PMMS
ABER
German 7.5cm KwK 42 L/70
Panther Ausf.G Late Production

ABER 1:35 Set #35 L-56
Review by Terry Ashley

Dragon

Following on from their previous Panther Late barrel (set #35L36) for the Tamiya Panther G, ABER have now released this new 7.5cm KwK 42 L/70 barrel for the Dragon Panther Ausf.G Late Production (kit #6268).

The set consists of the full turned aluminium barrel that has fine rifling in the muzzle plus 4 turned brass parts and 7 etched brass parts to make up the muzzle brake. But it is not just a re-pop of the previous barrel as every part is redesigned and so it’s basically a new barrel is all respects.

Unassembled parts and barrel rifling
ABERABER

Dimensionally when compared to the 1:35 plans in the recent Panzer Tracts No.5-3 Panther Ausf.G sees the ABER barrel to be almost 2mm longer but the muzzle brake is spot on for size. This extra length shows when also comparing to the Dragon barrel which matches the plans in barrel length but the muzzle brake is very fractionally smaller but this is only noticeable when comparing directly.

ABER

The barrel itself is designed to simply replace the kit barrel and fit between the two kit gun breech halves (parts B1, B2) which it does quite snugly with the fit of the kit mantlet collar around the metal barrel again being very snug without any movement or trimming required.

Take care when assembling the breech and mantlet as this has to be done before adding the muzzle brake to the barrel as this will not fit through the mantlet hole afterwards and you first add the brass collar followed by the etched ping (part 3) to the tip which can be done before fitting the mantlet if you wish.

ABERABER
ABER

The muzzle brake is broken in two halves with a central grommet ring too which is added two etched flanges for additional detail which is basically the same as with most barrels of this type. The grommet is best glued inside the outer muzzle brake cap as this makes it easier to add to the rear half but the instructions show to add this inside the rear muzzle brake half which doesn’t really work.

After adding the inner grommet the two muzzle brake halves fit together very snugly but you have to line up the side openings and there was a minor issue here in that when one side was lined up the other side was slightly off centre, but this is only minor and may not be noticeable once the barrel is fitted to the kit. There is a very small join seam between the two halves which can be eliminated by a dab of solder but this may not be necessary as the join seam is all but invisible from normal viewing distances.

ABERABERABERABER

The fit of the brass collar and muzzle brake was very snug to the barrel tip without the need for any filing as noted in the instructions which makes the final assembly straightforward and finally there is the small bracket added to the top of the muzzle brake.

Conclusion:
The newly designed muzzle brake matches the plans better and is more refined and detailed than the older one and the plastic kit muzzle brake with the barrel fitting directly to the Dragon kit without alterations but there is the additional 2mm in length which may or may not be an issue depending on your preferences.

Recommended 7/10

References:
Book Panzer Tracts No.5-3
Panzerkampfwagen "Panther" Ausfuehrung G

by Thomas L Jentz and Hilary Louis Doyle
ISBN 0-9744862-7-2
Published by Panzer Tracts,
Soft cover, 68 pages.
Book

Achtung Panzer No.4
Panther/Jagdpanther

Good photo coverage of the Panther, Japanese text.

Thanks to ABER for the review sets.
Airconnection carry the full range of ABER update sets and barrels.



Page Created February 23, 2007

Click Browsers BACK button to return to list
Home / Reviews / Vehicle Reviews / ABER