Turned barrels give a better return on effort than almost any other ship upgrade. A brass part machined on a lathe is dead straight, carries a drilled muzzle and steps down to the correct profile, where the kit barrel is moulded in halves, seamed along its length and prone to a slow bend. Beside barrels of every calibre this section holds metal masts, yards and whip aerials.
Sets come either as one calibre in quantity, twenty light anti-aircraft barrels for instance, or as the complete armament of one named vessel from main turrets down to the flak. Choose by scale and by ship, and the notes below cover fitting them.
1:350 Set of 12 pcs 150 mm barrels for German ships: Bismarck, Tirpitz, Scharnhorst, Gneisenau
8.36 €
1:350 Set of 8 pcs 380 mm barrels for German ships: Bismarck, Tirpitz
8.36 €
1:350 Set of 9 pcs 460 mm barrels for Japanese ships Yamato and Musashi
8.36 €
1:350 SMS Viribus Unitis armament - 305mm (12pcs), 150mm (12pcs) barrels, 70mm (18pcs) barrels (for Trumpeter kit)
19.56 €
1:350 Set of barrels for King George V, Prince of Wales
11.40 €
1:350 Set of barrels for Admiral Graf Spee class battleships
13.16 €
Artillery is the first thing anyone looks at on a warship model, so the typical faults of moulded plastic show there first: long main battery barrels that sag, muzzles filled in by the mould, a simplified muzzle brake or reinforcing band. Metal replaces all of that at once. Fitting is undramatic: cut the plastic barrel away, drill the trunnion, seat the brass on a drop of cyanoacrylate and leave it to set. Brass needs nothing more than degreasing before paint, after which it holds colour perfectly well.
Calibre has to match the size of the model. Demand concentrates in 1:350 turned ship barrels and 1:700 turned ship barrels; large kits are served by 1:200 turned ship barrels, and the classic Polish and French toolings by 1:400 turned ship barrels. Collectors' hulls draw on 1:144 turned ship barrels, boats on 1:72 turned ship barrels, and oddities such as armoured observation cupolas sit in other scales.
A complete set for one named vessel covers its whole armament in a single purchase and saves counting. Generic packs of one calibre earn their place when you are re-arming several hulls from the same navy, since twenty barrels go a long way.
Metal masts and yards carry their own weight and the tension of standing rigging; plastic in the same section bows. Whip aerials on post-war vessels are effectively indestructible once they are brass.
The kit you intend to re-arm comes from the plastic ship model kits, anything from a pre-dreadnought to a modern frigate.
