Small Scale Military Headquarters

Hi everyone. It was a great friday today I came home to find a fresh sample of the 88 flak gun on my door step. This is the final product and I was eager to liberate it from it's box and wire ties.

First glance- this piece is OUTSTANDING in the attention to accuracy and detail. Paint looks good and the DAK scheme quickly grows on you! As you remove it from the package and begin to explore the moving features you want to be very careful. The reason is, there are SO MANY moving parts that you might miss one and break off one of those lovely detail bits.

I quickly removed the carriage wheels and noticed something new... The wheels can position right to left much like a common Rack and pinion steering setup. I thought WOW thats a nice added detail.

I then noticed other such details on the gun itself, for instance the folding arms have the proper working parts to assist in the full deployment as they lower down. Each of the 4 arm have the elevation / balance pads that can then be pressed down into your 1:18 scale terrain. locating pins then can be inserted behind the pads... just like the real thing.

Other nice bits like the seat folds down, there is a clamp that opens up around the barrel of the cannon to free it from a stored position. the gun has EXCELLENT movement in terms of elevation and rotation. As the gun elevates you see the scale hydraulic rods travel as the gun extends.

The gun recoils and again there is another rod that becomes exposed as the gun moves back. Other little goodies and moving bits are there for you to explore and I won't spoil it all here.

my bottom line... This piece is a quantum leap forward in terms of accuracy, detail, and cool factor. Very pleased with this one my friends! I will take detail shots and post them ASAP

Awesome review... I am psyched now about getting the one I have on pre-order...

here are some pics! This this is SICK!

Wow! What a model. Thanks for posting the pictures TKO. Does it come with instructions to show all the features the model comes with?

It does have some instruction... But not really all of it is covered. There are little boxes that open on the wheel carriages and other things that I had to explore and figure out myself. The expense of the model makes sense once you see how MANY separate molded detail pieces were used to create this awesome 88. There is simply too much to look at. I feel like I have a real understanding of how this piece of equipment was deployed and operated now, just because of what this model does. I want a Grey one now!

Thanks for the review and the pic's

Thanks for sharing TKO.

i'm sure this has been asked plenty of times but is TRU going to see this piece or is it an online dealer only?

So far online only.
I don't think it'll move a the price point at a B and M.

Thanks TKO. I was considering passing on this but it looks too damn good. My 1/18 fighters are going to have trouble...

I hope mine gets here soon! Thanks for the detailed pics but I think I'll stop with the DAK version.

Very nice indeed, other than the paint scheme
I preordered a couple from my on-line dealer. I'll wait on others until a different paint scheme comes out. SO, I'll get a chance to look at them for a day, then pack 'em up and send them to my custom painter to apply the tricolor scheme That way they'll fit into my battle senario.

TKO, will there be other paint schemes made in the 88s ???

Da General

I just got the wholesale order form from 21stC today. Im gona order a couple of cases so they will be home when I get out of this place.

So. I was bored today and decided to start to customize my new 88mm Flak Gun. It's now Gray and sports some kill rings on the barrel. As for the carriages... Well with all the tools and such they are taking more time. I have one of the done and the other side is almost finished being masked.

I determined that S2 might take too long to be produced by 21C. I do have another DAK 88 gun coming from a pre-order so I still have S1 in the collection.

I will post pics as soon as I am finished.

Zach you know you could help out 21st you could open up a shop and start doing repaints...........................

it ditto that too.. heheh

Its a great looking item, but I cannot justify the high price tag. If by some miracle it makes it into a B&M store, I will grab it.

pcb122605 wrote:Its a great looking item, but I cannot justify the high price tag. If by some miracle it makes it into a B&M store, I will grab it.

And if it doesn't (S-1) you will be kicking yourself for a long time! Been there done that! Now that WM isn't going to carry 21st XD, don't expect to see any "Clearance" prices on these! I already pr-ordered my DAK and will get more when the grey one hits the dealers. But didn't want to chance that not happening.

Seeing that wm is not going to carry 21st XD anymore, lets hope target starts to.

Um yeah...get these now, or you'll be BAWWWWWWing over the super-inflated Ebay prices these will surely go for after it's gone from e-retailers.

It's worth every penny.

I don't want to cause any alarm because frankly anything can happen. In these shaky times where XD items are few and far between, and in these days of economic stress I might suggest the following in the consideration of the 88.

The 88 as I understand it will not hit B&M stores. Even IF they do at some undisclosed point in the future it most likely will not be the S1 scheme.

The S1 scheme as I had heard in the months past, was going to be a short-run scheme (meaning fewer numbers than usual were produced)... How few? Not sure. But I believe it to be less than half of a usual order. I invite anyone from 21C to correct me on this but I think if you want an 88 (and especially the S1) NOW is the time to act. I would be lying if I said I could guarantee that would be a second chance. These days in our hobby I wouldn't leave too much to chance if I thought I would want a certain product.

This is just my opinion here. My info used to base this opinion is old, and is subject to change as new info might surface. But as my friends and fellow collectors who want one. My advise is run don't walk to your computer.

The 88 as I understand it will not hit B&M stores.

No big surprise there TKO. I agree with you that anyone who has had their heart set on getting one of these should act now or risk being left out in the cold. Any idea what an S2 scheme might be...?? I seem to remember some discussions around here where the consensus was for grey, but I personally would prefer one of the camo schemes (or similar) that were seen on the 32X versions. I think I speak for the majority of the members here when I say that your insights and updates are always much appreciated by the community.

I did take TKO's much appreciated advice and early today got the pre-order still offered by Bad Cat on this item. While I suppose it is within the realm of possibility these may show up one day at a TRU or Target, why take the chance they won't? That plus looking at the photos of what I will be getting for my money seems worth the price asked.

Thanks for the review and pics! I've got one on order and can't wait. I agree that this is a piece to jump on given 21c's troubles. At least DAK figures are plentiful enough to give the gun a proper fire & support crew

I've very tempted to order another at some point to give it a repaint much like you described, TKO. It doesn't seem too hard and the item price would be the only sticking point for me.

This is my funny observation, however, it would seem that the FOV 1:32 88 is in some respects still the winner in terms of detail. Despite its small size, it has the recoil, folding parts, working clamp and best of all, the cranks on that gun actually work to traverse and elevate the barrel. Nevertheless, it is great to finally see the 88 in 1:18 scale!

I ordered too and can't wait for this to arrive - ill probably keep mine in the box for awhile - but it looks incredible - thanks for the pics