Jose Maria Teja PIOmodels Flivopanzer III

Flivopanzers were command tanks used to coordinate the attacks of the supporting aircraft. (Ed : Flivo stands for = Fliegerverbindungsoffizier - aircraft liaison officer). In order to fulfill their task, an arrangement of radios and their respective antennas were installed in those vehicles. This model is meant to represent a field modification of a Panzer III M into a Flivopanzer. At least that’s what the instructions said! This is a multimedia conversion that comes in a box with sliding top. Firstly, it includes an almost complete Revell Panzer III M, with its decals and instructions. I said almost since, curiously, the turret bin, three schurtzen supports and the smoke grenade launchers pieces were removed from the sprues and are not present in the kit. I find this curious because, even when those pieces won’t be needed for this specific model, the rest of the schurtzen arrangement is there together with many other unneeded parts. On the other side, one extra copy of the antenna base -piece #31- is included. Due to the large number of pieces that won’t be used, many of the steps in the Revell instructions were stamped in red with the phrase “Drawing does not concern this kit”.
The resin pieces comprises an antenna holder and telescopic and frame antennas. Both antennas are not that nice representations: the frame antenna seems quite tick and the telescopic antenna -which got curved- has, wrongly, each section of the same diameter, whenever in the real thing each higher section should be thinner in order to fit inside the lower one when collapsed. Finally, a small photo-etch fret, a plastic bit and two lengths of thin plastic rod complete this kit. These represent some small details and more antennas.
The kit has also with its own instructions, in addition to the Revell ones, printed on a single A4 sheet.


Conclusion I’m frankly disappointed with this kit. From what the box top shows, I was expecting a complete conversion with resin partial upper hull, idler and sprocket wheels, besides the included pieces, to make an earlier version of this tank, but sadly it wasn’t so. I think that the note in the instructions telling you that this meant to be a field converted Panzer III Ausf. M should written in the box so you at least know what you are really getting. Preview sample purchased by the author.

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Article Last Updated: 25 August 2014