The set has the single turned aluminium barrel with a machined brass flash supressor and two etched parts for the barrel fittings as well as a short length of plastic rod with the parts requiring no cleanup prior to assembly other than the small attachment burs when the ethced parts are cut from their sheet.
The aluminium barrel includes the front section of the gun receiver and small pin for attaching the barrel to the doner gun with the separate brass flash suppressor which includes six larger holes around the collar section and three rows of six smaller holes in the suppressor cone. Images available of the actual suppressor collar show six or eight holes around the collar and three or four rows of smaller holes in the suppressor cone making the suppressor features in this set correct for the type depicted. There is another detail with the collar holes in that two are only half the length of the others and this is the only aftermarket metal suppressor to include this feature to date.
The flash suppressor and barrel length matches in size exactly to the 1:35 plans in Panzer Tracks No.12 Flakpanzer and Nuts and Bolts Vol.13 Flakpanzer IV with the actual measurements being; full length of the gun (housing and visible barrel including flash suppressor) 2252.5mm which equals 64.357mm in 1:35 scale and the visible length of the barrel with flash suppressor is 995mm equalling 28.429mm (rounded to 28.5mm) in 1:35 scale. The set barrel measures out exactly 28.5mm making it one of the most accurate of those available as it also includes the smaller sized collar holes mentioned above.
The only minor concern is the flash suppressor is fractionally smaller than the plans and photos would indicate but this is really marginal at best and is only really apparent when comparing directly to other barrels available.
There is a small etched fitting for the top of the gun housing section and added to this is small "bolt" that you cut from the plastic rod provided and glue in place at the front of the etched part, make sure you glue the etched part the right way around for this. There is no need to be to precise when cutting the rod as you can sand down the "bolt" to the correct height once the part is firmly glued in place with a small dab of cyanoacrylate (super glue)
Fitting the barrel to the Dragon FlaK38 gun from any of the applicable kits such as kit #6220, #6288, #6292, #6293, #6395 is quite straight forward as the kit gun is the correct proportions and all that is needed to cut the barrel and housing section from the Dragon gun, drill a small 1mm locating hole and attach the Griffon Model barrel, all very easy.
To fit the barrel to the Tristar FlaK38 gun is just as simple and I have used here the gun from the latest Flak38 kit #35029 or the AFV Club kit #AF35118 as this has corrected the minor receiver dimensional errors of the gun in kits #35010 and Flakpanzer 1A #35019. Again you simply cut the housing section from the Tristar gun, drill a small 1mm locating hole and attach the Griffon Model barrel without any other alterations required.
Highly recommended 8/10.
See a full comparison of available FlaK38 barrels.
2cm
FlaK38 Muzzle Reference images |
German
20mm FlaK in WWII 1395-1945 By Werner Müller Schiffer Military History ISBN: 0-88740-758-7 Soft cover |
Leichter Zugkraftwagen 1t Panzer Tracts No.22-1 Includes accurate 1:35 plans of the 2cm Flak 30 |
Tamiya
Photo Album 4 Tamiya Plastic Model Co. Krupp Protze |
2cm
FlaK 30/38 Sfl Sd.Kfz.10/4 Wydawnictwo Militaria 172 |
Griffon Model sets are available from or in HK
but more shops should stock them in the future.
See the Griffon Model website for full details of update sets available.