1:35 Merkava Mk.4 MG253 (120mm) gun barrel for Meng/HobbyBoss kit

The main armament of the fourth Merkava

The 120 mm smoothbore gun that carries the designation MG253 was developed by the Israeli arms industry specifically for the fourth generation of the tank and replaced the older type, which remained in the Mk.3 version. Compared with its predecessor it works at higher chamber pressure and therefore at longer range. Besides ordinary ammunition it can fire a guided anti-tank missile launched straight from the barrel, so the crew can hit a target that a plain shot would not reach. From the outside you recognize the weapon by its slim thermal sleeve with no pronounced fume extractor halfway along its length.

One piece instead of two halves

A plastic barrel cannot be fitted into a mold except as two lengthwise halves that are glued together. A seam then stays along the whole length of the result, and the modeler has to sand it down and polish it back into a cylinder, which almost never comes off perfectly. This part is one undivided piece. It has no seam, it does not run out of true, and the muzzle is drilled out, so you can look into it instead of it being blanked off by a solid face.

Fitting

The root of the barrel is prepared to sit in the mantlet of both of the kits named. The original plastic part is cut off at the base, the opening is trued up and the new barrel is glued in with cyanoacrylate glue. Before painting it is worth checking that seen from above the barrel meets the hull at a right angle, because a weapon glued in crooked shows from every side on the finished model.

On a finished tank the gun tends to be the first thing a visitor takes hold of. A hard material stands up to that better than thin plastic, which likes to break at the root.