Building a memory. German Sd.kfz 7/1 20mm Flakvierling. Checking out the box.

German Sd.kfz 7/1 20mm Flakvierlin

The Sd.Kfz. 7 was a half-track military vehicle used by the German Army, Luftwaffe and Waffen-SS during the Second World War. Sd.Kfz. is an abbreviation of the German word Sonderkraftfahrzeug, "special purpose vehicle".

That's easy for you to say.

Then they stuck an AA gun on it...

...Or more precisely four guns...

The Sd.Kfz. 7 was armed with a 2 cm Flakvierling 38 L/65 quadruple anti-aircraft gun mounting.

You have to admit it looks really cool. I think so.

Appearing with both open and armored cab. 750-800 were produced by the end of December 1944.

Thank you Wikipaedia.

I built this many years ago and I thought it was a wonderful value for money model. I still think it's great value for money. Lots to do, vehicle and figures, lots of diorama potential, reasonable price, you can't go wrong.

Could I say that it would be an ideal adult beginners model? (I don't think beginners models should be easy. I think they should be fun.) Notice also that I do make the distinction between adult and younger beginners and that though I say this could be ok for beginners, I'm not suggesting its as a starter kit. (Get a 1/35 panzer II)

Good image on the box. Plenty of information there for while you are building your model.

Told you it looks cool...

Useful information on the end panels for while we are choosing.

13 pounds, 16 dollars. How great is that?

More images on the long side. I'll be doing the autumn camo on the troops so I'll do the basic grey this time. Everyone does the whitewash..

Unusually, I have only done one of these, the Matilda.

Grey camouflage design on the underside. It's really effective. Can't see anything here.

Here's one I built in the days of black and white photos...

Let's open the box...

A motor cycle courier tries to jump over a German Sd.kfz 7/1 20mm Flakvierling. Interesting diorama idea. Maybe another time.

So, what do we get?

I really don't mind the elastic band tracks so these look fine. The lower hull looks ok too.

Wheels. Lots of wheels...

The body and the figures.

The figures are in white plastic but the uniform is reversible and I went with the autumn camo.

Suspension and engine covers.

The 4x4 flack.

Tires and metal axels.

The little screw is for tensioning the tracks.

Paper and ink.

As is common for these Tamiya models we have the two sets of instructions one in Japanese and one in English.

Tamiya Instructions are generally easy to follow. I do sometimes wander about to make brush painting easier but if you follow the instructions you will be fine.

Let's have a look inside.