Master Model produces some finely turned brass barrels for aircraft and ships in a variety of scales. One of their latest offerings is a barrel set for the Spitfire ‘e’ wing. There are a total of 6 parts – 2 cannon barrels, 2 fairings and 2 .50 caliber barrels. The .50 cal barrels are designed to fit snugly in their fairings, which they do exactly.

The barrels are perfectly turned, the details are very fine and will avoid the issues associated with eliminating molding seams , such as ending up with an oval shaped cannon fairing (been there, done that). I pulled out the kit barrels from the latest Tamiya Mk. VIII as well as the wing and barrels from the Pacific Coast Models Mk. IX for comparison’s sake. The Tamiya cannon are very finely detailed themselves down to the drilled out barrel, but clean up will still be a chore. The PCM kit part has much softer detail and needs drilling out and careful clean up as well. The Master-Models product is ready as is with no clean up needed.

I fit the barrels to the PCM kit wings and with a little reaming out of the locating holes they fit well as evidenced by the pictures. Again the nature of the brass barrels will mean a cleaner join with less filling needed. Fitting to the Tamiya kit wings may be a bit more involved as the Tamiya barrels are designed to fit into a separate sleeve – you’ll have to hollow out this part to accept the Master-Model barrels. Since I am planning to build a Mk. XVI with the Cammett Conversion, these barrels will be a great help and enhancement of the kit.

These replacement parts are not cheap but they are of high quality. Protruding cannon fairings have always given me fits on my previous Spitfire builds, so for me the cost is worth it! My thanks to Master-Model for the review sample.