The Sfl L/61 kit was released by Trumpeter in May of 2005, and is the only plastic kit of this rare vehicle in 1/35 scale. I believe there will be several aftermarket kits around for the Trumpeter Sturer Emil, and this is the fouth aftermarket gun barrel for the 12.8 cm L/61 gun available in a short time

The Barrel

Schatton Modelbau has released several very delicate detailed gun barrels in various scales, and this is the latest release from Schatton.

The gun barrel comes in a small plastic bag. There are no installation instructions provided, but this is hardly necessary as the gun barrel simply replaces the kit supplied one. The barrel comes in two pieces, one for the barrel and another for the muzzle brake. The barrel is drilled hollow about 1 cm and there is no riffling inside. The details on the outside are good, with a nice and clean polished finish. The muzzle brake is also turned in aluminum, and the openings on the sides are milled out. The end-piece of the muzzle brake fits very nice into the barrel itself, and strictly - it does not need to be glued into the final position.

The barrel does exactly match the dimensions of the kit supplied one, but the details are somewhat crisper on the barrel. Unfortenately the measurements of the Trumpeter original supplied barrel is one of the weakest point of the Sturer Emil kit, so the entire muzzle and the openings seems a too small compared with wartime photos of the real vehicle. The largest of the muzzle openings should also be a bit more square but this is simple to correct. The locking ring for the muzzle seems to be a bit simplified - even compared to the kit supplied barrel. The shaft diameter of the barrel seems to be slightly larger than the kit supplied one - so it actually fits better into the mantle than the original.

Due to the added weight of the new barrel, the entire gun becomes far too nose-heavy, and there is a good idea to add some extra lead weight in the rear of the hollow gun in order to make it balance.

Recommended, but I belive the barrels from both Armorscale and Armo are a better choices.

References

1. Spielberger: Militärfahrzeuge, Bd.7, Der Panzerkampfwagen Tiger und seine Abarten, Motorbuch Verlag ISBN: 3879434565
2. Achtung Panzer #6: Panzerkampfwagen Tiger, Model Graphix
3. Allied Axis #4: Published by Ampersand Publishing Company, Inc.

Links

Bjorn’s review of the Trumpeter kit of the Emil, is on Track-Link.

User Contributed Notes