yes this is a what-if, Me 163S FINISHED

[dumaniac]

Matrixone

lovely as always

I have a 48 scale CMK conversion for the 163S - but so many kits - so little time

tell me - the 2 main colours topside - the non-green one - is that RLM 81 ? if so, who is the manufacturer please ?

thanks for the pics

Dumaniac

[RussC]

........ an "Me-163S" with the long, typically high aspect-ratio wings of "civilian" gliders--maybe add a bit of tail for stability. That would be a nice ride!

Now you're talking my language..... 

  To get there, the whif-history books could be dialed into having both Willy Messerschmidt, Lippisch and the Horten brothers all putting aside their dreams of individual designing glory and putting their heads together for the Fatherland and starting in 42' with some serious collab designs with those features. A kind of alter luft 2.0...

[matrixone]

Dumaniac,
Thanks for the comment. The topside colors on the Me 163S are RLM 82 green and RLM 81 brownviolet, the RLM 82 was from Xtracolor enamel RLM 82 straight from the tin, the RLM 81 brownviolet was a custom mix from Model Master II enamels, colors used for this mix were Olive Drab and dark brown. The Model Master line of Luftwaffe colors are pretty far off the mark in some cases and am used to mixing my own paint colors to better match my color chips.
BTW, the Luftwaffe color RLM 81 had variations that could range from dark choclate brown to shades that looked almost like U.S. Army olive drab. Much depends on how thin the paint was applied to the surface of the aircraft.

Russ,
A what-if idea I have for a rocket fighter is to have the basic fuselage from the Ju 248/Me 263 married to the high aspect ratio wings some like was seen on some of the Horton gliders. This aircraft would use the rocket motor for take-off to high altitude and then would switch off the rocket and use strong thermals to maintain altitude until the bombers came into range, after the attack on the bombers the aircraft could return to base or relight the rocket motor and find other thermals to continue the mission. Such an aircraft could have a very long range and not use very much of the expensive rocket fuel...a true economy fighter for the Reichs acute fuel shortage.

Matrixone

[dumaniac]

Matrixone

thanks for the RLM 81 advice - I see one web site suggesting 30% drab brown and 70% green.  It sure is a darned nice colour.

cheers

Bernie

[matrixone]

Bernie,
I find it interesting how RLM 81 has so many different variations, known samples of this color from Me 262s and Do 335s are more of the rich choclate brown shade of paint while Bf 109Ks are a lighter shade. Weathering of the paint can't account for the variations because the aircraft were produced within weeks of each other and often did not survive long enough for the paint to fade very much.
RLM 81 was reported to be a very unstable shade of paint while the other late war paint color RLM 82 green was very consistent and even parts recently recovered from crash sites from the war are a good match with preserved samples of that color.

Matrixone

[Army of One]

Mr M.....another top notch paint/build followed by the usual great 'could be out of a book/real life '46' pictures.....H

[matrixone]

Much appreciated Army Of One!

My collection of models range from RW late war types to Luft'46, its hard to tell where the RW stops and the Luft'46 begins...

Matrixone

[dumaniac]

Guys

depends on the website - there seems to be 3 versions of RLM 81 - ranging from green to purple brown

anyway - for Luft 46 - well ........

Cheers

Dumaniac

[Weaver]

Nice one! 

Where on earth did they put the fuel though? 

[The Wooksta!]

They didn't, it was purely a glider.

[matrixone]

Thanks Weaver! 

Dumaniac,
Beware that a lot of websites and their claims about certain RLM colors are based on very dated information. If you can get Volume II of Jerry Crandall's ''The Focke-Wulf Fw 190 Dora'' there is a good description with relevant photographs of the late war colors in Chapter 9 and it is a great overview of the subject. Several RLM colors had variations to them and others tended to weather and oxidize quicker than others which made it very difficult for the researchers to determine which colors were which but the past few years new information has come to light that has helped to clear things up but it will take a long time for all the websites on the net to get updated.

The first six Me 163S trainers were gliders only and were converted from standard Me 163Bs but there were plans to equip the production Me 163S trainers with the rocket motor, fuel was be to drawn from the wing tanks which would only allow for a much shorter engine run but it was thought to be good enough for training purposes. The Me 163 program was winding down and the critical war situation prevented any production Me 163S from being built.



Matrixone

[Weaver]

The thing is though, the wing tanks were C-Stoff tanks and the fuselage tank was for T-Stoff, so you can't just run off the wing tanks. Now each wing tank was divided into a main and a leading edge tank, so theoretically the wings could have carried both kinds of fuel, but my impression was that the tanks were of different materials to suit their contents, so you couldn't just put T-Stoff in a C-Stoff tank. It would also need some serious re-plumbing.

[matrixone]

My understanding was that each wing half was to carry different fuel, since none of the Me 163S trainers were production aircraft its not possible to know how they were going to get the fuel to the engine. The small number of the Me 163S two seat trainers built (between 6 to 12) were converted Me 163B fighters and not from the proposed Me 163S production line.

Matrixone