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1/32 Meng Me163B - Mojo Reclamation Project


Thunnus

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On 9/4/2021 at 2:32 PM, scvrobeson said:

Looks great John. Is that just primer around the gun bay doors, or did it need a lot of putty?

 

 

 

Matt

Thanks Matt!  The gun bay doors were a tight fit and I was a bit overzealous in pushing them into place, causing a lip along that outboard edge.  So I built that area up with a little putty. 

 

 

On 9/4/2021 at 2:52 PM, Flight Line Media said:

Nice! This was incredible engineering for the 1940s. I love the Komet. Someone on our team is building one right now actually, but 1/48 from Gas Patch. But yeah, killer interior man! 

Thank you! The Gas Patch kit looks VERY nice!

 

 

 

12 hours ago, Troy Molitor said:

I really need to pick up one of these kits.   Looking good as always.   

I've been pleasantly surprised by this kit in terms of details and fit.  Reminds me a bit of the Z-M approach of adding interior details but I've had a much easier go of things fitting together than my experience with the Z-M Ta-152H build.

 

 

 

10 hours ago, Beaconroot said:

Nice work as always John. Glad you're feeling like some bench time. Always enjoy your updates.

Jim Root

Thanks for stopping by, Jim!

 

 

 

8 hours ago, Out2gtcha said:

Looks great!

I too have the Meng kit and was astounded to find how many parts just the fusalage alone came in. 

I needed a bit of both primer and filler in the wing root area on my example.

 

 

 

Thanks Brian!  I was ALMOST going to go down the same route as you with the Anhanger/Schlepper but I couldn't find an economically-viable way of purchasing those Profimodeler extras.  Following your build, I was glad that I didn't... it looked very fiddly and that would be bad for a mojo-reclamation project like this! :)

 

Looking at the resin wheels from DEF Models, I noticed that the wheel axles are a magnitude thicker than the holes in the wheels.  I've had bad experiences trying to enlarge existing holes so I thought I'd go a different route this time.
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I cut off the thick axles and replaced them with smaller diameter sections of brass tubing.
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The tail wheel was similarly modified.  The mounting pins molded into each side of the tail strut were cut off and a hole drilled through to accept a new axle made of brass tube.  This will allow me to paint the strut and wheel separately.
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Moving onto the wing/fuselage halves... I've decided to glue in the flaps, which come as part of the kit-supplied brass fret.
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As I've mentioned before, this model is going to be built closed up with no open panels.  The kit is designed to have a removable tail section to show off the rocket motor and the kit's construction order is dictated by that feature.  However, my deviation gives me flexibility in how I order the build.  I've already elected to glue the wings into the fuselage halves to ensure the best possible fit.  To this end, I've decided to go ahead and glue in the rear fuselage halves as well.  The ability to apply finger pressure from both the outside and inside makes getting a nice tight fit much easier.
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A plastic tab and a short piece of stretched sprue are fused into place on the interior side to strengthen the bond.  I'm going to let this fully dry before I attempt to glue the joints on the upper side.
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Without glue, you can see the resultant gaps on the upper side.  These can be easily closed with light finger pressure.
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Same deal with the other side.
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Thanks guys!  Yellow 2 has a DF loop antenna on the fuselage spine as shown in the photo...
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So I fashioned a base out of a spare plastic part and a loop out of a thin strip cut from an aluminum soda can.  Seeing how nicely these three panels fit together, I am tempted to glue them together now and mount them as one piece later!
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After the rear fuselage halves were attached, I addressed all of the joints using White Milliput. Milliput is great for finishing long glue seams.  Prior to curing it is water-soluble so you can use water to smooth and sculpt the stuff.  I used a damp cloth gently run along the seam to remove all the excess and leaving a thin bead of Milliput in the joint.  
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I am going to spend some time cleaning up the joints further, especially the vertical seam between the forward and rear fuselage.

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A bit more work on the Komet... instead of the kit-supplied gunsight or the one included in the Aires resin cockpit, I chose to use a Quickboost Revi-16 gunsight. The optical glass is cut from a sheet of clear packaging with the edges of the front element painted in transparent blue/green.
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The mounting base from the clear kit part was grafted onto the bottom of the resin gunsight.  There are visible stress marks on the transparent armored glass... I have an extra transparent sprue courtesy of Meng customer service so I'll probably utilize it to fix this issue.
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I've decided to glue in the side windows at this point and then mask them off for painting.  I REALLY don't like Meng's choice to mold the windows and canopy WITHOUT the surrounding frame.  It makes for a tricky and most likely noticeable glue joint.
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And as previously mentioned, the three-part set of panels along the top spine were glued together instead of trying to glue them in separately later.
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Hopefully this strategy will net a neater result but it's hard to stay at this dry-fitting stage.
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