Ulrich Puchala Luftwaffe Guns & Cannons
Besides the range of Luftwaffe figures Ulrich Puchala also produces a line of accessories for the Luftwaffe and modern aviation. They are also cast in white metal. The range includes modern ejection seats, modern compressors, electrical carts, Luftwaffe bomb trolley, oil and start cart. It also offers a line of Luftwaffe aircraft guns and cannons. To my best knowledge these guns are the only German aircraft guns available in this scale. The line include the Mk 108, MG 151 and MG 131. Every item has several single guns packed. You get two guns in the Mk 108 and MG 151 pack and three in MG 131 pack. I bought the Mk 108 pack so I'm guessing that the two others are the about the same quality. You get the guns packed in the same plastic bag as the one with the figures. The guns are separated to the barrel, main body and with the Mk 108 the lock. You treat these guns the same as any white-metal detailing set. The surface is slightly uneven, so all-around sanding is recommended. Mold lines are barely visible. The barrels tend to be warped and bended, the details on the barrel are spoiled by the now-omni-present mold lines, but replacing barrels with a hypodermic needle is not a problem. Sometimes there is no details on the front or the back of the gun. Drill a couple of holes insert a couple of plugs and the guns are contest quality. For the Mk 108 you will have to add a lot of detail on the front/back side of the gun, not to mention the guns lock-down points. Of course consider how much detail will be visible. As any white-metal kit, do not forget the enamel base cote. These guns are not to be built straight-out-of-the-box, but if you invest about 3 hours in each gun, you will get a highly detailed and correct weapon. The price is 19 DEM for 2 guns.
If you are building a German machine with exposed guns don't even think about scratchbuilding them.
This article created on Saturday, July 02 2011; Last modified on Thursday, September 08 2011