“Seidentasche aus dem Ohr einer Sau” is German for “Silk purse from a sow’s ear.” I like older kits and have a soft spot for building something beautiful from an old kit; however, when a kit is newly released, I expect more than a model from the 1970s. This kit traces its lineage to ESCI Kit No. 8026 (first released in 1974). This version of the kit first entered Italeri as Kit No. 7018 in 2004 with new decals. This kit (7018 on Italeri’s website, 557018 on MRC’s website) has amazing box art of a Panther Ausf A with Zimmerit, schürzen, new decals for five versions, link-and-length tracks, and one figure. Apart from the decals, this kit is the same as the previous Italeri version from 21 years ago, which is the same Esci kit going back over fifty years.

Reference the MRC website (https://www.modelrectifier.com/product-p/557018.htm),

In 1934, the 20 mm anti-aircraft gun Flak 30, developed by the German company Rheinmetall, was adopted by the Luftwaffe. Based on the combat experience with the gun in Spain, Mauser upgraded it, and the new model was named the 2 cm Flak 38. The upgraded gun used the same ammunition as the Flak 30, with changes primarily aimed at increasing the rate of fire, which rose from 245 to 480 rounds per minute. The cost of one 2 cm Flak 38 anti-aircraft unit was 6,500 Reichsmarks. The new gun began entering service in the second half of 1940 and soon became a common close-range air defense tool in the Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe. Besides combating aircraft, the gun could also be used to engage lightly armored targets. A company equipped with twelve 2 cm Flak 38 guns was part of the anti-tank battalion of infantry divisions, and similar companies were also included in tank and motorized divisions. Production of these guns continued until the end of World War II.

From ICM website:

These installations were used by the Wehrmacht to defend troops on the march from air attacks and to support the advancing infantry. They were originally installed on the special trailer “IF5” and Stoewer, BMW cars (type Kfz 1) in the initial period of the war, also later in the bodies of trucks and as fixed firing points.

Reviewer’s Comments:

Beyond expectations!

Everybody loves a trainwreck, right? And yes, this book ends with trainwrecks, but in a very good way. We all know how it ends – with duty, honor, courage, defeats, little victories, explosions, derailments, disaster – after all, it does end in September 1939 with the German invasion outcome. But from 1921 to 1939, it chronicles the continued saga of national defense after the Poles kicked invading Russians out against all odds, using armored trains as mobile artillery and troop transports, until these trains became one of the first victims of blitzkrieg. This book is jam-packed with such detail, photos, illustrations, maps, and color plates (by the author) there is almost zero open white spaces and not much text. A quick read, and with all the visual content, you’ll spend hours being transported to what life was like on Polish war trains. A bonus – you’ll learn train lingo too.

The “Images of War” book series that Pen & Sword offers has fast become a favorite of mine. Each volume has many wartime photos of the subject at hand, and always includes rare photos that the reader has probably never seen before. This issue is no exception. Covering the Germans’ motorcycle corps during WWII, the book is rife with 200 B&W period photos of the bikes in action. Most of the photos are crisp and clear, although a few are a little blurry.

Almost every photo has a caption written by the author describing the scene. In studying the photos, the reader can detect a myriad of details, which are invaluable to the modeler, or even to the motorcycle enthusiast. Seeing the details conveys a sense of what the Kradschützen Truppen put up with on a day-to-day basis. These bikes were used heavily as a reconnaissance platform, but also as up-gunned combat vehicles, and even stretcher-bearers to evacuate the wounded from the battlefield.