Fiesler FI-156 Storch

This 1/35 scale kit is from a Chinese model company called Hobby Boss. I’ve built some of their kits before and they’re ok in my book. The pros for this kit are as follows: You have five paint schemes you could build and the one I did is Luftwaffe 1939 Poland invasion. The other four paint schemes included are; Finland Air Force 1939, Legion Condor in Spanish Civil War, Luftwaffe in East Frontline which is on the cover of the box, and Italy Air Force, Libya 1942. The painting of the aircraft is good. The building process and the illustrations are good as well. Finally the decals are very solid with little to no issues to apply them to the plane. I also like the fact the tires are actually made of rubber so you don’t have to paint them. The metal landing gear struts are the first ones other than photo-etched pieces I have ever seen and it’s a huge plus for me! The cons of this kit are as follows: The process of building the engine is a little difficult since the pieces don’t exactly fit very well. Noticeable cracks under the fuselage when trying merge the two halves together. I had to use spackle in a tube to fill them. The die-cut mast stickers used to paint the canopy frame don’t work because the paint can still get underneath the stickers. The decals used to do the Finish version are wrong because the swastikas used by the Fins during the early years of World War Two are blue not black. The illustrations don’t tell you what color the inside of the aircraft is. So I used the same color as the outside of the aircraft. There are also not enough views for painting of the aircraft as well as applying decals. In short I give this kit a rating of 4.5 stars out of five. It’s a great German aircraft to build primarily the history of this legendary warbird! There’s just some flaws of this kit that needed to fleshed out and explained that’s all. Other than that, it’s a good kit to add to your collection.