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Trumpeter
German 2cm Flakvierling 38 auf Selbstfahrlafette
(Sd.Kfz.7/1 early version) with Sd.Anhanger 51

Trumpeter 1:35 Kit #01523
Review by Terry Ashley

Trumpeter
Introduction:

The 2cm Flakvierling 38 auf Selbstfahrlafette Sd.Kfz.7/1 resulted from combining the 2cm Flakvierling 38 with four Flak38 guns to the Sd.Kfz.7 half-track to allow greater mobility and firepower with the Sd.Kfz.7/1 carrying 600 2cm rounds on board and a further 1800 rounds in the towed Sd.Ah.56 trailer.

The initial Sd.Kfz.7/1 had the Flakvierling 38 mounted on a central pivot mounting with later vehicles using the standard Flakvierling ground mounting secured by rachets on the rear bed. The later versions also included an armoured cab to better protect the crews.

The Kit:

The release of this kit follows the earlier German Sd.Kfz.7 Mittlere Zugkraftwagen 8t early version (kit #01514) and uses many of the parts from that kit for the chassis, engine, gearbox and cabin with new parts for the rear bed and 2cm Flakvierling 38 mounting. It also coincides with the release of the Dragon Sd.Kfz.7/1 2cm Flakvierling 38 auf Selbstfahrlafette (kit #6525) and a full comparison will follow shortly.

The kit represents the earliest configuration of the Sd.Kfz.7/1 with the central circular pivot mounting for the 2cm Flakvierling 38 while later vehicles used the normal ground mounting fitted to the rear bed which allowed the gun to be easily removed and mounted on the standard Flakvierling Sd.Ah.52 trailer if required.

The kit has 531 parts in the usual Trumpeter light grey plastic, an additional 336 individual track links along with 12 clear parts, 102 etched parts plus the decal sheet and 28 page instruction booklet as well as a colour painting guide sheet.

Vinyl tyres, copper wire and thread
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Etched parts
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The standard of moulding sees some finely executed detail on the large and small parts with a minimum of pins marks evident and those present are in areas that are unavoidable and fairly easy to deal with.

There is also some fine flash on the parts especially the smaller and more intricate parts and a bit of work will be needed to clean this up. There are also some prominent mould seam lines to be removed from many parts and this again requires a bit of effort and care is needed not to compromise the detail in the process.

Added to this there are numerous small fit issues to contend with that sees many small adjustments required to get parts to fit and quite a few of the mating surfaces also need to be smoothed out for a more precise fit. But as mentioned there is some areas with excellent detail such as the lower chassis assemblies with fully detailed gearbox, engine and large winch as well as the driver’s compartment for very impressive sub-assemblies, it’s a pity much of this is all but hidden after final assembly.

Dimensionally the kit matches available 1:35 plans and data in most instances but there are some issues with the hull length/wheelbase and the contours of the front fenders, otherwise parts such as the running gear are the right sizes.

Some issues are carried over from the initial Sd.Kfz.7 kit such as the front fenders are too steeply angled on the inside, the rivet detail on the front edges of the fenders are from a restored vehicle and not the wartime vehicle and will have to be modified. The drive sprocket teeth are not offset left and right as they should but some issues have been addressed such as the front wheels now have the correct wartime tread pattern and the cab sides thinned considerably as well as most of the instruction bloopers fixed.

Chassis/Gearbox:

The gearbox is made up of multiple parts with some very well done details enhanced by the addition of 3 etched parts. One of these (part PE-A3) has to be bent at right angles and this did pose a few problems as the metal is quite thick and it is very difficult to hold the narrow part in an etched bending tool and I had to anneal the part to aid in bending, a lot of work for a small part that is basically hidden from view and you may choose to just forget it.

The side mounted drum brakes do not fit flush to the sides of the gearbox and the fit is rather loose meaning you have to be careful to ensure these line up square with the gearbox and the front cross member (part A7).

The three gear levers have fine mould seam lines to be removed and you should be careful after assembly as they tend to stick up the air just asking to be damaged.

