Forces of Valor 88 Flak - Towed
Forces of Valor produced a very nice version of this gun. As you might be aware of, the 88 could be used in multiple ways besides its originally intended AA role. It could be used as regular artillery or as a direct Anti Tank weapon. Here we see it attached to the 8 Ton prime mover that would tow it. The factory paint job gives it a weathered look, and as usual, the fact that it's mostly made out of metal gives it a nice feel.
Forces of Valor 88 Flak - Rear View
As you can see from this angle, the attention to detail is substantial. The gun can rotate 360 degrees around the vertical axis and the gun can be elevated up to a vertical position, allowing it to fire virtually in every direction.
Forces of Valor 88 Flak - Artillery Mode
Here we see it already deployed as traditional artillery. There is a scene in Band of Brothers in which the screaming eagles are being shelled with 88mm HE shells while in a forest, causing shrapnel and wood splinters to rain down on them with nasty consequences. Also note that the carriage is actually made of two separate sections. The front and rear wheel axles can be attached and removed independently. It also comes with a nice ground crew to operate it.
Forces of Valor 88 Flak - Anti Tank Mode
Here we see it deployed the way it would be used to fight against tanks. The air and land 'kills' on the shield add a nice touch of realism. FOV also manufactured this gun in a tan color scheme however I did not get around to buying that one.
21st Century Toys 88 Flak - Afrika Korps
21C Toys also produced a very nice 88mm gun. Not quite at the level of the one from FOV but far superior to anything that had come before in plastic. Here we see it ready to be deployed to fight the British in the deserts of North Africa.
21st Century Toys 88 Flak
Deployed in an anti-tank role. The wheel axles are also detachable. Note how the level of paint detail is not quite the same as the one from FOV, both for the carriage and the gun itself. The crew consists of just 2 figures.
21st Century Toys 88 Flak - side view
This gun also moves 360 degrees around and from horizontal to vertical, so it is just as functional as the one from FOV. And from this angle it looks just as lethal.
Dinky Toys 88 Flak - Part I
Here is an earlier model of an 88 courtesy of Dinky Toys. Not as detailed as the newer versions from FOV and 21C, but still fairly nice. Made in metal, it has a good, solid feel to it. The round knob/gear visible on the side, allows you to lower and raise the barrel. It comes with three crew members. The crew is made in some very light, stiff plastic, so you get the feeling that they might easily break.
Dinky Toys 88 Flak - Part II
The gun also comes with its carriages to allow it to be towed. And it also happens to have a few shells that you can fire using a spring mechanism. The sticker on the barrel may or may not be present, as the glue loses its binding power over time. All in all a nice item to add to the collection. Unfortunately there are not many complete sets left, so getting one of these can get a bit pricey or you must settle for an incomplete set. I actually got lucky and managed to get the complete set for the price of what you usually pay for the gun by itself.
Waltersons (formerly FOV) 88mm Flak - Afrika Korps - Part I
This is hands down the most detailed 88mm Flak gun made by any manufacturer. What I mean by that is that when you move the gun vertically or rotate the gun around, there are gears that turn, transferring the movement all the way to the handwheels use to set the gun's position. Super realistic. The only thing that was a bit hard to attach was the gun shield. It's very tricky to slide it into the proper position. But if the gun is not exciting enough for you, the fact that it comes with a crew of 8 should be a nice plus.
Waltersons (formerly FOV) 88mm Flak - Afrika Korps - Part II
Here's a better angle of the crew. There's an observer and a commander. My commander is missing his binoculars, but I should be able to replace those with one of the Airfix multi-pose parts. Then there's a loader, an ammo box carrier, two men sitting operating the gun, another one adjusting the handwheels, and one more fetching the next ammo round from the side of the gun. This is jut a minor detail, but it also comes with about 6 rounds of ammo that you want to make sure you don't drop and lose. Compared to the 21C version of the AK 88, which came without any crew figures, this model is quite superior and detailed.
Classic Toy Soldiers Artillery Crew
CTS recently provided us with an artillery crew. They are not made for any specific gun, but the size of the shell might be more in line with an 88.
21st Century Toys PAK 40
This is a nice gun. It comes factory painted and has several moving parts. The muzzle can be elevated/lowered and the carriage can be fully deployed or collapsed together and locked in place so that it can be towed. The downside of this gun is that it was not sold individually, but you had to buy it as part of a set. Luckily, I was able to find several at Toy Solider shows from collectors that no longer needed them.
