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Me 163B 'Komet', 'White 13' (re-titled!)


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Hi ladies,

Now the Buchon is complete, I've been asked to build a Komet for Model Airplane International. I have a rake of AM for this too, which I'll selectively use as some is a little crappy or it'll be a choice between good and better. I was going to build this as a Luftwaffe machine but thought two German machines in a row would make some in this hobby think I'm a nazi sympathiser. In that light, I'll build the machine that was captured and test flown by Eric Brown. I had an opportunity to chat with him a few years ago about his Komet flight, so this seems to be a fitting way of remembering the guy. I will use some artistic license though as I believe the machine he flew was unarmed and most certainly won't have carried ammunition, but I will install it just the same.

Basis for this build is the excellent if slightly fiddly Meng kit, with some Eduard, MASTER, and Aires stuff thrown at it. I don't expect this model to take too long as I don't want to be taken away from the F-104 which I will shortly show here on LSM.

Anyway, here we go!

vf241-13.jpg

Screenshot 2019-03-31 at 20.56.27.jpg

Screenshot 2019-03-31 at 21.45.20.jpg

Screenshot 2019-03-31 at 21.45.33.jpg

Screenshot 2019-03-31 at 21.45.53.jpg

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If you want to close the Komet up (good choice for the Eric Brown 163 without the rocket engine and sans weapons) be careful to align everything right and test fit a lot. There is a hell lot of fuselage parts to get in sync and I stalled with mine. I destroyed lots of the work in the cockpit and inside the fuselage while doing so.

There were some great pics and info provided in my building thread, mostly provided by Martin and Jeroen.
https://forum.largescalemodeller.com/topic/5535-british-rocket-–-captured-me-163-meng-132/

Cheers Rob 

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After some soul-searching, I've decided to go with a Luftwaffe machine, simply because I want to display the model with its engine, guns and ammunition. The British evaluation machine wouldn't allow that, so from now, she'll be painted like this:

0d5f5064df4c21a4372285becea84e08.jpg

 

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I look forward to seeing the build as I meant to buy this kit last weekend, but left it sitting on the shelf by mistake.

There are millions of us interested in German stuff who aren't Nazi sympathizers.

I'm not an Anglophile despite the fact that I believe the best music ever made was created by young Englishmen experimenting with or heavily using drugs.  I guess I don't consider myself a druggie sympathizer either.

This hobby would be no fun if we worried about what everyone else thought.

 

Rock on!

 

Gaz

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6 hours ago, James H said:

After some soul-searching, I've decided to go with a Luftwaffe machine, simply because I want to display the model with its engine, guns and ammunition. The British evaluation machine wouldn't allow that, so from now, she'll be painted like this:

0d5f5064df4c21a4372285becea84e08.jpg

 

This has the added benefit of pissing off the snowflakes!  Need to get this one, I did the old Hasegawa kit several years ago.

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1 hour ago, NigelR32 said:

Nice!! I keep getting asked to build this on my channel. I wasn't aware the kit had issues. What's wrong with it James?

 

Just fiddly engineering in places, but it's still a nice kit. I altered the wing connection to the fuse so the root recessed further into the fuse. I found it stood a little proud. 

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2 hours ago, Wingco57 said:

Well fairings usually were screwed to the fuselage and the thickness of the metal made it stand a bit proud of the surface.

Cees

This is true, but the protruding ridge is he best part of 0.5-0.7mm. In real terms, that is 16-22mm which is way too much I know there will be metal thickness, but the edge in 1:32 needs almost eliminating (0.2mm or less) to not look exaggerated. 

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As with most things Aires, some remedial work is needed to make the resin parts fit as they should.

Their resin pit is actually very nice, but is slightly too wide at the front. I assembled this with a few bits of tape and did some sanding with a coarse sanding stick. Only took about 10 mins of work to fix, and here's the result. 

Screenshot 2019-04-04 at 10.16.54.jpg

Screenshot 2019-04-04 at 10.17.10.jpg

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On 4/2/2019 at 6:55 AM, James H said:

I altered the wing connection to the fuse so the root recessed further into the fuse. I found it stood a little proud. 

Is that best done by setting back parts C-11 and C-12 a little? (And if you were so inclined, could these parts even be left out if you're not showing the guns?)

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1 hour ago, Wumm said:

Is that best done by setting back parts C-11 and C-12 a little? (And if you were so inclined, could these parts even be left out if you're not showing the guns?)

Setting those parts back won't make the wing sit any deeper into the fuse. that is determined by either/or the depth of the plastic edge around the wing root and the depth of the the recess into which it sits. I found it easier to reduce the depth of the plastic around the wing fillet. You will also need to slightly remove plastic from the edges of the wing connection stubs on parts C11 and C12.

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Well................. I was always told I didn't have any patience................and yeah, that is good advice well taken, I will take that under advisement......as I really do get frustrated sometimes, but am too dumb to put things down and walk away for an hour or two........  hhhhmmmm old habits die hard.........  my mom had a saying back in the day....     "Patience is a virtue, attain it if you can, seldom found in a woman and never in a man"......................  huh, maybe she was right after all........ in all honesty, THAT may very well be my issue.......... and I've never really thought of it that way until just now, as the light goes on............................. :hsmack:

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