Years ago der Kampflieger (Roman Vasilyev) offered a free model of the Arado E.381 II parasite interceptor in 1/72 scale. This was a really tiny airplane, and in 1/72 scale it was too small for me to attempt. But...for it's size the model was quite detailed, and the texturing was really great, so I downloaded it to my stash. Finally, with a bad case of quarantine fever, I decided to build it in a more manageable 1/33 scale.
This was a desperation weapon that thankfully for German test pilots, never made it off the drawing board. It was intended to be carried aloft, slung under an Arado 234 jet bomber. Approaching, and well above the Allied bomber stream, it would be dropped and the prone pilot would ignite the C-stof/T-stof Walter 509B rocket engine. propelling the aircraft to over 500 MPH. Its first attack would be made with its single 30mm cannon. When all 45 rounds were depleted, the pilot would maneuver back for a ramming attack with its reinforced wing. When the volatile fuel was depleted, the pilot would glide the aircraft back to earth, deploying a small braking parachute to slow it down. It would gently land on its ventral skid. Nothing to it.
I decided to build the scary looking petaled nose/canopy first (photo 1), because if I couldn't get that right, there was no point in continuing. It came out ok. Not great, but ok (photo 2). I cut out its bulkhead and when I inserted it into the back, it fell right in. Something wasn't right here (photo 3). Either the bulkhead was too small, or the nose was too big. I put the nose aside, and started on the first fuselage segment. The front bulkhead fit perfectly. (photo 4). Crap, the nose was too big. I glued the rear bulkhead in place to finish the fuselage segment (photo 5), and then went back to the nose. To make the diameter smaller, I cut tiny inconspicuous slivers out of 5 of the sharks teeth at the underside of the nose. How much to remove was pure guesswork on my part, but miracle of miracles, after surgery the nose bulkhead fit perfectly (photos 6 and 7).
I mated up the nose/canopy with fuselage segment 1 (photos 8 and 9). That's it for today.