Ancient Airfix 1/72 Fi-156 Storch

Once upon a time many moons ago there was a kid who was excited to use his lawn mowing money to buy a kit from a (now long gone) hobby shop in Chicago called AL’s Hobbies of a 1/72 Fi-156 Storch.  It was really cool in those day to have access to “overseas” kits, as the local stores only carried the Aurora/Monogram/Revell US brand, and this kit was an Airfix kit from Europe.

That kid was me and I have carried this kit in the special kit storage area since those days.

A few years back I was able to buy a copy of this kit, so I could build one and preserve what is probably my second oldest kit in the collection.  This is my experience with a very old kit.

The kit is actually very interesting for the options included.  It has a stand, which was prevalent in those days, and includes the additional parts to build it in flights.  While the aircraft was in flight the oleos of the landing gear fully extended and this is represented in additional parts if you want o build it on the stand.

There is no cockpit other than a couple of seats (if you can call them that, and a few attempts to represent an instrument panel and control stick.  I just blew by these as I figured out that they wouldn’t be seen and I didn’t want to devote a lot of effort to doing scratch-building.  (I’m saving my Eduard set for the Academy Storch).  Airfix did provide these small examples of a pilot and passenger “amputees” to paint up and stick in the seats but I was too lazy to take that on as well.

The kit built up fairly well.  There is some putty needed around the cowling and the clear part fit was very bad, requiring some sanding, fitting, and polishing to get it to a reasonable place.  The engineering wing attachments come off of the roof of the cockpit clear parts so it needs to be pretty secure as well.

Lastly, it is really hard to interpret the landing gear instructions.  It’s good these days to have the internet so I could go and look at some Storch pictures to see how the gear is intended to connect.  There is a tiny hole in the bottom of the fuselage that holds both rear landing gear pins and I needed to drill out a better attachment for the front of the gear legs.

 

Also, note the hole in the bottom for the stand but the stand connection comes expecting a slot.  I modified the stand to fit.

The kit was painted with Vallejo black acrylics with a bit of gray and blue added and decals were a great Owl set for a black Storch.  Sadly I painted up the kit all black and then discovered when I opened the decals that the top of the wing should have been in standard RLM splinter scheme, not all black.  Oh well!

Modeling is all about history.  It was fun pulling out a bit of my history and building a kit I’ve had owned for over 50 years!

Fourty-nine

That’s the number of kits I have on the model shelves.

I needed to condense the models on the shelves so that I could get more on them.  They were also sharing the space with a lot of cat fur and dust so I decided to take the slew of them down, clean them and the shelves, and put them back on the shelves.

I took these photos of the lot parked on the dining room table, cleaned waiting for clean shelves.  I was happy didn’t need to toss any of them.

I built these over about 12 years.  I have one in here that is about 25 years old and a complete set of Monogram 1/48 Century Series fighters.

Hasegawa Hurricane Mk. IIc – Night Hurricane – Hairspray chipping method

I built three single seat black aircraft and used them to test paint chipping techniques.  This one is the Hasegawa Hurricane Mk. IIC Night Hurricane and my chipping method of choice was to use hairspray over aluminum Alclad before black paint.

The kit was built straight out of the box and went together well.  The way the wing is engineered to support different versions caused some filling and sanding around the optional parts and where the wing connected to the fuselage.

The cockpit was a pretty good representation of the complexity of the real thing however since the canopy is molded as one piece you won’t see much inside anyway.

The model was then primed with primer from a can (see previous posts) and once dry the kit was sprayed with Alclad primer in areas I planned to chip.  Note I didn’t cover the entire kit with aluminum which forced me to remember where the silver was so later when over sprayed with black paint I knew where to chip.  I also covered parts of the fabric covered areas with the original interior color since I guessed that this area wouldn’t chip silver since it wasn’t metal.

  

The model was then given a coat of cheap hairspray.  Everything I read online about this method suggests using the cheapest hairspray because it is not generally perfumed – no additives.  This hairspray was bought in the travel section at my local store ( because I’m cheap and didn’t need a big can!)  I decanted the hairspray and put it on with my airbrush.

