The Academy kit is a good kit without issues to speak of. I decided to use aftermarket to add detail and there's quite a bunch of it out there, owing to the iconic status of the Komet.
After hesitating between photoetch and resin for a while I finally opted for the former and I'm glad I did as there is no way to reach the same level of detail with resin as can be reached with PE, especially if augmented with a little scratch-building.
I used the photoetch offerings from Eduard and PART. Although overlapping in some areas the sets are rather different and complementary. For example PART allows one to detail the Scheuchschlepper (Komet tractor), which Eduard doesn't touch on at all, while the latter covers the cockpit in breathtaking detail.
The Eduard set contains two frets, one of which is pre-painted, for a total of close to one hundred parts so it is not for the faint-hearted. But with some patience and TLC one can use it to really bring the cockpit (and other parts of the model) to life.
What's more, Eduard includes all the parts necessary to build the trainer with a complete backseat cockpit, which was what made me opt for that version: it would have been a pity to have half of that beautiful pre-painted PE go to waste! I anyway intended to indulge my whatif penchant and going for an operational trainer--which never saw the light of day--suited me just fine!
A substantial amount of build time went into the cockpit(s)--the proverbial kit within a kit--but I think it was time well invested. It required blending the pre-painted photoetch with the other PE and the scratch-built parts while staying as close as possible to the reference photos but the experience was a pleasant one and gratifying in terms of results.
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