Hasegawa Messerschmitt ME-163B Komet

[Leaning_Dog]

Let's give this one a go - the box says "Copyright 1987" so it's been around a while. Not a lot of parts, so I've got a chance of finishing this one. Building strictly what comes in the box - no resin, no etch. 

 

 

For a kit that was first issued 33 years ago, the plastic looks pretty nice. Sure, there's a bit of flash here and there, but nothing a quick swipe with a sanding stick or knife won't cure.

 

 

 

 

Still enjoy seeing the company name cast into the inside of one of the wings - seems to be common on all Hasegawa kits from this period. 

 

 

And this boxing includes a lovely color profile sheet, as well as a nice looking sheet of decals - which I fully intend to use.

 

 

 

That's all for now. Thanks for looking.

 

Cheers!

John.

[MikeC]

1987? I built that one in the 1970s.  I look forward to seeing if it's as good as I remember.   Enjoy.

[LSP_Kevin]

Yeah, this kit has been around a lot longer than 1987. It's a contemporary of Hasegawa's Bf 109E and Me 262 kits, all of which came out some time in the '70s.

 

Kev

[Leaning_Dog]

Hi Guys - thanks for the heads up on the age of this kit. A quick look at the Scalemates site (Hasegawa 1/32 ME-163B) shows that the kit was first released way back in 1973! Hard to believe that was 47 years ago - but no worries. I'm looking forward to a fun build.   

 

Cheers!

John.

[BradG]

It's still a decent little kit.

[Dpgsbody55]

I remember building that kit decades ago.  It was a pretty good kit, so I'll be interested to follow your progress.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[jenshb]

When I was studying in Glasgow in the late 80s and early 90s, David Gill from the local IPMS Club took home the Best in Show at the UK IPMS Nationals with a very detailed and modified Komet from this kit.

[Gazzas]

This kit is on my want list.  I've heard the Meng kit is made for Panels open and woe betide any modeller who wants them closed.

[Leaning_Dog]

2 hours ago, Gazzas said:

This kit is on my want list.  I've heard the Meng kit is made for Panels open and woe betide any modeller who wants them closed.

 

Sprue Brothers has this kit in stock right now (December 19th) for $17.99.....  That's a whole lot of modeling fun for not a whole lot of money. 

Although, shipping to Australia might be more than the cost of the kit! 

 

Currently wrapping up another project, and hope to make a start on this one soon.

 

Cheers!

John.

[Gazzas]

21 minutes ago, Leaning_Dog said:

 

Sprue Brothers has this kit in stock right now (December 19th) for $17.99.....  That's a whole lot of modeling fun for not a whole lot of money. 

Although, shipping to Australia might be more than the cost of the kit! 

 

Currently wrapping up another project, and hope to make a start on this one soon.

 

Cheers!

John.

Thanks for the info.  Yep...  shipping to Australia is killer. 

[Leaning_Dog]

Alright – let’s get started! 

 

 

Construction begins with the cockpit nicely detailed rocket motor. I was overly optimistic about the flash – once I started clipping and fitting bits, flash became apparent on every single part. Granted, considering the age of the tooling, and the number of re-issues over the years, this is to be expected, and is by no means a deal breaker.

 

 

 

The silver paint is Rustoleum 2X straight from the rattle can – and I have to say it works really well. I stumbled across a model car guy on YouTube that paints almost exclusively with Rustoleum rattle cans and gets fantastic results. The price is right, they are easy to find, and you get a lot of paint. A quick wash with Tamiya black “Panel Line Accent“ and it definitely passes the ‘3-foot’ test. The black bits were sprayed with Tamiya Semi-Gloss Black from the rattle can. The steam generator was brush painted with Tamiya Metallic Grey and given a quick black wash as well.

 

 

 

 

 

I initially planned to build the model all closed up, but after seeing how nice the rocket motor looks, I may have a re-think. While it looks good enough for me at this point (might still need just a little dry brushing here and there), there is ample documentation online and should one wish to take a little more time, it could be made into a very nice model all on its own.

 

Next up is the cockpit and landing skid assembly.  Thanks for watching.

 

Cheers!

 

John.

[Lee White]

Loved building that kit as a kid, but I hated that wing halves seam runs right down the middle of the fabric elevons. Removing the seam and preserving the texture seemed like mutually exclusive alternatives to me back then.

[Gazzas]

M0tor looks nice!

[Peter]

Cool! I am building the recently released Meng models Me-163B. It will be neat to see how they compare.

[Leaning_Dog]

Time for an update - the further into this build I get, the more flash and mold seams I find... considering the advanced age of this kit, I really can't complain. Since sanding and scraping flash and seams ranks near the bottom of my list of favorite modeling tasks, and literally every piece of this kit needs some level of clean up, I decided to prep as many parts as possible up front, dry-fitting everything now so assembly down the road might go more smoothly.. we'll see how that works out.  

 

A little online research turned up quite a few historic photos showing the aircraft with the landing skid both extended and retracted, both with and without the wheeled dolly attached. I guess no hard, fast rule on that one - so going with extended and dolly attached. Again, based on some online research, the tail wheel 'retracted' in flight, but was in the 'extended' position on the ground. The kit provides two versions of the tail wheel - one with, and one without the fairing. Haven't decided which one I will use - probably the one that cleans up the easiest.

 

I'm a little concerned about the strength of the tiny bits that hold the landing skid to the fuselage - the contact points seem quite fragile.

 

 

The scraping, sanding, assembling, then scraping and sanding some more to get the wheels sorted occupied one entire modeling session... I'm pretty happy with how they look now.   

 

 

Dry fitting the skid revealed that the top of the 'brackets' were too wide and prevented the fuselage from being closed - a few swipes with the sanding stick and we're good to go when the time comes.

 

 

Untouched tail wheel piece in all it's glory.  

 

 

The instrument panel is classic plastic - can't wait to see how it buffs up with some paint, dry brushing and a wash.  

 

 

Fitting up the top and bottom wing halves is the last big thing left, and with the join seam running through the middle of the control surfaces on the underside it's proving challenging. I'll have pics of that in the next update. Hope to start painting soon - and based on a quick internet search, there doesn't seem to be any evidence of standardized camouflage on these planes - so unless there's a clear photograph of the specific aircraft being modeled, what looks 'right' will work just fine. 

 

Thanks for watching!

 

Cheers!

John.