The two full length chassis frames have crisp detail in both sides and no pin marks present but there are substantial mould seams along the top and bottom surfaces to be removed.

There are three small parts added to the sides of the frames and I had to trim the locating pins for a better fit with the assembled gearbox trapped between the two frames, but the fit is very loose and you have to ensued it is aligned perfectly level with the chassis frame, there is a small hole in the chassis that has to line up with the locating pin on the brake drums which you should align by eye.

Alignment of gearbox pin and hole in chassis side
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The cross member for the front suspension spring does not fit well at all and as this has repercussions not only for the sit of the vehicle but the fit of the large front hull/fender assembly and I deviated from the instruction sequences slightly to ensure this was glued in the right place leaving the cross member off at this stage.

The central rear chassis assembly is made up of over a dozen parts and while nicely detailed there is a bit of work involved with some parts needing minor trimming for a better fit and the usual moulding seams and some flash to remove as well as a couple of etched parts for added definition.

To fit the front suspension cross member I temporally added the front hull/fender part C31 to ensue the cross member is in the right place as the fit is not that good and has a bearing on the alignment of the chassis.

The front suspension spring has the springs in two parts with a quite substantial central join seam to be removed which will take a bit of effort but thankfully the spring detail is free of any pin marks.

The large front suspension arm has separate linkages that allow you to make the wheels steerable and these fit together easily buy I had to open up the pin locating holes a little to allow the retaining pin (part B33) to fit better. This pin is fine plastic so don’t force it into place as it will break and you will have problems from there, a small dab of glue will hold the pin in place but make sure you don’t glue the turning bracket by mistake.

The wheel steering connecting rod fits neatly and is held in place by the rear suspension bracket on the axle so you don’t have to worry about this coming adrift and added to the chassis are the 4 small steering rods from the steering junction box to the front suspension and fitting the 4 small linkages required the enlarging of all locating holes and trimming of the locating pins to get these to fit properly which was a little tedious.

These 4 small brackets are not designed to move and after attaching the steering linkage arm (part D4) this means the front wheels are no longer steerable which sort of defeats the whole steering thing. You can make the 4 small steering linkages and steering arm workable by adding small pins but there is a lot of additional work involved?

The winch has 4 main parts with 5 additional etched parts and the thread added for the winch cable. The small etched brackets have the cable guide pins added from the copper wire provided and it’s best to solder these as super glue just won’t hold on a join such as this. Just remember to wind on the thread cable before adding the guide pins as it’s a nightmare if the pins are in place. The assembly is added to the 2 etched brackets on the chassis frame with the power take off shaft inserted into the locating hole on the back of the gearbox and there shouldn’t be any problems here.

At the back is the rear chassis bulkhead with separate parts for the large towing pintle, the compressed air outlet and tow cable rollers and guides as well as the large tow cable hook which you would attach to the cable after treading it through the bulkhead from the winch. There is also a small etched bracket with pin made from the wire supplied and the exhaust pipe is also inserted through the hole in bulkhead as you attach this later during construction.

Also added to the chassis are the two part compressed air tanks and the large fuel tank made up of 4 parts and this fits neatly to the supports included on the chassis frames plus a number of smaller brackets and etched parts.

Engine:

The Maybach HL62TUK engine provided is a highly detailed assembly made up of 37 plastic parts and a couple of etched parts with the assembled engine matching the photos in the WWP Sd.Kfz.7 book very well and includes most if not all of the smaller engine accessory parts.

Detail on the parts is very good but with the usual mould seams to remove as well as some minor flash with the fit fairly good overall but some trimming is needed to get an even fit on some and there are a few traps to look out for.

You should test fit every part before gluing to ensure no trimming is needed and all went fairly smoothly until fitting the top rocker cover with the half moon bracket on top of part E32 requiring trimming in size for this to fit.

At the front is the engine bearing part E1 and it is very important this is fitted perfectly level so the engine will sit properly in the chassis engine mounts but there is nothing to ensure the correct placement of the part and you have to align this by eye which is not the easiest when the engine is separate from the chassis.

I found it easier to leave off part E1 until you have attached the rear bell housing (part E36) which does have precise locating recesses in the engine block and then align the “legs” on part E1 to the mounting pins on part E36.

