German Mobile Anti-Aircraft Guns

At the beginning of the war, Germany's Flak (Fliegerabwehrkanone) guns were all static or towed. As the war progressed they developed a set of new vehicles in which they mounted the guns to provide them with greater mobility. The caliber of these mounted guns however was smaller than that of the ground-based 88s, with most of them carrying a 20 mm flakvierling (quadruple anti-aircraft gun) or a single 37mm gun on top of the modified chassis of other existing vehicles. The development of these vehicles was more of a reactive approach than a well thought out AA defense strategy. This, in combination with insufficient numbers of fighter aircraft on the part of the Luftwaffe, allowed the allies to achieve total air supremacy, which further increased the need for these guns, but they were never produced in large enough numbers to make a difference against the ever increasing number of fighter and fighter-bombers diving down on them. The situation became so bad that eventually most troop movements had to be carried out under the cover of darkness. In any case, the vehicles that were produced were an interesting bunch and the toy soldier manufacturers have done a decent job representing them. Let's review a few of them.

Forces of Valor Sd Kfz 7/1

The Sd Kfz 7/1 was a modified prime mover which was originally used to tow the guns. The last two rows of seats were removed and a 20 mm flakvierling was mounted. This model from FOV is nicely detailed as usual. The sides of the truck fold down to allow the gun to turn 360 degrees. The quadrupple gun also moves up and down, although it only goes about 3/4 of the way up relative to the vertical plane.  



21st Century Toys Flakpanzer IV Mobelwagen

This is again a 20mm quadruple gun, but this time it is mounted on a Panzer IV chassis. Most of these were disabled Panzer IVs from the eastern front sent back for repairs and refitted as self-propelled AA guns. Note that the sides of the vehicle fold down to allow it to rotate and fire, however this also left the crew completely exposed to shrapnel and strafing fire. When the sides of the vehicle were folded up it makes it look like a big box, probably the reason for it's nickname, the furniture truck. What is unusual about this vehicle is that when you read about it, it appears that only the first prototype carried the 20mm guns. In production it was equipped with a 37 mm cannon. It became available in April of 1944 and less than 300 were produced.

21st Century Toys Flakpanzer IV Wirbelwind

The Wirblewind or Whirlwind was developed in late 1944. It offered a bit more protection to the crew than its predecessors, but it still contained an open turret, a necessity given the smoke produced by the quadruple 20mm guns. The 20mm flakvierling had a practical rate of fire of about 800 rounds per minute. Each magazine held 20 rounds and would have to be changed 10 times per minute to achieve that firing rate. These guns were also very effecgtive against ground troops and soft skinned vehicles. There is a scene in Saving Private Ryan in which a quad 20mm gun is used with devastating results against some unaware infantrymen who are inspecting a Panzer that they had just disabled.

Forces of Valor Flakpanzer IV Wirbelwind

This is FOV's version of the Wirbelwind. It was actually released in two color schemes, the other one being a gold/dark green cammo color scheme. If you have been reading along you might have realized by now that this vehicle did not fight in North Africa. I took this picture before I checked when it was manufactured, but I suppose that you could pretend it did as the color is well suited. Coming back to the Wirbelwind, about one hundred of them were built and it was soon replaced by the Ostwind, which had the same turret but mounted a single 37mm gun.

Atlantic Mobile Anti-Aircraft Gun Flakvierling 38 - Part I

This is one of the more elaborate sets that I have seen from Atlantic. They had to inject quite a few pieces to make it all come together. The assembly is still pretty straight forward, but it makes you appreciate the design challenge to cast it. The quad gun has some movement up and down and it can also turn on its vertical axis.
 

Atlantic Mobile Anti-Aircraft Gun Flakvierling 38 - Part II 

From the back you can appreciate the crew a bit better. The two men on the side appear to be holding/loading the ammo clips and the one on the back is the main gunner, who seems to be adjusting the sight on top of the gun. The only odd thing are those 'handles' on the side of the chassis. I wonder if they were meant to be there or they are left over from the casting process.

