introduction

The Trumpeter E-50 kit provides a two-part plastic 88mm barrel for the finished tank. For those who loathe filling and sanding a two-part barrel, RB Productions offers a reasonably priced turned metal one as a drop in replacement.

the kit

This is one no-frills accessory. Plastic Ziplock bag, one piece of turned metal inside. The barrel itself is very nicely done, smooth and with a perfect taper. It is open at the muzzle for ~1 cm and rifling is present. One thing that I appreciated is that the part of the barrel that fits in the mantlet is blasted to a dull finish, so you can see exactly how far to insert it into part D2/D3 and it also has a notch cut in the end to fit into the turret mount (parts C2/C3). This barrel also replaces parts D5 and D6 which fit into the kit mount and then glue on the breech end of the barrel. This makes installation easier and it also eliminates the need to have what is effectively a four piece barrel in the kit. This barrel is about 1mm longer than the kit barrel.