When fitting the bell housing (part E36) you will need to trim some plastic off part E21 to ensure the bell housing sits flush with the engine block as it will be at an angle if you don’t compromising the fit of the engine to the chassis.

Also the rear fill plate on the bell housing (part E19) does not fit flush inside the housing and you will need to trim this for a better fit which again effects the overall alignment of the engine/chassis fit.

While the engine is quite detailed and complete there are no pulley belts supplied and you should add these from thin paper or tape to finish off the front fan/pulley assembly and there are two radiator pipes added to the engine which mate to locating holes in the radiator when attached and you may want to leave off these pipes until the radiator is added to align these more easily?

The large air cleaner is attached the front body/fender part later in step 19 and this has to mate to the top of the carburettor and depending on the fit of the engine/chassis join some trimming may be needed to fit the air cleaner pipe to the carburettor. The full exhaust pipe and muffler is also added in step 19 and the pipe mates to the exhaust manifold on the left of the engine and again some minor manoeuvring may be needed depending on the fit of other parts.

Running Gear:

The front wheel hubs are in two halves and feature very well done rim/spoke detail that includes the prominent grease nipple and the moulded on valve stem with a separate central hub cap. The inside of the cast “star” hub is correctly hollowed out as it should be for a good representation of the front wheel.

The vinyl tyres have been reworked and now feature the correct WWII tread pattern as well as extended around the shoulder and this fits easily to the wheel hub, the only issue here is the rims stick out a little from the tyre sidewall but there is little you do about this as the vinyl tyres make adjustments difficult.

The road wheels are nicely moulded with excellent stamped rim detail but there is a little flash in some of the lightening holes which is minor and easily removed.

Note there are different inner wheels for the idlers (parts B25) with longer axle mountings with the outer wheel the same as for the road wheel stations 1, 3 and 5. For stations 2, 4 and 6 you obviously don’t fit the outer wheel until adding the wheels to the axles as they intermesh with the central wheels as is normal for German half-tracks.

The drive sprockets are quite detailed being made up of 5 plastic and 1 etched part each but there a number of issues here unfortunately.

There is considerable flash in the sprocket lightening holes and this will take a bit of effort to remove and the central drive roller ring is in two halves that fit together but for some reason the outer roller detail is only included on the rollers that face the inside when attached with the outer roller being just plain plastic devoid of detail?

When gluing the drive roller discs together you have to ensure they are as tight together as possible as this will affect the fit of the track links later if not a snug fit.

One roller disc has small brackets included that fit into the corresponding recesses in the outer drive sprocket half but note as one of the brackets is half the size of the others and this must be aligned with the grease point on the sprocket to fit correctly. Unfortunately the instructions don’t tell you this and if you try and fit the roller disc any other way it will not fit properly.

The sprockets include the central bolt head detail and the separate covered bracket (part B41) and there is also the circular foot step with tread plate included as an etched part that has the bent to form the circle before adding to the bracket. Annealing this part by running through a candle flame will assist in bending the step and this adds a nice touch to the sprocket hub.

Another issue is the drive rollers are not offset as they should be but are located centrally on the outer sprocket facets which is very noticeable on these larger sprockets and with a bit of work these can be modified to correct the roller offset. See modification guide.

The drive sprockets on all German half tracks feature “teeth” in the form of small rollers that intermesh with the track links, the drive sprockets themselves have flat facets sections around the sprocket that the track links “sit” flush on as the pass around the sprocket. The rollers are not located centrally on the flat section but offset towards the front of the facets to allow them to mesh with the tracks better and this means the sprockets are not interchangeable between left and right. Unfortunately Trumpeter have taken a short cut and given you the same sprockets left and right missing this important feature of German Half-track sprockets.

There should also be bolt heads around the inner sprockets rims but these are very difficult to include with current moulding technology and you may want to add these for greater detail but with the incorrect drive roller position it may be a wasted effort? Another issue with the sprocket hub is there are 7 engraved segment lines on the sprocket disc face but these should not be there and unfortunately it’s very difficult to fill these given the angles and recessed sprocket face.