After the hairspray cured for a couple of days I over coated it with Vallejo ModelAir Black.  You need to use an acrylic (water washable) paint for this to work and once painted you only have a few hours to work before the paint gets hard.  I waited 2 hours and as I found out the black paint was still pretty soft after two hours (this was a surprising but good thing).

IMPORTANT NOTE:  You need to put the paint on in a number of light coats and let them set between coats.  In a few places on the model where I painted a part off the model and tried to put one coat on the paint wound up cracking ever so slightly.  I believe this was because the “wet” of the acrylic melted the hairspray and caused it to flow a bit while the paint was setting.

So where is the silver?  Using my iPad to took pictures of the kit before black so I could remember the areas over-sprayed aluminum thus avoiding over-spraying the whole kit with aluminum and knowing where to chip.

After the paint had set a couple of hours I took a wide soft brush and using water coated a few sections of the black paint.  I was expecting the paint to set for a bit and then I would need to use my implements of destruction I had standing by to take it off.  What surprised me was in putting on more water the paint suddenly started coming off quickly and in big chunks.

So from this point, as I placed water carefully on the black paint, I could use the paint brush to slowly and randomly take paint off the silver areas.  I also used this fiberglass brush my artist daughter gave me to chip away at panel lines since it provided a good wide stiff straight line from which to take paint off.

Overall I’m really pleased with the result and will look forward to tuning the skill.  This also worked really well chipping the propeller and I could see using it in other areas where you might want to highlight two color changes (color over primer).

The one thing to look out for in my case is the paint really melted and came off fast.  Although it didn’t really come off, it just kind of melted and flowed together in different areas.  If I look closely I can see where the paint looks a bit thicker where it bunched up.

Decals were off an OWL Nightfighter Experts (#48014)  sheet.  I love OWL decals, they come off the paper quickly and go on really thin.

 

What did I learn;

• Hairspray work very well for chipping
• Overcoat colors need to have many thin coats as to not melt the hairspray
• Paint can come off (or maybe move) in big areas if you are not careful

 

Hasegawa Spitfire Mk. Vb Night Fighter – Salt Chipping Technique

I built three single seat black aircraft and used them to test paint chipping techniques.  This one is the Hasegawa Spitfire Vb Night Fighter and my chipping method of choice was to use salt masking over aluminum Alclad before black paint.

Much like the Bf-109E in the previous post this kit was built straight from the box.  The kit went together well with very little fitting, sanding, and filling required.

This kit like the other two was given a coat of primer straight from the can.  You can see here how rough that turned out to be.  My previous post discusses the primer choices.  You can also see where I didn’t quite sand out the wing root – needed to be fixed.

After priming, areas of Alclad aluminum were sprayed on the kit.  I like using Alcad because it’s thin and it’s tough.

The kit is then coated a small area at a time (preferably where the Alclad is!) with water and Morton Kosher salt is sprinkled on the water.  Wherever the water is the salt sticks.  While still relatively wet the salt can be pushed around with the same brush I used to apply the water.  I applied more heavily in the areas of the wing root as you can see in the shot.

The aircraft is then given a coat of black paint.  I used the same Scalecoat used in the previous post as well as following on with streaking using ever lightened colors of black to produce a weathered look.

The salt is then brushed away with a stiff brush and ta-da paint chipping.  After a coat of Future floor polish, the decals were then applied.  I normally use Solvaset decal solvent on my decals and I really sweated this one out as you can see it wrinkled the marking up and it wasn’t un-wrinkling very fast.  It took a lot of Solvaset to make the decal finally sit down.  I think the Solvaset slightly remelts the Future and the Future sets back up before the decal has worked through the setting process.

I think I could have done a better job at arranging the salt crystals to make it look more organized.  As put on the chipping was rather random except for the wing root area.  But after a blast of Testors dullcoat, the kit actually came out looking quite nice.

What did I learn;

• The salt method is easy to see where to put the salt on silver.  The next method documented (hairspray)requires you remember where the Alclad is or paint it all Alclad)
• Organize the salt better, maybe along panel lines.  The salt works pretty good and produces pretty good results (see hairspray in next post!)
• Find a different way to set Hasegawa decals.  The Solvaset works well on the OWL decals I have been using but might be a bit too strong for the Future/Stock decal mix
• Drop using Rust-oleum primer

Thanks for your interest!

