Messerschmitt Me 163 S, Academy 1/72

[MichelC]

I don't get the entire Mars/NASA business. 

Philp, this is PhotoBucket acting up again. The 'look who's popular' tag is their way of saying: 'lots of people looking at you pics, cough up pal, if you want it to continue.' This time I exceeded my monthly bandwidth limit after only 2 weeks, although it didn't seem to me that I'd posted more pics. Anyway, to get rid of the problem for good I switched to ImageShack, who hasn't got a bandwidth limit. I find it less user friendly but that's a fair price to pay for not having one's pics disappearing every fortnight. If you want to send the link to your friend, the pics will be back up after the 14th of July and should stay visible from then on.

Cheers!

M

[martinbayer]

I don't get the entire Mars/NASA business. 

Michel,

the background story alluded to is here: http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/1999/09/31631

Martin

[philp]

I don't get the entire Mars/NASA business. 

Philp, this is PhotoBucket acting up again. The 'look who's popular' tag is their way of saying: 'lots of people looking at you pics, cough up pal, if you want it to continue.' This time I exceeded my monthly bandwidth limit after only 2 weeks, although it didn't seem to me that I'd posted more pics. Anyway, to get rid of the problem for good I switched to ImageShack, who hasn't got a bandwidth limit. I find it less user friendly but that's a fair price to pay for not having one's pics disappearing every fortnight. If you want to send the link to your friend, the pics will be back up after the 14th of July and should stay visible from then on.

Cheers!

M

I have never been a fan of Photobucket myself.  I have been using Picasaweb which is also shows under Google + since I signed up for that.

[MichelC]

I don't get the entire Mars/NASA business. 

Philp, this is PhotoBucket acting up again. The 'look who's popular' tag is their way of saying: 'lots of people looking at you pics, cough up pal, if you want it to continue.' This time I exceeded my monthly bandwidth limit after only 2 weeks, although it didn't seem to me that I'd posted more pics. Anyway, to get rid of the problem for good I switched to ImageShack, who hasn't got a bandwidth limit. I find it less user friendly but that's a fair price to pay for not having one's pics disappearing every fortnight. If you want to send the link to your friend, the pics will be back up after the 14th of July and should stay visible from then on.

Cheers!

M

I have never been a fan of Photobucket myself.  I have been using Picasaweb which is also shows under Google + since I signed up for that.

Thanks for enlightening me, Martin. And please remind me when the time comes, not to book my flight to Mars with NASA. LOL

M

[MichelC]

I don't get the entire Mars/NASA business. 

Philp, this is PhotoBucket acting up again. The 'look who's popular' tag is their way of saying: 'lots of people looking at you pics, cough up pal, if you want it to continue.' This time I exceeded my monthly bandwidth limit after only 2 weeks, although it didn't seem to me that I'd posted more pics. Anyway, to get rid of the problem for good I switched to ImageShack, who hasn't got a bandwidth limit. I find it less user friendly but that's a fair price to pay for not having one's pics disappearing every fortnight. If you want to send the link to your friend, the pics will be back up after the 14th of July and should stay visible from then on.

Cheers!

M

I have never been a fan of Photobucket myself.  I have been using Picasaweb which is also shows under Google + since I signed up for that.

Thanks Phil, I think I'll try that one out. 

M

[MichelC]

Hi there,

I used Eduard masks for the clear parts. Pretty cool stuff.





Once done with the outside I re-used them on the inside by switching sides: left mask goes on the right and vice versa. Painting the inside of the frame is a must as with the canopy posed in the open position the inside will be clearly visible.



The handles (Eduard PE) were glued in place with Gunze flat clear, which leaves no unsightly shiny residues. It leaves no trace at all and its adhesive power is more than sufficient for small parts.





It was a mistake to attach the fixed canopy part so late in the build. It should have been put in place before painting the airframe as there is a step at the fuse/canopy joint, which needs to be taken care of. 



I had to scrape with a #11 blade, mask off the area, repaint, which at this stage wasn't very exciting.  Anyway, it's done now.





All that's left to do is this armored glass. Tricky, this...

Cheers!

M

[Ian the Kiwi Herder]

Still breathtaking !!

Ian

[Daryl J.]

I try remind myself this is a 1/72 kit but my eyes keep saying it's an expertly crafted 1/48 or 1/32 model.   

It's flat out brilliant.
Daryl J.

[MichelC]

Thans guys! 

I hope I'll be able to post the end of this build this week. 

M

[MichelC]

Finished! 

Before the final pics, here are some shots of the last detailing and assembly work.

If the real armored glass was tough so was its modeling counterpart! In a different meaning of the word, tough. Eduard made it out of two pieces of acetate and PE stuff (the kit part is unusable). It took all of my modeling skills, my countless past lives of zen training and frequent breaks to get the better of it. 



Part of the process consisted of carefully placing one of the bits of acetate where I wouldn't find it again, which gave me the pleasant opportunity to make one from scratch. 



Landing gear:















IFF antenna:



Landing flaps position indicators:



Final pics coming soon.

M

[PR19_Kit]

My brain hurts........

When you post the final pics, could you include one with your finger in it as well please Michel? That'll be just to prove how small the model is, or how small your FINGERS are! 

[MichelC]

Kit, I much prefer giving a hand to people rather than the finger so here:



This was a rather long build but I quite enjoyed it. Thanks to all who followed me through this adventure. Your at times funny but always kind and encouraging comments mean something to me.  



















Uploaded with ImageShack.us







Cheers!

M

[PR19_Kit]

That is just AMAZING!  

If there's a category in the Whiffies for 'Best RW Model' this HAS to be in there, and anyone else even thinking of entering will be wasting their time.

[crudebuteffective]

I am lost for words

in the medieval times you would have been burnt at the stake for witchcraft for scale work such as this

[NARSES2]

This is pure magic - unbelievable work