Atlantic Artillery Tractor Sd Kfz 1 Klein

This is a nice complement to the AA gun, as they both fit perfectly and now you have a way to tow the gun into position. The tractor comes with a driver who can be removed so that you can close the hatch, which is necessary of you want to move the machine gun from one side to the other. As far as the name, I tried to dig up pictures of the real Sd Kfz 1, but it does not look anything like this tractor. I think the Sd Kfz 1 was in fact a staff car, so I don't know if Atlantic's name is accurate. Anyhow, both of them go well together and once I get around to painting them, I think they will display nicely. Better than their bright blue factory color, which is a bit intense on the eyes.

Click here to check out more German Vehicles

Click here to see a post about the 88mm Flak gun.

Here you can see pictures of other Sd Kfz 7 models.



Introducing the SD KFZ 7

The SD KFZ 7 -Sd Kfz stands for Sonderkraftfahrzeug or special motorized vehicle- was a half-tracked heavy truck used by the German armed forces primarily to pull artillery pieces or anti-aircraft guns such as 88s or heavy howitzers. It had enough power to tow up to 8 tons -therefore it's sometimes referred to as an 8-ton truck- and it could seat about 12 men, usually the crew of the gun being towed, with some additional room in the back for ammunition. It was introduced in 1938 and saw action throughout the war in all its different fronts. A few variations were made, some of them replacing the seating area with mounted 20mm anti-aircraft guns. It was issued primarily to the mechanized panzer and panzergrenadier divisions so that they could tow the artillery attached to them. Non-mechanized divisions, which were many, still relied heavily on horses to tow their equipment. In terms of available vehicles, both 21st Century Toys and Forces of Valor have provided us with a couple variations. Let's take a look.

21st Century Toys Sd Kfz 7 - Grey

This vehicle comes with a canvas top that can be removed and a foldable windshield. Ideal for early war campaigns.

21st Century Toys Sd Kfz 7 - Cammo

21C Toys also produced the same vehicle in a cammo color scheme. Nice for a mid to late war campaign. As in the previous picture, the top can be removed.

Forces of Valor Sd Kfz 7

If I recall correctly, Forces of Valor sold this one as a Normandy edition. I personally find it that it's the one that could fit better in a desert setting as part of Rommel's army. The six figures that come with it complement it nicely. In contrast to the 21C vehicles, this one is made of metal which makes it feel much heavier, as a heavy tractor ought to feel.

Forces of Valor Sd Kfz 7/1

This is the AA version with the quadruple 20mm guns. The sides of the back can be folded down to provide greater rotation freedom to the gun. A nice piece of equipment as usual from FOV with greater attention to detail. And it also comes with a good looking crew.

Click here to check out more German Vehicles

Click here to see a description of the 88 mm guns.

Click here to see a set of 88mm guns in action.

Here you can see other Self-Propelled Anti-Aircraft guns.



The Toy Story GIs

Following on the footsteps of the post about the TimMee GIs, I'd also like to introduce the GIs from Toy Story. These guys are Disney's representation of the TimMee green army men that many kids grew up playing with during the 70's and 80's, as well as the many clones that have followed them up to the present day. As far as I am aware of, these guys existed initially only in digital form and it was only later that they were cast into actual plastic figures. You can find them in buckets with about 80 of them -well, 82 if you count the two paratroopers. As I mentioned in the other post, these guys represent Vietnam era soldiers, so they are technically off topic for this blog, but since I gave the Vietnam TimMee guys a break, I figure I should also do the same with their offspring. Note that only 7 of the original 13 poses are represented. Most of the new figures are poses/actions that were displayed during the movie.

Toy Story US Infantry - Part I

Except for the second guy from the right, the other four poses are roughly the same as their TimMee predecesors. The new guy however is not one that I remember from the film, so I am not sure why they did not go with one more of the orginal TimMee poses.

Toy Story US Infantry - Part II

Here we have figures 1, 2 and 4 from the right from the original TimMee set. The other two are poses from the film. One is the officer who controls the whole mission to scout the new presents, and the other is the one that is used during the marching sequence if I recall correctly.

Toy Story US Infantry - Part III

This is one of the guys that drops from the second floor during the daring scouting mission.

Toy Story US Infantry - Part IV

Here is his wing man. The only thing I don't quite like is that the ring where the parachute strings are attached is on top of the helmet. I don't recall if that's how the figures in the movie had theirs attached. Anyhow, all in all a nice set and a nice tip of the hat towards the original TimMee GIs.

