¹⁄35

MOM Winner: Fi-103

introduction

After much delay caused by Life, the Model of the Month contest is up and running in its new format. The first winner is Roman's spectacular 1/35 Fi-103 in its piloted version.

Historical background

Even though the concept of conquering England was left by Germany during the WWII they still wished to destroy their industrial objects and fear the citizens. Because Luftwaffe wasn’t able to deal efficiently with RAF the Germans developed rocket bombs concept. Hundreds of V-1 were produced and launched with a special rail or from bombers. Their efficiency was not very good since they were not piloted or controlled like modern missiles. So, the concept of piloted rocket bomb was born and special “kamikadze” pilots were trained. Luckily, Hitler decided that it is too expensive to waste Luftwaffe pilots for that mission and the project Lazarus was closed. Several prototypes of Fi-103 were developed, including one with 2 seats – for pilot and instructor. Some rockets were captured by British forces and these images are easily accessible online if you try Google.

My model

The model is supposed to be out in print soon so I can't really write a lot. To be honest it was my first aircraft model during last 16 years and I did it only because it was in 1/35 scale. The kit is from Bronco and it is built straight out of the box. There are some fit problems when you glue the cart but otherwise it is very simple model that can be finished within a couple of hours. I painted it with Tamiya acrylics and weathered with MIG’s Dark wash. The cart was weathered more intensively to have some contrast between it and new rocket. The turbine was weathered with black pigment.