There is a bit of flash and the mould seam lines to be removed from the suspension parts but they assemble easily although the locating surface for the rear suspension units (parts S3/A4) need to be trimmed flush but the locating points are quite large making for robust assembles.

I also had to shorten to locating pins on the rear springs (parts B18) to fit the chassis locating holes better and you should ensure the front springs (parts B36) are aligned evenly with the chassis.

Watch the rear idler mountings as they are numbered incorrectly in the instructions with parts A18/A20 transposed for parts A17/A19 so you should fit these to the opposite sides from those shown in the instructions. There is also substantial mould seams on the idler mountings to be removed and you should not glue the idler mounts in place but leave these free so you can adjust the idler position when fitting the tracks later while adding the twin axle to the bogies is very straightforward without any problems.

The tracks are individual working links which assemble in what is now standard for this type of track and follows how the real things are joined with each link fitting into the next and held in place with the rubber track pad.

Dimensionally the real track links are 360mm wide equalling 10.3mm in 1:35 scale and the kit links measure 10.3mm to be spot on and the separate track pads are in two parts, the rubber section and lower attachment plate. This take a little longer to assemble the pads before tackling the track links proper but results in very good detail definition on the pads.

There are three small sprue attachment burs to clean from each track link and two very fine pin marks on the outside of the links which really only show up on a few of the links and are very easy to eliminate where needed. Assembly is straightforward as you simply fit one link into the next and glue the track pad in place, just ensure you don’t use too much glue and they will articulate easily after the glues dries.

Fitting to the drive sprockets will depend on the assembly of the roller teeth as mentioned above and if done correctly the fit is very snug around the sprocket but if the teeth are not joined tightly the links may not fit over the roller teeth and minor trimming will be needed, so take care when assembling the roller discs as mentioned.

There is a problem with the tracks around the sprockets due to the lack of offset drive rollers in that the links do not site flush to the sprocket facets leaving gaps which is noticeable with the larger size of the 8ton sprockets.

Track link parts and simply assembly
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Assembled track links around the sprocket
note how they do not sit slush on the sprocket face due to the lack of tooth offset.

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Fenders/Engine Compartment:

The front fenders are moulded in one piece with the front body and tow hitch included but there are a couple of issues to address with the first being the three large rivets on the lower front edges which are not wartime fittings but were added to the museum vehicle and you should remove the bolts along with the mould seams round them and leave just the flat round rivet heads as seen on wartime half-tracks. There should also be fender brackets on the inside of the fenders which is what the rivets are for if you wish to add this additional detail.

There are a couple of issues with the fenders, the first being the angle on the inside of the fenders which is too upright and should be more angled but this is rather subtle from some angles and very difficult to remedy and some may choose to overlook this on the finished model?
The other is the fenders are too shallow in height, see the Sd.Kfz.7/1 2cm Flakvierling 38 Comparison review for full details.

At the front of the part is the forward tow shackle bracket with what seems like a large mould seam along to top above the tow bracket but this is in fact the metal plate edge on the real vehicle and should remain in place. Added to the tow shackle is the large pin and you could add a bit of fine chain to enhance the detail here a little.

The lip around the bottom of the fenders is rather rough and requires some sanding to smooth out and this also appears a little too pronounced when looking at actual photographs and you may wish to sand down the lip a little for a more subdued appearance.

One nice inclusion is the heat exchanger pipe added under the right fender and you just need to drill out the end of the pipe that exits the side lip of the fender to improve the appearance.

The large radiator housing has the front louvers and mesh moulded as one closed unit and not open but we are yet to see this feature rendered correctly in any half-track kit so can’t single this out for any more comment than the others. At the top is the “KRAUSS-MAFFEI” name plate embossed and a separate radiator cap added to the top.

Inside is the radiator coaming and the radiator housing fits neatly between the fenders without any problems. The side steps are separate parts with etched tread plate panels added as well as other smaller items best left off until later in construction to avoid damage. These include the two large head lights with clear plastic lenses, the two fender mounted width indicator posts which are a little on the thick side and the Notek light with etched mounting as well as a rear view mirror on the left fender.

