Hobbyboss 1/72 Me163b Komet

[Elve1984]

I don’t know if i post this in the right sub forum as it technically is a rocket powerd glider instead of a Jet aircraft. If its not admins then please move it to the correct subforum.

During our new years gathering of my local IPMS department i ran into this kit. I tought it would be a nice kit to try out my new airbrush, It was cheap and had a low parts count so i tought i would have it togheter quickly and would be spraying quickly.

The kit has got a pretty good surface detail overal but lacks a bit of cockpit detail. I planned to use this mostly as a airbrush experiment. As the cockpit was really empty i desided to do a little bit of scratch building to add some more detail. I havent got a whole lot of scratchbuilding experiance so this was also a nice way to experiment on that part.

The boxart
IMG_4586-1024px-cp by Leon Vercruijsse, on Flickr

A peak inside the box
IMG_4587-1024px-cp by Leon Vercruijsse, on Flickr

The cockpit is pretty empty
IMG_4588-1024px-cp by Leon Vercruijsse, on Flickr

IMG_4589-1024px-cp by Leon Vercruijsse, on Flickr

Scratch builded a dashboard and side console’s
IMG_4590-1024px-cp by Leon Vercruijsse, on Flickr

Glued in place
IMG_4591-1024px-cp by Leon Vercruijsse, on Flickr

Added some lead wire detail
IMG_4604-1024px-cp by Leon Vercruijsse, on Flickr

IMG_4605-1024px-cp by Leon Vercruijsse, on Flickr

After a Ultimate black primer coat.
IMG_4607-1024px-cp by Leon Vercruijsse, on Flickr

Next up detail painting the cockpit and glueing everything in place.

[Fridgy]

Wow, for not much experience scratch building, you did a great job.
Looking forward to where this one leads

[SolventSolution]

Nice job so far. I don't even know where to start with scratch building...someday.

[Elve1984]

Thanks for the compliments everybody. To be honest i didn't had a clue where to start on the scratchbuilding part, so i started with looking at some pics and went with the idea's that came to my mind with this as the result.

In the mean while i got the cockpit painted up and gave it a little bit of a wash and flatcoat. The flatcoat isn’t completely dry yet on the pics.

IMG_4611-1024px-cp by Leon Vercruijsse, on Flickr

IMG_4612-1024px-cp by Leon Vercruijsse, on Flickr

IMG_4613-1024px-cp by Leon Vercruijsse, on Flickr

IMG_4614-1024px-cp by Leon Vercruijsse, on Flickr

After that I got everything glued togheter and masked the canopy.

IMG_4615-1024px-cp by Leon Vercruijsse, on Flickr

IMG_4616-1024px-cp by Leon Vercruijsse, on Flickr

And sprayed on some Ultimate Black Primer.

IMG_4617-1024px-cp by Leon Vercruijsse, on Flickr

IMG_4618-1024px-cp by Leon Vercruijsse, on Flickr

Now its time to get my new Airbrush out and apply some camo.

[Elve1984]

I got some paint work done. Its the first time i used my new airbrush, the H&S infinity with a 0.15 needle. It’s really amazing, the amount of control you have with this. I am really happy i bought it. I sprayed my ME163 with Mr Hobby Aqueous colors thinned with some Ultimate thinner.

The lower part of the aircraft is painted RLM76 Light Blue, i used Mr Hobby H417 for this.
IMG_4723_1024px-cp by Leon Vercruijsse, on Flickr

IMG_4724-1024px-cp by Leon Vercruijsse, on Flickr

The paint went down really well, its hard to see on the pics but the black base color gives some nice shading.

I masked the bottom half of the plane for the top paints.
IMG_4725-1024px-cp by Leon Vercruijsse, on Flickr

After this i sprayed the first top color RLM82 Light Green, i used Mr Hobby H422 for this.
IMG_4726-1024px-cp by Leon Vercruijsse, on Flickr

I masked the RLM82
IMG_4727-1024px-cp by Leon Vercruijsse, on Flickr

Then it was time for the second top color RLM81 Brown Violet, for this i used Mr Hobby H421.
IMG_4729-1024px-cp by Leon Vercruijsse, on Flickr

Time to remove all the masking and check out the end result.
IMG_4985-1024px-cp by Leon Vercruijsse, on Flickr]

IMG_4986-1024px-cp by Leon Vercruijsse, on Flickr

I am pretty happy with the result. Now its time to do some small detail painting with a brush and apply some gloss.

[Elve1984]

I got some more work done, first applied a coat of Alclad II clear gloss.
IMG_4988-1024px-cp by Leon Vercruijsse, on Flickr

After some drying time i applied the decals. But i forgot to take a pic of this. The instructions are verry unclear about the application. Wich decal goes where. Some numbers are on the instructions 2 times while there is only 1 decal. Some decals are on the sheet but not on the instructions. So i used some artist impression.

After the decals followed an other coat of Alclad II clear gloss. I let it try a couple of more days and weather the bird a little bit with some Tamiya Black Panel line wash.

IMG_4992-1024px-cp by Leon Vercruijsse, on Flickr

IMG_4993-1024px-cp by Leon Vercruijsse, on Flickr

Next up is a Flat coat and then i am calling this bird done.

[arilo76]

Really nice Komet and nicely done.

[Elve1984]

Thanks, got the flatcoat on, but still need to take some pics.

[Elve1984]

As photobucket blocked everything i moved my pics to Flickr, so everything in the buildthread should be visable again.