The 1/48th Revell Messerschmitt Me 163 B Komet.

The Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet is possibly the most unique aircraft design of World War II. This fast climbing, rocket-powered interceptor, designed by Alexander Lippisch, remains to this day the world’s only fully operational rocket-powered fighter. The tiny aircraft was a swept wing, tailless design, which to save the space and weight of an undercarriage, utilised an extendable, sprung skid and took off on a two wheeled dolly which was immediately jettisoned once airborne.  It would then fly to the required attack altitude, dive down onto oncoming bomber formations and following the exhaustion of it fuel, glided back to base to land on its skid.
Although revolutionary and capable of a performance unrivalled at the time, the Komet proved to be ineffective in its roll, perversely due mainly to its high speed and the low rate of fire of its otherwise devastating twin 30mm MK 108 cannons. Indeed, the Komet actually killed more of its own pilots and ground crew than it did Allied aircrews. Many of these were due to its highly volatile fuel, which also had an added nasty habit of dissolving anything organic it came into contact with, including human flesh! There are several accounts of personnel literally disappearing after fuelling accidents. Many pilots suffered severe spinal injuries as a result of even the slightest of heavy landings on the skid. When the Komet was airborne however, it was by most accounts a delight to fly. Me 163’s were credited with destroying only nine B-17 Flying Fortresses.
The finished model had something of a protracted gestation period, having been dipped in and out of more times than a tin of Quality Street at Christmas! The main reason for this being a fault in one of the transparent parts, of which more later...
Revell’s kit is a re-boxing of the Trimaster/Dragon kit, minus rocket engine and etch. There are 4 plastic sprues moulded in grey plastic and one clear sprue, it also comes with a boarding ladder and pilot figure. The detail is crisp and panel lines are recessed with a nice array of parts within the cockpit to build a passable Komet straight out of the box. However, as the cockpit is large and very visible, I decided to use the Aires detail set, with resin, photo-etched parts, copper wire, a film for the instrument panel, allowing detailing of the cockpit, gun bays and ammunition compartment. The Aires set did exactly what it says on the tin and fit into the base kit with very little fettling of the resin, the only work needed was to modify/cut away those areas of the injection moulding it was replacing.
As is the case with quite a few kits of Trimaster/Dragon origin there are some fit problems, but judicious use of Green Stuff and sanding sticks saw most of these sorted. The wings were rather bent which sadly, the good old “hot water” treatment failed to fully correct. They are also rather twisted. Now, this twist is intended to be there BUT, the wings were twisted equally! I decided to ignore this as I was a little worried that the wings may collapse if I tried to rectify.
By and large, the kit went together pretty quickly. However, things went pear shaped when it came to fitting the clear part immediately behind the cockpit.  This part had become detached from the sprue and the damage was clearly visible in the area of one of the small side windows. No amount of polishing was going to cure this, so a replacement part was sought. Revell may make some excellent kits but I found their after sales service left a lot to be desired. To cut a long story short when I eventually did contact them, they wanted to charge me £8 to replace a part which they had damaged during packing!
By now my interest in the project had waned, although I continued to have the occasional dabble at using the original part as a master to plunge mold a new one. Sadly I could never get it right, so I eventually put it away and tried to forget about it until eventually I decided to have another go. The master was tweaked a little; some Thermoform heated under the grill and with some carful trimming, the resulting part fitted (more or less) perfectly!
Masking, priming and painting followed; I had decided on the “White 18” of 2/JG 400 decal option so the fuselage and wing undersides were given a coat of Xtracryilx RLM 76. This was followed by a tight mottle of Xtracolor RLM 75 on the upper fuselage, also around the nose and canopy frame. I have never managed to find a photo of this particular aircraft, but have seen pictures of “White 14” from the same unit and reasoned that this would probably have looked pretty much the same. The finished mottle looked really good, even though I do say so myself!
Feeling confident, I masked off for painting the upper wing surface. Disaster struck again! My airbrush threw the most almighty wobbly and spat out great gobs of paint; the result looked awful... The airbrush was carefully dismantled and cleaned and tests showed it to be working normally. So I stripped the paint from the wings and tried again. The Xtracryilx RLM 83 went on fine and when it was dry; I masked it with Blu-Tack and blew some RLM 81 at it. Again the airbrush produced a mess! More cleaning and testing followed, all failed to cure the problem and again the project was quietly put away.
My work then got in the way and virtually all modelling activities were put aside for two years. But, during this time I had purchased an ultrasonic cleaner and this, in conjunction with cellulose thinners, sorted the airbrush – highly recommended! It wasn’t until November of 2009 that I got my free time back again and as time was running out for the clubs “Hunter” competition, I searched my shelves for something ‘finishable’ to enter. Out again came the Komet. The upper wing surfaces were stripped and this time the paint was applied without incident. Decals were added – my favourite bit – followed by a coat of matt varnish. The panel lines and control surface hinge lines were picked out with burnt umber and black watercolours respectively and the gun smoke staining was added with black pastel dust. This was followed by another coat of matt varnish to blend everything together. Finally, the skid, dolly, tail wheel and various other sticky-out bits were added.
Next the base, simply a circular piece of plastic card scribed and painted to represent concrete hard standing, was glued (offset because I thought it looked nice) to a circular wooden base which is just an upside-down bread board from Wilco’s. The aircraft was positioned and attached with superglue. A plaque with some basic information and 2/JG 400’s insignia was designed on the PC, printed out on photo paper, cut out and then glued down and the figure and ladder added last.
It had been my original intent to display the Komet being fed with ammunition by an armourer. However, as I never found a suitable figure, this was changed to a “black man” holding a toolbox, simply gazing at the aircraft apparently pondering his day’s work. The figure was deliberately placed facing away from the intended viewing position as I am crap at figure painting!