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German 2cm tank gun barrel
KwK38 L/56

#35 L-42
Review by Terry Ashley


This small 2cm barrel in designed for any of the Tasca Panzer II “Luchs” kits and from the outset let me say it is for experienced modellers only as the parts are quite small and a fair bit of shaping is required for the etched parts.

The set has the barrel in turned brass with etched parts for the muzzle collar and flash suppressor which is where the fun starts.

You must anneal the etched parts through a hot flame before starting with the usual precautions when using naked flames. There are two flash suppressors provided but only one etched collar so take care as you only have one chance here.

Start rolling the collar on a flat surface with a fine drill bit, you could use the roller bed from the Brassassist Roller set for this but the rollers in this set are too large. It is going to take a bit of careful rolling to get the collar down to the diameter required, there is small lip on the etched collar that will indicate the correct diameter but I found once you have the cylindrical collar some light filing was needed to smooth out the join.
You can use cyanoacrylate to join the collar as it is quite small or of course soldering will give a strong join but again some experience will be needed as the part is very small.

Moving on to the flash suppressor, ABER give you two of these which is a good as it is very easy to destroy one or both, so again care is needed.

Using a cylindrical shaped tool, I have an old Trimaster scribing tool that was perfect I carefully rolled the suppressor around the tool until the cylindrical shape is achieved, some coaxing with a small pair of tweezers may also be needed and it is important when rolling the suppressor to keep it perfectly square to the tool or the two ends won’t meet correctly. Again some light filing was required on the join and to smooth out the suppressor as it tends not to bend evenly where the holes are formed in the etched part but by rolling tightly around the tool will keep it as round as possible.

Cyanoacrylate can again be used to join the ends or soldering which ever you prefer with the same for attaching the suppressor to the collar ensuring they line up correctly.

When joining the collar and flash suppressor parts together and to the barrel it’s best to align the join towards the bottom as this tends to hide any unsightly join line that may be remaining.

If you are still sane at this point there is still more fun to come in fitting the new barrel to the Tasca kit as the diameter of the breech end is thicker than the kit barrel and the hole in the gun mantlet collar (parts C12, C13) has to be enlarged to fit around the new metal barrel, this collar is in two halves and its best to glue these together and let dry completely before trying to alter the parts and when enlarging the centre hole keep firm finger pressure to hold the two collar halves together or they will pop apart.

The locating hole in the mantlet will also need drilling out to take the new barrel and test fit to check as you go. The assembled barrel is also longer than the kit barrel and checking this against available plans (Achtung Panzer No.7) shows the ABER barrel to be the correct length with the kit barrel slightly too short (by about 2mm).

Conclusion:
As mentioned this barrel is for the experienced modeller only as the end result will depend very much on your skills during construction and without doubt this set requires more work for the size and number of parts that any other barrel I’ve attempted but the and result gives a fine looking barrel of the correct length with considerable more detail than the kit barrel, you just have to decide if the frustration and work justifies the ends.

Recommended to the adventurous.

Unassembled parts
ABER
Assembled barrel
ABER

Thanks to Michael from Airconnection for the sample barrel.
Airconnection carry the full range of ABER update sets and barrels.



Page Created 20 March 2005

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