Reviews

L’Arsenal 1/350 5" / 38 Gun on Open Mount Reviewed by Devin Poore
L’Arsenal continues to release new and innovative products for the model ship enthusiast. One of their latest offerings are the 5" / 38 open gun mounts, as used on many US warships during WWII. I'm going to leave my "history of the weaponry" at that, as I'm not sure exactly how many countries, and on what ships, these mounts were used. I know for sure they were used on U.S. WWII aircraft carriers, and that's where I intend to mount them.

The set is packaged in the typical L'Arsenal tiny zip lock type bag, with a small sheet of paper serving as the product identification on the front, and building instructions on the back. Each set comes with the parts to make 4 of the mounts. Parts included are a resin base, which includes trunions and other well cast details. The second resin piece to the mount is the barrel and breech assembly, again well cast and minutely detailed. A sheet of PE brass comes with the mounts, each mount receiving left and right railing, a rail for the rear of the mount, and an aimer's seat. The PE is cleanly etched with no relief detail (not that there should be any on simple railing). Instructions are a simple exploded overhead view with callouts for the PE railing and written instructions for mounting it.	Click images to enlarge



Conclusions: Excellent accessories for your 1/350th scale ships. These pieces are a big improvement over the mounts included in the Trumpeter USS Hornet and the Essex class kits. I would even go so far as to say as they are an improvement over the open 5" mounts included in many of the resin kits on the market. Review samples courtesy of my growing model stash and my shrinking modeling fund.