Dragon 1/72 5.5cm Zwilling Flakpanzer
By Chris Banyai-Riepl
Overview
The German Panther tank was a solid platform that lent itself well to modification. One of the concepts developed was using the basic hull as a platform for a mobile anti-aircraft platform. Initial designs utilized a twin 3.7cm gun arrangement, but that was determined to be ineffective in terms of firepower. In late 1944, a more powerful version incorporating 5.5cm guns took shape, but the war ended before any were built.
The Kit
Dragon is well known for getting the most out of their molds, and this is a perfect example. Having produced a very good Panther tank, Dragon has now turned towards the derivatives of that hull and with the addition of a small sprue with a new turret, we have the 5.5cm Flakpanzer. Molded in the usual light gray plastic, this kit comes with DS tracks and a small decal sheet.
Assembly of this kit follows the Dragon Panther kit, with the hull split into upper and lower pieces. The engine deck is detailed in an interesting way, with one piece providing the various detail bits underneath the separate upper deck. With that in place, the back end of the hull can be added, which gets separate exhausts and other details. The exhaust pipes will benefit from some thinning out, as the wall thickness is definitely not to scale.
For the running gear, this is a typical German tank, which means you get to add lots and lots of wheels. Granted, not as many as some, but you'll still be assembling two drive wheels, to idler wheels, and eight road wheels, each of which are made up from two parts each. Once the wheels are in place, you can add the DS tracks and then fit the side skirts in place. Interestingly, the instructions show those in place, but both the boxtop and the painting instructions show the vehicle without them.
For the turret, this is a fairly simple assembly. The gun assembly has two separate barrels (be careful with these, as they bend easily as seen in the example here). The barrels fit into a mantle that is made up from four pieces. This completed assembly then fits into the two-piece turret, and with that your Flakpanzer is ready for painting.
As this is a vehicle that never existed on the battlefield, the colors and markings are purely conjectural. The instructions show two possible schemes, both of which place the cross on the forward hull. For those who want to be more realistic, a wooden mockup of the 5.5cm turret was built on a Panther D hull, so you could paint the turret up in wood.
Conclusion
If you are interested in what-if armor subjects, or like prototype concepts, this will be a fun little build to place next to production Panther examples. My thanks to Dragon Models USA for the review sample.