2cm Flak 38 grouping ~ DML, Tristar, and Italeri

[Dario Risso]

Here I am, with pop corn and a Coke, watching my favorite show: Jamie's buildings!!

Darío

[David Madsen]

Ha ha, I feel the same way Dario.

[Jamie Tainton]

Thanks guys- nice to know the posts are looked at!
Sorry for the delay in getting up any updates, been distracted with the actual Sdkfz 10 that will carry one of these. It takes a certain type of concentration to get everything together and post it to make sense, this is actually a bit of work.
So the most taxing part of this builds, is comparing the PE parts which supposedly at a cost of extra money are meant to improve the kits existing details. Well this can be sickeningly not the case. I need to compare with all the different kits and the real thing so it is a bit of a pain.

For my first task I will use the Voyager set to make some "improvements" on the DML kit base.


The first thing I wanted to do was use the PE parts for the front strong point, for a better determiner, that probably was used for hoisting the unit. It is also where the Sdkfz 10/5 is mounted.
here are some composites showing a comparison between the real thing and the different kit parts. Too my eye the Dragon one has the best profile but it suffers, as do the other two kits, from the fact that it is a solid where as the real one is a hollowed out piece of shaped metal. The DML one also has weld bead details that the other two don't.

The replacement parts are folded and then soldered. The Voyager set asks you to add a cross bar in between the two side pieces with a bit of plastic rod they include. I decided to go all the way with a brass tube replacement as the real thing seems to be hollow and the plastic rod in the Voyager set is a solid.
Now this could prove difficult but using some "jigs" I was able to pull it off.
First I drilled a hole into some MDF the correct depth for the piece of brass tube, at which point I cut at the point the tube meets the surface.


Then I took one of bent and solder side piece, layed it on top of the tube and soldered it in place.










Then to get the other side on I cut two grooves into the MDF that would hold and position everything so I could soldered it all without moving, easier said than done and several attempts where made before everything looked right.












Next up the four adjustment points. The PE replacements were not very good and on looking at the photos here I have decided I will take them off and scratch something more closely resembling the real thing. Not sure what these adjust exactly but none of the kits seem to have gotten it right. I think when all is said and done with the early type plastic four point star rod knobs that come with the DML kit you get the best stock look, although the Tristar ones are definitely better than the Italeri take on this part.




There is a part included for the little storage recess at the back of the base but it too is pretty much useless,

[Jamie Tainton]

Hey Allan, wonder if you have any line drawings on the 2cm Flak 38 so I can see the angles of all the shields and such. Also any pictures showing the base without the floor grid plate ala some kind of refitting project?

[Allan Williams]

Those mounts came up great Jamie. Massive difference from the lumps that were there before.
Also keep in mind that the tightening handles located in various places around the mount had an early and late pattern. The early being the star type design and the later having the flatter tap like appearance as you've pictured above.
Not sure I understand what you want the photo of the base without the turntable for, I doubt it but I'll have a look.
The shields were 140 degrees from one another. Here's a quick grab from plans i was putting together some time ago.



The relative angle of the shields once mounted is governed by the mounting arms that attach at the top of each of the upper shields and to the rear of the bearing caps. By my reckoning this should make the angle of the lower shields 80 degrees.
Hope that's what you were looking for.
Allan

[Allan Williams]

I'm still not entirely sure what you were hoping to see in a photo of the lafette base without the turntable, but here's a portion of an image from the manual (again from Waffen Revue). It's not great which is why I didn't bother including it before.



From what I gather, they're for securing the turntable to the base and you'd never need to depict them like this, but here are some early pattern ones.
Hope this goes some way to what you're looking for. I'm sure we'll get there in the end.





Allan

[Jamie Tainton]

[Jamie Tainton]

[Jamie Tainton]

[Allan Williams]

Here's a couple of views that may better illustrate the mounts on the rear of each of the arms.



I'll see if I can have anything that gives a good idea of the shields in relation to the rest of the mount, but most of the photos I have are too close to get this overall view.

Allan