cool!

Riiiiight. The D does it again. Now we'll have a series of Ostwinds... Hey! It IS cool to see this. I mean, what, there were, after all, supposedly perhaps 87 of these things built - late in the war and using (mostly) hulls from recovered tanks. There was, I am sure, at least a few what used zimm'd hulls (Pz. IV H and maybe some earlier J). So.... Is this a zimm'd H or a zimm'd J hull? I'll probably buy one - just because yes, the Ostwind is a cool contraption and zimm would look mighty nice on it. But Buyers Beware! I am pretty sure that the zimm will come all nice and complete. But remember that Wirbels and Ostwinds were built late in the war and after new zimm applications stopped, and the hulls used were mostly battlefield recoveries... So any with zimm would, I expect, be rather worn and banged up! Our work is cut out for us! Bob

I would fathom a guess that it is probably the hull from the Ausf.H kit, but you never know.

J production started in Feb '44 so it could be either an H or J with zim that this kit represents however it looks to actually be a G hull. With only the side-on view to go by and the fact that it shows all-rubber return rollers vs. steel rollers, that would make it a G.

I do believe the prototype was on a zimmerited G ...Even the front hatches had zimmerit...

So... IF the IV prototype (let's be specific here, as the developmental version was on a III hull...) was done on a G hull with zimm... that would need to have been a G which had previously been a recovered tank which received zimm in the refurb shops (Nibelungenwerke) and which went back to war and was recovered again and converted to the Ostwind... It's that, or this zimm'd G would have to have been a field-shop zimm job. All this because G ended production before zimm started up as a factory application. There were no "OEM" new G with zimm made - all zimm'd G would be either refurb-shop or rear-area shop zimm jobs. What this means for this kit is... IF it's a zimm'd G hull (and I am no expert and am not saying that it is... as versus a zimm'd H hull (which, BTW, seems most likely to me given D's availability of generic zimm'd H hulls in its current line)...), then this kit represents exactly one specific IV-G prototype vehicle! Which means that either the kit comes with ALL the prototype's features (including that putative hatch zimming) AND having the specific zimm pattern (presumably that done on refurbs by Nibelungenwerke) AND all the likely and evident zimm damage of a re-used hull, or there will be a bit (or a lot) of correction to do. At least if what one seeks is something like an accurate model. You'll be sort of coerced into building a true specific "one-off"! Check those pics of that prototype carefully, lads! IF, on the other hand, it comes as a generic zimm'd H (or just maybe a zimm'd early J) hull.... and purports to depict "some" Ostwind assembled on some zimm'd H or J hull... at least you'll have some lee-way as to some zimm details and the paint scheme. Still sounds to me like we'll need to work that probably near-perfectly-new zimm to get the likely wear and tear. I'm going to hope for this latter being the case with this kit (I like a little lee-way)! Bob

Well I certainly have learned more about the Ostwind today. I Appreciate it. I really like the look of the Möbelwagen more and I'm wondering why Dragon hasn't produced one? Is it because the Tamiya one is as good as one could be produced? I can't imagine that being the case.. No offense towards Tam. Also, these vehicles (wirbel,mobel and osts) seem like they'd be fantastic direct fire support platforms which is my specific interest (ground support heavy weaponry). Were they ever used this way?

Direct fire? Why, how could a guy resist! The Germans routinely used almost all FlaK as direct fire and infantry support whenever needed. Perhaps the best answer would come from searching pics of that lowly 2cm FlaK 38 seen on the bed of the SdKfz 10 halftrack... almost every pic I've ever seen of that FlaK mount has been a confirmation of its popularity as a fire support system! And of course we all know about the famous 88... I am pretty certain that crew pointed those things at any ground target available and needing some hosing! (But who knows? Maybe there was some regulation or orders lying around which firmly stated "This FlaK equipment is intended only for shooting at ducks (oops, planes). Any use of it as a ground fire-support system will be considered a gregious contravention of standing regulations and the perps will be dealt with accordingly. " ) Bob

Right I've seen many pictures and some videos of sdkfz 10' with 30s or 38s, sdkfz.7's with flakveirlings all being used in direct, but I've just never seen pics or vids or a mobel, ost, or wirbelwind firing at ground targets. I suppose these are late war vehicles and less late war action footage exists for more than a couple reasons. I have seen either a möbelwagen with a section of forward armor cut away to give it a lower elevation capability but that's about it.