Flashback 1/48 Messerschmitt Me 163A V1 Komet

[Randy Lutz]

Hi all

Here is my latest model.  As the title says, it is the Flashback kit.

I was yet again involved in a model building challenge, that was without a doubt agreed upon after an afternoon spent at a pub.  I think pubs are bad places to go.

Anyway, the topic of this challenge was to build something jet and or rocket powered.  So, originally I thought this would be a good opportunity to tackle my Dragon Ho 229, which I plan to build in a wood finish.  However, I was worried about trying new techniques with a deadline looming, given my propensity for screwing things up.

As a result, I looked to the Komet as my choice of kit.  I have tried on numerous occasions to sell this kit, but nobody seemed interested.  Perhaps they are all smarter than me.  I figured if I can't sell it, I had better build it.  Afterall, it does not look too bad in the box, so how much work could it be, and it only has a few parts.

 

Some of the parts display heavy flash and the sprue attachment points are quite thick, so extra care and time are needed during parts clean-up.  There are heavy ejector pin towers on the inner surfaces that may impinge on the mating of the upper and lower wing halves and interestingly enough, there are what resemble ejector pin marks on the outer surfaces of the wings and on the coves between wing and fuselage.

Almost all the panel lines needed to be rescribed as they were either too faint, ragged, or almost invisible and some were in the wrong place.  Let me rephrase that.  I assume they are in the wrong place, if the Arthur Bentley drawings as found in the Classic Publications book on the Komet are assumed to be correct.  

The two resin parts, which make up the cockpit tub and seat are nicely cast, without bubbles and only required the bare minimum of cleanup.  This kit was the first that I have ever built where I can say the resin cockpit fit as intended and didn't require trimming and adjustments.

All the extra details in the cockpit are found on the photo-etch sheet and go a long way to fleshing out the details.  I can't say if they are correct, as I have not been able to locate any cockpit photos of the A variant of the Komet.

The kit comes with a choice of three marking options, but truth be told, the kit as it comes can only be built correctly in the V1, KE+SW scheme, and only in an earlier iteration.  The kit does not provide leading edge slots, so only the very early version of V1 can be built without modification.  As I felt that adding slots was beyond my abilities, KE+SW would be my defacto choice. 

I cleaned up all the panel lines and filled in those that were in the wrong places.  Flashback indicated the drag flaps which were added early in the V1 test program, but according to the drawings, there were in the wrong place, so they were filled and new flaps scribed in place.  In the image below, you can see the new flaps and a hint of the filled in lines of the incorrect flaps.

 

I made new streamlined landing flap and aileron linkages from strip styrene, to replace the incorrect photo-etched linkages provided and while at it, I made the streamlined fairings for the trim tab linkages.

 

You will notice a small blemish where I mistakenly fastened one of the linkages in the wrong place and had to remove and reposition to the aileron.

Also missing from the kit were the fixed trim tabs on the ailerons, so these were added using .010 styrene trimmed to shape, as they do wrap around the end of the aileron a little.

I also made a new stremlined fairing for the rudder linkage to replace the photo-etched offering in the kit.

 

After all these small details, the basic construction went smoothly, until I fastened the rear of the fuselage to the front section.  The front is taller and wider than the rear portion which necessitated a lot of sanding and rescribing.

Flashback offers two styles of take-off dolly, but from what I could determine, neither was correct for KE+SW.  A new dolly was made from bits of plastic and hopefully is more accurate.  Hard to tell from the photos, but I know it is better than what is provided in the kit.  

 

Also, the kit provides two styles of wheels for the dolly, but neither are correct for KE+SW.  From the photos, it looked to use a wheel similar to the Bf 109E, so I grabbed a couple from a Tamiya 109E kit, which I had as leftovers.

The tail skid is a bit of an amorphous blob which I cleaned up, but found it still did not look right.  So I made a new skid from strip and rod. I made the strut section a little thicker than it should be, as I was worried about the strength if it were to scale.

 

The finished model represents the Me 163A V1 flown by Test Pilot Heini Dittmar, while at Peenemunde, Germany in the summer of 1941.

It was my intention to display the canopy in the open position, but Flashback does not offer this option in the kit, so I have made some small fake hinges to hold the canopy open.  I have never seen a photo of the 163A at rest with the canopy open, but it would be shame to hide the nice interior that comes with the kit.

Depending on which books you read, the Komet was either painted RLM 02, or RLM 76.  I opted for RLM 76, as that is what is suggested in the Classic Publication and the photos of he actual airframe suggest something lighter than RLM 02. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cheers
Randy
 

Edited February 16, 2018 by Randy Lutz
Insert images

[Bob Henry]

A super nice clean build ... and with all the extra work .... Thanks for sharing it with us.            Bob H.

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Thats a great looking 163 Komet 

[Randy Lutz]

1 hour ago, Bob Henry said:

A super nice clean build ... and with all the extra work .... Thanks for sharing it with us.            Bob H.

Thanks Bob.  

[Randy Lutz]

56 minutes ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Thats a great looking 163 Komet 

Thank you sir.

 

Cheers

Randy

[jeaton01]

Well done! 

[F-32]

Very cool indeed

[Randy Lutz]

8 hours ago, jeaton01 said:

Well done! 

Thanks much.

[Randy Lutz]

1 hour ago, F-32 said:

Very cool indeed

Thanks much.

[Pete in Lincs]

Very nice. I'm glad you couldn't sell it!

[Strangeways]

Your builds are always so technically perfect and superbly finished. Great result Randy.

[Randy Lutz]

1 hour ago, Pete in Lincs said:

Very nice. I'm glad you couldn't sell it!

Thanks Pete.  Actually, I am glad as well.

