Build both

You shouldn't play with fire boys. You might end up getting burned....


Nah nah nah nah..... :-) :-) :-) :-)

......actually, those paintings may as well be tossed into the fantasy section. check out this site i found

http://web.telia.com/~u18313395/normandy/articles/article.html

go to the link on the top left "The Effects of Allied Air Power." Maybe the almight air power wasn't such a killer after all.......

It would be fun to have all the Panzer IV Flak variant: Wirbelwind, Ostwind, Mobelwagen (quad 2cm and 3cm) and Kugelblitz in the campaign.

So my vote goes to the Kugelblitz

Just take a look at the effect of Il-2s, P-47s (P-51s were also used for ground attack, despite their vulnerability), etc on the outcome of the war... Or look at the Battle of the Bulge. Or the Gulf War. Air supremacy is the decisive factor most of the times. (Unless you're bombing bicycles in a jungle from 30000 feet with a B-52...)

I am currently working on a ZSU-23/2 mounted on a GAZ truck. Howevver, the kit is not really that good, so I am thinking of thinning out my stash by building the Ostwind....

take into account how difficult it was to drop a 'dumb' bomb on a target as small as a tank (relative) while flying at 250-350 miles per hour dodging ground fire at the same time.

the heaviest weapon most of the fighter bombers carried besides the bombs and rockets were .50 cal and 20mm guns, and even with armor piercing rounds, just how effective were they at punching through the kind of armor on german tanks? (im talking about tigers and panthers. pz IVs i have less confidence in) Im asking because i really dont know, and no one's sufficiently it explained for me.

Quoted Text

---

It would be fun to have all the Panzer IV Flak variant: Wirbelwind, Ostwind, Mobelwagen (quad 2cm and 3cm) and Kugelblitz in the campaign.

So my vote goes to the Kugelblitz

---

I am currently working on a ZSU-23/2 mounted on a GAZ truck. Howevver, the kit is not really that good, so I am thinking of thinning out my stash by building the Ostwind.
I cannot really find any information on it. Only a few pictures on the net and the fact that kampfgruppe Peiper should have received some for the Ardennes campaign, but probably did not after all.
Anybody know anything?

The two pictures I have seen show the same vehicle on some sort of parade ground. The vehicle has zimmerit, but that seems unlikely to be the case with all Ostwinds, as it is a very late war vehicle. Maybe the one I have seen is a rebuild of a Pz. IV. Here are the pictures I have found:

The kit seems to be a little so-so. While the turret/gun assembly looks quite good I was a little surprised to see that the chassis was kinda underdetailed on some parts. Mostly the back plate wich have the idler connectors molded in one piece (small L part and the adjusting nut), the muffler wich is molded with the protective plate molded on, etc... Another strange thing is that the kit come with the round regular muffler while the plan at the end of the instruction sheet show it with the late war style two tube mufflers. On the other hand the early war muffler would explain the zimmerit.

But I'm not a rivet counter yet so I'll probably be able to come out with something I'm happy with

Wow Jesper, you sure do work fast, I've not even cut any plastic yet.....

@Henk: Good job on the zimmerit so far. What are you using for putty? Milliput, Tamiya, Squadron?

Quoted Text

---

Wow Jesper, you sure do work fast, I've not even cut any plastic yet.....

---

Yeah, I have a busy campaign schedule. I still have four other campaigns on Aeroscale. (Tomcat, Helicopter, Down low - WWII tank busting, and Vietnam campaign)
Two of which I am running myself. However, I plan to join one more AA piece namely the Ostwind.

@Henk: Good job on the zimmerit so far. What are you using for putty? Milliput, Tamiya, Squadron?
I have only seen two pictures of the Ostwind and cannot find more. The pictures I have found I have posted earlier in this tread. Have you seen any "in action" pictures. Any pictures of any vehicles except the prototype?

As for "in action" pics of the Ostwind I have only seen one, on page 56 of Panzerwrecks 1, it shows a production version near Prague in May '45, and was built on a J chassis with a few small detail changes to the prototype apart from the lack of zimmerit.

Quoted Text

---

As for "in action" pics of the Ostwind I have only seen one, on page 56 of Panzerwrecks 1, it shows a production version near Prague in May '45, and was built on a J chassis with a few small detail changes to the prototype apart from the lack of zimmerit.

---

Hhmmm... that was what I suspected. I thought most, if not all, of the production versions would be without zimmerit. I have seen a colour profile of an overall dark yellow Ostwind without any markings or zimmerit purposely attached to "Das Reich" division. However, I am a little sceptic about it as I have not seen any pictures to back it up.

Anyway, I guess it can be build with any German camouflage one fancy and both with and without zimmerit.