Barrels for British WWI Tank Mk,IV Male/Female
ABER Set No. 35 L-155 Barrels for British WWI Tank Mk.IV Male
ABER Set No. 35 L-156 Barrels for British WWI Tank Mk.IV Female
1:35 Scale
Review by Terry Ashley

---

These two new update sets from ABER are designed to be used with any applicable WWI vehicle or weapons set utilising the .303 Lewis Machine Gun and with the more recent kits and figure/weapons sets from ICM, Takom and Tamiya as well as with the older Emhar kits.
.
This set comprises two turned aluminium 6pdr barrel tubes and three Lewis MGs of three parts each plus a small etched fret with details parts for the Lewis guns. The 6pdr barrels have the bore drilled out to a depth of 6mm for a good appearance and are a straight replacement for the kit guns. There is no rifling in the barrels and the Takom kits already come with metal 6pdr barrels (kit #2008 and #2010) while the Takom kit #2015 and Tamiya Male have plastic barrels, so the 6pdr barrels may not be applicable to some kits but the main focus of these sets is really the very well done Lewis barrel updates we will look at shortly.

35 L-155 contents

Fitting the Aber metal 6pdr barrel to any of the Takom or Tamiya kits is very quick and easy, you just need to use a 3mm drill to open out the locating hole in the kit gun, this is mainly to increase the depth of the hole although it is also widened very slightly in the process. With the hole drilled you simply fit the Aber barrel into place, all done with very little fuss.

Fitting Aber barrel to Takom 6pdr gun

Fitting Aber barrel to Tamiya 6pdr gun

As mentioned the main updates in these sets are the Lewis barrels and I'll look at both sets together below as they are the same in both update apart from the number of barrels in each set.

Set 35 L-155 has three Lewis gun barrels and set 35 L-156 has five Lewis barrels, and both have the same etched fret for the Lewis guns. Each gun comes in three parts, the large barrel with cooling jacket, a separate muzzle and separate outer muzzle shroud. The parts are machined very cleanly with the only clean-up needed is to file off the small pin residue from the base of the barrel cover and muzzle parts. There was a few metal shavings still inside the hollowed out main barrel cover so just check this before fitting the muzzle, if present they are loose so easy to remove. The etched parts are very small but cleanly produced but you do need to take care removing the parts from the frets due to the small size, the fret has enough parts for the 5 barrels so you get a few spares with set 35 L-155.

35 L-156 contents

Assembly of the barrels is very straightforward, you simply glue (with thin cyanoacrylate) the muzzle into the cover and then glue the outer shroud cover over the muzzle to complete the basic assembly, again all very quick and easy ready to add the remaining small etched details. I found it easier to firstly fit the barrel to whatever kit gun or mounting you will be using these on as it is easy to damage the small etched parts while fitting to the kits.

Basic barrel assembly

This is very straightforward, you just need to cut off the kit barrel from just in front of the magazine and then drill a 1mm hole centrally for the pin on the brass barrel, you do need to take care drilling the hole centrally because when you cut off the barrel the centre line is close to the edge where the magazine sits. After drilling the hole in the first gun as per the photos, I found it easier to actually glue the magazine in place, this gave a bit more plastic so you wouldn't break through the top of the receiver if a little off centre. Also as the receiver is only marginally wider than the 1mm needed for the hole the drill may break the sides a little but when you fit the barrel the brass pin and cyanoacrylate overflow should fill any gaps resulting.

With the hole drilled you simply glue the barrel into the Lewis receiver and note there is a small "flat" spot on the outer edge of the cover for the upper sight and you should make sure this is aligned centrally as you fit the barrel into the receiver. With the barrel fitted you then slip the mounting ring (kit part E21) over the barrel and glue the Skeens ball mounting (kit part E25) to the rear end of the brass barrel sleeve. As with the kit barrel the fit of the ball is quite loose so I used thicker cyanoacrylate and held the ball aligned perfectly until the glue 'went off' to ensure the ball was positioned correctly in relation to the barrel. You just repeat the process for the other guns in the kit and they are then ready for the smaller detail items to be fitted.

The Takom Lewis gun assembly as per the text above before fitting the smaller etched details.


