The primary gun of the LAV-III is the mighty M242 Bushmaster gun capable of firing 25 mm ammunition. The M242 has a characteristic fluted gun barrel to reduce weight and assist cooling. Trumpeter provides a plastic version of this gun with all the disadvantages of the material: bent barrel and low detail on the gun muzzle.
Voyager Model recently released a set to provide an upgrade for the Trumpeter LAV-III. The kit is called Modern Canadian LAV-III turret weapon set, so Voyager does provide not only the gun but also the grenade launchers.
Contents
Contents of the kit are:
• Copper gun barrel
• Copper gun muzzle
• 8 small copper tubes
• 2 PE freights
• Single resin part for the gun mount
the set
The gun is pretty well detailed, the fluted appearance is nicely done and the gun muzzle has 4 vertical vents characteristic for the Canadian version. The assembly requires some work since the gun mount is included as a resin part. Moreover, the turret gun cover is included as a PE part. Small PE part need to be glued underneath the gun mount in order to provide extra detail.
Regarding the grenade launchers, the build is rather simple: attachment supports are in PE plus the small PE chain for the cover.
SUMMARY
Highs: Easy build, nice details.Lows: If you have already purchased the PE 35398 set, you have the grenade launchers so a 'barrel only' set from Voyager would be a welcome addition. Verdict: Highly recommended.
Back to Europe, I am living in Paris since december 2011 with my Wife. We have a nice 6 years old daughter, and a 3 years Baby boy.
I am doing AFV modern era. I started when I was a teenager , back to business after 10 years of break due to Sport (Baseball, yes european plays baseball) and Unive...
In the review it states..."The gun is pretty well detailed, the fluted appearance is nicely done and the gun muzzle has 4 vertical vents characteristic for the Canadian version."
Just for clarification this version of the M242 is in use on many other nations vehicles. The fluted barrel and muzzle brake have nothing to do with a Canadian version. It is really only the PE mantlet cover that is specific to the Canadian LAV III as it has the rectangular gun camera which needs to be scratch built as indicated in the instructions.
It looks like a nice set...it would have been good to have compared this barrel with others on the market.
Jason
Just to be complete. It seems that the gun muzzle found for the Bushmaster for the LAV-25 has 8 vertical vents on most of my reference pictures.
The gun muzzle for the LAV-III has 4 vertical vents.
I don't have any other gun to compare only the one from RB not fluted for the LAV-25 with the 8 vertical vents.
HTH
Cheers
Seb
I think you will find that the barrels with the eight groves on the muzzle brake are the early / original version of the barrel.
The current "enhanced" barrel as it is sometimes refered to was developed in the 1990s as part of improving the entire M242. It is the fluted version and uses the muzzle brake with the three sets of four grooves.....it can be found on the LAV III, LAV 25, LAVA2, Bradley, ASLAV Type 1, and NZLAV (the NZLAV also has the gun camera on the right side of the mantlet) to name a few.
Here is the barrel on a Bradley...
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