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Attack Hobby Kits 1/72 12.8 cm Flakzwilling 40 |
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Kit Number 72327 |
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Reviewed By Jim Pearsall, #2209 |
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MSRP: $56.95 USD Thanks to Attack for the review copy, and the chance to build something out of the ordinary. THE EQUIPMENT: The 12.8 cm Flakzwilling 40 was one of those concepts which efficiency experts (now known as “industrial engineers”) love. The problem: Allied aircraft over-flying the entire Reich, the Luftwaffe is unable to put a dent in the problem, and the 88mm Flak guns aren’t solving the problem either. The solution: Get a bigger gun. No, get two bigger guns. That way you only have to have one ammunition supply, one communication setup, one commander. Efficient. Only about 35 of these behemoths were built. They were installed in flak towers, as they were really too big to be mobile. There was a 12.8cm Flak single; this kit represents a pair of these, modified so the entire loading and aiming mechanism for each gun is either left or right handed, so they can serviced from the outside, without getting between the guns. |
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The Kit: The kit is all resin, except for the two turned
aluminum barrels. I was impressed by the level of detail, and the
fineness of the molding. There was some flash, but never enough to be a
problem figuring out where the part ended and the flash started. There were a few parts with bubbles, but only one of these made any difference to the assembly. The guard rails for the loader’s stand are very thin, and, it turns out, fragile. One was broken, with the fragments missing; the other had a cracked top rail. The only other real challenge to this kit was order of assembly. Since you’re working with CA glue here, putting a part in the wrong place, or putting part C in place when Part B should have been put in first can have consequences. So I spent 3 evenings carefully checking and fitting each part before gluing. And I only made 2 errors in assembly. The cylinder above the barrel was misaligned because I put it on before mounting the barrel. Also, I assembled the barrel, support, and the carriage such that the barrel assembly wouldn’t fit. That required disassembly and reassembly. As you can see, the instructions do not lead the modeler by the hand. |
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Then the good part. Everything fit great. Once I had the right gun
assembled, it looked very good, even unpainted. After having to check the fit and sequence of every part for the right gun, the left unit was a breeze. I now had a sequence, and the left gun took 3 hours instead of 3 evenings. I left the gunner seats and the loader platforms off until both guns were complete. I had some interesting moments installing the gunner seats. There are no locating items (pins, holes, slots, etc) on the foot pedals and the corresponding mount. Getting them in place and keeping them aligned while the CA set up was an exercise in patience, especially since they are tiny parts in an almost inaccessible place. I couldn’t get an applicator with accelerator in there. Thinking back, this is an excellent spot to use gel-type CA. |
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Painting was pretty straightforward. Panzer grey overall, with some dry
brushing on wear spots and silver for the hydraulic pistons. I pulled off what was IMHO, a pretty good fix for the broken railings. If you look at the left railing in the photo, there are two extra vertical pieces of resin. They are great matches for the broken parts. There wasn’t quite enough to make the entire repair, and a small length of stretched sprue was necessary, but it looks pretty good. |
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Overall Assessment: A great kit, with some “shoot yourself in
the foot” problems, which a step-by-step assembly instruction would fix.
OTOH, this is a limited run kit, and I’d rather have a kit with a higher
degree of difficulty that has good detail and good fit, and a less than
wonderful instruction sheet. I remember that Aurora always had pretty
good assembly instructions. Point made? It was nice to build something which turns the tables on the aircraft guys. They keep referring to anything that doesn’t fly as a “target”. Well, Bucko, for this one, anything that DOES fly becomes the “target”. Thanks to John Noack for a chance to do something that isn’t a target. |
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Information, images, and all other items placed electronically on this site are the intellectual property of IPMS/USA ®. |
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