Part No. PEA 115
Voyager Models is probably better known for their excellent photo-etched sets but they also provide a few parts in resin as well as a range of metal barrels like this one for thesFH 18 15cm Howitzers and the Hummel. This is a nice looking piece that comes as a single turned aluminium barrel plus two resin parts for replacing the breech assembly.
The turned aluminium barrel includes fine rifling detail even though these are straight rather than rifled, as in there is not the twist in them that there should be, as the rifling on a barrel this size has quite a noticeable twist. The muzzle is also only drilled out to a depth of around 6 or 7mm which on a barrelof this diameter really isn’t deep enough as it remains easy to see the solid core.
So if you were intending to use this to replace the barrel in the Dragon Hummel it doesn’t really do the job as the Hummel already comes with a metal barrel with no rifling so the point of replacing it is to get one with rifling, and the rifling in this case is too may grooves, not enough twist, and not enough depth. As I have the Dragon barrel and the Griffon equivalent handy I was able to compare all three and this one is slightly shorter than both and has the least convincing rifling.
The resin parts are very nicely cast with no defects but with a small amount of clean up required. Nice as they are I don’t actually see any noticeable improvement over the kit supplied parts however, other than that it is simpler to instal as it’s already to go ( once cleaned up that is ). This barrel and breech can be made to fit the Trumpeter sFH 18 as well though so there may be some advantage in using it there, though it is mostly offset by the extra work adapting this in.
This is still a nice looking barrel, but the simple reality is that if you’re looking for a replacment sFH 18 barrel there are plenty of better ones out there by other manufacturers. Because nice looking as it is, it’s still very hard to get around the poor rifling, which generally is one of the main reasons in using an AM replacement aluminium barrel in the first place.
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