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Griffon Model
2cm Flak38 Barrel
Griffon Model Set No. LB35005
1:35th Scale

Review by Terry Ashley

The Set:
Griffon Model a new company from China has amongst it's first releases a replacement metal barrel for the Flak38 to join the dozen or so already available from just about every aftermarket company producing metal barrels. So is this new barrel just another one or has it anything to offer over the others, we will see below.

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.

Barrel parts and close-up of flash suppressor
Griffon Model
Griffon Model
Griffon Model

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)

Assembled barrel
Griffon Model

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.

Fitting barrel to Dragon 2cm FlaK38
Griffon Model

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.

Cutting the Tristar 2cm FlaK38
Griffon Model

Conclusion:
This 2cm barrel from Griffon Models has the correct length barrel and flash suppressor holes correctly depicted with the two shorter holes and is probably the most accurate available save for the marginally smaller flash supressor. The barrel has very fine details with absolutely no cleanup, nothing could be easier and will add considerable detail to whatever FlaK38 kit you use it on.

Highly recommended 8/10.

See a full comparison of available FlaK38 barrels.

References:
FlaK382cm FlaK38
Muzzle Reference images
bookGerman 20mm FlaK in WWII
1395-1945

By Werner Müller
Schiffer Military History
ISBN: 0-88740-758-7

Soft cover
47 pages

Panzer TracksLeichter Zugkraftwagen 1t
(Sd.kfz.10) Ausf.A and B and Variants
development and production from 1935 to 1945

Panzer Tracts No.22-1
ISBN 0-9815382-5-8
Thomas L. Jentz and Hilary Louis Doyle

Includes accurate 1:35 plans of the 2cm Flak 30
and 2cm Flak 38 early and late.

bookTamiya Photo Album 4
Tamiya Plastic Model Co.

Krupp Protze
Flak30, Flak38

book2cm FlaK 30/38 Sfl
Sd.Kfz.10/4

Wydawnictwo Militaria 172

Griffon Model sets are available from Hobbyeasy or Lucky Model in HK
but more shops should stock them in the future.

See the Griffon Model website for full details of update sets available.




Page created October 13, 2007