The Tamiya Mk.IV kit doesn't give you the full Lewis gun, just the outer barrel and Skeens ball mounting and a little more work is needed to fit the brass barrels to the kit ball mounting.

Firstly cut off the kit barrel from the ball mounting and drill a 2.5mm hole through the middle of the ball ensuring this is drilled at perfect right angles to the flat cut surface. It's best to first drill a small 0.1 or 0.2mm pilot hole to get this aligned correctly and then progressively drill larger holes, say 1mm, then 1.5mm, then 2mm and finally 2.5mm, this makes it easier than trying to drill the full 2.5mm hole in one go as it's not that easy to grip the small ball as you drill and at the same time ensure the hole remains aligned correctly.

With the hole drilled through the kit ball you must file off the raised ridges around the base of the brass barrel jacket to allow this to fit into the hole, I also marked with a black marker onto the brass barrel the position of the barrel in relation to the ball when gluing. You can then glue the barrel with thicker cyanoacrylate into the ball and its ready for the smaller brass details to be added before fitting to the kit as per instructions.

Fitting to the Tamiya ball mounting as per the text above before fitting the smaller etched details.


This is basically the same as fitting to the full Lewis gun in the Takom kits where you just need to cut off the kit barrel from just in front of the magazine and then drill a 1mm hole centrally for the pin on the brass barrel, you do need to take care drilling the hole centrally because when you cut off the barrel the centre line is close to the edge where the magazine sits. After drilling the hole in the first gun, I found it easier to actually glue the magazine in place, this gave a bit more plastic so you wouldn't break through the top of the receiver if a little off centre. As the receiver is only marginally wider than the 1mm needed for the hole the drill may break the sides a little but when you fit the barrel the brass pin and cyanoacrylate overflow should fill any gaps resulting.

With the hole drilled you simply glue the barrel into the Lewis receiver and note there is a small "flat" spot on the outer edge of the cover for the upper sight and you should make sure this is aligned centrally as you fit the barrel into the receiver. The gun is then again ready for the smaller etched details to be added.

The Tamiya Lewis gun assembly as per the text above before fitting the smaller etched details.


Note the new Tamiya kit 32409 WWI British Infantry w/Small Arms & Equipment has the same plastic as the ICM kit so comments apply equally to both kits.
Again this is basically the same in theory as fitting to the full Lewis gun in the Takom/Tamiya kits where you just need to cut off the kit barrel from just in front of the magazine and then drill a 1mm hole centrally for the pin on the brass barrel. This is complicated by the receiver being a little more petite (for want of a better word) than with the other kit guns and there is not sufficient room for the 1mm hole as the receiver is only just over 1mm wide.

To avoid destroying the receiver I therefore cut off the pin from the brass barrel sleeve and simply glued the barrel to the end of the receiver as a butt join ensuring it was aligned properly with the receiver.

With the barrel glued in this manner it is then ready for the smaller etched details to be added. Also note the brass barrel is a huge improvement over the kit barrel sleeve as this is not hollowed out at the muzzle end giving a poor appearance to the kit gun as it comes.

The ICM Lewis gun assembly as per the text above before fitting the smaller etched details.


The instructions are laid out nicely and easy to follow as there is not a lot of assembly required, you do need to take extreme care with the small etched detail parts as these are quite fine and some require a bit of bending to get the required shape and these actually require the most time during assembly.

Click on thumbnails for larger view

Click Browsers BACK button to return to page

These barrel update sets from ABER are very well done, the metal 6pdr barrels are useful for those kits that don't come with metal barrels but as mentioned the standout are the Lewis gun barrel updates. These are superbly done with excellent muzzle definition due to the separate muzzle and shroud, the standard of brass is excellent as is the etched brass details. these smaller details will take a bit of care in fitting but add further to the excellent appearance of the finished Lewis guns.

Assembly varies depending on the kit, from straightforward to more work needed for the Tamiya Mk.IV guns but well worth the effort for whichever kit/kits you use these barrel sets for.

Highly recommended 9/10

Great War Tank Manual David Fletcher. ISBN: 9780857332424

British Mark IV Tank Osprey New Vanguard #133 ISBN 978-1-84603-082-6

---

Thanks to for the review sets.
Please

to help the reviews continue, thank you