Tristar (!) Flakpanzer Ia - available from HoBo now

2020 Anti Aircraft Group Build. Campaign runs from 01/01/20 - to 31/12/20. Campaign medals awarded for models completed within those dates.
User avatar
Raoul Kunz
Senior Site Contributor.....
Senior Site Contributor.....
Posts: 1655
Joined: 20 Jul 2014, 01:16
Location: Karben, next to Frankfurt, HRE

Tristar (!) Flakpanzer Ia - available from HoBo now

Post by Raoul Kunz »

Alright - a GB - yay - let's start with something that has been suggested - and not interrupt every sentence with stream-of-consciousness-bars.... :oops: :lol:

Aaaaaaalright - on topic now!

It's a Flakpanzer I, developed after experiences in the Battle of France but only available in time for Barbarossa and only in small numbers - 24 in total and all concentrated in Fla.-Btl.(mot) 614 which translates to "Motorized Flak Battalion 614".
Used for several reasons (Red Air Force mostly destroyed right out at the start of Barbarossa, not ALL that useful in this mounting against aircraft to begin with...) primarily against soft ground targets - much like other vehicles sporting the various versions of 2cm auto-cannons it's a supremely great meat-grinder against troops and unarmoured or only lightly armoured vehicles - and as we all know those two targets are the majority of things present in numbers on the battlefields of the early 40s...
Oh and the unit was completely annihilated in the Stalingrad-pocket having already lost most of it's Flakpanzer Ia over the course of Blue...
Might be an effect of my Eastern Front affinity, but I feel that I quite frequently end up building vehicles for units that have been completely annihilated (StuG Abteilung 243 exempli gratia...) or revived after annihilation with new hardware and new personnel... aww well... that's the eastern theatre for you... WH40k in real life ... ;)

Anyhow - this is a Tristar kit i.e. it has a ton of itsy-bitsy-tiny-small parts, most of it plastic, and a fairly soft one at that but with sharp detail and some etch.
Today available from HoBo.

Image
Image

I went through the innards ( ;) ) in this kit for the Ia pretty quickly - Tristar has pretty (okay... really, got worse in the last kits) good fit, so the very fiddly parts are way less of a problem than one would suppose.
I decided to keep the Möbelwagen-esque platform elements up in travel mode as I will have this one towing it's trailer (ajnd yes, it has a Flak 38

Image
Image
Image

So far so good, let's see if the 2cm Flak 38 will work without AM...
I actually might have a 2cm barrel somewhere around here... haven't kept order all that much the last months - here's how my work...desk..place...thingy has been looking for the last months... :oops: :lol: =>
Image

That's it for now.


Best regards

Raoul G. Kunz
~fiat iustitia aut pereat mundus~

Completed Campaigns:
ImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImage

User avatar
Steve Hutchinson
Senior Site Contributor.....
Senior Site Contributor.....
Posts: 2263
Joined: 20 Jul 2014, 08:27
Location: Bradford West Yorkshire, UK

Re: Tristar (!) Flakpanzer Ia - available from HoBo now

Post by Steve Hutchinson »

Wooow!!!!!

That is serious progress Raoul

It took me weeks to get that far and I am still making the PE sides at the moment!

What is Scho-Ka-Kola?

Mine is a Flak 30 though with even more PE.

Looks like you are back with gusto.

Have fun

Steve H
""I need to be creative, to feel ALIVE!""

Completed Campaigns:
ImageImageImageImageImageImageImage

User avatar
Philipp Gross
Site Admin/Founder
Posts: 5122
Joined: 19 Jul 2014, 23:40
Location: Frankfurt
Contact:

Re: Tristar (!) Flakpanzer Ia - available from HoBo now

Post by Philipp Gross »

Excellent choice Raoul! :D I have the same stashed away somewhere.

Steve, Scho-ka-Kola is a German dark chocolate with ground coffee beans and lots of caffeine added. It's been around since the mid 1930s and was very popular during WW2.

Philipp
Completed Campaigns:
ImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImage

Adam Durrant
Senior Site Contributor.....
Senior Site Contributor.....
Posts: 1791
Joined: 22 Apr 2016, 05:41
Location: Auckland, NZ

Re: Tristar (!) Flakpanzer Ia - available from HoBo now

Post by Adam Durrant »

Quite a lot of detail packed into a little package :)
I'm a serial kit starter....
Completed Campaigns:
ImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImage

User avatar
Steve Hutchinson
Senior Site Contributor.....
Senior Site Contributor.....
Posts: 2263
Joined: 20 Jul 2014, 08:27
Location: Bradford West Yorkshire, UK

Re: Tristar (!) Flakpanzer Ia - available from HoBo now

Post by Steve Hutchinson »

Thanks Philipp

it looks like a lip balm tin, but certainly has a more useful contents.

