Flak Tower

The water table is high in Berlin and the Germans discovered that as long as an air raid shelter has a really strong roof, the sides did not have to be underground to withstand the fall of bombs.  So they built three massive flak towers in Berlin that included air raid shelters.  They also built smaller command post and radar centers nearby each one to control the anti-aircraft guns.  The shock wave from firing the guns was too great to put the radars on the same towers.

This one is nearly finished. I have resin cast the shutters, they go on over the small brown patches.  The shutters were thick steel doors that let in air when it was safe and they were closed when the raid was on.  I have all the guns, but they still need to be painted.  I am working on the staff for the interior.  The center part of this model is a couple boxes with drawers.  The drawers pull open so the troops can be moved around inside the model.  There are five drawers on two opposite sides for a total of ten interior rooms.  I plan on making a command post for the tower, a command post for the troops in the area, a hospital and the rest will probably be generator room and civilian air raid spaces.

The tower is 1/72nd scale.  My plan is to finish it next summer when I do the smaller control tower.