German 88mm L/56 two-piece barrel for Flak36/37
German 88mm L/56 single-piece barrel for Flak18/37

Kit # 72L-62 & 72L-63

72L-62 / two-piece (top)
72L-63 / single-piece (bottom)

The Flak 18/36/37 is one of those legendary weapons of WW2 and has been covered in detail on this site (e.g. here, here, here and here).
When the Flak 18 first appeared it had the single-piece Flakrohr 18. The multi-sectional Flakrohr 36, was accepted in December 1937 for the Flak 18 and was standard for the Flak 36 which appeared in February 1939, as well as for the Flak 37 which appeared in 1942 [1]. Both barrels were interchangeable, and even the later Flak 37 could be seen with the single-piece barrel.
This means that the label that Aber uses is a bit confusing.

The detail and finesse on both barrels should be seen to be believed, with the small indentations around the collar of the Flakrohr 36 (halfway up the barrel) being a case in point. The tip of the barrel is hollowed out, and quite deeply.
However, according to [4], the total length (between the red lines on the picture above) should be 56.6mm. This is measured on a Flakrohr 18, which has the same overall length as the Flakrohr 36.
The Aber barrels measure 60.11mm and thus are about 6% (i.e. 3.5mm) overscale. For comparison, the Hasegawa Flakrohr 18 barrel measures 59.5mm and the Revell Flakrohr 18 and 36 both measure 61.0mm.
Measurements taken from [1] give the length of the tip of the barrel (between the green lines) for the Flakrohr 36 as 26.4mm (in 1/72). (Revell measures 21.0 mm and Hasegawa 20.8mm.) The Aber barrel only has 22.2mm. The difference between the drawings in [1] and the Aber barrel is visible to the naked aye. On the other hand, comparing the drawings in [1] against pictures of the real gun, I get the feeling that the tip was actually shorter than what [1] shows. Also note that the basic Flak 18/36/37 had a calibre of L/56, but that an L/71 existed as well (and was fitted to the Pz.Sfl.IVc); the latter has a tip that is noticeable longer.
For the Flakrohr 18, the distance between the green lines is 19.5 mm [1,4]. Aber gives 21.0 mm.

The two-piece barrel comes with a small instruction leaflet; the single-piece barrel comes without.

References

[1] Dreaded Threat The 8.8cm Flak18/36/37 in the Anti-tank Role, Thomas L. Jentz, Panzer Tracts
[2] 8,8cm Flak 18-36-37 L-56: Militaria in Detail 11, Pawel Przymusiala, Miroslaw Wasielewski, Jakub Grzedzinowski & Dariusz Karnas, Wydawnictwo Militaria
[3] 8,8cm Flak 18-36-37, Waldemar Trojca, Model Hobby
[4] Flak Selbstfahrlafetten and Flakpanzer, Thomas L. Jentz, Panzer Tracts 12

Samples bought with author's pocket money.

This model can be purchased from

Article Last Updated:
14 January 2017
18 November 2017