German 88mm L/71 barrel
for PaK 43/41
#35 L-41
Review by Terry Ashley

Detail on the barrel is very good with the correct contours and small indentations around the mid barrel collar as well as the two groves for the barrel cradle and rifling inside the muzzle.

Assembly of the muzzle brake is straightforward but the inner diameter of the muzzle brake collar and rear of the muzzle brake may need to be slightly enlarged using a fine needle point file to fit the barrel. The etched ring between the muzzle brake and collar will also need to be enlarged and it is best to file this while still attached to the etched fret for easier handling.

The muzzle brake is in one large part with separate inner flange and end cap and again the flange will need to be filed slightly to fit inside the muzzle brake before attaching the two small etched rings ensuring these are lined up with each other.

The end cap also requires two small notches to be added using a fine razor saw but only attempt to add these if you are sure of you skills as it is an easy way to destroy a good barrel if not cut centrally and evenly on both sides.

The small etched attachment fittings on top of the muzzle brake are straightforward to fit but ensure the barrel and muzzle brake are correctly aligned with the two underside carriage notches on the barrel when fitting together.

Unassembled ABER parts

Barrel rifling and assembled muzzle brake

Fitting to the AFV Club kit;
As the AFV Club PaK43/41 kit already has a metal barrel the first question is why buy this one? The AFV Club barrel has separate plastic two part mid barrel fitting and a two part hollow muzzle brake with both requiring the join seam to be eliminated. The ABER barrel has no such issues and also has notably better detail with the inner details on the muzzle brake and collar as well as the rifling.

To fit the ABER barrel to the AFV Club kit will require you to enlarge the opening in parts E25 and E26 and then use the brass collar provided to enlarge the barrel neck which will then fit snugly inside the AFV Club parts, these are then glued to the breech as per the AFV Club instructions.

AFV Club PaK 43/41 barrel with metal and plastic parts

Remove shaded area from AFV Club parts and add brass collar to fit barrel
in resulting hole.

Fitting to the Dragon kits;
Attaching the barrel to the Dragon kits is quite straightforward and requires you to cut the barrel from the breech block on parts D4 and D5 and its easiest to glue these together before cutting to ensure an even cut. Once the plastic barrel is removed and the cut cleaned up the ABER barrel will fit snugly into the resulting hole in the breech and that’s it, all very easy.

Fitting ABER barrel to Dragon Hornisse and Nashorn breech block
cut off plastic barrel and insert metal barrel in resulting hole in breech.

Conclusion:
Another excellent barrel from ABER with nicely detailed muzzle brake and only minor alterations to the target kits for fitting, the minor filing of some parts to fit and the cutting of the notches in the end cap are the only small negatives on an otherwise top notch replacement barrel.

Highly recommended for either or all of the target kits.

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

Page Created 19 June 2005