Construction Bricks MOC Flakpanzer IV "Wirbelwind"

Continuing my new found craze for Lego type military vehicle, here we have arguably the first mobile anti aircraft platform that ever roam the battlefield. And the "Wirbelwind" or Whirlwind are faithfully reconstructed from Lego type bricks.

From Wikipedia :
The Flakpanzer IV "Wirbelwind" (Whirlwind in English) was a self-propelled anti-aircraft gun based on the Panzer IV tank. It was developed in 1944 as a successor to the earlier self-propelled anti-aircraft gun Möbelwagen.

In the first years of the war, the Wehrmacht combined German military forces had less interest in developing self-propelled anti-aircraft guns, but as the Allies began to gain air superiority, the need for more mobile and better-armed self-propelled anti-aircraft guns increased. During the early summer of 1944, SS-Hauptsturmführer Karl Wilhelm Krause with the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend came up with the concept of the Flakpanzer IV Wirbelwind. He presented the concept to SS-Obersturmbannführer Max Wünsche, commanding officer of the 12th SS Panzer Regiment and it was approved by Hitler.

The Panzer IV's turret was removed and replaced with an open-top, nine-sided turret which housed a quadruple 2 cm Flakvierling 38 L/112.5. A closed-top design would have been preferable, but this was not possible due to the heavy smoke generated by the four anti-aircraft guns. The shape of the turret earned it the nickname of Keksdose (Biscuit Tin). Production of the tank was carried out by Ostbau Werke in Sagan, Silesia. However, in combat the 2cm shells were felt to be insufficiently effective against aircraft and so a more powerful successor was produced which eventually replaced it. Known as the Flakpanzer IV Ostwind (East Wind), the successor was equipped with a single 3.7 cm FlaK 43.

The combination of armor and rapid fire from the four guns of the Wirbelwind also made it effective against ground targets.

Between 87 and 105 Wirbelwinds were produced during the war, but due to discrepancies between the recorded production numbers at the Ostbau Works and Wehrmacht service records, the exact number will probably never be known.

No, I did not MOC this myself but instead bought it from China. The great Chinese R&D has extend it's arm into the toy industry and we, the consumers, reaped an opportunity to own these one of a kind model on a very affordable basis (**shrug** thinking how much I have to pay for a Brickmania model - which they don't even have the Wirbelwind in their inventory, yet.)
When I say "Chinese R&D", what I meant is "Received & Duplicate". Stumbled across eBay selling it's build instructions and the seller obviously bought a copy and they just pack accordingly for selling. Not complaining and I do hope they buy a few more instructions of other tanks to increase variety.

The model shown here have undergone some further modifications by yours truly mainly in the front of the chassis and a minor addition of a back rack at the back of the chassis. Turret is original and so are the tracks.

Being an MOC set, there are a couple of missing parts - that you can easily replaced with your spares which every Lego enthusiast - even the casual one - will have a small stash of.

Clutching of bricks are mixed at best. Some clutched firmly, some loosely. Overall, it works.

Minifigures are bought separately. It is excellent that the turret are able to fit 3 minifigs and having them adds another dimension to the model. All Tank models should have minifigs to complement them.
Overall it is a cool model and worth every penny paid. Next I'd do is probably to MOC a Panzer IV turret so that I can interchange this model for added playability.

Following are pictures of the Wirbelwind before my reworking.

Noticed the unusually long front chassis? I've remount it and reconstruct the front axle to allow the front chassis to sit 1 stud back. Also the lack of a back bracket.
Outcome of the modification may seem small but there are extensive remodeling of the chassis top plate to make the new changes possible.