Dragon

1/35 Sd.Kfz 161/4 2cm Flakpanzer IV Wirbelwind - Smart Kit

Kit Number: 6540

Reviewed by  Andy Renshaw, IPMS# 35806

MSRP: $49.95 Website: www.dragonmodelsusa.com Flakpanzers and self-propelled flak guns was one of the items WW2 Germany developed a lot of. Starting with mounting them on Panzer 1 and cargo trucks, all the way to fully tracked self-propelled 88mm guns, Germany came out with the widest variety of self-propelled flak artillery in the war. Many were field modifications, but several were purpose built using existing components. One of these was the Sd.Kfz 161/4 Wirbelwind, or "whirlwind". Dragon's brand new kit is a very welcome addition to the Panzer IV lineup and is a happy replacement for the very aged Taymia offering from decades ago. However there are some tweaks and issues that one should be aware of when diving into this kit. I want to give a very general overview of what you get in the box, then spend some time on what you don't get…and some various options to explore using this kit. Then dive into the build itself. In the Box In the kit you get 942 parts total including Magic Track individual links: late style 40cm with solid guide horn and ice cleat plus 1 etched fret with 59 parts, a clear sprue, some steel wire and decals for four marking options. The kit uses sprues from their recent #6300 Panzer IV H "late" kit for the hull. That said, I won't go into too much about that, as there are excellent reviews that cover kit #6300. I will say that detail is excellent, and it is an easy, albeit long build but still simpler than dragons earlier Panzer IV kits. It does give a very detailed base for the Wirbelwind, however it may not be the most common variant. More on that later. For the top, you get the excellent sprues of the 20mm Flakvierling from the Sdkfz 7/1 kit, minus the shields. You also receive a kit specific sprue that contains the gun traverse mount, a new internal bulkhead, fuel tanks, and some other Wirbelwind specific details including spare barrel boxes. The icing of the kit is the beautiful turret which is cast in two parts vertically. The joint is done right on a corner, with excellent fit, so there will be virtually no clean up needed here. Weld beads are seen on the inside and outside. The real treat is how thinly cast the turret is, and comes packed on its own plastic cradle for protection from warping and breakage. Lined up with scale drawings in Panzer Tracts 12 "Flak selbstfahrlafetten and Flakpanzer…" it scales out perfectly. At last a decent Wirbelwind turret! For those wanting to populate the spares box, you will not be disappointed. Since dragon used entire sprues from their other Panzer IV kits, you will have some leftover items such as turret parts (minus the main shell), extra idlers, and a host of other small parts you can use to dress up some other brands Pzkfw IV kits. What we Really Have! So with all this great improvements and detail, there are some things to be aware of when making an accurate Wirbelwind. As mentioned before, what is in the box may not be the most common variant of a Wirbelwind. First a little background on the vehicles. Records vary as to how many were actually produced, and I've seen numbers from as low as 87 up to 122 total between May and November of 1944. Of these, most were rebuilt Pzkfw IV G chassis that came from damaged or rotated out tanks from the front. These were fixed up with remaining Panzer IV parts, modified with a Wirbelwind turret and then sent back out with Flugabwehrzug units. Because of this, Wirbelwinds are seen with a hodgepodge of parts from Ausf G's and H's, but from what I have seen in photos, mostly Ausf G parts. Some variations include: Bolt on additional front armor from mid production Panzer IV G. All three types of return rollers (rubber rim, all steel w/ rib, and all steel no rib). Pressed or welded sprocket. Early or late road wheel hubs. Early or later front tow hooks. 40cm track with either open or closed guide teeth, with most without ice cleats. Zimmerit. One photo in Concord's #7022 "German Self-propelled Guns" shows a very late Wirbelwind with the vertical exhausts. Again, from what I've seen in photos, the most common seemed to be a Panzer IV G chassis with early road wheel hubs, non-ice cleat track with open guide teeth, pressed steel sprocket (Pz IV G) and either rubber rimed or steel return rollers, and zimmerit. Second would be based on a Pz IV H but with armored road wheel hubs, such as what is on the box art, and zimmerit again.