21st Century Toys PAK 40 with CTS crew
This is the recently released artillery crew from CTS. The set contains an observer/officer and two loaders. They are a welcome arrival to staff the many PAKs that I have without crews.
21st Century Toys PAK 40 with 21C crew
These are some nice figures to staff your PAK or most other small caliber artillery pieces in your armies. The sculpting is of the same quality as the later 21C sets, which means that they are well proportioned and detailed. In terms of the poses, I definitely like the guy holding the shell, but the other two are very similar. It would have been good if one of them was posed as if more actively operating the equipment. Anyhow, I am still glad I came across them. I did not know they existed back when 21C was in production.
Britains Deetail PAK40 with CTS crew
This is another nice model from Britains Deetail. Unfortunately I do not have the crew to go with it, so I had to enlist some of the new CTS guys to man the gun. One nice feature of this PAK is that it can actually fire. It has a small lever that you can pull to compress a spring and when released it could fire a round. I don't have the ammo that came with it either, but it should not be hard to improvise some rounds.
21st Century Toys PAK 40 - Afrika Korps
This is actually the same model as the 21C model in grey, except that this one was painted by a fellow collector. It is one of those that I picked up at a local toy soldier show. He did a very good job on the painting. So much that it is hard to tell that it did not come this way out of the box.
Italeri PAK 40 AT gun with 'servants'
The Italeri gun offers what the 21C gun lacks. A good crew. As you can see, it comes with 6 figures. Most of them are ammo handlers. But it does have a man operating the gun and an officer directing the action. The gun itself offers fewer moving parts and degrees of movement. But once it is setup it looks just as good. Probably a good combination will be the painted Italeri crew with the 21C PAK. One thing that I do find very amusing about this set is that Italeri translated crew as 'servants'.
Hanomak German PAK 40 Gun with Crew
This is a nice set overall. It includes the PAK, the crew and even the sand bags/wall protection. The gun came in several pieces which have to be put together. It does require a good glue to do so, but once it's put together it will stay nicely in place. The crew comes with two loaders, a gunner, and one officer. You can place them in a variety of configurations, although the gunner needs to be sitting and I could not find many places for him to sit while being able to reach the gun. You also get an ammo box which will give the loaders a focal point in your scene. About the wall, I think I would have preferred just the sandbags. The wooden wings seem to be cut off too abruptly and leaves you feeling as though it should be part of a larger trench. Not a big deal and definitely a nice set.
This PAK came with the kfz 70 truck which was used to tow it. The PAK 36 was a 3.7 cm caliber weapon. It was the main anti-tank gun in the German Army until mid 1941, when given its inability to deal with the soviet medium tanks liek the T34, it was replaced by the PAK 38 which fired a 5cm shell. The PAK 36 was initially issued in 1928 and first saw combat in 1936 during the Spanish civil war. It was also used by the Chinese against the Japanese where it was a lot more effective neutralizing the lightly armored Chi-Ha tanks.
Forces of Valor PAK 36 (with Italeri crew) - Part 2
Here's a better picture of it. The CTS gunners were holding ammo that was too big for it. These Italeri crew guys are better fitted for this smaller gun, and the picture does show a bit more detail.
Hanomak German PAK 36 with Crew
Another nice set from Hanomak. Both the figures and the gun are nicely detailed. You can see the clearly see the helmet emblems on the crew as well as the hinges and rivets on the gun shield. The gun itself comes in several pieces that must be glued together. I glued everything except for the barrel piece to the carriage so that it can still rotate left and right. In terms of the crew, the firing man is sculpted just right so that he can have his arms around the carriage and the breech. The other two guys are really solid. And this might seem minor, but I am happy that the caliber of the ammo being held by the loader fits the weapon. Sometimes you get gun crews where that's not quite right. A good unit to provide more firepower to your early war German armies.