Hasegawa Bf-109E Night Fighter – Micro-Mask chipping

I built three single seat black aircraft and used them to test paint chipping techniques.  This one is the Hasegawa Bf-109E Night Fighter and my chipping method of choice was to use micro masking solution over aluminum Alclad before black paint.

The kit was built straight from the box.  I’ve built a 1/48 Hasegawa Bf-109E before (previous Hasegawa Bf-109E post) and remembered to be careful at the wing-root fit.  There was still a bit of sanding and filling needed to make things perfect.

  

I use mostly these sanding sticks I buy really cheap at the local mega-store.  The nail file works great for working the putty as it has many different grits and I often will follow up with a nail polisher that has three really fine grits and can make the plastic and putty shine!

I then primed the kit from a rattle can primer.  I have used the Dupli-Color “Fillable and Sandable” primer out of the can with good success.  At $7 a can it’s a lot cheaper than the primers for scale models.  On this pass, I tried the Rust-oleum and it made for a rough finish on the kit as seen in the earlier photo.  I might try to decant and thin it on another kit but I think I’ll stick to the Dupli-color.

After priming the kit was sprayed with Alclad Aluminum in spots I wanted to show chipping and after drying Micro Mask was applied in chipping patterns over the silver.

The aircraft was then sprayed with black enamel paint from Scalecoats and weathered with increasingly lightened and thinned paint (added gray to black) to produce a streaking effect that can be seen well in the photo.   We are ready to chip!

What turned out very wrong in this test was the Micro Mask was put on so thin it actually leveled under the paint and that made it very difficult to see where I needed to peel it away.  I started using a wooden stick to try to scrape the mask away and it either wouldn’t budge or I couldn’t find it.  What occurred then was I wound up literally scraping the paint off and left deep gouges in the paint where there should have been chipping.

     

Had this not been a test build I would have attempted to take the paint off and repainted the plane.  Instead, I recovered by over spraying the damaged paint and roughly scrapping it off while still wet.  Not the best looking up close but not too shabby on the model shelf.

The model was finished off with a nice set of OWL decals (I really like their thinness and way they perform) and overshot with Testors Dullcoat.

What did I learn;

• Put the Micro Mask on thicker.  (I know, tough being a cheapskate!)
• The weather streaking looks very nice.  I used the same cup of paint in the airbrush and added a touch more gray paint and a drop of thinner before each run of streaking
• Test fire the primer before you commit to three models!

Single seat nightfighters – back in black

Completed three Hasegawa single seat night fighters, all in black; Hawker Hurricane Mk IIc (#Jt164), Spitfire Mk. Vb (#09315), Bf-109E (#09733)

Each was built out of the box with the exception of OWL decals for the Hurricane and 109.

The Bf-109 used a method of micro-mask to simulate chipping wear.

The Spitfire used a method of salt masking to simulate the chipping.

The Hurricane used a method I had not tried before, hairspray, to achieve the chipping.

I will cover the steps used in chipping separate blogs over the next few days.

All kits went together well, each had its areas of fit issues that required filling and sanding.

All kits were assembled at the same time, sanded and filled, and primed.  As discussed later, I tried a new primer out of the can on these builds and I think it delivered a rough undercoat.

I’ll cover the Bf-109 with masking solution next.  Stay tuned.

Three by one nightfighters

Up and running in in the shop again.  Decided to build three single-seat all black night fighters from Hasegawa.

The main objective here is to practice different methods of chipping the camouflage paint.  I intend to try the hairspray, salt, and masking solutions and see which one works great.

All kits are being built out of the box and will use the kit decals.

I’ve got the bases of most of them done, time to mask the canopies and attach in preparation for priming.

Catching up

I haven’t blogged here for almost a year.  How time flies. I wanted to blog about all of my kit creations but just haven’t sat down to do the typing.  Too many life activities I guess.

This blog will get me caught up.  A quick snap of all of the project over the last year.

