Messerschmitt Me 163 S, Academy 1/72

[NARSES2]

Whoaaaaaa 

[scooter]

::headsplode::

[PR19_Kit]

It's 1/72 scale guys, 1/72 scale!

I'll bet that hydraulic jack has correct High Pressure and Low Pressure seals too, as well as a scraper ring right at the piston end! <sigh>

[Daryl J.]

.....and this is to be spurious?!??.......

[MichelC]

Thanks for your comments and hello everyone!

Hope you've had a nice Xmas. Full marks for those who put in some modeling time yesterday! 

Me, I painted the landing skid gear, starting with Mr. Surfacer 1200 to integrate plastic and metal.

As I'd expected, the primer revealed a few flubs that'll need fixing on the skid an operation arms. But never mind this, it can wait. Right now I want to close up the fuse so I concentrated on the skid well, which was fine as it was. So I sprayed some Gunze RLM 02, followed by the usual steps: post-shading, detail painting, dry-brush and wash. I still have to apply matt clear but otherwise that's a done.

For the detail painting (cables), instead of my usual Vallejos, which are acrylics, I used Humbrols because they're enamel. The reason for this is that access being difficult I was expecting some 'slips of the brush' and those can be easily corrected with enamel solvent as it is harmless to the acrylic under-coat. (The trick served well!)









For those who might be wondering how the inside of those holes was painted, that's easy. Dip the paintbrush into highly thinned paint, almost like a wash, and just touch the inside of the hole and let the paint flow. It will flood the hole on its own accord.

Painting really makes the Eduard PE details pop!

With pit and skid done it should be downhill from here!

Next step: compare the fuse and wings to plans and photos to rectify errors and omissions. Stay tuned.

Michel

[PR19_Kit]

With pit and skid done it should be downhill from here!

Downhill? DOWNHILL he says! The whole model would sit in the palm of my hand, for goodness sake!

[Ian the Kiwi Herder]

Downhill? DOWNHILL he says! The whole model would sit in the palm of my hand, for goodness sake!

Kit, I believe we're in the presence of genius, wouldn't you say ??

Ian

[Rheged]

Downhill? DOWNHILL he says! The whole model would sit in the palm of my hand, for goodness sake!

Kit, I believe we're in the presence of genius, wouldn't you say ??

Ian

I would certainly agree with you,  Ian!

[PR19_Kit]

Downhill? DOWNHILL he says! The whole model would sit in the palm of my hand, for goodness sake!

Kit, I believe we're in the presence of genius, wouldn't you say ??

Ian

NO contest there Ian! 

[Gondor]

I wonder who his optician is?

Gondor

[scooter]

Agreed, on all counts.  Unless he's actual the "Last Son of Krypton" and using his super vision when he does the work

[MichelC]

Sorry for not answering your comms earlier. Thanks a lot guys for your enthusiastic response! 

And here is the latest update.

Before assembly I decided to have a look at the panel lines and compare them to drawings and photos of the real aircraft. I thought (stupid me) that, given the quality of the kit, I'd have to rescribe one line here, one there and that'd be it. Instead I wound up with this: 



And this:



I should have done this step before doing any work on the pit. My mistake. But it's done now and fortunately nothing broke.

Not to get entirely lost I used the above pics to check off items as work progressed.



It added up to: 9 inspection panels added, 2 removed, 14 panel lines added, 1 removed, 17 rivet lines added, 2 removed. And that's only the fuse, no wings, no tail.

I'll spare you the scribing job details. One trick worth mentioning though: there was a missing panel line at the very tip of the nose, where the curve is such that none of my Tri-Tool scribing templates was of any use. Hmm... Time of get inventive. So I used this:



I used it to punch a hole into a piece of Dymo tape, which made a perfect scribing guide.







Neat, eh?

Besides re-scribing I also made the following improvements to the fuse:

Modification of the towing cable attachment point, whose shape is incorrect on the kit.



I inserted a piece of tubing to give it a round shape and plugged the gaps with piece of stretched sprue.



This was rounded off with the Eduard PE part. 



The small air scoop under the nose was scratched with a piece of aluminum from a soda can.



Giving it the right shape took some trial and error.



A hole was drilled under the scoop before attaching it.



The part was glued with CA and Mr. Surfacer 500 was used to blend it in.





The guns' ejections ports were drilled out as they lacked depth.





There is a small bump on the nose, just ahead of the canopy, that can be seen on many pics of the real a/c. I replicated this with a blob of CA.



The fasterners on one of the inspection hatches are proud of the surface. I made those with pieces of foil.



The next step is more of the same: modification of the wings. It's already in progress and I hope I'll get back to you for my next update sooner this time.



Michel

[PR19_Kit]

Heavens above, what scale are your fingers? 

They look about 10:1.........

[NARSES2]

Heavens above, what scale are your fingers?  

They look about 10:1.........

Beat me to it Kit - amazing work

[MichelC]

This is how I do it, guys: I use my ten-year old nephew's hands to build the model and my bodybuilder friend's fingers for the pics.

Ain't that clever?

Just don't tell anyone, OK?