The two side compartment panels have the closed louvers moulded in place with separate securing T latches and grab handles for a bit of detail definition, these panels fit neatly to the sides of the radiator housing and rear fender floor panel. Added to the side panels is the compartment hood which is cleanly moulded and fits without any problems.

One item not included are the 6 Kar98 rifle racks on the front fenders (3 each side) which were moved here on the Sd.Kfz.7/1, as the bench seat was removed where they usually lived. These will no doubt be included in the inevitable etched update sets to come but you’d have to find the rifles elsewhere.

Cab/Rear Bed:

The main engine bulkhead has detail included on both sides and no pin marks to compromise this with additional perforated braces added on both sides, these needed a little cleanup along the edges and some minor flash from inside the lightening holes. The fit to the bulkhead was good as were the other smaller instrument panel brackets and other items added to the bulkhead as well as the Bosch horn with is the later war round style and not the early long horn style.

The cabin floor has fine tread plate included with separate small brake, clutch and accelerator pedals plus the steering column with the steering wheel having hand grip detail on the underside and two etched column supports to be added with the column fitting through the recess in the floor for precise location of the lower steering box to the chassis.

To fit the floor you have to feed the three gear shift levers from the gearbox through the floor openings while at the same time manoeuvring around the steering wheel column with the engine bulkhead restricting movement of the floor which is all quite tricky.

I had to flex the steering column forward to manoeuvre the floor over the gear shift levers which also had to be flexed about using tweezers (taking care not to flex too far and snap them off) to fit into the floor holes and this will need a bit of care and it may be easier to fit the floor before attaching the engine bulkhead to make things a little easier? You should also leave the floor unglued until you fit the bulkhead to ensure proper mating of the parts.

The instrument panel has a separate dial cluster panel with the dial faces provided on the decal sheet as are the small data placards to add good detail to the panels. Behind the dial cluster is the additional mounting brackets and small fuel tank for added details.

The crew seat has the lower bulkhead that has the two shovel brackets from the prime mover and these should be removed with the seat and backrest having quite heavy texturing which looks dramatic but photos of the actual seats show the cushions are quite smooth in texture with few creases or other features and you may want to smooth out the kit cushions to reflect this.

At the sides are the two shortened cab side panels that are moulded thinner than the first kit thankfully without any pin marks to deal with as well as good surface details on the outside but no inner panel detail at all. Added on top between the dash board and engine firewall is the top compartment panel and care is needed to align this to the two side panels to keep the join seam as small as possible but again the fit is good.

Added to the top panel is the windshield with plastic frames and clear plastic “glass” as well as small internal wiper motors and plastic wiper blades. Attached to the cab sides are the two small position lights and larger search light with all having clear plastic lens glass.

The large rear bed moulding has nice tread plate texture included with additional mounting brackets added to the undersides. The spare wheel bay is fully enclosed at the back but the instructions don’t mention anything about added the spare wheel? Added to the bed are the full length side fenders but there are two reflectors (parts P4) shown to add at the back and these again are post war additions and you should leave these out and fill the locating holes in the fenders.

On top of the bed is a separate pedestal Flakvierling mounting but this simply doesn’t represent the correct features of the actual pedestal but there is little you can do other than hope someone provides a resin replacement for the correct pedestal.

The fold down sides for the rear bed have plastic frames with etched brass mesh but these don’t really represent the slatted style of the actual steel mesh. They do have the horizontal slats double etched and the vertical slats recessed and this does give a better impression than on other attempts to represent the proper slatted side mesh of the Sd.Kfz.7/1-2.  

The rear panel has finely moulded folding steps that again requires care removing from the sprues and these can be positioned raised or lowered depending on the position of the mesh panel. Also added to the side mesh panels are the pioneer tools that have their attachment clips and brackets moulded on and again these will probable be provided in the etched update sets to come.

