. MAGAZINE, Vol.3 No.9, SEPTEMBER 1966