In German this is called the 7,5 leichtes Infanteriegeschütz 18, or 75mm light infantry howitzer. In addition to the version used by the regular infantry, a couple other variations were made for Mountain Troops and Paratroopers, both of which could be disassembled into multiple pieces that could be carried/dropped into battle to be reassembled on the spot. Weighing close to 400kg, it could be dragged/pulled into position by 3or 4 men. It could fire a 6 kg shell, up to 3.5 km away. This particular set from 21C toys is a nice addition to the collection, although the gun feels a bit brittle. The range of movement is not great and it feels like you might break it if you press too hard. The figures are versatile enough that they could be reassigned to operate other German guns.
15 cm Nebelwerfer NbW 41 - Unknown manufacturer
Approximately 6,000 of these were manufactured along with 5.5 million rockets. It had a range of close to 7km. Another popular variation was the 5-barrel 21 cm NbW 42, which had a range of almost 8km. I got this one along with a batch of toy soldiers that I purchased on eBay. I have no idea who made it and it is the only one I have. For a plastic toy it has decent level of realism. The pivoting stabilizer at the bottom/front can be elevated to put it in the towing position. It came with a couple stickers on the side which you can still see. Maybe someday I will paint it to give it a more realistic look. The figures in this picture are FOV artillery crewmen.
Hanomak German Nebelwerfer 21 cm NbW 42 with Crew
This is a very well received set from my perspective. I only have one other nebelwerfer in my collection and that one does not have a crew. What's interesting about this one though is that it appears to represent the nebelwerfer 42 which had 5 barrels as opposed to the nebelwerfer 41 which had 6. However, the ammunition being depicted is the one for the nebelwerfer 41. The ammunition for the nebelwerfer 42 had a pointed warhead, as opposed the the phallic shape of the 41's ammo. But given how unusual it is to have such a set, I am not going to get too picky about the ammo mismatch. In addition to the 3 crew men, the set also comes with a sandbag emplacement. I am not a big fan of it. I would have rather had more figures or a lower price point instead of the sandbags. Also, be mindful that the nebelwerfer requires a bit of assembly and gluing, but nothing complicated.
Britains Deetail - Heavy Mortar Set
This is where we get into a grey area. Can heavy mortars also be considered artillery? This mortar can actually 'fire' shells. Unfortunately I do not have any of the shells that came with it, but you can improvise your own kind of shells and have some fun lobbing some shells at the opposing army.
Dragon Karl Mortar 'Loki' Part I
This model, manufactured by Dragon (in 1:35) is called 'Loki'. Here I've used some 1:32 Forces of Valor figures to operate it. Despite the difference in scale I think they still look acceptable. Loki is firing from a prepared position to afford it some protection as you can imagine that the enemy is desperately trying to neutralize it with some aggressive artillery counter-fire.
Dragon Karl Mortar 'Loki' Part II
This is a slight variation of the previous picture, with the gun in a depressed position, illustrating the degree of gun's movement.
Dragon Karl Mortar 'Thor'
This is Loki's brother 'Thor'. Note that the gun can be elevated from the horizontal position up to a 45 degree angle approximately. These mortars also come with one piece of ammo, which is as big as a man. No wonder they had to be loaded with a crane.
Mars German Paratroops w 10.5 cm LG 42 Tropical Uniform
This is a nice and original addition to the existing German Para units produced by other manufacturers which so far have lacked any heavy weapons support. The set includes two guns, each with its respective crew. They are meant to be painted in the tropical uniform. I actually purchased two sets, and plan to paint one crew in the early war (Crete) colors and the other one in the cammo scheme. The recoilless gun is interesting. The wheels are meant to be off the ground when it's deployed, but the plastic is a bit hard to straighten so that it looks even. I may actually use these crews with 21C Pak 40s. As far as the figures go, the poses are all good, but I do feel that the sculpting detail could be sharper.
Mars German Winter Paratroops with 10.5 cm Gun
This is a really nice set to complement the Mars German winter paras. Each crew consists of 5 men and you actually get 2 crews per box. I bought two boxes, so I now have 4 guns/crews, so I will likely assign 2 to the paras and 2 to the regular winter infantry. Those who are into conversions could replace the helmets to make them fit better as regular infantry. The best part about this set are the figures. The gun itself is made of softer plastic which bends quite a bit and needs to be straightened so that the gun stands evenly. A minor criticism is that the shells look wider than the gun's barrel. Looking at some pictures of the real equipment online, I think the shells are the ones which are too large. But let's not get too picky and instead be glad that we have this unique set to give our winter units some well needed firepower!
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