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AFV Club
20Pdr. Gun Barrel
Type A for Centurion

AFV Club 1:35 Kit No. AG35018
Review by Terry Ashley

AFV ClubAFV Club
Introduction:

AFV Club have released this update set for their own Centurion Mk.5 kits that provides the initial 20Pdr. Type A barrel as used on the Mk.III and early Mk.5 gun tanks.

The first Centurions were armed with the 17pdr (76.2mm) gun before updating to the 20pdr (83.4mm) which came in two types, the Type A with the large muzzle weight and the Type B with mid barrel fume extractor.

The barrel:

The barrel comes as a single machined aluminium barrel with the muzzle contours well represented as well as being drilled out with rifling included but this is rather over scale which may be more noticeable from some angles. The barrel is the correct length according to available data as well as the barrel contours matching data and photos nicely.

There is no cleanup required before fitting to the target kit making for a simply update.

Metal barrel
AFV Club
AFV Club

The metal barrel is a straight fit to any of the AFV CLub Centurion kit turrets without alterations and also fits the Lionmarc Centurion Mk.III Turret from set #LM33004 without alterations and will finish off this turret conversion nicely.

20Pdr. barrel fitted to AFV Club turret with canvas cover from set #AC35008
AFV Club
20Pdr. barrel fitted to AFV Club turret with canvas cover from set #AC35009
AFV Club
20Pdr. barrel fitted to the Lionmarc Centurion Mk.III Turret from set #LM33004
AFV Club

Conclusion:

This is the simplest of conversions/updates with the one piece aluminium barrel cleanly machined without any cleanup needed and has nice contours including muzzle rifling.

The barrel will backdate any of the applicable AFV Club kits as well as being just the thing for the Lionmarc Centurion Mk.III Turret.

Highly recommended 7.5/10

See the Centurion Subjects page for other Centurion related reviews.

References:
book

Centurion
Modern Combat Vehicles:2

Simon Dunstan

Ian Allan Ltd.
ISBN 0-7110-1063-3

BookCenturion Universal Tank 1943-2003
Osprey New Vanguard 68
ISBN 9 781841 763873
bookThe Centurion Tank
by Bill Munro.
Published by:
The Crowood Press Ltd
ISBN 1 86126 701 0 Hardback, 192 pages
book Centurion in action
Squadron Signal Publications No.2013

Stephen Tunbridge
ISBN 0-88740-341-7


Thanks to my credit card for the review sets




Page created April8, 2008