Many have noticed that what is in the kit is not what is depicted on the box art. No zimmerit is included, so you are on your own on that one. Also the box art shows rubber rimmed return rollers and the early road wheel hubs, neither of which are included in this kit. Now it seems that Dragon based the whole kit on the example at the Worthington Tank Museum at CFB Borden in Ontario, Canada. This example has all the features the kit does, such as the Pz IV H with late style road wheel hubs. I found one wartime photo with what looks like the later style road wheel hubs, but the image is poor and I am not certain, however it has rubber rimed return rollers. The Build After discovering the variations and poring over photos, I decided that I wanted to use the kit to model one of the more comon variants based on the Ausf G chasis with zimmerit. Doing that would require some extra parts that are not in the kit, mostly a complete Ausf G lower hull, rear plate, and runnning gear including tracks. So I ordered a Dragon #6363 Pz IV G kit. I used this one vs. the older tooled kit as all of Dragons recent Pz IV kits assemble the same, and in many cases share common parts, such as the basic lower hull. This would alow me to easily add the Wirbelwind parts. Both the Wirbelwind's kit, which is a Ausf H, and the Ausf G kit assemble identicaly. The kits just include different roadwheel hubs, parts for the rear plate, and drive sprockets. Be ready to spend several evenings on this portion as this is the most time consuming portion of assembly. Many of the parts also need clean up of mold seams, including the roadwheels. I found it was faster to assemble the wheels into their pairs, then clean the seam of both at the same time. A lot of parts are covered in those first six steps of instruction, but the end result is a very detailed lower hull. It's in Step 9 that you start seeing the Wirbelwind parts being used with the instalation of the interior parts. The hull provided in the kit has small molded marks to properly align the turret base. If you are using a Ausf G hull, you will need to carefully measure the correct location as the G hull doesn't have any marks. Other than that the assembly is painless and the fit is very good. Add to it all the On Vehicle Equipment and tools along with a sprinkling of the photo etch provided, and you will have a very detailed complete hull that needs no aftermarket to look good. As mentioned, the Flakveirling provided in the kit has been seen in the Sdkfz 7/1 kit and is a engineering work of art. Assembliy is full of parts, but working methodicly through the instructions will yeld a nicely detailed set of 20mm guns. One small error is in step 14 with the location of part A31. The instructions show an arrow linning up the front of part A31 with a hole located on the side of part A17. This hole is for part A16 later, but A31 should be lined up between the molded on brackets on A17.

With the turret, the instructions have you assemble the turret halves first, then install ammo racks D1 and D2. I strongly suggest fitting these racks before assembling the turret halves as it is a little tricky getting them in with the turret assembled. Finishing up and Zimmerit Final assembly is straight forward, and unlike some other panzer IV kits, the tracks are added during the last step. The kit provides "handed" tracks, with one side being in light grey and the other being in darker grey. For Zimmerit, you could use an appropriate aftermarket set for either a Ausf H if using the kit provided hull, or for a Ausf G if you go the route I did. Instead I opted to make my own, using acrylic paste that is available in art and craft stores, usualy found near the acrylic artist paints. Several types are available, but find one that has little or no texture. The paste will stick to the bare plastic very well, and dry fairly hard. Mixing a little talcum or baby powder in with it will help thicken the paste a bit to hold its shape while forming. To use, simply spread on a thin coat over the surface, then use a zimmerit tool like those made by Tamiya or one as provided in the Cavalier zimmerit sets. Just rake the paste into shape cleaning the tool frequently. You could also use a short section of micro saw blade as well. If you don't like how a section is turing out, just wipe the paste off with a rag or finger and try again. Once dry it can be removed with a knife in small areas if needed to add additional parts. Painting and finishing For markings you get four vehicles, all variations of Dark Green and Red-Brown on Dark yellow, with two of those having some worn or partial white winter overspray. Only one is called out for a specific unit, the others being "unidentified". I painted the camoflage using Lifecolor paint through an airbrush, followed by the usual washes and drybrushing. Markings are fairly generic, so I applied the one cross to the rear plate and left it at that. A final flat coat and the vehicle is basicly done. I will later add some mud and also a bit of scale folliage for camouflage. Conclusions It would have been nice for Dragon at the very least to include the sprues for the rubber rimmed return rollers and early style road wheel hubs so that we can at least match the kit to existing photos. Better yet, I would have liked to have seen them do this on their Panzer IV G kit, and include later options, such as steel return rollers and late sprocket. This would have been a much more common vehicle and given the modeler a full choice of options. The Panzer IV H parts could have been saved for the pending Ostwind (and maybe a future 3.7cm Mobelwagen?) An oddity is their inclusion of the late style cast idler wheel and showing it as an option in the instructions -- I have never seen any Wirbelwind photos with this style idler. So with all that, I still must say this is a great kit for what is in the box, but its unfortunate that for all the research Dragon put into this, they would have taken some extra effort and given the modeler some more common options out of the box…including some zimmerit! This could have made a natural 2n1 or 3n1 boxing. Maybe they have a plan on releasing a Panzer IV G based Wirbelwind under the Cyber Hobby label, especially if they do a zimmerit coated Panzer IV G, and then use that hull in a later release. We can only hope. For now enjoy a new tooled Wirbelwind, as I still highly recommend this kit to any Flakpanzer fan Thanks to Dragon Models USA and IPMS for the review sample. References: Jentz, Thomas L. & Doyle, Hilary Louis. PANZER TRACTS No.12 - Flak selbstfahrlafetten and Flakpanzer - Sd.Kfz.10/4 to 8.8 cm Flak auf VFW. Darlington (MD) : Darlington Productions, 1998. Rottman, Gordon. Armor at War #7022-German Self-Propelled Guns: Self Propelled Artillery, Anti-tank, and Anti-aircraft guns. Concord Publications, 2005.