Trumpeter 1/35 German 43 Flakpanzer IV Ostwind Self-Propelled Anti-Aircraft Gun Scaled Plastic Model Kit

The "Ostwind" was the last of a series of Flakpanzers (anti-aircraft tanks) based on the Panzer IV chassis to enter production, albeit in very small numbers. It carried a single 3.7 cm FlaK 43 gun, which was rather more effective than the less powerful 2 cm guns of the "Wirbelwind", and also needed less space in the turret, requiring only a crew of two (gunner and loader) rather than the gunner and two loaders of the quadruple-gun design. Like the "Wirbelwind", the "Ostwind" had a distinctive angular six-sided turret, with the gun emerging from a slot in the pointed front.

After trials in July 1944, on 18 August 1944 Ostbau were given a contract to produce 100 "Ostwind" Is. Fewer than half were completed — the first fifteen of the eventual total of forty-three were finished in December 1944, far too late to have any impact on the war.