Kit Made for: Academy, Tamiya or Dragon Wirbelwind or any Flak 38 using the L/65 four barrel set up.

The Flak 38 was 2cm anti-aircraft guns used by various German forces throughout World War II. It was by far the most numerously produced German anti-aircraft artillery piece throughout the war. It was produced in a variety of models, notably the Flakvierling 38 which combined four Flak 38 auto cannons onto a single carriage which the German Heer put into their Wirbelwinds anti-aircraft AFV.

Master’s set comes with four complete barrels including turned brass barrels and flash suppressors as separate parts, so eight parts in total. From what I have read, these are the 15th set of aftermarket barrels for the Flak 38. There are at least three kits of Wirbelwinds (Academy, Tamiya and Dragon) and three of the trailer mounted Flak 38 (Dragon, Tamiya and Bronco) that this set of four barrels will work with.

The barrels have two areas of very fine texture handgrips for traction while removing the barrels in real life. The flash suppressers have three rows of venting holes with six very tiny holes in each row. There also are openings close to the barrel with long and two short vent holes. A small touch of super glue is needed to secure the suppressers to the barrels, but be careful not to clog up the vent holes.

I used an old Academy kit that I have been working on for years as the test subject. The Master barrels are shorter then the kit supplied barrels, but I am sure Academy got this wrong back in the 1980s when this kit was copied from the Tamiya kit of the 1970s. I had to cut off the old barrels and drill a 1mm (.038 inch or #62 drill bit) hole.

I used photoetch burnishing fluid to blacken the barrels, as I was worried about paint filling in the suppressor's holes and covering up the handgrips on the barrel. It took about three soakings to get this brass nice and dark.

I would like to thank Master Reality in Scale and IPMS for the opportunity to review these wonderful barrels. It has me motivated to complete this old kit and have some fun with it.