Academy 1:72 Me-163B (French postwar glider)

[king of men]

Today's completion started out in disappointment and ended up in great satisfaction. And while it may look like a what-if, it is actually a real world example.

One day I was exercising my Google Fu concerning Me-163 Komets. The main thing I was looking for was photos of the captured RAF example that was repainted in British markings. What I actually ran across was a paint job that I had never seen on a Komet before. It was on a Rocketeer sheet, but I soon found out that the sheet was long out of print. Quite bummed, I decided to place a request on the 72nd Scale Aircraft boards to see if anyone had the sheet but had no plans to use it. Hopes were not high. But a gentleman with the screen name of Pyran was kind enough to let me know I could have his. He mailed it with no cost to me. Once again I have cause to be grateful to a member of that board. They are always willing to be helpful and rarely charge anything for the service (unless they are explicitly selling items).

The Academy Me-163B is a good, fairly simple kit. I used Alclad Aluminum and Xtracolour Insignia Red. The one trouble I had was with the Master turned brass pitot and gun barrel set. Since this was an unarmed glider, I didn't use the gun barrels and the pitot proved to be close enough to scale that it was literally impossible for my sausage fingers to get it out of the packaging without bending it slightly. I ended up using the kit pitot, but it is admirably thin itself.

This is completed aircraft #483 (16 aircraft, 3 ordnance, 14 vehicles for the year 2017), finished in December of 2017.

[zenrat]

Interesting.

[NARSES2]

Interesting.

Very 

[king of men]

Thanks, gents. And a Merry Christmas to you all!

[DogfighterZen]

 

[Dizzyfugu]

Neat. Does it still have the rocket engine in the tail?