Anybody familiar with Tamiya German artillery troops

Tamiya's artillery crew is for their 8,8cm flak gun.

The troop on the bottom left is holding (and looking into) a range finder. The wider the two lenses are apart, the better triangulation calculation you can make. And yes, those are 8.8cm rounds.

Those are the original figures from the 1970s that came with their 8.8cm Flak 36/37 kit. The figures were later released as a separate set that you have here. The 88 was later re issued with some nice DAK artillerymen a few years back when Tamiya revamped several of their older kits with PE, metal barrels, and/or new figures.

So I'm assuming Tamiya re-issued this kit that is identical to the 70's. Are there any markings that differentiate the original from the re-issue. As a modeler would you prefer the original?

teejay

So I'm assuming Tamiya re-issued this kit that is identical to the 70's. Are there any markings that differentiate the original from the re-issue. As a modeler would you prefer the original?

Here is a run down comparing the original version to the reissued version on a modeling review site. You can read and make your own decision about which one to look for. Commenting about the quality of any kit on this forum will get one labeled as a "rivet counter", which on this site is someone who does not have any fun building models and apparently removes the fun from anyone else who may be thinking about building this kit.

 http://www.perthmilitarymodelling.com/reviews/vehicles/tamiya/tam35283.htm 

Basic difference between the two versions is the elimination of the figures you have posted and the elimination of the bogies used to model the gun in the traveling mode. A new set of Afrika Korps figures were added. These figures were highly sought after by modelers who had obtained a different (more modern) manufacturers' (AFV Club or Dragon) Flak 88 model.

The only personal advice I give about any model asked about on this site is to "buy it, build it, and have fun."

I'll comment on the kit's quality: there are much better alternatives extant in the marketplace today.  Unless you just want a more simple set to perfect your painting techniques, there are many more 1/35 German artillery troops available in injection plastic by other makers.  Dragon, Trumpeter, MiniArt.  The Tamiya ones are fine-- just caveat emptor

I remember when That 88 hit the market (1976 or so) and I got the first one my LHS got. The current Dragon one and figures are a lot better detailed.

Tamiya introduced an anomaly with the figures for the FlaK 88 back in the 70's.

Figure #7, the soldat holding a round nose down, is doing so to set the fuze using the roller wheels from the fuze setting computer on the left side of the mount.

However, you generally only need time fuze setting when shooting at high-flying aircraft.  Which was nearly always a Luftwaffe responsibility..

Which is ok, but the figures all have the Wehrmacht bars on their collars.  

Now, including the soldat with 1,64m rangefinder is more something seen for batteries seconded to panzer divisions or Corps.  (A fixed FlaK position would have an equally-fixed 3m rangefinder.  The Tamiya figure is also lacking the rather substantial yoke and frame to carry the weight of the m36 rangefinder--a bit of a glaring oversight.