All three have the full length barrel in aluminium with the muzzle drilled out with rifling added which does add to the detail definition when fitted into the muzzle brake. The contours for the different barrels are captured nicely and two (set -13, -14) have brass fittings already attached at the breech end.
The large muzzle brakes are made up of four brass parts with the main body in a single part with good contours and the vent holes cleanly opened up plus another six etched parts added for greater details.
Before fitting the barrels test fit the muzzle brake as you will need to very slightly open up the hole to slip over the barrel tip evenly with a fine needle file.
As the muzzle brake is a single part there is the centre collar ring that needs to be inserted and moved back to the correct position and on two of the barrels (set -13 and -14) this ring fitted very precisely into the muzzle brake and was easily positioned and you should attach the two etched detail parts (1 and 2) to the ring before inserting into the muzzle brake.
On the other barrel (it would be the one I decided to assemble fully) the centre ring refused to slip into the muzzle brake without filing around the outside and finally using a small jeweller’s hammer was encouraged it into position, the difference in fit on this barrel could be due to a number of reasons but was interesting given the good fit on the other two.
The small etched collar (part 3) also needed to have the inside hole opened up slightly to fit over the barrel tip and as it is very small filing was not an option and to achieve this I held the ring in a pair of snub nosed tweezers and ran a sharp X-Acto 11 blade around the inside which trimmed off enough for the part to fit.
The rest of the assembly was straight forward but always test fit first and as the fit of the parts was so good overall I only used cyanoacrylate on the etched parts and the end cap with the muzzle brake fitting to the barrel very snugly without gluing.
One final thing is the instructions indicate you should add two small notches on the muzzle cap with a fine razor saw and why these are not already there given the other nice details on the parts is a mystery as it is very easy to mess up the whole thing if the notches are not added exactly even.
Overall these are excellent barrels with the detail definition on the muzzle brakes really standing out from the crowd, the minor fit problem with the one barrel is of little consequence at the end of the day and just added some excitement during the assembly.
Highly recommended.
Thanks to Michael from Airconnection for the sample barrel.
Airconnection carry the full range of ABER update sets and barrels.
Page Created 28 June 2004