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Ben Walmsley
11 articles

GasPatch 1/48 Komet

December 26, 2022 · in Aviation · · 19 · 0.8K

Here is my Me-163, finished at last. I started this kit over 18 months ago, but life got a bit hectic. I used my Christmas break to get it finished.

The kit is great. It's very nicely detailed, especially the cockpit, and the fit is excellent though a bit fiddly in places. I had initially intended to have the gun bays and ammo chutes open but I found that while guns were nice, the ammo belts just looked “toyish”, so I buttoned it all up. In the end I'm glad I did.

I used Mr Color paints, then a pin wash and a bit of light weathering with pigments on the underside. I wanted it to look like it had made a few flights but none of these aircraft were around long enough to get too dirty so I kept it to a minimum. I used oils on the topside of the wings to subtly give some tonal variation just to soften the blocks of solid colour a little.

Markings and serial number are fictitious but hopefully plausible. The model represents an aircraft from JG 400. The paint scheme is a bit of licence and is an amalgamation of several different references. It looks pretty close to what I was imagining before I started so I'm happy with it.

Hope you're all enjoying the holidays and thanks for checking it out.

Reader reactions:
17  Awesome

9 additional images. Click to enlarge.


19 responses

  1. Very nice. Good that you caught that the fuselage "dapple" was RLM76 oversprayed OVER the upper camo. Good catch!

  2. Thanks Tom. That is what appeals to me about those schemes. The effect looks better than if it was done the other way around.

  3. @popeofchillitown
    Looks really good from here. I have two of the ancient Testors / Hawk kits and they are no where near as nice as yours is. Well done. The pilot's "office" looks nice and busy too. I definitely hit the "Like" button.

  4. Congratulations Ben! A fine looking Comet!

  5. Very nice looking Komet, Ben @popeofchillitown
    The interior is indeed nicely detailed and beautifully painted.
    A well spent Christmas break.

  6. You must be pleased to have finished this, Ben, it was definitely worth the wait.

  7. Nice Komet, the paint job works for me!

  8. never realized that about the 76 being applied over the fuselage for that particular mottle effect. It sure matches the photos of a lot of these Komets - great job. I had wondered why some of the mottle effect looked quite different, and this clears up that question for me! Very nice work on the kit and thank you for solving that conundrum in my head! I have been contemplating adding one of these to the stash for a while now. you tipped the scales for me!

  9. Wonderful "power egg"! That turned out so well Ben @popeofchillitown! 🍻

  10. Fantastic little rocket! Well done.

  11. Great job! And like others have said, fantastic camo. I'm always interested in seeing Me163's.

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