The Barrel Set

This set consists of eight metal barrels packaged in a small zip lock bag taped to a black cardboard backing which is all bundled in a protective plastic sleeve. The barrels are meant as replacements for kit-provided plastic barrels. These represent the WWI to WWII Royal Navy 15”/42 Mark I guns.

The following ships and classes utilized the 15”/42 Mark I guns:
• Queen Elizabeth Class Battleships – Barham, Malaya, Queen Elizabeth, Valiant and Warspite
• Revenge Class Battleships – Ramillies, Resolution, Revenge, Royal Oak and Royal Sovereign
• Renown Class Battlecruisers - Renown and Repulse
• HMS Hood
• Glorious Class Large Light Cruisers - as originally designed before they were converted to Aircraft Carriers
• Erebus Class Monitors – Erebus and Terror
• Marshal Ney Class Monitors – Marshal Soult, Marshal Ney
• Roberts Class Monitors – Roberts and Abercrombie
• Battleship HMS Vanguard

The barrels feature bored-out ends with finely crafted detail at the tips which represents the inner and outer sleeves. If you look at the tips under magnification you can see Flyhawk achieved this effect by cutting a beveled edge at the tip with the inner sleeve extending beyond the end of the outer sleeve.

In reality the end should be flat so the bezel effect appears exaggerated, however at a normal viewing distance the effect does a decent job of simulating the sleeve detail. The base consists of a narrow shaft with only the external portion of the barrel represented from the outer part of the blast bag (not included) to the tip.

Conclusion

Often plastic kit barrels suffer from mold seams or worse; offset mold halves. These can be difficult to clean up and repair while maintaining the correct diameter and roundness of the barrels. This metal barrel set from Flyhawk is a nice upgrade for the kit-provided plastic barrels. The bored out ends add some nice detail.