Introduction

The Arado Ar 234 is one of the late war jets produced by the Germans during World War II. When it first hit the drawing boards it was to be a long range observation aircraft, but as with most things the Germans started to design it was directed to be changed and in this case to a bomber. The changes resulted in an aircraft that had to be redesigned to perform an all new function. Kagero as part of their Top Drawings titles takes us for a close look at the Arado Ar 234 B-2, B-2/N and C-3 in popular scaled technical drawings.

Review

This offering from Kagero in their Top Drawings line of titles is a soft backed book authored by Marek Rys’. The drawings are presented over 20 pages of great technical drawings and a few coloured side views. The drawings in this title are provided for the most part in 1/72nd scale but there are a few1/48th scale offerings included. Text wise we are presented with a very brief history of the aircraft design in both English and Polish, and while the text is short there is a surprising amount of detail provided.

Inside of this title there are a further four sheets of drawings that are double sided and that fold out to A2 size, these fold plans provide great technical drawings in 1/48th and 1/32ndscale and so cover every scale you are likely to be in need of. The drawings are done to a very high standard providing a huge quantity of visual information in possibly the most useful format for the modeller there is. I cannot really fault any of what is provided as it covers the major scales to a good depth.

Conclusion

The Arado 234 is not one of the aircraft that jumps to my mind when thinking about Germany during World War2, but it is an aircraft that was ahead of its time and took part in missions against the enemy. Like most of the wonder weapon aircraft produced by Germany it was made for a purpose and that purpose was changed to a function the aircraft was not designed for. This offering from Kagero covers the aircraft in great detail as regards the scale drawings and will be a great guide for the modeller, but if its written reading material you want then look for an alternate