Model Point 2A42 30mm barrel and resin mantlet replacement piece for BMP-2 series vehicles. The 2A42 30mm auto cannon barrel will work on either BMP-2 or BMD-2 series vehicles, but the resin mantlet piece is only meant for BMP-2 vehicles. This is a excellent set to replace the barrel/mantlet found in any of the various kits of the BMP-2 (DML, Zvezda, Italeri, Esci/Ertl/AMT).

The barrel is made from machined brass in a single part. All of the machining is crisp without any marring from the lathing process. There is a drilled hole to give the illusion of a properly hollow barrel.

The barrel is 48.6mm long from barrel end to “lock nut” connection and has some of the best metal work I have seen done, especially the thin baffle on the barrel end, which has a delicate look to it and is properly squared in all 3 dimensions and correctly hollowed in accordance with my references. Really impressive metal work in its own right.

While I do not have proper measurements, the barrel looks correct compared to my resources. It has the nice slender feel only machined metal seems to be able to capture. The barrel is both shorter (by 5mm) and more slender than the DML or Esci/Ertl/AMT offerings.

The resin mantlet is offered as a near drop in replacement for either the DML or the Esci/Ertl/AMT kits, but will require some sanding of the resin or plastic as the resin piece is slightly oversize when I tested my sample on both kits. The piece appears to capture the proper look of the mantlet with the proper holes on the receiver cover and nice texturing. The coaxial MG sleeve is superb, being thin AND hollow. I tested Model Points 3587 PKT barrel inside and it was a perfect fit, allowing the barrel to stick out only as far as what I found in my references.

However, the mantlet has one problem, the hole to receive the brass barrel is too short. It is 3mm deep, but the “mounting rod” on the barrel is 6.3mm deep. Solutions are to either cut the mounting rod short or to deepen the hole in the resin. Care must be taken if deepening the hole as the resin is very thin where the barrel mounts. The drilling will require a .039 or #61bit.

The first picture shows the two pieces in the accessory, the second photo shows the MP3587 PKT barrel (NOT INCLUDED IN THIS KIT) mounted, for reference. Finally, I have included the DML (gray) and Ertl/Esci/AMT (green) kit parts for comparison.

Thanks to Dmitriy Li of Model Point US for providing the review sample.