Sd.Kfz.7/1 2cm Flakvierling 38 auf Selbstfahrlafette
1:35 kit comparison
kit #6525 - 
kit #01523Part 7: 2cm Flakvierling 38
The lower platform base is a single piece in the Trumpeter kit while the Cyberhobby/Dragon kit just has the outrigger foot boards as two separate parts, this allow them to be positioned in the folded travel position if required while the Trumpeter boards are fixed in the firing position. The gap between the two board sections is also too wide on the Trumpeter part and you should cut and reposition these with the two sections closer together.
The detail on the Cyberhobby/Dragon parts are again a little crisper and there is a little more cleanup required on the Trumpeter parts but there weren’t any real assembly problems with either kit for this assembly. The only thing to watch is the gun mounting post (part A48) trapped in the middle of the central gun mount on the Cyberhobby/Dragon kit has to be movable after assembly if you want the guns to elevate so care is needed not to get any glue on this while assembling the mounting.
The front spent shell collector has alternate parts in the Cyberhobby/Dragon kit to depict the travel or firing positions while there is only the travel mode container in the Trumpeter kit. The detail on the round fairings either side of the container are also different on both kits with the Cyberhobby/Dragon circular plates being smooth while the Trumpeter plates have raised rib detail. Both these designs can be seen on different Flakvierling mountings so both are correct in the detail here. But as this area is covered by the outer square box covers much of that is academic in any case unless leaving the outer covers off which is perfectly okay in some instances.
There is a small issue with the Gunner’s foot platform and firing pedals with the Cyberhobby/Dragon platform correctly angled slightly while the Trumpeter platform is positioned flat in the gun mounting. But it would be easy to position this angled correctly while gluing without any problems.
The firing pedals are moulded with the platform on the Cyberhobby/Dragon kit and are angled too far forward, they should be more upright and to correct this you would have to cut away the moulded on pedals and add from plastic card.
The pedals on the Trumpeter kit are small separate parts making it easy to position these correctly without any further problems.
Spent shell collector details
Both kits give you the ready magazine racks at the sides on the mountings with the Cyberhobby/Dragon kit providing just two magazines with the racks moulded on and two empty racks per side which you fit alternately into the racks. These also include the brackets so the magazines can be loaded in opposite directions along with 8 additional ammo magazines. Unfortunately you can’t fit the magazines into the empty racks as they are not fully hollowed out so you are left with just the two magazines per rack.
On the Trumpeter kit the racks are provided as etched parts for good scale definition on the rack partitions along with 12 separate magazines to fill these but there are no small brackets to allow the magazines to be mounted reversed as they should.
But the biggest issue with the Trumpeter racks is there are only 7 bays in the assembled racks and not the required 8 bays as there is on the Cyberhobby/Dragon racks and there is little you can do about this other than rebuild the racks from plastic card or wait for aftermarket etched racks to come?
Turning to the 20 round magazines themselves the Cyberhobby/Dragon magazines are very nicely detailed with the correct ribbing and have the four small inspection holes on one side only as they should. There is also a 20mm round moulded into the top although this is hidden when you add the magazine to the gun.
The Trumpeter magazines are not that well detailed with the side ribbing being oversized and too few in numbers, they also lack the inspection holes on one side of the magazines as well as edge strip being too thick.
The actual magazines in scale are 9.85mm high and 6mm wide with the Cyberhobby/Dragon magazines being 10.5mm high and 6mm wide to be only 0.65mm too high which is really nothing to get excited about with the Trumpeter magazines being 11.0mm high and 6mm wide to be 1.15mm too high but spot on in width.
dotted lines show actual sizes of the magazines
The gunner’s elevation and traverse hand wheels are the same size but have different details in both kits and again both styles can be seen in photos of Flakvierling mountings. The only issue being the plain hand wheels in the Cyberhobby/Dragon kit appear to be larger in size in the photos than the style in the Trumpeter kit while they are the same size in both kits.
Moving on to the two Loader’s seats, the mounting post on the Trumpeter seats are a little too thick and are also mounted in the wrong position on the foot tread plates. They in fact should be attached to the side edges of the tread plates as they are correctly positioned on the better proportioned Cyberhobby/Dragon seats. Also note the direction of the seats in the Trumpeter instructions is incorrect and they should face towards the ammo ready racks and not towards the Gunner’s seat as indicated.
The small top gunner’s shield is moulded in a single plastic piece in the Cyberhobby/Dragon kit with a separate door flap and apart from being very slightly over scale thickness is blemish free and easily fitted to the gun mounting. The shield in the Trumpeter kit is in 5 etched parts and the side supports have to be bent to shape and soldered (or super glued) to the main shield. The door flap is in two halves which from photos is not correct and it should be in one piece like the Cyberhobby/Dragon door.
sights covered in Part 2
On the other hand the large shields in Trumpeter kit are entirely in etched metal with 5 parts per shield side and these do require careful assembly and soldering is the best option as some of the joins are plain butt joins and super glue simply won’t hold in these instances. There are two large notches that mark the mid shield bend line and these will have to be filled with solder as they are rather unsightly if left unattended.
Attaching the lower fillet and inner shield parts are not for inexperienced modellers as there are no precise locating points provided and assembling these shields really does lift the kit out of the beginner’s category as experience working with etched parts is really essential to get a result with the shields.
Also the shields themselves are markedly different sizes between the two kits with the Cyberhobby/Dragon shields being considerable wider than the narrower Trumpeter shields and as I have no data on the actual shield dimensions I can’t comment further on this. The only comment my references make is that there are large and smaller sized shields used on the Flakvierling mountings but to what degree will be left until further info is available.
Fitting of the Trumpeter etched shields once assembled to the front of the mounting is also not a straightforward job as there location is a little vague in the instructions so some trial fitting will be needed before gluing to get the right “sit”.
Large gun shields from both kits
single piece plastic shields in the Dragon kit and etched shields
in the Trumpeter kit required considerable more assembly.
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