128mm PaK 44 L/55
barrel for Jagdtiger
Armorscale Set No. B35-013
1:35th Scale
Review by Terry Ashley
This
set from Armorscale is a simple barrel replacement for the Dragon 128mm
Jagdtiger (kits #6050 and #6285)
that consists of a single turned aluminium barrel and one piece resin mantlet.
The barrel has a drilled out muzzle to a depth of 11mm with rifling included which is quite noticeable on such a large calibre barrel while the resin mantlet is cleanly cast with just a large casting block to be removed which is quite easy with a razor saw and some light sanding.
Detail on the mantlet sees subtle cast texture with the characteristic flat profile on the bottom of the mantlet and the upper lifting bracket is included with just some minor resin film to be cleaned out of the holes.
The fit of the barrel to the mantlet is so snug that air pressure makes it difficult to pull the barrel back out of the mantlet and will hold in place without any glue.
The barrel length is 1.5mm longer than the Dragon kit barrel (plastic and metal) due to rear bevelled section of the barrel immediately in front of the mantlet being slightly elongated on this barrel when compared to the Dragon barrels.
As a quick comparison the ABER 128mm Jagdtiger barrel (set #35 L-22) is the exact same length and profile as the Armorscale barrel but is slightly narrower at 5mm compared with the Armorscale barrel being 5.5mm diameter at the tip with the rifling in the Armorscale muzzle being slightly more pronounced.
The ABER barrel is a straight replacement for the Dragon barrel while the Armorscale barrel includes the resin replacement mantlet that does require a little modification to the Dragon gun to fit but nothing that takes more than a couple of minutes.
All that is required is to cut 7mm from the front of the Dragon gun parts (E6 and E7) with the remaining gun fitting to the back of the resin mantlet with small locating notch on the mantlet ensuring a precise fit, for a quick and easy conversion.
Conclusion:
A simple update for either of the Dragon Jagdtiger kits to add extra details
such as the barrel rifling with the simple one piece mantlet replacing the
four part assembly in the Dragon kits for those wanting that bit extra detail
for little effort.
Highly recommended.
Thanks to armorscale for the review set.
Page created 19 August 2005