Last summer was the summer of Messerschmidt.  In addition to the previous posts I finished three Bf-109s in 1/32 scale; a Matchbox -E, a Revell -F, and a Revell -G.  These were the high detail kits of my youth.  They were from another era; the Revell kits have working gear, control surfaces, canopy, and a removable engine cowling.   I marked them all from the same decal sheet.  The sheet was great in that all of the Balkenkrutz were stencils; hand painted on.

    

I then went on to build a 1/48 ProModeler F-86D Sabre Dog.  Nice kit and included a tug.  So I added a 1950’s power cart to the mix.

Then added a P-70, part of my black two engine aircraft collection.  You would be surprised how many black two engine aircraft can be modeled in 1/48 scale.  Here’s a short list..

A/B-26C	Monogram
B-57B	Classic Airframes
Bf 110D Nachtjäger	Cyberhobby
J1N1-5	Tamiya
Ju88C-6	Monogram
Mosquito	Tamiya
P-38M	Academy
P-61	Monogram
P-70	AMT
SR-71	Testors
Beaufighter Mk. VI	Tamiya
F3D-2	Encore
Ventura	Revell

Next into 1/72 German night fighters; a DML Do-335B-6, a Eduard Bf-110G-4, and a Hasegawa Me-262B.

The last of catch up is a Tamiya Fw-190A-3.  A very well engineered kit with a simple number of parts.

That should get me all caught up.  Stay tuned for the next build report as I just finished a Hasegawa CF-104D in 1/48 scale.

 

Messerschmitt night fighter twins are done

The summer of Messerschmitt rolls on.  Got the nightfighter twins done.

Both kits were inspired by an Owl Decal sheet; one all black and one apparently an all black oversprayed randomly by RLM76.  The oversprayed model took a bit of thought on how to execute the overspray but turned out great and looks a lot like the decal diagram.  It looks like many different colors but the subtle thickness of the RLM 76 makes it look multi-color.

Th RLM 76 overspray was an Eduard Profipack and it has a lot of nice detail.  Other than the fit of the wings to fuselage, which took a bit of fitting, the kit went together flawlessly.

The other kit was a monogram kit I have kept for near as I can figure 48 years.  Back when I was a middle schooler earning kit money mowing lawns I’m sure I picked this up on one of our summer excursions to Chicago from Rockford.  Not sure if it was Al’s Hobbies or one closer to Des Plaines but it was carried by my folks for many years until they gave me all of my unbuilt kits one year in a box.  I had wanted back then to build it into a night fighter and here you go.  Sometimes those hobby plans take a bit longer to materialize!

The kit was added to extensively.  I am building a third Bf-110 right now with an Eduard Big Sin sets, which includes a resin cockpit, so that kit donated the cockpit to this kit.  It also has resin wheels that I molded and copied off the Eduard kit, and a vacu formed canopy.  With all the modern stuff I haven’t had to do a vacu form technique for a while.

The canopy from the kit was too narrow and too thick.   So I cut it in two, added a middle spacer to spread the canopy out a bit, sanded the whole thing smooth, vacuformed it on the trustly Mattel vacu-form machine, then added frames using thin cut scotch tape and then carefully painted by hand.  I think it looks pretty good and you can see the inside of the cockpit without me opening it up. It may not be entirely accurate but it looks pretty good after a dip in Future.

I have to go finish the Bf-110 stepchild -going to make it to be a western desert aircraft, a long ways away from it’s nightfighter brothers!

Messerschmitt parts

Now that the Bf-110s are in a stable form it’s time for that part of modelling that to me takes the longest; the parts. Parts that need to be found, cleaned up, put together, sanded, organized by color, and painted.  And what a mass of parts these builds have.

The Monogram Bf-110 parts are pretty simple but the Eduard kit has quite a set of very delicate and numerous detail.  The state of 1/72 kits has changed a lot in 45 years.

  

I should be ready to put some of it together tomorrow with one last shot of weathering.  We’ve had another heat wave and it’s been pretty hot in the garage.

I also have the cockpit ready underway for the next Eduard 1/72 Bf-110.  I’m using the resin from the Eduard Big Sin set for this kit which will include not only the cockpit but engine and armament.  I’ll paint that one, again with Owl decals, in a desert scheme.