The aircraft before the diorama
Before documenting the illuminated lakeside diorama, I want to introduce the aircraft at the centre of it: Revell’s 1/72 Arado Ar 196 A-2. I completed it in August 2023. The kit was old—almost vintage by the standards of the kits I was familiar with. Opening such an old box was genuinely exciting in itself. Its long twin floats, elaborate bracing and radial-engine silhouette give the subject a distinctive character even before the scenery is considered.
This is the build record for the aircraft itself. The water effects, lights, shore structures and scene layout will form a separate Diorama Dossier, linked only when it is published.
An older-generation kit
My kit is Revell 04197, a 1991 reboxing of a 1979 Heller mould. A published review describes 44 plastic parts, three clear parts and two marking options. I confirmed the box number from my own kit. [1][2]
Building it felt a little like opening the toy inside a surprise egg: few parts, very little fine detail and a refreshingly simple assembly compared with modern kits. That simplicity was part of its charm and made the old boxing exciting to work on. Rather than claim intricate construction work the kit did not demand, I put much more of my effort into the paintwork, camouflage and smaller surface details, trying to give this straightforward model a carefully finished appearance. This is how I remember the build, not an objective verdict on every boxing of the tooling.
My photographs follow the model from a dark early surface coat through camouflage and masking to the finished aircraft. The first frame shows the model without its propeller fitted. A later frame shows two green-grey upper-surface tones and masking around the canopy and rear fuselage. In the finished photographs, the framed canopy, rear defensive gun, twin floats and slender supports, fuselage codes and wing crosses are clearly visible.
Reviews of this older tooling discuss raised wing panel lines and float-strut fit, but I have not personally confirmed those particular difficulties on this build. I mention them only as research context. [1]
The 7R+BK markings
The finished model clearly carries 7R+BK. This marking is associated with 2./Seeaufklärungsgruppe 125, a German maritime reconnaissance unit operating in the Mediterranean/Aegean theatre. It matches the Seeaufklärungsgruppe 125 marking option documented for this Revell kit. [1][4]
Variant accuracy note: Revell marketed this kit as an Ar 196 A-2; a historical restoration article identifies the aircraft coded 7R+BK as an Ar 196 A-3. The accurate description is therefore “Revell Ar 196 A-2 kit finished in 7R+BK markings” rather than claiming that the coded wartime aircraft was definitively an A-2. The distinction between kit variant and historical aircraft identity is deliberate. [5]
Finish and paint references — products I actually used
For the first upper-camouflage tone, I used AK Interactive AK-2021; for the second, AK Interactive AK-2022. The underside colour was AK Interactive AK-2003. Inside the cockpit and on selected details I used Tamiya XF-1 Flat Black. The yellow cowling detail was painted with Mission Models MMP-090 Gelb (Yellow) RLM 04, the red spinner with Tamiya XF-7 Flat Red, and the propeller and metallic details with Tamiya X-11 Chrome Silver. These seven actual products are confirmed by my own build notes. [6][7][8]
Standard RLM 72 / RLM 73 upper camouflage and RLM 65 undersides are historical Ar 196 scheme references. The AK Air Series products I actually used have matching catalogue designations: AK-2021 = RLM 72, AK-2022 = RLM 73 and AK-2003 = RLM 65. These identify the marketed historical colours, not a laboratory measurement of the finished paint surface. No mixing proportions are inferred. [6]
The photos also show the white fuselage band, but the white paint code, weathering compounds and clear coat have not been recorded.
Original photograph gallery
The image EXIF DateTime metadata places the early photograph on 13 August, the camouflage-stage image on 27 August, and finished-model photographs on 28 August 2023. These are photo dates, not an invented precise completion date. I completed the model in August 2023.
The low views show the float-bracing structure particularly well, while the hand-held front view demonstrates how small a complete twin-float aircraft looks in 1/72 scale.
Its place in the lakeside scene
This aircraft was incorporated into an illuminated lakeside diorama alongside my Trumpeter 1/72 Sd.Kfz. 9/1 FAMO, the same half-track crane seen behind the Arado in the finished scene. The FAMO has its own published model-build article on ModofWar: view the Trumpeter 1/72 Sd.Kfz. 9/1 FAMO build → The lake diorama itself will be documented separately. The water, lighting and scene layout will be described there.
The history behind the model
The Ar 196’s shipborne and coastal reconnaissance role, the A-2’s armament and its twin-float design are covered in the separate historical article. Read the history →
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