Product Description
HobbyBoss 80181 1/35 Fieseler Fi-156 C-3/TROP Storch (HBO80181)
Note: Model Kit Assembly Required
The Storch was designed in the mid-1930s as a liaison aircraft, and was incredibly successful due to its amazing short-field landing and take-off performance, almost vertical if you had a suitable headwind. It was also a competent observation aircraft too, thanks to its high wing and almost 360o visibility that was accomplished by fixing the wings to a strong but slim tubular framework. It was however surprisingly heavy and its long wingspan made ground-handling less easy, despite its benefits whilst in the air. The C was the most common variant with almost 3,000 made, and many of them were made in occupied France and Czechoslovakia due to Fieseler’s other commitments. The Storch (German for Stork) was also involved in some notable incidents during the war, notably the rescue of Mussolini by the Nazis after he was removed from power.
This is a re-release from Hobby Boss of the former Trimaster tooling of this iconic (I say that a lot because it’s true of many aircraft) little aircraft, which originally reached the shelves in 2007 in the slightly off-beat scale of 1:35. It’s 1:35 because the Storch could land all over the place, near the front or otherwise, so they can be placed next to models in the dominant AFV scale without having to force the scale by inventive placement of the various elements. The range of 1:35 aircraft kits is still small, but growing due to the efforts of a number of companies, but whether modellers will someday be able to model entirely in 1:35 whether they build AFVs or aircraft remains to be seen. The kit arrives in a black-themed box with yellow trimmings, which is a quick way of identifying former Trimaster kits from Hobby Boss generally. Inside is a smaller glued-in cardboard box to protect the more delicate parts, with a total of eight sand-coloured sprues of various sizes, a clear sprue and a separate slide-moulded canopy, two sub-sprues in sandy styrene that have four parts with metal rods co-moulded at the centre to give your model some needed strength once completed. Two soft black rubbery tyres, a large decal sheet, pre-cut masking material (not pictured), grey-scale instruction booklet and separate colour profiles to assist with painting and decaling.
Features:
- Metal rods co-moulded at the center to give model some needed strength
- Two soft black rubbery tyres
- Canopy is moulded as a (mostly) single part, with separate access door and the rear gunner’s rotating circular window
- Full engine, comprising of 21 parts for the engine and exhausts
- Well-printed Large Decal Sheet
Needed to Complete:
- Plastic Cement
- Paint
Includes:
- (1) 1/35th Scale Plastic Model Kit
