introduction

The 2cm flak 38 was an improved version of the Flak 30. Rheinmetall Borsig improved the rate of fire of the gun from 120 RPM to 220 and the gun had a lower weight. Still the army and Luftwaffe were never really convinced of the 2cm AA guns with its limited range, certainly when compared to the 37mm AA guns that were made from the 20’s which delivered a larger caliber and effective height range.

Rheinmetall answered to this with a new version of the 20mm by making it a vierling, a development that happened in a very short time. This was enough to make the 20mm Flak competitive again against its 37mm counterpart. The effective height at which it could shoot was 2200 meters and was therefore used extensively against low flying aircraft.

With the market nowadays being flooded with Flak kits, and vehicles that somehow carry flaks, or are towing flaks, it is only logical that every after market manufacturer tries to hook onto the hype and start producing aftermarket details for them. And Voyager is no exception here.

contents

The barrels come in a nice transparent blister package measuring 8 cm high, 6 cm wide and 1 cm deep. Inside you will find two bags; one with 4 PE frets and the other with all sorts of turned metal parts, along with a small instruction sheet. I will refer to the bags as bag “A” and bag “B”

Bag A:
In bag A you will find all the turned metal parts. Its contents consist of 4 x barrels turned out of aluminum, 4 x flash suppressors turned from brass, 4 x shells with bullet, 4 x empty shells and a piece of metal wire.

Bag B:
This bag contains 4 small identical PE frets. Each PE fret has several parts to make the 20mm magazines, the cradle in which the magazine sits on the gun and a small detail part that goes on the barrel itself.

review

The barrels themselves are really beautifully made, and the detail is absolutely perfect. Voyager even added the textured grips on the barrel which made replacing it on the real gun much easier. The detail of this is very fine so when you are painting this make sure the paint coat is not too thick otherwise you will have the chance that this detail will disappear.

The length of the barrel in real life should be just under 1 meter (barrel to flash suppressor), which in scale transfers to 28.4 (and a bit) mm. Measuring it with a slide caliper gives me a length of 28.51mm which is pretty much spot on.

The flash suppressors are also very well made. The collar that slides onto the barrel has 6 holes. All of them are the same size, where two of them should be a bit smaller. The cone itself has 4 rows of holes, with each row consisting of 6 very tiny holes. I have not come across this combination in pictures. I have seen 3 rows in the cone and 6 holes in the collar and 4 rows with 8 holes in the collar.

The magazines consist of 6 parts each which are, looking at it, not that hard to assemble and should not pose that many problems. The wire that is added in Bag A is used for these magazines as you make the pins out of it that lock the magazines into the magazine cradle on the side of the gun, which is also included in the kit as PE. You can finish the magazines by closing them off with one of the full shells delivered in Bag A, but this is only visible when the magazine is placed outside the magazine cradle.

The Instruction Sheet:
Inside the package you will find an instruction sheet measuring around 8 cm by 12 cm folded up and which is full of spelling/translation mistakes. The spelling/translation errors are not of any influence to the building process but were not really necessary in my opinion. The drawings are very clear, showing which parts you have to cut off and replace. The other side shows the assembly of the magazines and the magazine cradle on the gun. The parts are that simple that even without the instructions you can pretty much assemble it.

Conclusion

Voyager delivers quite an impressive package. Where most manufacturers only supply the barrels with some basic PE to detail them, Voyager takes it a bit further. By giving you a whole package to spice up your 2cm Flakvierling, which they claim does not matter which brand it is.

The details are very nice. I was pretty impressed by the textured grips on the barrel and also the flash suppressor, despite having some details (the cone/collar holes combination) that I have not yet matched with any picture. Also the length of the barrel being pretty much spot on is a big pro for this set.

The details on the magazines are very well cut and should look stunning when on the kit. And the added shells are a nice bonus.

The only drawback of this set I think is the price. Which at € 24.50 is a bit steep. Then again… you get quite a nice set for it which is quite complete.