Features:
- Slide-molded one-piece gun barrel with hollow muzzle
- detailed photo-etched catcher for spent shells
- Gun sight cover can be assembled open/closed
- 2-directional slide-molded turret authentically produced
- Extra-thin top edge on turret armor
- turret ring accurately produced
- Gun machine platforms are realistically produced
- Newly designed fenders with delicate on both top and bottom surface
- One-piece lower hull made from slide molds
- The hollow bottom has full and correct details
- One-piece DS tracks produced
- Injection-molded om-vehicle tools with clamps
- Final-drive housing with separate armored cover
- Sprocket wheels with breath-taking detail and multiple delicate parts
- Idler wheels with correctly detailed parts
Road wheels and suspension exhibit extreme detail
With Allied aircraft increasingly dominating the skies over Europe as WWII progressed, there was a need for more effective self-propelled antiaircraft guns. One solution was the Flakpanzer IV/3.7cm Flak, a vehicle nicknamed Ostwind, or “East Wind” by the Germans. In August 1944, an order was placed for 100 Ostwind vehicles, with this vehicle featuring a more capable 3.7-cm FlaK43 cannon mounted inside a hexagonal turret. The turret was open-topped to allow fumes to dissipate. The turret rotated 360�, and the quick-firing gun could be used with equal devastation against both air and ground targets. A crew of six operated the 25-tonne Ostwind, and a total of 43 such weapons were produced, mostly on rebuilt Panzer IV tank chassis.
Dragon has produced a fantastic 1/35 scale plastic kit of the Flakpanzer IV Ostwind. Owing to the turret being open-topped, all the relevant details on the gun and inside the turret are well represented. The cannon is particularly well defined and the barrel can be posed from any one of several different angles, depending on whether the modeler has an aerial or ground target in view. The hull also carries a ready-made Zimmerit coating that is masterfully represented. Inside the box, modelers will find many slide-molded plastic components. This latest kit from Dragon allows modelers to create the Flakpanzer IV Ostwind that was used by Flugabwehrzug (antiaircraft platoons) to protect units from marauding aircraft late in the war.