Burger King GIs

Here's a bit of an unusual set. It is modeled after the Toy Story GIs, released in 1995. They are about 65mm tall. If there were a few more poses, it woud make a good unit. Given their limited number of poses, they will have to be combined with some 70 mm GIs to give them some support. 

Click here to see a post about the original TimMee Vietnam GIs

Making an exception - TimMee GIs

These guys actually represent Vietnam era US soldiers. I am not sure if they are supposed to be Army or Marines. I guess they could be painted as either. While this blog is technically about WWII figures, these guys hold a special place in my heart as they probably do for many folks who grew up with these figures in the 70s and 80s, so I'm going to go ahead and let them sneak into this blog. The fact that I have a few hundred of them is probably a sign that I am a bit lenient towards them when it comes to sticking to the actual WWII period. But to their credit, they have participated in many of my battles over the years fighting Germans and Japanese alike with distinction. Lastly, as you will see further below in the post, they do have some connection to WWII toy soldiers. 

TimMee Vietnam US Infantry - Part I

TimMee produced 13 poses for this Vietnam era set. You can see that they are definitely Vietnam figures as they are equipped with M16s. I find that most of them evolved from the earlier TimMee WWII poses, but with much better sculpting. The level of detail and the fluidity of the figures' movements are far superior than that of their predecessors. As a reference I have included below the actual WWII TimMee guys.

TimMee Vietnam US Infantry - Part II

This is the other half of the set. If you are paying attention, there are a total of 14 figures in both pictures. By now you have probably realized that one of the guys is featured twice, but with a slight variation. If you like to solve those magazine puzzles in which you get to find the differences, go ahead and take a moment to do so, before I spoil it for you... The guy in the lower picture is throwing a grenade, whereas the one in the upper picture has his hand open. My understanding is that the one with the grenade was the original pose, which was later modified to have his hand open. I guess it gives him more of a commanding attitude, so much, that for years I thought he was the officer leading the men. I did not learn about the earlier pose until much later. BTW, the marching guy, third from the right, is a bit hard to find so if you have any of those, hold on to them. Out of a new bag that I recently got with about 40 guys, it only had one of them.

TimMee WWII US Infantry - Part I

These are the original TimMee figures. Other than the guy on the left with the sub machine gun, the other 4 guys made it into the new set. The grenade guy, as pointed out, eventually lost the grenade and was left only with a rifle. The sniper lost the scope and the officer's face was turned forward.

TimMee WWII US Infantry - Part II

The radio man, the machine gun, the bazooka and the minesweeper are also there. The prone guy is a Lido guy I believe, but it came with the rest of the guys so he snuck into the picture.

TimMee WWII US Infantry - Part III

From these, it looks like the guy holding the rifle overhead, the guy crawling on the right, and the marching guy made it to the new set. The guy holding the rifle at the waist might have evolved to the guy with the flamethrower. So all in all, the only guy who was entirely dropped was the prone machine gunner, who was replaced by the mortar man in the new set.

Click here to see pictures of actual WWII GIs.

Click here to see pictures of more GIs.

A Cautionary Tale

A few weeks back I came across the figures in this post on eBay. They were listed as Dulcop Turkish Infantry. The picture that came along was small and was taken from a distance so that you could not see very well the detail on the figures. I could see however that one of them was holding something that looked like a sabre, and I could tell that the men were wearing puttees. The head gear also seemed to be field caps instead of helmets. To me they looked like Japanese. I was also doubtful that they were made by Dulcop as the Dulcop bases are distinctly square. A quick google search boosted my assumptions as nothing came up for Dulcop Turkish figures. So I assumed that the seller did not know what he was posting and proceeded to bid on the figures assuming they were Japanese and I knew better. Well, a few days later when the package arrived I discovered that the seller had been right about one thing: they were certainly Turkish. Those 'field caps' have no resemblance with the Japanese head gear and the officer with the sword is wearing an ottoman hat (aka Fez). In retrospective I can't believe that I mistook them for Japanese, but I guess that's what happens when you get too wrapped up in your own assumptions. Upon further research I found out that these guys are WWI Turkish Infantry made by Reamsa. I might still paint them as Japanese and see if they blend in. Or I suppose that you could also do a conversion and give them Japanese heads. In any case, one thing is for sure. Next time I am not 100% sure what I am bidding on I will try to find out for sure before I buy it!

WWI Reamsa Turkish Infantry