1/32 Meng Me163B

Gallery Article by Klaasjan Schuuring on Mar 30 2018

 

      

One of Germany's most advanced aircraft and the only operational rocket powered fighter was of course the Me163 Komet. The little aircraft managed to pass the 1000 km/h mark but on the whole the machine was perhaps technologically too advanced for its time and hardly managed to make a dent in the allies onslaught of Germany during the last year of the second world war. Called the flying egg by some of it's pilots it was anything but cute. The engine was fuelled by a two component chemical concoction consisting of T stof (hydrogen peroxide) and C stof (hydrazine) which on contact with each other ignited spontaneously. This, of course, was very dangerous and the pilot being seated between two T stof tanks must have made some of them at least slightly uneasy at times. Especially when bullets were flying all around. 

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Meng managed to produce a very good representation of the Me163 that surpasses the old Hasegawa kit by miles. Detail is overwhelming and accurate as far as I have been able to check. A few issues are worth mentioning though. Fit, isn't always that good. The wings were a real challenge to attach to the fuselage and filler was needed to make it all look good. Another oddity was that a nice photo etched instrument panel is provided and decals for each of the instruments as well, however, the decals of the instruments have a white back ground and black indicators which is completely wrong. Is looks like a typical human mistake and I hope they will correct it in future editions. 

I have read complaints about the interior, including the entire rocket engine and fuel tanks are provided but virtually completely hidden by the rest of the kit. I however think it's cool that all that detail is already provided and all kinds of interesting dioramas could be made with a kit that includes all the necessary detail to do that. I built the engine complete just out of curiosity and it looks perfect.

I painted the Komet with Vallejo and Revell colours. I decided to add a lot of chipping giving the aircraft a used look in an airforce lacking resources. I don't know if that was really what happened back then but I think it looks kinda cool. Just a few oil and fuel streaks were added as well as some powder stains around the guns. I like the kit. 

Klaasjan Schuuring

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Photos and text © by Klaasjan Schuuring