This is the third item from Master Model that I have had the privilege of reviewing, and once again, I have had a very positive experience with some remarkable items. The subject of this review comes from the Sea Master line of parts, in particular their 1/700 scale offering of 28cm/54.5 (about 11 inches) SKC/34 gun barrels as carried by the German ships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. I volunteered for this particular review as I already had a Tamiya Water Line Series Scharnhorst (kit 77518) lying in wait in my stash, ready to accept these new parts.

This particular release comes with nine very finely crafted brass barrels, which will replace the main guns on either of the ships mentioned. The directions are straightforward in having you remove the molded barrels, drilling 0.6 mm holes, and mounting the new barrels with cyanoacrylate glue. I was fortunate enough to have the specified drill bit in my set of small bits that have a 1/8 inch shank (for ease of use in a Dremel tool, or similar device). The barrels come with a nice mounting post, which helps make some final adjustments later on, just in case you get a little bit off with a drilled hole or two.

The recommended drill bit size worked perfectly, as the barrels fit snuggly, just as one would want. I installed my barrels by using a razor saw to remove the old barrels, and then I utilized a scribe to mark where the centers of the barrels should be, and finally drilled the holes. I did initially cut off a single barrel to show how the new barrel looks as compared to the stock ones when mounted on the same attachment piece. The Master Model barrels are an exact match in length, but the similarities sort of end there. The detail for the steps in the barrels are right where they need to be, and the ends of the barrels have a slight indent (similar to the slide molding used by Dragon), which will give the illusion of an open barrel with a wash applied after painting.

As Dragon has recently released new versions of the ships, the barrels will likely be used on many of them, but I wanted to show that they would work just as well on an older release. For those like myself that have drilled out barrels in the past, this will be a labor saving item, and there is no worry of getting off center, or of drilling sideways through the barrel itself (I have heard of this happening to others).

My hits are similar to my previous reviews on the F-14 and F-16 probes in that the level of detail is just amazing for such a small scale. With surprising little effort on the part of the modeler, one can add some fantastic detail to your Scharnhorst or Gneisenau kit. I feel that the price is very reasonable for what the buyer is getting for less than a dollar per part, and the detail really does make a big difference. I have no misses with this item, like my previous reviews, as the parts come ready to use, and should install in a matter of minutes.

Before I finish, I would also like to mention that the Master web page does a great job of showing their various products nicely magnified. They also have links to both wholesale and retail carriers of their products in several countries, including the USA. Although some of the text is in Polish, there is also plenty of English available for folks like me, and it was not too difficult to maneuver my way around the site where they also have photographs of some of their products installed on models.

My thanks go out to the folks at Master for providing samples like mine to the IPMS-USA for review, and thanks to you for taking the time to read my appraisal.