Monogram Pro Modeler 1/48 Arado Ar 234C-3/4

Overview

Recently Revell and Monogram has been reboxing Hasegawa kits, sometimes with different variants. Such is the case with this kit, the Arado Ar 234C. The history of the Ar 234C variant was a short one, with only about 20 build and just a few of those entering into service. With its four engines the Ar 234C was fast and had enough power to take off with a full load without the use of RATO. Unfortunately these benefits arrived too late to make a difference.

The Kit

This kit is basically the same as the Hasegawa Ar 234B release, with different wings and engines, cockpit parts, and rear-firing 20mm cannon. Since the Ar 234B kit was reviewed back in the September 2002 issue, and built up in the November 2002 issue, I'll refer you to those articles for construction issues and just talk about the different parts.

They did their research on the cockpit, as it is very accurate for the Ar 234C variant. The instrument panel can be finished with either decal faces or handpainted. All of the wiring that I added in my Ar 234B build are included in this interior. The wings are different, providing the slots for the wider engine nacelles. The engine nacelles are split into upper and lower sections, with separate fronts and inner details. Finally, the decals provide two options, one a straight bomber type and the other a reconnaissance type.

Conclusion

While there were few actual Ar 234Cs in service, there were quite a few paper projects based off of this plane, including Mistels and even an AWACS, so there's some interesting what-ifs you could do with this kit. With the construction being similar to the Hasegawa kit, there won't be any surprises with this one.