Revell 1/72 Arado E.

555 Bomber
MSRP: $17.50

Decals for two versions, both fictitious as befits a 'Luftwaffe '46' kit.

Date of Review: May 1999

Review and photos by: Scott Van Aken

It is July 4, 1947. Air raid sirens have sounded the all clear. Several large
sections of Manhattan have been bombed to rubble. Flying rapidly back
toward Europe are 21 of the 24 Arado E.555 long range bombers of KG 1
that departed France the day before and after a 12 hour flight are now on
the return road. How did this come about? Let's go back eight years to
1940. Despite the Luftwaffe's inability to defeat the RAF during the Battle of
Britain, the lessons were well learned and put to good use in the desert and
against Russia. The conquest of Egypt and the closing of the Suez Canal
basically cut off Allied supply to Russia from other than via the treacherous
Northern Route. Unfortunately for the Allies, the huge successes of the U-
boat fleet not only managed to nearly starve out the British, but also were
the death knell for the Russians who capitulated in mid 1943. Once Stalin
committed suicide and his secret police dispensed with, the Russian people
came to appreciate greater freedoms under German rule when compared to
Stalin's, though it was initially a tough sell. With the United States unable
to assist the beleaguered British beyond the subsistence level, and their
hands full with the Japanese in the Pacific, they were, for the most part, out
of the war in Europe.

The sudden death of Adolph Hitler in an aircraft crash in early 1944 changed
things for the better in Germany. After a brief power struggle, Herman
Goering rose to rule the country and turned over the Luftwaffe to more
competent people. The jet program was brought to the forefront and work
was enhanced by increased production facilities in the old State Aircraft
Factories in Russia. By now, Russians as a whole were glad to help the
Germans who had released them from the slavery of Stalin's Communism.
This meant plentiful workers and raw materials for Germany's arms
production.

With the US slowly slogging its way toward Japan, the only land battles in
the Western Hemisphere were being fought in Africa along the Gold Coast
and Eastern Africa. These areas are not amenable at all to large armies.
Between disease and imposing geography, the German and Axis armies
were easily able to hold off US and Commonwealth attacks and in fact,
gained some ground in East Africa.

This sets the scenario for the E.555. With all the land battles far from decent
bases, strategic bombing looking more and more like a problem. The He-
177 was finally shelved and the He-277/274 was developed to take its place.
While jet propulsion was becoming more commonplace it was obvious that
the Ar-234 wasn't long legged enough for long distances. Several promising
designs were offered. Two were chosen; both wing designs. Horton with
their Ho-21 and Arado with the E.555. Both were 'Atlantik bombers' capable
of carrying a payload to the US and returning, though it was planned that
they would probably have to land in German-held Iceland for their return
trip. The Arado aircraft was in service first. The first operational use of the
aircraft on long range strike missions was July 4, 1947, and a new era of
strategic bombing was underway.

A very popular subject in the last few years has been the what-if paper
projects of the various German design bureaus. These are aircraft that
'may' have become operational had the Third Reich continued past 1945.
These aircraft are logged under the general heading of 'Luftwaffe '46'.
Interestingly, similar projects from Japan have not reached such heights of
popularity. Such is the demand for these kits, that Revell of Germany has
produced a number of these kits in the last few years and they have sold
very well in Europe. The most recent is the Arado E.555 bomber project.
What little information I found in two rather old references (see the list at
end of review), talked about twin and three engine aircraft, not the six-
engine beast shown here. Also lacking from my references was any
drawing of the aircraft. However, since many different versions were
planned, who is to say that this one would not have been one of them. It is
the nice thing about these aircraft in that there are no 'experts'!!

Revell's kit is really beautifully done in a sort of

greenish grey plastic. The kit is well detailed with
complete wheel wells, bomb bays and cockpit. As
is required of today's kits, it has finely engraved
panel lines. Included are a full bomb load as well
as two movable turrets. The decal sheet offers
two schemes; one for I/KG 100 in overall RLM 76
with upper surface mottling in RLM 75, and the
other for Stab/KG 200 also in RLM 76 and 75, but
in a scheme more reminiscent of that applied to
the upper surface of the F-15 Eagle. Typical of
Revell Germany, the decals are quite matte with
large areas of carrier and, of course, no swastika,
though it does include complete stenciling!

One problem with my kit that may very well be an

isolated situation, is that I had a number of sink
marks. They were basically on all the pieces that
had a rather thick chunk of plastic on the other
side. Major parts affected were the engine/pylon
halves, gear door covers, interior, wheels (on the
inside), and bomb bay doors. Unfortunately, only the ones on the
engine/pylon halves can be filled as doing so on the other parts would ruin
the detailing on them. Either that or it would take much work replacing the
rivet detail!! Just something one has to live with, I guess.

Assembly begins with the cockpit. It is complete with seats, control

column, bomb sight and gunner's position. There are also rudder pedals
that fit on the lower fuselage half. These require some trimming of the side
next to the fuselage in order to fit vertically. Also needing some trimming is
the inside of the upper fuselage forward of the upper turret. If it isn't done,
the seat backs will interfere with proper
placement.

