1/48 Tamiya Fieseler Fi156C Storch

Gallery Article by Alan Williamson on July 9 2009

 

Kit:

Tamiya 1-48 Storch item 61100

I saw this kit on the Tamiya web site in an up coming release, it looked like the kit would be a good build. I sent Calum an E-mail and placed an order for the kit.  When the kit arrived I took the time to examine all of the pieces, I could tell that the kit was going to be a challenge. The first challenge I could see that I was going to have was painting a kit with the windows / canopy already assembled, this is because Tamiya has moulded the star board and port side of the canopy to the fuselage. However Tamiya included easy mask which was a nice touch. Tamiya has put a great deal of detail in this kit from the V8 engine, five types of Storch to build and paint with all the extra bits to make the different Fi156 to the PE that is included for the cockpit. Although  my only complaint and it is the complaint with most of Tamiya's kits there is no detail on the control panel, only that of the decal. Before I could start building the Storch I had to decided which of the five choices I was going to build, once I had made my decision it was time to build.

Construction:

The 1st step in building the Storch is with the V8 engine a nice touch consisting of 15 parts as well as decals. The engine was painted and weathered. The next step was the start of the cockpit, super glue is needed for a small section of the cockpit frame which consisted of the PE, the rest of the cockpit is straight forward to build. I painted the cockpit in Model Master RLM 02, I added seatbelts from Eduard's W.W.II Luftwaffe set to the Storch seats, I also used the Tamiya weathering sets to add a little extra detail to the cockpit sealed in with matt clear. I found that the assembly of the landing gear shaft which is metal and the PE wing frame a little annoying for the fact that once in place on the kit, It can be easily broken while constructing the rest of the kit, I found this out and had to re-attach the two pieces twice due to breaking them off.  The rest of the build seemed to go together with little fuss some minor putty was needed to fill a few gaps, with some lite wet rubbing to get rid of any seam lines.

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Picture 03 and 04 show the V8 engine and some of the cockpit, however the flash didn't go off on the camera.

Painting and decals:

I used Model Master paints to paint the Storch RLM 82,83 and 75. I then painted the kit in gloss clear ready for the decals, I decided to use the decals that represent the Storch Fi156C-3 that was used to free Mussolini on September 12 1943, Gran Sasso, Italy.  With the decals placed on, I sealed them in with a coat of clear gloss finished up with a pastel wash and a coat of matt gloss. Tamiya added for display seven figures, as well as three drums, an assortment of jerry cans and other military gear for diorama displays. 

 
Thanks: 
  • To Calum for getting this kit in for me
  •  Steve Bamford

Alan Williamson

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Photos and text © by Alan Williamson