 

Cheers

Randy

[Randy Lutz]

1 hour ago, Strangeways said:

Your builds are always so technically perfect and superbly finished. Great result Randy.

Thanks Mike.  Very nice of you to say.

 

Cheers

Randy

[Freecloud]

On 16/02/2018 at 20:35, Randy Lutz said:

Hi all

Here is my latest model.  As the title says, it is the Flashback kit.

I was yet again involved in a model building challenge, that was without a doubt agreed upon after an afternoon spent at a pub.  I think pubs are bad places to go.

Anyway, the topic of this challenge was to build something jet and or rocket powered.  So, originally I thought this would be a good opportunity to tackle my Dragon Ho 229, which I plan to build in a wood finish.  However, I was worried about trying new techniques with a deadline looming, given my propensity for screwing things up.

As a result, I looked to the Komet as my choice of kit.  I have tried on numerous occasions to sell this kit, but nobody seemed interested.  Perhaps they are all smarter than me.  I figured if I can't sell it, I had better build it.  Afterall, it does not look too bad in the box, so how much work could it be, and it only has a few parts.

 

Some of the parts display heavy flash and the sprue attachment points are quite thick, so extra care and time are needed during parts clean-up.  There are heavy ejector pin towers on the inner surfaces that may impinge on the mating of the upper and lower wing halves and interestingly enough, there are what resemble ejector pin marks on the outer surfaces of the wings and on the coves between wing and fuselage.

Almost all the panel lines needed to be rescribed as they were either too faint, ragged, or almost invisible and some were in the wrong place.  Let me rephrase that.  I assume they are in the wrong place, if the Arthur Bentley drawings as found in the Classic Publications book on the Komet are assumed to be correct.  

The two resin parts, which make up the cockpit tub and seat are nicely cast, without bubbles and only required the bare minimum of cleanup.  This kit was the first that I have ever built where I can say the resin cockpit fit as intended and didn't require trimming and adjustments.

All the extra details in the cockpit are found on the photo-etch sheet and go a long way to fleshing out the details.  I can't say if they are correct, as I have not been able to locate any cockpit photos of the A variant of the Komet.

The kit comes with a choice of three marking options, but truth be told, the kit as it comes can only be built correctly in the V1, KE+SW scheme, and only in an earlier iteration.  The kit does not provide leading edge slots, so only the very early version of V1 can be built without modification.  As I felt that adding slots was beyond my abilities, KE+SW would be my defacto choice. 

I cleaned up all the panel lines and filled in those that were in the wrong places.  Flashback indicated the drag flaps which were added early in the V1 test program, but according to the drawings, there were in the wrong place, so they were filled and new flaps scribed in place.  In the image below, you can see the new flaps and a hint of the filled in lines of the incorrect flaps.

 

I made new streamlined landing flap and aileron linkages from strip styrene, to replace the incorrect photo-etched linkages provided and while at it, I made the streamlined fairings for the trim tab linkages.

 

You will notice a small blemish where I mistakenly fastened one of the linkages in the wrong place and had to remove and reposition to the aileron.

Also missing from the kit were the fixed trim tabs on the ailerons, so these were added using .010 styrene trimmed to shape, as they do wrap around the end of the aileron a little.

I also made a new stremlined fairing for the rudder linkage to replace the photo-etched offering in the kit.

 

After all these small details, the basic construction went smoothly, until I fastened the rear of the fuselage to the front section.  The front is taller and wider than the rear portion which necessitated a lot of sanding and rescribing.

Flashback offers two styles of take-off dolly, but from what I could determine, neither was correct for KE+SW.  A new dolly was made from bits of plastic and hopefully is more accurate.  Hard to tell from the photos, but I know it is better than what is provided in the kit.  

 

Also, the kit provides two styles of wheels for the dolly, but neither are correct for KE+SW.  From the photos, it looked to use a wheel similar to the Bf 109E, so I grabbed a couple from a Tamiya 109E kit, which I had as leftovers.

The tail skid is a bit of an amorphous blob which I cleaned up, but found it still did not look right.  So I made a new skid from strip and rod. I made the strut section a little thicker than it should be, as I was worried about the strength if it were to scale.

 

The finished model represents the Me 163A V1 flown by Test Pilot Heini Dittmar, while at Peenemunde, Germany in the summer of 1941.

It was my intention to display the canopy in the open position, but Flashback does not offer this option in the kit, so I have made some small fake hinges to hold the canopy open.  I have never seen a photo of the 163A at rest with the canopy open, but it would be shame to hide the nice interior that comes with the kit.

Depending on which books you read, the Komet was either painted RLM 02, or RLM 76.  I opted for RLM 76, as that is what is suggested in the Classic Publication and the photos of he actual airframe suggest something lighter than RLM 02. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cheers
Randy
 

Nice job you've done there my friend. I've been looking at the 'Flashback' version & considering buying it however, as a newb, I'm not sure if I should tackle it as it seems like there's work there which my so called skills may well not Br able to meet. But on the flip side, it has been said by some experienced modellers that 'TOTAL' accuracy doesn't matter, as long as the modeller enjoys the build. Not quite sure what to do here so I'll have to think very carefully before I decide. Newb's gotta start somewhere I suppose. Anyway, nice job mate, thanks for sharing. Best wishes to you.; -)

[Greg Law]

This wouldn't be an easy one for someone new to the hobby. This one may be small, but it appears to have some issues to over come. Also the PE can be difficult at first. You need an easier to put together kit to start with. I suggest  you get a Tamiya  kit to build first. They generally go together very easily and make a good introduction to the hobby. After that you will have the confidence and skill to tackle this one. Don't make it hard for yourself on the first build or you might simply give the hobby away.