There are aftermarket barrels for the M26 Pershing (the original type), but one problem. Instead of being the drop-in type, it has the narrow shaft you are somehow supposed to fit into the mantlet in just the right way so that it is straight and extended just right. Has anyone tried this stunt? Help!

Howdy Tom,
I haven't built my Pershing yet, someday it will make it out of the stash. What manufacture kit and AM barrel are you using?
Thanks,
Don "Lakota"

The RB Models one. If there's a drop-in version I have yet to see it.

I turned one on a lathe and had no problems with lining it up or inserting to the right length in the mantel (Dragon kit).
Was the AM one made for a specific kit?

Hi. Tony That's great, but how many of us have the luxury of owning a lathe? I'd LOVE to own one, but I haven't the room...

Hi, Tom! Please don't think that this is a "Put-down", so don't take it personally. What I'm going to say next concerns ALL modelers under the age of 50.

I grew up in the 1950s and 1960s, so I guess that you guys could call me an old "Gray-Beard" and be correct in your assessments. Many of the models in the 1950s and '60s were the crudest thing that one could imagine. Quite a few of them didn't even have "locater pins", and there were some that weren't made of polystyrene either, so it was a guessing game as to which adhesive one could use to put the darned thing together with! Most models of that long-ago era featured parts that JUST DIDN'T FIT TOGETHER!!! |:

This is when true "modelers' skills" came into play- Remember the old saw: "Adapt, Overcome, and Improvise"... Fiddling around with a kit was the NORM in its completion "back in the day". If something didn't fit, one MADE it fit by using one's SKILLS...

After-market parts..? Those were made for the 1:1 scale "Motor-Heads", of which I was one, once I became of age. Today, the easy availability of after-market parts far outnumber the original kits that they are being made for. Today one can virtually build any kind of kit and enhance it with after-market goodies to the extent that once completed, one could swear that the model is a scaled-down version of the real thing! Truly amazing! I myself, am an "after-market nut", so I am definitely NOT complaining.

So what am I blathering about? Here's the "nub" of the matter- We have ALL, (myself included), become not just enamored with, but SPOILED by the accuracy, fit and all-around "oohs-and-ahhs" of today's model kits. Not only have we been besotted with the quality of today's model kits, but we take things to quite a few levels of enhancement far and above any kits' original form. Virtually EVERYTHING is "drop-fit" today, including most after-market items.

So here's an old-fashioned possible solution to your little problem with the after-market barrel for your M26. If you still have the packaging that your barrel came in, check to see which application this barrel is supposed to fit. Which M26 kit are you building? DRAGON? TAMIYA? HOBBY BOSS? If it's any of those three, you can readily obtain barrels for these kits by going to Ebay- There are after-market barrels available from RUBIO, RB BARRELS, ABER, VOYAGER, ET MODELS, and GRIFFON, I think. There probably others, but they don't come to mind at the moment. Or, if you don't want to spend the money for another after-market barrel, you can always resort to the old methods of either enlarging or decreasing the inside diameter of the hole in your gun mantlet, or shimming the pin on the end of your gun tube. Trial and error- it's a time-tested concept that usually works in the end.

GOOD LUCK!

My fault, I should have elaborated more . What I was getting at was that I didn't have a problem with getting an aftermarket (in this case mine) part to fit.

Dennis summed it up much better.

I have the Aber barrel and used it on the Tamiya kit no problem... I did use 5 minute epoxy to secure it instead of superglue

Tom, you still haven't said which kit you are building. That matters.

If the kit has a D-shaped hole I have drilled it out and if the fit wasn't to my liking I corrected it with circular files. At times you may have to add a bushing from metal or plastic tubing. You are not just assembling pieces at this point so each case is different.

KL

Oh, the Hobbyboss M26 kit with the old-type barrel.

Ah, I was gonna jump in and say I used the Jordi Rubio barrel with the Tamiya kit, no problem that I remember, and the RB barrel on the HB Super, also no remembered problem, but it looks like you've got yet another animal. I would think if my HB Super took the RB barrel okay, the regular 90mm tube ought to work too. I may have bored the hole in the mantlet to accept either, can't recall now, but both are straight and squared with the mantlet.