I have been wanting to build either a LAV III or Coyote for some time now. Tried a while back to convert an Italeri LAV and failed miserably. Well with the release of the conversion kit by AEF Design and hopefully even one by Real Model or MLM there is hope on the horizon. I may have one or both in my collection someday. I've been following Rick Saucier's build with great interest and in his WIP the topic of a replacement barrel came up. I figured since I really want to build one I might as well get a barrel now before it's out of stock. On Dec 19 I placed an order for an M242 25mm fluted barrel from the Victorian Hobby Centre in Melbourne. Well it showed up today so I thought with so many people interested in LAV's I'd post some pics of my barrel.

One step closer to my LAV!




I was a little less excited when I discovered that this barrel is not hollow.


I went to work with my fine drill bits and managed to hollow out the barrel. Although the side vents on the tip are simply molded as recesses and not actually hollow.


Here it is after a little clean up and the barrel did need a to be straightened a little with my fingers.




A coat of grey primer.




So all in all not as nice as a turned barrel but still acceptable. Some clean up is required but it only took a few minutes. Not bad for 10.95 AUD including shipping. Now all I need is a LAV to go with my barrel and I'm done!

-Matt

Well, at least it is a start...

Erik

Nice job on drilling it out. Like I said they charged my CC on the 20th, so hopefully soon!

I was talking to Paul from TrackJam and he said that there MLM conversion probably won't be ready till fall of '08 . That's what happens when it's a hobby and not a full time business I guess.

cheers

I'm hoping Real Model comes out with one before then. Course after seeing your build Rick I might roll the dice and pick up one from AEF. Now if only someone would release some modern Canadian soldiers we'd be set!

-Matt

You can also order the same barrel from MLM in Canada.

That's the first place I checked, but were out of stock

So I ordered 5 from Aus!

cheers

FWIW I believe that's a brass casting of the fluted barrel in the Tamiya M2A2 ODS Bradley, so maybe there's someone out there who used the 'smooth' barrel on their Brad and has the other one extra (not likely, but you never know...).

Jim

There is a fluted barrel in my Tamiya Bradley ODS kit, but it's plastic.

Mike McG.

Mike, I think Jim means is that the brass one was copied from the plastic one.

Didn't Barrel Depot do one? Im sure that is the one I am using for my ASLAV.

Cheers Jason

Barrel Depot, Model Point, and Armour Bits all make them.....varying degrees of accuracy around the muzzle.

Hi all,
I wish prepare this gun barrel but I don`t have drawing and I don`t know price.
Miloslav

Here's a PMMS review on the Barrel Depot fluted barrel. I have a couple of these and except for the issue of 2 rows of vent holes instead of 3, they're good.

http://www.perthmilitarymodelling.com/reviews/vehicles/barreldepot/bd35050.htm

cheers
Bob

Picked up the Barrel Depot fluted barrel for an ongoing OIF M2A2 project and it looks the best of the bunch in my opinion, except, as stated earlier, fir the two sets of vent holes, not the three in the 'real mccoy'

Joe Z.

Well the Armour Bits barrel also only has two sets of vents. If I had to choose again I would pick the barrel from Barrel Depot. But since I bought this one and it's sittin' on my shelf "in stock" I might as well use it. Of course it would be great too if Real Model came out with a three row vented barrel.

-Matt