If you’re looking for a decidedly different World War Two modelling subject, how about Takom’s Berliner Zoo Flak Tower?
Takom has displayed a mild stroke of genius in its 1/350 Flak Tower I Berliner Zoo G Tower (kit 6004). The scale is ideal for replicating such a large building, yet there’s still plenty of admirable detail on offer. And if you want to change your modelling direction it offers an interesting tangent from the usual aircraft, tanks and the like.
This huge, 13-story, multi-use structure was built in 1941 with offensive and defensive strategies in mind, and its name comes from its location, as it sat on the fringes of Berlin Zoo. The so-called Flakturm Tiergarten was essentially an anti-aircraft facility, armed with four roof-mounted twin 12.8cm FlaK 40 gun mounts, accompanied by a mixed array of 20mm and 37mm guns on an all-round platform lower than the roof itself.
Above: The roof section with its corner-positioned main gun emplacements. Note the sharply moulded stairways.
Above: Two of the four wall sections, which have rebated window hatch openings.
Due to the thickness of the walls and roof, the building also accommodated a hospital section, doubled as an air raid shelter, and housed many valuable exhibits relo…
