Me-163 Komet
Built back around 1989, (ex-Hawk kit, first produced in 1960 I believe) my Testors version was issued in 1982. The aircraft is the well-known rocket-powered interceptor, the Me163 Komet, in 1/48 scale. This kit had only about 25 pieces and the instruction sheet had good four-view drawings for four different color schemes and some actually pretty good decaling and weathering tips. I chose the simplest of the four: Me-163B-O V-41, Eprobungskommando 16, Bad Zwischenahn, May 1944. (flown on first operational Komet mission according to the instruction's notes) I believe I've read that the all-red paintwork was done as a tribute to the World War One ace, the "Red Baron", Manfred von Richthofen.
The only addition I made to the kit was adding the two cannon barrels. Other than that, it was straight OOB. I remember building this in the winter of 1989-90 at the kitchen table of my grandmother's house where we lived while our house was being finished, and she was living in a nursing home.
I added a poorly painted ground crewman (never thought he would see the light of day...), from the Monogram Me-262 kit to add a sense of the true size of the little โpower eggโ; a plane that seemed as dangerous to its pilots as it was to the enemy. I knew a former WWII top-turret gunner in a B-17, here in our hometown. I once asked him if he had seen any of the German jets or rocket planes. He said he had, but they were so fast, he was never sure if he had hit any!
The wind played hob with the Komet at the airport. It wobbles on its take-off dolly anyway and the breeze kept it moving up and down. I expect some pics might be a bit blurry. I really expected her to actually take flight at any minute ๐ . That photo session was cut pretty short and I only got a few pics but that's okay. The model isn't really worth too many pics at best and I had one more plane to photograph. ? So, with no further ado, here's my Komet at the Cameron Airport.
Thatโs looks very nice in its red scheme. Great job on a old, simple kit !
Looking great, Gary!
You did great on this Komet, Gary.
The red looks beautiful and equaly applied.
Thank you so much gentlemen! I'm happy that you liked this old model. It was a crude kit, crudely constructed, in equally crude circumstances at the time...but I like having her in the cabinet now! Thanks again guys! ๐
Hard to tell its the old Testors kit.
Another great blast from the past, nice work!
Thank you both, Haslam and Robert! Your kind words mean a lot to me! ๐
Looks great!
Thank you Michel!
Nicely done! Second Red Baron in 2 weeks - must be something in the water...
Thanks for the comments Greg! It could be the spring in the air! ๐
Nicely done. Here is mine that I built last winter. Same old kit. A friend gave it to me at an IPMS modeling meet several years ago. I wanted a quick build to "cleanse" my palate after some complex subjects.
1 attached image. Click to enlarge.
Thank you Tom! Yours looks good as well; very similar they are too. That's another for the Red Baron-good things come in threes too! ๐