1:35 8,8 cm Sprgr.Patr.L/4,5 Kw.K.43

The real subject

The subject is a fixed round of 8.8 cm caliber for the Kw.K.43 gun, that is, for the long eighty-eight with a barrel seventy-one times the caliber in length, which was carried by the Tiger II heavy tank. The round of this weapon was among the largest a loader in a rotating turret could manage to load by hand, and its length was one of the reasons why ammunition in the vehicle was stowed mostly along the walls of the hull.

What L/4.5 in the designation means

Here the number after the letter L does not refer to the barrel but to the projectile: it gives its length in multiples of the caliber, that is, roughly four and a half calibers. The Sprenggranatpatrone was high-explosive ammunition, which a crew used against targets on which an armor-piercing shell would be a waste: against infantry, firing positions, artillery and buildings.

Building and painting tips

Cut the surplus material away with a sharp blade a little away from the part and sand the rest off so that the shape of the base of the case is preserved. Wash and degrease the parts before painting. On German ammunition the color coding of projectiles differed according to the type of filling and the period, so work from a period photograph or from the manufacturer's instructions; those are also a guide to the choice of glue, because that depends on the material of the parts.

Who it is for

The set suits building an interior with open ammunition bins, a scene with ammunition being replenished and cases lying loose by a vehicle; with the eighty-eight it is precisely the size of the round that gives a scene its sense of scale. Paints and glue are not part of the delivery, unless stated otherwise.