75mm M3 Barrel
for US Sherman Tank
armorscale Sets # B48-005
1:48th Scale
Reviews by Terry Ashley
The barrel is the later type without the slight flair at the tip and is a single metal part with the muzzle hollowed out and the makings of fine rifling included inside the barrel but has not quite made it on my barrel with just some small indentations around the lip.
Comparing the barrel length to the excellent research feature by Kurt Laughlin on Track Link and the 1:48 plans in the Hunnicut Sherman book sees the length of the barrel outside of the turret is 67.625inches which equals 1717.672 millimetres or 35.785miilimeters in 1:48 scale. Both the Tamiya kit barrel and this armorscale barrel measure out about 0.05mm too long which is really nothing to get excited about and the diameter matches to within a fraction of a millimetre.
To fit the barrel you have to widening the barrel hole in the mantlet out to 3.2mm matching the diameter of the metal barrel and then fit the barrel into place. The smaller neck at the rear of the metal barrel fits snugly into the Tamiya inner barrel support (part D12) to hold the assembly together similar to the Tamiya kit parts.
A small instruction sheet is included indicating the minor alterations required to the Tamiya kit mantlet and the alterations are the same for the mantlets in both Sherman kits so you can use this on either kit without problems for an easy update not with standing the length issue.
Highly recommended
References:
Gun Barrels for Shermans Track Link Article by Kurt Laughlin
| SHERMAN A History
of the American Medium Tank R.P.Hunnicutt. Presidio Books ISBN 0-89141-080-5  |
Page created May 20, 2006