This will be very impressive, Michel, For awhile there I though you were going to do the whole tower! At 1/35, it would need it's own room in your house (or and entire building) to contain it. These are indeed awesome works of engineering. I am looking forward to you expert architectural techniques to help us appreciate the construction and operation of the Flak Towers. Model making can be quite an historical learning experience in itself.

Michel, @michel-verschuere
You mentioned to me that you had an idea for a project and you certainly have picked up a great one to build. These Flakturms were next to impossible to destroy after the war ended from what I have read and seen on several TV shows about them. Going from memory, there is one in Berlin near the railway tracks, that was simply covered up with rubble debris and dirt. It is still accessable, and if I ever make another trip to Germany, Berlin is one my bucket list, along with the museum in Munich.

About 10 years ago my friends restored several 88MM Flak guns to a nice static display. Here are some pictures if they will be of assistance. I took these shortly after it had been stripped of all previous paints. That's why it looks so rusted. They ended up blasting the rust off shortly after I took these pictures, and immediately painted them to keep it from happening again.

I hope these pictures will help you in some way.

And yes, you starting a museum would be marvelous !

This will be awesome, Michel (@michel-verschuere). I saw a flak tower on one of my visits to Germany, and you really can't appreciate them until you see them in person. Having a 3D printer makes my mouth water...maybe I can convince my wife I really need one?

Thanks for your insight, Michel (@michel-verschuere). I have always been attracted by the newest bright and shiny thing, and that's 3D printing right now. Luckily I have always been put off somewhat by the cost and especially by the steep learning curve involved. I have purchased some 3D printed items from companies such as Shapeways, who have a selection that is large enough to supply anything I might need in the foreseeable future.

Michel, @michel-verschuere
Thanks for posting pictures that show just how big and thick the metal is on the iron blast doors. Those things were immense and I bet it took some considerable effort to simply open the door, much less carry the ammunition. I can speak from personal experience with loading the 105 MM main gun in our tanks. Depending on the type of round, sabot, HEAT, HEP, as that determined the overall weight, but going from memory these rounds weighed an average of 86 pounds. This is memory so please don't quote me as it could be off a little, but likely not by much. Then they weighed even more I suppose when we went to the M-1A1 because they had a 120 MM smooth bore. I can't imagine trying to stuff a 128 (or bigger) round into a gun breech when the tube was elevated, because your basically lifting the whole round with one arm, all while trying to remain out of the way of the breech during recoil. I know that our 155MM self propelled M-109 Howitzers used ammunition that had the projectile with separate powder bags. This becomes a necessity as the diameter of the ammunition increased because they simply become too heavy for the average person to lift.

I appreciate the information about 3D printing. A little while ago I was looking into getting a laser, for creating balsa wood aircraft kits, (my other hobby is building RC aircraft... usually 1/6 scale WW1 types), but man those things are crazy expensive. Hopefully as the technology increases, and production costs go down, these too will drop in price. Like anything, there is always a learning curve.

I look forward to your next installment, and thank you for the explanation on the 3D printing technology.

Another impressive scratch masterpiece Michel! Looking forward to see how the Zwilling Flak goes

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1 attached image. Click to enlarge.

Nice base!