Next the interior is painted. The

instructions give all sorts of interesting
colors like 'mouse grey', 'green-grey'
and 'anthracite grey'. Basically the
interior is RLM 66 and the wheel wells
and bomb bay are RLM 02. Seats
cushions are leather with light grey or
tan belts and harnesses. A little
imaginative painting, a bit of black wash
and light grey highlighting gives some
depth to the interior. The interior fits
quite snugly and positively in the nose
section. The nose gear should be glued
to the underside of the interior at this
time as it
will be
extremely
difficult to
place it at a later stage.

The next big challenge is finding where to put

the weight to prevent nose sitting. The
instructions suggest placing weight as far
forward in the wings as possible and that is
just what I did, using fishing weights and
superglue.I also placed some small pellets
under the gunner's seat just to be sure. Then
the interior was glued in place. Turning to the
upper fuselage half, the turret was assembled
and installed as was the gun sight. The
instructions lead you to believe that the sight can be installed in the stowed
position, but since the hole in the upper fuselage is predrilled, this would
mean filling the hole. The gun barrels were drilled out and the sink marks
found in the upper turret were filled. Next the rear turret was trapped
between the fuselage halves and the halves glued together.

Moving on to the engine pod. I stupidly glued the upper and lower pod
halves together before installing the intakes. A BIG mistake. The engine
intakes need glued in place before the upper and lower halves are glued
together or you will have a terrible time getting the inner intakes installed.
Trust me on this!! This piece had lots of sink marks on it as well and
required more filler than any other part of the kit. The upper wing was then
installed using the time honored method of gluing bits at a time. I noticed
the upper front section was a bit wider than the lower so used a clamp to
keep the parts aligned as the glue dried. Once all the bits were glued and
clamped the joints were filled and smoothed. Don't forget to install the rear
guns before you finish gluing the aft part of the wing/fuselage if you want it
to rotate.

Once that is done, the transparencies were masked and installed. They fit
quite well, but not perfect. The main canopy needs dry fitted several times
and a bit of trimming needed to get it to fit snugly. I used non-fogging super
glue to attach these parts. Next the gear doors were cut off the sprue and
fit in place in the closed position. These items fit superbly. Probably the
best fitting gear doors I have ever seen. If ever a kit was designed to be
displayed gear up, this is it. Too bad that stands are no longer part of a
model kit! Only drawback was the nose door since the nose gear sort of
messes things up.

Next step was painting. I really didn't know what scheme to use. With these
kits, just about anything goes. Looking through my paints, I stumbled on
the idea of substituting RLM 84 (a sort of 'sky' shade) for the RLM 76 called
out in the instructions. After all, late in the war this color was seen rather
frequently on aircraft. The upper surfaces were then painted in a scribble
pattern of RLM 82 and 83; dark and light green. Besides, it was fun to paint!
After that the kit was glosscoated in preparation for decals and some final
assembly. After this orgy of scribble painting, the nose rings of all six
engines and the tail tips were brush painted green as befits an aircraft of
GeswaderStab. Then the tail cones of the engines were painted burnt iron
and simply snapped into place on the engine pod.
 Installation of the gear was the next priority. First the wheels were painted
black then the tires painted a very dark grey. While that was drying, the
main gear was cleaned up. Naturally, I broke one of them right at the oleo.
RATS! A paper clip came to the rescue as the offending parts were drilled
and the clip segment installed. Then they, and several retraction struts were
painted RLM 02 grey. After that the oleos for all three gear were wrapped
with Bare Metal Foil and the scissor links installed. Once the nose wheels
were installed, the main gear had thier wheels installed. Next the main gear
was glued into the wheel wells. I had read where this kit has a tendency to
sit on the main gear with the nose in the air, so I put the kit on all wheels
and let the main gear dry with the weight of the aircraft on it. No problems!!

Next was the installation of the gear doors. They separated easily from each
other. The main outer doors are a two piece affair and I carefully bent mine
and glued them in place. The other doors were a snap to install. I did find
that the door retraction struts fit well, but were a bit too long to properly fit
in the attachment areas in the wheel well. Not a big problem, but one you
need to watch out for. The landing light was installed in the nose door using
odorless superglue. Next the assembled and painted (RLM 02) bombs were
installed.

Then I started the decaling procedure. I didn't want to use the kit markings,
but really had no choice. What I did do was to substitute the Group to KG 1.
I had some KG 1 Badges and simply changed the group designator to V4 as
befits the aircraft of the 'Hindenburg' Group. All kit decals were used except
for those previously mentioned and the swastika and a nose cross, which
came from the spares box. All the decals are very matte and have quite
large clear areas around them that must be trimmed. Otherwise they work
quite well and react favorably to Champ setting solution. There are lots of
stencil decals with this kit so decaling itself took several days. To add a bit
more color, green wing stripes were added to denote the 'North Atlantic'
theater of operations.

Once the decals had dried and the excess setting solution cleaned up, the
kit was sprayed with clear semi-matte and it was time to add the final bits
and pieces. These consisted of the nose probe, fuselage antenna, wing
guns, bomb bay doors and actuating arms, and the landing lights. I found
that the bomb bay door actuating arms needed to be trimmed just a touch
to get everything to fit properly. The landing lights are supposed to have the
bulged parts facing down or forward, depending on how you mount them.
Of course, you could also leave them off.

The final result is a very interesting and unusual kit that is bound to cause
attention from your friends and look interesting in your collection of 1/72
Luftwaffe kits. Highly recommended. The best fitting kit I have built in a long
time.

Scott Van Aken

May 1999
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