Metal barrels worth cost?

Based on reading your entire post, I's advise that you skip 'em...

Painting? That seems a shame. There are a number of different metal finishes that will produce a gun barrel that cannot be matched by plastic. (ducks quickly to avoid the many thrown rotten vegetables )

I build primarily tanks in 1/35 scale and as a general rule I won't buy a gun tube for a tank that doesn't have a bore evacuator or muzzle brake. That said most naval guns don't have either; so if you're satisfied with the kit tubes don't spend the money. On the other hand if the kit tubes are badly out of round or have big honkin' seems, metal tubes may save time and heartache. In the end it really depends on your opinion.

The answer, for me, is - It depends.

I'm a 1/700 ship guy and primarily build auxilaries; the biggest gun I've tackled to date is a 5-incher, so no, I haven't gone the metal barrel route because I didn't think the hideous cost was worth the result in that scale.

That said, in 1/700 or 1/600, if you're building a battleship or something similar, I think the appearance of the open muzzels of the large main guns can materially enhance the overall look and feel of a capital ship, especially if some of the guns are elevated up so it is plain that the barrels are open. Would I go whole hog and get metal barrels for all of the secondary batteries on a 1/700 battleship? Heckkkkkkk no. My

It can vary, but I often find the metal barrels are better shaped (flared), less thick and more realistic than their styrene counterparts. A main barrel set for 350 battleship for instance is about $12 plus postage. Its up your norwegian sense of value if its there for you.   

Two very good points for the deficit spending argument. Haven't examined Mikasa yet, but no doubt a hole in the barrel would be sweet. (Didn't they keep the main guns plugged up unless ready for fire? I've never seen that on a model. Maybe I dreamt it.) A job today will be to see if it's feasible to drill a little out of the tip of the main guns or Iron Duke - they're screwy as they stand and need major league sanding anyway. On second look, the aluminum gun in my armored car does have a little bore and that's nice. Ive found out you can buy just the guns and not the extra zillion PE pieces - that might be a good way to go. (Lion Roar has 300 PE pieces: not in my life I don't think. White Ensign has one fret and the basics.)  

Thankee for input.

Eric

I think it's always worth a look. And it depends on the kit. In this case, IMO the brass takes an "8" and makes it a "10".

The kit barrel, the brass barrel, and a pair of barrels from another kit, that are much more the norm and definitely need replacing.

As for the barrel muzzles being open,  that's a matter of taste. If they were plugged, which is normally the case, the secondary armament would probably have canvas sleeves over the barrels, and the lighter guns would be entirely covered. Casement guns would have their ports closed and so on. We all like our battleships modeled cleared for action.

And while it is true that the main battery guns on warships are typically kept "capped" with a plug called a tampion (which usually had some kind of decoration like a star or other design on it), modelers typically leave the barrel ends open because, well, it just looks cooler. My 

From Day 1 when I started building ships, I have been looking for ways to improve the pieces of plastics that  pretend to be guns. The big guns (16" and the Yamato 18") are not that bad. The 5"  looked like cut off toothpicks. It has improved a lot now though. But the metal barrels are I think the best thing that happened to ship modelling. The models now also has blast bags (Destroyers and 5 inch turrets) . I have seen the metal barrels in model ships and they really looked good.