2cm Flakvierling 38:

The 2cm Flak guns have a few dimensional issues in that the overall length is 1mm too long but the receiver housing is also too short resulting in the barrel tube length being nearly 2mm too long, the flash suppressor is also way over sized. The suppressor cone also does not have the small rows of holes and the neck holes are oversized as well as not being open and the only real option to correct these issues is to replace the barrels and receiver housing with any of the available brass barrels.

I have replaced the kit barrels with those from Lionmarc/Passion Models (set #LM10025) which have the front received housing as well as correct dimension barrel/flash suppressor plus the textured hand grips on the barrel tube.

The guns are mounted on the side mounting plates with the front curved gun shields as etched parts but due to the openings for the guns it is very difficult to bend the shields as they want to bend more at the thinner section at the holes and extreme care is needed with these.

The mounting plates include the elevation gradients on the left side mounting but these are a little on the heavy side and you should note that the guns are mounted inverted (or upside down) on the right mounting with those on the left mounted in the normal manner.

The main gun mounting is made up of two halves and the top curved section with additional parts for the front mounted spent shell container, this includes the correct embossed ribbing on the two circular plates either side of the container for a good appearance. The small upper gunner’s shield is provided as 7 etched parts that need care assembling due to the small size but give a nice scale appearance to the shield.

The gun mountings are free to move meaning you can show the guns in any elevation you wish to provide good variation on the final setup.

The lower mounting base is in one piece with the slatted foot rests and the racks for the 8 ready magazines on each side. These racks are made up of 7 etched parts each for nice thin sides and segment sections but there are only 7 magazine bays, not the 8 as there should be and they also lack the small brackets to allow the magazines to be reversed on the alternate bays as per the real racks. It would be very easy to add these brackets from thin card as there are excellent reference photos of the racks in the Model Art and Wings & Wheels Sd.Kfz.7 books listed below but as for the missing bay, this would require a rebuild of the racks from thin card or the like.

The etched racks also allow you to add the supplied 20 round magazines into the racks with a nice snug fit but you will need to slightly trim off some of the raised detail for a better fit as required. You only get 12 magazines for the racks and these are not that well detailed with the side ribbing being oversized and too few in number, they also lack the inspection holes on one side of the magazines.

The actual magazines in scale are 9.85mm high and 6mm wide with the kit magazines being 11.0mm high and 6mm wide to be a little high but spot on in width. The Sd.Kfz.7/1 carries 600 rounds of ammunition in the normal 40 round metal boxes (2 x 20 round magazines per box) and the kit supplies 12 ammo boxes with separate lids but these are unfortunately a bit undersized. The actual 40 round ammo box measures in scale 10.85mm high, 7.45mm long and 3.75mm deep with the kit boxes being 9mm high, 6mm long and 3.75 deep and if you wanted replacements there are quite a few available in etched metal and resin, see comparison here.

Added to the back of the mounting is the traverse and elevation assembly with separate early style hand wheels and the two part gunner’s seat with the two loader’s seats added to the side slatted outriggers. At the top of the central mounting is the large fixed sight mounting post with movable top mounting that is linked to the left gun mounting plate with a long connecting rod and this shouldn’t be attached until you decide on the final elevation of the guns.

The sight provided has the body and etched sight ring but this doesn’t represent any known sight other than being very similar to the sight in the old Tamiya Flakvierling 38 kits so really is a mystery? You would be best advised to replace this with a Flakvisier 38/40 sight from any of the early Flak 38 kits, (see comparison) to better represent the most common sight on the early Sd.Kfz.7/1.

Just a short note on the sights fitted to all Flak and other artillery pieces for that matter. These are very delicate instruments and were only fitted when the gun was in action, during transport or rest the sights were removed and safely stowed away.

If you are building a model of any artillery piece that is not in action the sight should not be fitted as we unfortunately see in a lot of models.

The two large gun shields are supplied completely in etched metal with additional inside etched bracing and lower sections as well as the inner sides but they don’t include the small folding top section. Assembling these shields would require some previous experience working with etched parts and soldering the parts together is the best option for added strength as some of the joins would be difficult to achieve using cyanoacrylate only. But the final shields give a good scale appearance to the final Flakvierling mounting and there are only a couple of bends required so most of the work is in joining the shield parts together.

