¹⁄48

Winter Storch

Aftermarket items

Here is my latest built: Tamiya's 1/48 scale Fieseler Fi 156 Storch (61100). In addition to the parts from the box I also used photo etched parts from Eduard: interior (49404), exterior (48581), the Skis (48582). I also used a MG 15 sight from Aires and exhausts from Quickboost.

Doing the interior

Rather than start with the cockpit I began with the engine. It is composed of 15 parts and decals in the box and the details are wonderfull. I painted the engine with ModellMaster Metalcode colours and polished them with graphite powder.

Every interior parts were painted with RLM 02 from Gunze-Sangyo. I expect that the Storch is dirty inside, so I did this with some pigments and a variation of colours. The interior parts are washed with oils in black and brown to get a strong used effect. I also used some pigments to simulate these effects. After dry brushing I coloured the hand gears switches and buttons in the typical colours.

Assembling the fuselage together was very easy, I only had to use some putty at the back. The wings as well got a little bit of putty. After that, fixing the strong wire of the main gear was straightforward. The guide rails are very good to fix the wings to the fuselage and get the right angle. At this stage, I also fixed the Eduard exterior parts on the model.

Camouflage and markings

I like exotic colours so I decided to make a Storch from winter 42/43 in the colours of the „Grünherzgeschwader“ JG 54. Also I wanted to do an aircraft with skis. After preshading the whole model I painted the fuselage and wingtips in RLM04. Next, I masked the RLM04 areas before painting the underside in RLM65 and painted the standard RLM70/71 upperside camouflage. Then, I added the decals from EagleCals.

Finally, with the airbrush, I've tried to reproduce the winter scheme of the Storch coded SB+UG as close as possible to the real thing, using some photos of the original aircraft as guide. After the colours had dried, I tried to rub of the white with a sponge. Some flaps where over painted with the basic colours to get a weathered effect. I washed some areas of the model with some oil paints to get a realistic effect. The exhausts where handled with some rust colours and pigments.

Final assembly

I assembled the rear gun and gun sight from Aires, the propeller, pitot tube, exhausts, door and the wing struts. The pitot tube was done with an injection needle. Finally, I've added some snow from Railway modelling on the skis and the model was finished.