Barcode: 0 89195 86746 9
Case Pack: 20 pieces per case
Box Size: 9.6" x 15" x 3.1"

Features:

• Slide-molded one-piece gun barrel w/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 platform realistically produced
• Newly designed fenders w/delicate on both top and bottom surface
• One-piece lower hull made from slide molds
• Hull bottom has full and correct details
• One-piece DS tracks produced
• Injection-molded om-vehicle tools w/clasps
• Final-drive housing w/separate armored cover
• Sprocket wheels w/breathtaking detail and multiple delicate parts
• Idler wheels w/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 3.7cm 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 in any one of several different angles depending on whether the modeler has an aerial or ground target in view. The hull also carries a readymade 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.

-Reviews-

Flakpanzer IV Ostwind Ausf.G w/Zimmerit
Manufacturer: Dragon Models
Scale: 1/35
Material: Styrene, Etched Brass & Vinyl
Serial Number: 6746
Price: TBA

Dragon:

With Allied aircraft increasingly dominating the skies over Europe as WWII progressed, there was a need for more effective self-propelled anti-aircraft 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 3.7cm FlaK43 cannon mounted inside a hexagonal turret. The turret was open-topped to allow fumes to dissipate. The turret rotated 360 degrees, 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 chassis.

Kit Contents

As you would perhaps have expected, this one is another of the very full box types of kits from Dragon, by virtue of the inclusion of many different sprues from various other related earlier releases, with many of their parts being marked as 'not for use'. Whilst there are obviously many parts over for your spares box, we are paying for plastic we're not going to be using in the build?
As a modern state of the art kit in terms of engineering, and being from Dragon, then there are lots of features we would expect to see, therefore we are supplied with a superb one-piece barrel for the 3.7cm gun, with slide-moulded flash suppressor, exceptionally thin moulding to represent the upper armour on the turret, and one-piece, tan-coloured vinyl tracks. Although that last one is a huge step backward in my view. More on those in a minute.

The construction of the kit begins with the assembly of the various running gear sompnents onto the one-piece, slide-moulded lower hull. Two-piece drive sprockets and idler wheels, superbly detailed roadwheels with tyre manufacturers logo on the sidewall, separate final drive housings....and those tracks. As almost everybody knows by now, they can be cemented with ordinary styrene cement. As far as I know, styrene cement may well represent the only chance you'll have of actually being able to clean up the flash on them and therefore be able to use them too. The unfortunate thing with vinyl is that you really don't need that much flash in order to make them completely unusable, since trying to remove the flash is virtually impossible. The result is, if you're thinking of getting this kit...buy some aftermarket tracks at the same time.
The lower hull, along with various sections of add-on armour and various other parts, are produced with moulded on Zimmerit texture...something Dragon excel at, and which other manufacturers have yet to crack. The Zimmerit pattern they produce on their latest releases is far removed from what se saw on the first couple of pre-Zimmerit kits they released. What we're presented with now is an extremely subtle, worn looking and damaged pattern, completely to scale.
All the various hatches on the vehicle are of course supplied as separate parts, and can therefore be displayed opened or closed, although there are no internal details supplied for the model apart from a fighting compartment floor that sits beneath the hexagonal open-topped turret and can therefore be seen. The fenders supplied in the kit have treadplate pattern and detail on both upper and lower surfaces, with all the various on-vehicle tools supplied with moulded clamps, with no etched alternatives provided. There is a couple of etched fender support brackets provided though.

The 3.7cm Flak 43 main gun is almost a kit in itself, being fully detailed, as it of course would need to be on a model of an open turreted vehicle such as this. The barrel, flash suppressor and body of the gun are provided as one slide-moulded part, around which all the other detail is constructed. Although the small holes on the flash suppressor itself are moulded solid, they are well defined, and should you wish to, they could easily be drilled through with a 0.2mm drill bit. The detail includes an etched mesh for the spent round collector, which fits onto an injection moulded frame, and of course in addition to being able to rotate, the gun itself can be elevated or depressed. The turret walls themselves are provided in a semi-rigid polycarbonate shell for protection, since they are exceptionally thin. The front four wall sections are provided as one part, whilst the rear two walls are in the second part to facilitate easier construction and painting.
There are four marking schemes illustrated on the instructions, all of which are three-colour camouflage schemes and three of which are of unidentified examples.

Conclusion
I seriously like these kits. I'd seriously like them more of Dragon ditched the vinyl tracks. I understand that there are (supposedly) modellers that prefer vinyl tracks. I don't think I've met any of them, but I'm prepared to believe in them. The thing is...if they're well manufactured, I'd still prefer individual links, but would have to concede that they can look ok. Any flash whatsoever though, and they're useless. Apart from the tracks, it's a wonderful kit again!

Vinnie Branigan