Sd.Ah.51 Trailer:

Also included in the kit is a full Sd.Ah.51 Trailer to be towed behind the vehicle but unfortunately this is not the official trailer used with the Sd.Kfz.7/1 which was the larger Sd.Ah.56 Trailer to hold the additional 1800 2cm rounds for the guns.

I won’t spend a lot of time describing the trailer as it is simply not applicable here, of course anything is possible as have seen on numerous occasions during wartime but every photo I have seen of the Sd.Kfz.7/1 with trailer shows the larger Sd.Ah.56 Trailer.

Basically the Sd.Ah.51 Trailer part breakdown and detail is very similar to the trailers found in the various Flak 38 kits as is the storage box carried on the trailer frame so check the reviews and that is basically what you get.

Instructions:

These are the usual exploded view drawings which in most cases are easy to follow with most of the bloopers from the first kit instructions corrected but there are still as couple to watch out for but other than that there shouldn’t be any problems?

You should study the sequences carefully and test fit the parts before gluing given the number of parts requiring some form of trimming to get a good fit as mentioned above.

Decals:

The decal sheet is well printed with good colour register and has number plates and unit markings for 2 Luftwaffe, 1 Wehrmacht and 1 SS unit along with the instrument dials and data placards mentioned earlier.

The colour painting guide only has 5 view illustrations of one vehicle with the alternate decal options shown so you can basically make up your own paint finish if no references are available?
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Conclusion:

As with the first kit this poses a bit of a conundrum as it has some superb detail such as the full gearbox and engine plus the chassis detail and full driver’s compartment with decals for the instruments. But on the other hand are some accuracy issues that are very difficult to overcome such as the drive sprocket teeth not offset as they should be although it is good to see the tyre tread and cab sides reworked for a better appearance. Added to this are those easy to fix like the front fender rivets and rear reflectors and there is also the amount of part cleanup and assembly issues with many parts requiring trimming for a good fit.

The new Flakvierling 38 mounting again has some nice features such as the etched gun shields but the farcical gun sight and incorrect 2cm gun dimensions will need attention as will the incorrect round pedestal mounting while the incorrect trailer type included is a bit of a frustration as this could have been a real standout addition. 

But given these issues with some TLC and good old fashioned modelling skills applied an impressive kit will result as the level of detail included is impressive.

Unfortunately at the end of the day the accuracy issues overshadow the impressive detail as much of this is all but hidden after assembly leaving some work to do.

Recommended

Also see the review of the Dragon Sd.Kfz.7/1 2cm Flakvierling 38 auf Selbstfahrlafette (kit #6525) as well as a full comparison of both kits with additional construction images.

The Sprues:

Click on thumbnails for larger view
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Detail Images
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References:
2 cm Flakvierling 38
Nuts & Bolts Vol.27
book
Sd.Kfz.7 - 8 ton Zugkraftwagen Krauss-Maffei and variants
Nuts & Bolts Volume 34
Dr. Nicolaus Hettler
Book
Sd.Kfz.7 in detail
Special Museum Line No.36

Wings & Wheels Publications
ISBN 80-86416-60-7
book
Halbketten Zugkraftwagen 8t Sd.Kfz.7/1/2
AFV Super Detail Photo Vol.9
Published by Model Art Co.Ltd.
Book
Flak Auf Sd.Kfz.7
Part 1

Kagero Photosniper No.9
ISBN: 83-914824-3-X
book
Flak Selbstfahrlafetten and Flakpanzer
Panzer Tracts No.12
Doyle/Jentz
Panzer Tracks
Flak at War
Trojca Publications
Waldemar Trojca, Karlheinz Münch
ISBN: 83-60041-15-6
book
Allied & Axis No.21
Ampersand Publishing
Sd.Kfz.7, 8-ton
KM m 11 halftrack
Book
German Anti-Aircraft
Combat Vehicles
Revised Edition
Ground Power Special Feb '08
Book
Trumpeter is distributed in Australia by J.B.Wholesalers who provided the review kit.



Page created April 16, 2009
Updated April 17, 2009 (blue text)