The set consists of the aluminium barrel and three resin pieces for the mantlet and muzzle brake halves and is not as you would assume designed for the recent Tamiya JS-2 Model 1944 ChKZ (kit #35289) but in fact for the older Dragon IS-2 kits which are not at present being produced.
The metal barrel has the correct taper along the length and also features threads for the muzzle brake and rifling as mentioned with the length matching the 1:35 plans in IS Vol.1/II Wydawnictwo Militaria No.273/294 but is 1.5mm shorter than the 1:35 plans in Ground Power Magazine #165. Additional data in the Russian magazines listed below suggest the 1:35 plans in the Ground Power Magazine are correct while those in the Militaria IS books not so meaning the metal barrel is slightly too short.
The muzzle brake is cleanly cast with just the casting blocks to be removed and includes the inner muzzle brake ring as well as nice cast texture and weld seams on the outside of the muzzle brake.
Unfortunately the muzzle brake is undersized in both length and width as well as having the prominent join seam to be removed and this will also damage the cast texturing which will have to be replaced using Mr.Surfacer or similar after the seam is eliminated.
Another issue is the barrel tip is threaded but there is no threading on the inside of the muzzle brake halves and to fit the muzzle brake to the barrel you have to file the treads down to reduce the diameter of the barrel sufficiently to fit on the muzzle brake. You also have to ensure you don’t force the muzzle brake onto the barrel or it will split along the join and you will be back to square one
Moving to the replacement mantlet, this too has nice cast texturing as well as small screw and bolt head details with the fit of the barrel into the mantlet being very snug which makes for a very good fit that doesn’t really need any glue. This will come in handy when ensuring the muzzle brake is aligned correctly as you can easily twist the barrel for correct alignment.
Unfortunately the mantlet is too narrow by 2mm when compared to the 1:35 plans in IS Vol.1 Tank Power Vol.XLVII and is also 1mm narrower than the Dragon kit mantlets meaning it will not fit well onto the Dragon kit turrets with a small gap at either side.
But to add the mantlet to the Dragon kit turrets you just need to cut off the locating pin on the inner barrel mounting bracket and butt join the new mantlet to the mounting bracket which makes for fairly easy fitting. If you add a strip of .5mm plastic card to each side of the resin mantlet it will fit okay into the opening at the front of the Dragon kit turrets.
Images of the barrel threading requiring complete removal
as well as assembled muzzle brake with join seam to be eliminating.
As a point of interest if you want to add the barrel/mantlet to the new Tamiya IS-2 kit there will be more work needed as the resin mantlet is also 2mm narrower than the Tamiya kit mantlet, which incidentally matches the 1:35 plans in IS Vol.1 Tank Power Vol.XLVII perfectly.
There is also additional work to mount the mantlet to the Tamiya gun mounting but nothing too taxing for the average modeller and if you again wanted to widen the resin mantlet by adding 1mm card strips either side to make it the correct width.
You could of course just use the metal barrel on the existing kit mantlets by carefully widening the barrel locating hole to take the metal barrel. This raises another issue in that the base of the metal barrel is slightly wider than the Dragon kit barrel meaning if you drill out the gun collar the edges will be quite thin and not to scale.
While the barrel has basically the correct length and contours the muzzle threads have to be filed off to fit the muzzle brake which while having good cast texturing requires a little work to eliminate the join seam. The muzzle brake is also undersized compared to available data which effects the overall appeal.
The biggest problem with the set is the narrow mantlet which will require widening to fit both the older Dragon kits and new Tamiya IS-2 kits leaving it hard to recommend this barrel as viable replacement unless you are prepared for a bit of work.
Recommended only just 6.5/10
See comparison review of available 122mm D-25T Barrel sets
| Heavy Tank IS 2/2M Model Detail Photo Monograph No.6 Rossagraph ISBN 88-916229-6-7  |
Heavy Tank IS-2 Ground Power Magazine #165 - 2/2008 GALILEO Publishing Co.,Ltd.  |
IS-2 Heavy Tank 1944-1973 Osprey New Vanguard 7 by Steve Zaloga, Peter Sarson ISBN 1 8552 3986 6  |
| IS Vol.I Tank Power Vol.XLVII Wydawnictwo Militaria No.273 ISBN/EAN: 9788372192738  |
IS Vol.II Tank Power Vol.LXIV Wydawnictwo Militaria No.294 ISBN/EAN: 9788372192943  |
IS Vol.III Tank Power Vol.LXXII Wydawnictwo Militaria No.306 ISBN/EAN: 9788372193063  |
for
the review set.