Bronco CB35057 – 2cm Flakvierling 38 mit Sd.Ah.52
One thing I always liked about the German approach to anti-aircraft weaponry was that they seemed to have a philosophy that if one gun was good, two must be better and three better still resulting in various zwilling, drilling and of course vierling combinations. Though I guess it must be said that the 2cm Flakvierling came about more as an attempt to imrove the performance of the 2cm round against more contemporary aircraft than a case of making a good thing better.
This kit comes in a large tray and lid style box ( surprisingly large when you’re used to the old Tamiya Flakvierling kit which was about quarter the size ) on seven dark yellow sprues, four of which are two duplicates ( of which one pair are just smallish sprues ). There is also a small photo etched fret and the instructions printed on heavy glossy paper.
The mould quality is excellent with almost completely clean parts and almost non existant mould seams, very sharp detail and some particularly fine and delicate detailing. I did say almost, as you will still need to remove the mould seams even though they are very faint. Bronco have managed to provide a lot of detail in a lot of parts for what is overall a simple piece of equipment that is not overly large. Construction is very simple and the instructions are easy to follow being the clear line diagram style with well thought out breakdowns of the assembly sequence.
The Gun is quite nicely detailed, and while it does overall give the impression of a small kit do keep in mind that the completed gun is similar in size to a Pz.Kpfw.II tank. The detail is very well done being nice and crisp. There are a few areas that the truely anal will want to address as they are a little over scale, mainly the main box where the sides are exposed beside the gunner’s feet and around the spent shell ejection chute where a little filler and a bit of thinning down is required. personally I also think the gunner’s foot pedals are a bit lacking in definition as well as being a bit thick but this is easily addressed with some minor surgery or aftermarket photo etch sets.
The sight can be built using the plastic one or a slightly more detailed photo etch one, though it is a little odd in that it appears to be half a Schwebekreisvisier 30/38 sight, having the large rear ring but completely missing the horizontal arm and smaller front sight. If acuracy is important to you I’d replace it with either the Griffon Flakvisier 40 sight for an early version or if you’re going to replace the shields get the Griffon detail set which includes a Linealvisier 21 for a later version.
The barrels are a single piece with the fllash hiders moulded as part of the barrel. For plastic barrels these are quite well done with the textured grip on the lower end and the slots and holes in the barrel present, although the flash hider is not completely hollow and the holes don’t go though but rather are fine indentations. With a pin-vice, small drill and a steady hand these could be bought up very nicely, alternately they can just be replaced with aftermarket turned metal barrels.
The gun mount is also very well done, though there are a few minor injector pin marks to compete with and although you have the option of having the gun deployed or in travel mode there aren’t really the options supplied for the travel mode as the seats need to be modified and the latches for holding the foot boards in the upright position are missing, even though you can position them either up or down, so these would need to be made from scratch. Other than that the platform is as good as any other Flakvierling 38 kit out there and better than a couple of them.
The shields are cleanly moulded, though they are a little thick, but about as thin as feasible in this medium, scaling out at around 20mm thick. They do look good and have some very nice detail so would be difficult to thin down while preserving the delicate bolt detail so the truely bloody minded will have to resort to PE I’m afraid. If you stick with the kit shields the instructions detail where they need to be cut to model them open for the travel position.
As for ammo there are the four magazines with moulded on magwell frames intended for mounting on the gun as well as sixteen individual magazines that can be mounted into the eight slots each side of the platform or used around the gun as desired ( these are moulded with a nicely done round in the lips ready to load ). These guns ate through ammo so if you intend to use this in a setting ready for action you’d be well advised to stock up on any of the decent aftermarket magazines ( there are many to choose from ). There are also four 2-mag boxes which can be modelled open and with a little work can hold two of the magazines ( the sides will need heavy thinning down to both accept the magazine and look to scale ).
Also included is two spare barrel cases, each with two spare barrels, though in this kit the barrels are moulded integrally into the bottom of the box. This does allow you to model them open but the definition is nowhere near as good as it could have been if the barrels had come as seperate pieces.
The Sd.Ah.52 Carriage is a mainly on one large sprue with the wheels and smaller fittings on two smaller ones ( two of the same sprue ). The main frame is moulded in two halves – top and bottom – which allows for maximum detail and minimal seams. The correct brake lever is included though you’ll need to add your own cable, and the mudguards even come with mudflaps. This of course can be modelled with the gun mounted for transit or with the gun deployed.
There are no decals included in this kit which is somewhat surprising when you consider Bronco’s 3.7cm FlaK comes with a small generic set of kill marking decals which would work just as well with this kit.
Overall this is a very nice kit that builds up into a very nice looking piece of anti-aircraft artillery. I do feel that this one is a little let down in a few areas, and Bronco don’t seem to have gone the route of adding as many extra value bits to this that they have to some of their other recent kits. For that reason although this is a very nice kit in its own right if you’re looking for the best of the available 2cm Flakvierling 38 kits my money is still on the AFV Club version.
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