Arado Ar 68E-1

An Arado Ar 68E-1 night fighter of 10./JG72 of the Luftwaffe, based at Böblingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany in September/October 1939.

The Arado Ar 68 was a fighter built for and operated by the Luftwaffe in the run-up to the Second World War.  First flown in 1934, the Arado Ar 68 entered service in 1936 as a competing design to Heinkel's He 51.  Initially powered by the same BMW VI engine as the He 51, the Ar 68 proved to be a superior aircraft to the He 51 and as such was selected as the Luftwaffe's prime fighter.  It was subsequently updated as the Ar 68E, powered by the same Junkers Jumo 210 engine that powered early versions of the Messerschmitt Bf 109 and Bf 110.

Three Arado Ar 68s were sent to fight in the Spanish Civil War as part of the Condor Legion, however they were outclassed by the Polikarpov I-16.

By 1938, the Arado Ar 68 started being replaced by the Messerschmitt Bf 109, however two Staffels (10. & 11./JG72) were still in frontline service as nightfighter units by the time war was declared in September 1939, accounting for half of the number of dedicated Luftwaffe nightfighters at this time of the War - rather optimistically so, as they were outperformed by most if not all of the allied nocturnal bombers they were expected to oppose.

The last Ar 68s left frontline service early in 1940, never having scored a kill - a number subsequently served in fighter schools as advanced trainers before attrition and parts shortages ended their careers.  Out of 511 built, none survive.

1/72 HUMA 3500
Inventory number 1060 - purchased September 14th 2014
Second model completed in 2016