Arado Ar196A – The “eyes of the kriegsmarine”

I freely admit that the Arado 196 isn’t exactly the most dashing or exciting military plane, but I have a soft spot for it nonetheless. And so, I tried to make a relatively detailed rendering of a typical WW2 ‘196…

Before the advent of decent naval radar systems, battleships depended on “eyes in the sky” to see what was over the horizon. Designed in 1936 as a replacement for the Kriegsmarine’s old Heinkel recon-biplanes, the Arado was chosen over a (biplane) Kurt Tank design, the Fw-62. By comparison, Arado’s monoplane design was considered “modern”, although the 196 was also for the most part a fabric-covered tubular frame –hardly the pinnacle of technology. Still, it was a sturdy plane with decent flight characteristics, with the ability to be catapulted off a ship’s deck and land on relatively rough seas. Soon each German capital ship carried at least one and sometimes several Ar196’s, and land-based units (the so-called “sea clearing groups”) also used the plane in anti-sub operations. It’s fair to say that the Arado was probably the best, or at least one of the most successful naval scout hydroplanes.

The build

I tried to make the build look as much as an Ar196 as possible, though without bending & twisting parts over some blueprint, a process which I dislike somewhat. It’s definitely recognizable as an Arado, and fairly detailed including a full cockpit interior. Features;

• Working canopy -you can fly around with your hair in the wind. Kind of.
• Folding wings with some bells and whistles. It looks similar, at least, to the real-life Arado.
• A fully functional rear gunner’s station that isn’t just for show; I tried it, and you can actually hit stuff.
• Something that resembles the Arado’s BMW engine (if you squint)
• Smooth markings, bent to follow the arc of the plane’s hull to avoid chunkiness
• Functioning, retractable float rudders

Flying it

The Arado is a very forgiving plane -takeoff and landing requires zero expertise.
You’ll notice that the plane starts in “stored” position, with its wings folded back. So the first thing to do is to deploy those of course –that’s a no-brainer. Don’t worry, you can still do air starts if you really need to; just don’t do air starts too close to the ground ;) :D
On takeoff, just go with something a bit over half flaps, and when you’re over 150 km/h just pitch up and yank the trim slider all the way down… that should do the trick. But remember it’s a floatplane; clearing the water is always the trickiest part. Landing is easier; throttle down to < 50%, lower your flaps and hit the water relatively horizontally, and you’re fine. Not much can go wrong. At anything below 70 km/h, you can lower your float rudders for steering; to come to a complete stop, wiggling the rudder(s) is a trick that really helps.
When flying, you have three cockpit views; the pilot’s forward view of course, and two views for the spotter/gunner position… one cam is more suitable to just look around, the other one is dedicated to operating the machine gun.

Armament

For a shipboard recon plane, the Ar196 was actually quite heavily armed; on top of its defensive rear gun, it also had a fixed forward-firing machine gun, a pair of 20 mm autocannons, and it could carry a couple of bombs. So, what’s installed?

• MG15 machine gun (7.92 mm) - the rear gunner has a single machine gun, installed on a special gun mount that allows him to swivel his MG to either side of the plane for a wider field of fire. It’s also healthier for your plane’s tail, if you get my meaning.

• MG17 machine gun (7.92 mm) - the pilot has a fixed machine gun, installed in the fuselage with a somewhat strange setup; the gun actually fires under the engine cover, and the bullets come out a hole at the front. Makes a lot more sense than, say, installing a pair of guns in the usual position. Ahem. In any case; the Arado is no fighter plane, but at least this gun allows it to take pot shots at other planes.

• MG-151 autocannons (20 mm) - these are the business end of the Arado. The 20 mm’s in each wing are heavy hitters, allowing the Ar196 to tackle heavy planes or light armoured vehicles and boats. Because of their position in the wings, the cannons are protected from splashing water by red plastic caps; these will automatically shred when the cannons are fired for the first time.

• SD-50 bombs - under each wing, the Arado carries a small 50kg armor-piercing bomb. This doesn’t make it a bomber of course, but even though 50kg doesn’t sound very frightening, these bombs are quite sufficient to deal with tanks or armored patrol boats.

To cut a long story short: this little seabird actually had teeth…

Controls

Standard controls, with VTOL down for flaps, Trim slider for trim.

Landing gear : this controls the folding wings, since there’s no landing gear anyway. First thing you do before takeoff: hit “G”…

AG1 : this will activate a gyroscope and disables the flight controls, allowing you to use the rear gunner’s MG-15 (control using pitch &yaw)
AG2 : swivels the gun mount of the rear MG-15 to either side of the plane.
AG3 : opens the canopy so you can let in some air (or seagull-shit, if it’s not your lucky day)
AG4 : lowers the float rudders to allow steering when in the water. They automatically retract at higher speeds (70 km/h and up) though, when they’re no longer safe to use. Anything over that speed is considered a straightforward takeoff run.
AG5 : toggles between pitch and roll trim. You shouldn’t need the roll trim really, but anyway… it’s there if you want it.
AG6 : not assigned
AG7 : toggle nav lights
AG8 : not assigned

Mods

I used one mod for the cockpit instruments; these look way better than anything self-made. The mode is not necessary to fly the plane, but it doesn make the cockpit look nicer -so it’s recommended.

Enjoy your flight!