(Comments by Rob Haelterman, unless
stated otherwise, and apologies to Doug Chaltry for hijacking his
original review.)
Many German armored vehicles used a long barrelled
7.5cm gun of the same family. In this preview we discuss the RB offerings
for the PaK/KwK/StuK 40 gun.
The barrel in these sets is tailored to the kit/vehicle
they will be used on. For instance, the KwK barrels have the armored
sleeve at the base, and will be partially hidden in the turret, the
StuK barrel will be even less exposed, while the Pak barrel will be
the most visible. This means the choice of your set will be governed
by the application you have in mind.
However, this family of guns shows variations in the muzzle brake,
which means that swapping muzzle brakes between sets might help you
obtain the representation you are aiming for,
as I did on the MPK
Marder II, where I used 72B05 on the Pak, but used the muzzle
of 72B25 to better match that seen on pictures of the real vehicle.
I say "better" as the real vehicle actually had a muzzle
brake with two flattened flanges, typical of the mid-1943 till mid-1944
period. More about this below.
Known variations are roughly as follows:
- 1942 till first half of 1943: no front flange,
circular rear flange.
- Second half of 1943 till first half of 1944: flattened front and
rear flange.
- Second half of 1944: flattened front flange, circular rear flange.
- Second half of 1944 till end of war: circular front and rear flange.
72B17 KwK40 L/43 PzKpfw IV Ausf F2:
The first appearance of a long barrelled
gun on the Panzer IV. Type of muzzle brake (as far as I know) only
used on the PzKpfw IV Ausf. F2 and some StuG III Ausf. F/8.
72B25 KwK40 L/48 PzKpfw IV
Ausf H:
The set comes with the flattened
end flange, with round rear flange, typical for the second half
of 1944. (I know, I need to clean the part up...)
 
72B23 KwK40 L/48 PzKpfw IV
Ausf H/J:
The set comes with the round front
flange, and round rear flange, typical for mid-1944 till the end
of the war.
72B05 Pak40:
The set comes with the flattened
front and rear flange. It took me quite a while to realize that
RB wanted to depict the flattened flanges, as they appear quite
round to the naked eye. To make them more convincing you might want
to have a go with a good file and make them flatter.
Doug Chaltry:
There is not a lot to say about this replacement gun barrel, other
than it is perfectly shaped, sized and detailed. The brass muzzle
brake is gorgeous, though the vents are not completely visible in
this scan. Although this barrel is marketed as a replacement for
the Marder, it is, in fact, suitable for any PaK 40.
 
Another picture of 72B25 taken from the RB website.
(This is not our usual policy, but RB has far better pictures than
I can manage.)
72B19 StuK40 L/48 StugIV:
The set comes with the flattened
end flange, with round rear flange. It is seemingly the same as
in set 72B25. It can also be used on the StuG III, as the gun installation
was exactly the same as on the StuG IV.
As you can see from the overview above, you can represent
the different muzzle brakes by mixing and matching different sets.
Only the muzzle brake without a front flange and a small circular
rear flange does not seem to be in the RB range. |
