background

The 7.5 cm KwK40 L/48 was the main gun on all the Panzer IV ausf. H and J and also on some late ausf.G. It was a fairly accurate and powerful gun and was superior to the American M4 Medium Tank with the 75 mm M3 gun and the Russian T-34/76. This aftermarket set from Griffon Model offers us a very nice turned aluminum barrel, brass muzzle brake and a PE crate for the main gun ammunition rounds.

Set contents

The set is packed in a clear plastic box with a picture of the finished barrel and the ammo crate on the front. All the box contents are packed into zip-bags and are protected by foam rubber.
The box contains:

•3 PE frets
•turned aluminum barrel
•multi-piece muzzle brake
•small decal sheet
•5cm long piece of copper wire
•instruction sheet

The instruction sheet is clear and easy to follow. Unfortunately the print quality of the decals is not the greatest. The lettering appears to be a bit grainy.

Review

First of all, as this barrel is meant for Dragon’s and Tamiya’s Panzer IV, I have to say that I only tested the barrel fit with Dragon’s Panzer IV. No modifications are necessary when using the barrel with DML’s kits but according to the instructions some cutting is needed when using it with Tamiya’s kits. My test-fit showed excellent fit inside Dragon’s Panzer IV gun mantlet.

The aluminum barrel is cleanly turned and has nice rifling inside. The brass muzzle brake builds up from 10 parts and is also very nice. After comparing the barrel length and muzzle brake size with scale plans from Kagero’s Photosniper book, I can say that all the parts are the correct dimensions. The plastic barrels found in Dragon’s Panzer IV kits are the same length as this aluminum one, but same style muzzle brake from the kits seem to be a bit undersized.

Now comes the ammo crate. I decided to construct it, to see how hard it would be. Building it was pretty straight forward. Only hard part is getting the hinges and latches in their places. As I’m a total novice with PE, bending the small parts was just too much for me. But if you are a experienced with PE, you can easily make the lid movable and bend the necessary parts.

Conclusion

This is a very nice rendering of the 7.5 cm KwK40 L/48 gun in metal. The barrel is nice and clean and the muzzle brake is very detailed.

The ammo crate is well detailed and if you can build it properly then it’s a nice addition to your model.
Shopping around this set can be purchased for a very reasonable price.