I'm working on the Tristar flakpanzer 38(t) and does anybody know what part B32 is?



thanks in advance

Matt,
I am not sure but my best guess would be a spare 20mm barrel or a cleaning rod for the gun. Either would be too long to fit inside the vehicle so having it stored externally would make sense to me. Hopefully others with more knowledge of this vehicle can provide further info.
HTH
John

Could be a cleaning rod indeed...The spare barrels are stored in a long box that fits across the front of the compartment :



H.P.

With the engine mounted centrally, could it be an extension for the starter handle?

It's more likely to be a cleaning rod, although I suspect that, as a plastic part, it's out of scale to make it strong enough not to snap before the model gets built, since 20mm is less than an inch in diameter. On German tanks with longer guns, you'll typically see either three or four screw-together sections clamped to the side/top of the hull, or a canister with screw-off ends holding the sections (on the Panther and Jagdpanther).

You'd want to keep replacement barrels clean and protected from rust, so clamping one to the side of the vehicle isn't likely.

Asked a friend of mine- big fan of Panzerwaffe-and this is what he told me:
The part in question must be the container for the spare antenna:
-such containers were present on both the Grille(Sd.Kfz.138/1) and the Marder Ausf.M(Sd.Kfz.138), which carried bigger guns and needed bigger(wider) cleaning rods.
-antennas were always carried/delivered in containers
-the container was funnel-shaped on the backside(towards the rear of the vehicle)so the wider antenna mount could be slid in.
-the clamps were needed to securely attach the container to the hull.

Yeah I found directions for the tristar Marder iii and it has the same part, as well as separate cleaning rod, so yes it looks like it's for storing the spare antenna. Thanks to everyone for your help.