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Sdkfz 10/5 Flak 38

Rear Deck and Flak 38

With the front half of the vehicle done, it was now time to turn to the business end of things…the rear deck and Flak 38. The rear deck plate had several ejector marks visible on the underside so these were puttied and sanded down to eliminate them. The rear Notek light was added along with the Eduard PE mount for it and the kit-supplied mud flaps replaced with the Eduard items for better detail. Since the DML Flak 38 base mount had different dimensions from the Italeri parts, I didn’t open up the holes in the deck as called for in the instructions because those holes would’ve been in the wrong locations. The rear deck was then installed onto the lower hull and the front bracing rail and side connectors added.

The Italeri kit provides the option of having the mesh side extensions for the fighting platform in either the raised or lowered positions. I opted for the raised position and assembled each of the panels with this in mind. Instead of the over-scale Italeri plastic/vinyl mesh, I used the Eduard mesh inserts for each panel. The Eduard mesh was installed using careful applications of liquid glue and gentle pressure with a wooden toothpick to avoid damaging the mesh in the process. The side ammo bins for the 2.0cm clips were also added and the panels installed to the rear deck.

That now led me to the “kit within the kit” for this project, the DML 2.0cm Flak 38. The DML kit’s detail is far superior to that of the Italeri parts so the Flak 38 was replaced wholesale as a result. I followed the DML instruction order and assembled the base of the Flak 38, adding all the small details along the way. The DML styrene barrel was replaced with an Armorscale aluminum barrel with pre-formed brass muzzle flash suppressor and the Armorscale barrel fitted to the base of the gun with CA gel after drilling out the necessary hole for its mounting pin. I left the actual barrel itself separate from the mount to facilitate detail painting later on.

The remainder of the Flak 38 was assembled with the gun in the 20 degrees of elevation angle to allow the gun to fit properly on the bed of the Sdkfz 10. I used the DML provided pre-formed brass shields for the main splinter shields as well as the shield around the gunner’s sight. The main shields had to be re-bent slightly to get the right angle and were secured in place with CA gel. The spent shell catcher basket was constructed using the DML-supplied brass mesh and pre-formed two-part half-moon lower portion. The brass mesh was carefully annealed over a gas flame and bent to shape and glued in position with CA gel to form the necessary shape. Last but not least, I drilled out the ground targeting scope for the gunner with a pin vise and did a test fit of the gun in the bed to insure everything would play nice later on. The gun itself was not yet installed to the bed to allow for separate painting and weathering.