COBI Flakpanzer IV Wirbelwind Set 2548

COBI's Flakpanzer IV Wirbelwind is built from 590 blocks, 21.5 cm long, on the Panzer IV chassis. The turret rotates, the four barrels move, the wheels and tracks work, and the service flaps tilt open. Two figures are included — a gunner with binoculars and a Luftwaffe infantryman with a Mauser rifle — plus a printed nameplate.

The turret is open on purpose

An anti-aircraft vehicle with no roof looks like a corner cut to save weight. It is the opposite: it was a requirement.

A gunner shooting at a moving aircraft has to find it first, follow it across the sky, and lead it. Through a periscope or a vision slit that is close to impossible — the field of view is too narrow and the target moves too fast. He needs to look up with his own eyes, which means nothing above him.

The nine-sided open turret on this vehicle is the compromise: enough plate to stop splinters and rifle fire from the sides, nothing on top. Crews accepted the risk because the alternative was not being able to do the job.

What nobody planned was how good it turned out to be against people. Four 20 mm cannon on a fully rotating turret, firing horizontally, were devastating against infantry and soft vehicles, and by 1945 that is mostly what Wirbelwinds were used for.

Whirlwind, not trumpet

Wirbelwind means whirlwind. Some English-language descriptions of this vehicle render it as "air trumpet", which is a mistranslation that has been copied from one catalogue to another for years.

Built from November 1944 on rebuilt Panzer IV hulls, mostly older vehicles or ones pulled back from the front for repair. Between 87 and around 105 were completed before the war ended.

In the COBI range

Set 2593 is the Wirbelwind at 1:28, and 2592 the Panzer IV it was built on.

Specifications

Pieces: 590 · Figures: 2 with accessories
Model dimensions: 21.5 × 10.5 × 9.5 cm (8.5 × 4.1 × 3.7 in)