Hi all !

Does somebody know the shield thickness for the Flak 38 / 43 / 36 guns in 1:1 ?
I am curious how thick they are , and the existing photo etched sets are not too thin for this guns ?

Thanks
Karoly

I'd say either 5mm or 7mm. They were splinter shields, to be used as protection against shrapnel and some small arms fire, that's all.

The aftermarket guys have it correct -- even too thick, to be frank.


Here are pics of an 8.8cm Flak 18
http://svsm.org/gallery/88mm-Flak-18_aberdeen

Here are pics of an 8.8cm Flak 37
http://www.primeportal.net/artillery/gunther_neumahr/flak_36/

All:

IF those splinter shields were, say, 7mm thick (= about 0.28 US inch, or slightly more than 1/4 inch), the true thickness of a 1/35 - scale shield would be right around 0.008 inch, or 8 * 1/1000 of an inch.

And of course, if those shields were only 5mm thick, they would be perhaps slightly more than 5 * 1/1000 inch thick in 1/35.

PE is usually around 0.003 - 0.005 or so in thickness, which would make it a little too thin for the 5mm shield, and way too thin for a 7mm shield.

IF I was modeling these shields, I would do so using 0.01 styrene sheet for ease of handling, and accept the slightly too-thick result. 0.005 styrene sheet is way too flabby for making such a large shield object. From about any observer's eye, the 0.01 styrene would be quite realistically thin for a 1/35th scale model.

If instead those shields were actually closer to 12 or 13mm - a pretty common splinter shield thickness - then the scale piece should be over 0.01 inch... maybe up to 0.015. Still pretty thin and doable if using sheet styrene - but if using brass, this would be real "armour plate", and tough as heck to work!

Cheers!

Bob

Thanks for the fast answer !

I read in somewhere that the flak shield is 6mm in the edges and 9mm in the middle part. So it seems this thickness is ok accordning your post

Thanks a lot !