Regards

Steve H
""I need to be creative, to feel ALIVE!""

Completed Campaigns:
ImageImageImageImageImageImageImage

User avatar
Raoul Kunz
Senior Site Contributor.....
Senior Site Contributor.....
Posts: 1655
Joined: 20 Jul 2014, 01:16
Location: Karben, next to Frankfurt, HRE

Re: Tristar (!) Flakpanzer Ia - available from HoBo now

Post by Raoul Kunz »

Thanks Steve and Adam - and Pille for clearing the confusion about the Scho-ka-kola ;) .

All right... I've apparently chosen the greatest possible kit for a return... like last time :lol: .

The kit is broken, simply and true - you can not build a Flakpanzer I from this kit. Period. :shock:

Okay, a bit more to the point: The Flak included with this kit has atrocious instructions... they essentially are unusable because they lack something like 4 or 5 steps and the parts are subsequently misleadingly numbered.
But this would be only really annoying if actually all parts would be, oh I don't know... there...
Spoiler: they aren't... and those that are are partially wrong.

Here's the instructions of the kit =>
Image

And here's the instructions of my Flak 38 late from the same manufacturer (and - for the most part - the exactly same kit) =>
Image
Image

Notice the slightly more detailed instructions? :roll: :?

As if this wasn't bad enough (after all I have the instructions from the other kit, so meh, right?) there are crucial parts missing.... yes missing... and to make it better it's etch... =>
Image

Notice the etched joint for the synchronized optics? It's not there... here's a photo of the etch included in the kit...
Image

So this honestly leads me to...err.. dig out the other Flak 38 and and prepare to make some minor changes to the optics. =>
Image


Am I cursed? :lol:


Best regards

Raoul G. Kunz
~fiat iustitia aut pereat mundus~

Completed Campaigns:
ImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImage

User avatar
Steve Hutchinson
Senior Site Contributor.....
Senior Site Contributor.....
Posts: 2263
Joined: 20 Jul 2014, 08:27
Location: Bradford West Yorkshire, UK

Re: Tristar (!) Flakpanzer Ia - available from HoBo now

Post by Steve Hutchinson »

O'hhh, that looks like a really messed up Flak 30, Raoul!

Looks like I might have some spare bits with all the Voyager PE, but they all seems to be shields and plating not optics?

How can they be so wrong?

Is Philipp's the same as he has one in his stash too!

Will you just butcher the "other" one for the Flak 1 or walk away?

The Pz IA part id OK, isn't it?

Perhaps something more relaxing?

The 1/35 Dora, perhaps LOL

I am sure it will work out and enjoy whatever you choose to do.

Best regards

Steve H
""I need to be creative, to feel ALIVE!""

Completed Campaigns:
ImageImageImageImageImageImageImage

User avatar
Philipp Gross
Site Admin/Founder
Posts: 5122
Joined: 19 Jul 2014, 23:40
Location: Frankfurt
Contact:

Re: Tristar (!) Flakpanzer Ia - available from HoBo now

Post by Philipp Gross »

Ouch. I need to check my kit, as far as I know I have the Hobby Boss reissue.

Is there the other, box-shaped type of visor included in either kit? Could be an alternative?

Philipp
Completed Campaigns:
ImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImage

User avatar
Raoul Kunz
Senior Site Contributor.....
Senior Site Contributor.....
Posts: 1655
Joined: 20 Jul 2014, 01:16
Location: Karben, next to Frankfurt, HRE

Re: Tristar (!) Flakpanzer Ia - available from HoBo now

Post by Raoul Kunz »

I was thinking about re-painting the last one and be done with it, grumpy as I was at that point, but I suppose it would be a wiser choice to order another Flak 38 or 30 from HoBo and just ignore the kit parts... :lol:

Oh and it should have the older square closed optics of course...

Might do something else entirely in the meantime so I don't get the impression that everything I start after a pause is completely cursed... :lol:

The Panzer I though was a blast... while it lasted ... might just do the Ia I have here to get rid of the bad taste... :lol:


Best regards

Raoul G. Kunz
~fiat iustitia aut pereat mundus~

Completed Campaigns:
ImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImage

User avatar
Shawn Ramsey
Senior Site Contributor.....
Senior Site Contributor.....
Posts: 1987
Joined: 20 Jul 2014, 00:26

Re: Tristar (!) Flakpanzer Ia - available from HoBo now

Post by Shawn Ramsey »

Wow. Can it get can worse?? :o I always thought Dragon had the worst instructions. I guess I was wrong.

Shawn
Completed Campaigns:
ImageImage

Post Reply