Reviewed July 2026
by Joe Costanzo

Design History:

The Vickers BL 13.5” Mk V gun was one of the mainstay weapons of British capital ships in World War I.  It was conceived out of a desire to increase penetration and destructive capability over the 12” /45 gun that armed the first generation of British dreadnoughts, without the penalties to accuracy and barrel life suffered by the unsuccessful high-velocity 12”/50.  The 13.5” gun fired at a relatively low muzzle velocity (approximately 2500-2600 ft/s), but the heavy shell (initially 1,250 lb., later increased to 1,400 lb., versus 850 lb. for the 12” shell) gave much greater hitting power and reduced loss of velocity at long range.  The 13.5” gun was a major leap in destructive power over the 12” gun, which led the battleships so equipped to be called ‘super-dreadnoughts’.

The first ships equipped with the gun were the Orion class battleships and Lion class battlecruisers laid down in 1909, firing the 1,250 lb. shell.  It was subsequently used on the King George V (1911), Iron Duke and Erin class battleships as well as the battlecruisers Queen Mary and Tiger. These later ships had their shell handling equipment upgraded for the 1,400 lb. shell.  The version reviewed here is intended for the King George V and Iron Duke class ships.

Overview – Micro Master 13.5” Mk V Turret Set

Micro Master offers the BL 13.5” Mk5 Turret in a number of scales and several configurations, depending on the intended ship.  The version reviewed here is 1/700 and is listed as suitable for the King George V (1911) and Iron Duke class battleships. This set should be appropriate for time periods ranging from pre-war up to about 1916, including the Battle of Jutland.  After Jutland, surviving ships had additional armor plating bolted on top of the turret roof, which was quite conspicuous.

The set reviewed here models the turret and barrels as one piece at a fixed elevation, with blast bags (Alternately, Micro Master offers a turret with adjustable barrel elevation, but blast bags are not modeled and will need to be fabricated).  The set comes with 5 turrets, as befits the intended ships.  They are labeled A, B, Q, X and Y to identify their position on the ship (#1 through 5 from bow to stern, respectively). At the time of my purchase (spring 2025), the cost was $24.20 for a set of 5.

I purchased this set as a possible upgrade for the Flyhawk HMS Iron Duke.  The Flyhawk parts will be used for comparison.

The print quality of these parts is excellent.  The visibility of print lines is minimal and should disappear under a coat of paint.  The print lines are more visible in photos than in person.  For general shape, the turret matches Flyhawk closely.  But while the Flyhawk turret on its own looks very nice, the detail of the Micro Master turret is certainly a step up.  The sighting hoods and range finder hood have hollow openings and details are better defined than the Flyhawk part.  Other small details are much better defined, down to features that may require reading glasses to appreciate.  The ladders are offset from the turret sides for a proper 3-dimensional appearance.

Moving on to the gun barrels: I am impressed that there is no sign of warpage of the long barrels (Especially compared to some other recently reviewed 3D printed kits… yikes!!).  The Micro Master barrels are smaller in diameter than the overscale plastic barrels from the Flyhawk Iron Duke, which is good.  They are very close to the diameter of the Flyhawk deluxe brass barrels, to the extent that any slight difference is inconsequential, in my opinion.  They certainly look appropriately in-scale.  The blast bags are excellent.  They are properly ‘saggy’ looking and they have intricate creases and folds.  The cables that helped support the fabric are also modeled.  Overall, Micro Master’s guns are superior to what I believe I could achieve with the Flyhawk deluxe parts, even with brass barrels.  Their fidelity and perfect alignment improve the scale appearance of the turret and really the entire ship.

For the rivet-counters, I literally counted the rivets.  Flyhawk has 154 rivets per turret, Micro Master has 256.  No need to thank me.  Micro Master’s pattern appears to be more accurate, while Flyhawk’s is somewhat simplified.  Micro Master’s rivets are much smaller than Flyhawk’s.  They are as close to scale as is physically possible while having any chance at being visible.  

This set is not specific to a particular kit, so there is nothing protruding below the turret to aid in alignment.  However, there is a bore in the bottom that, either intentionally or by coincidence, matches the diameter of the bore in the deck of the Flyhawk kit.  A suitable piece of round stock (or perhaps even cutting off the alignment ring of the original Flyhawk turret) would aid in alignment with the Flyhawk kit.  I test-fitted a turret to all positions in the Flyhawk kit.  There were no interference issues, which is sometimes a problem when adding aftermarket accessories to a kit with tight tolerances.

No instructions are included.  The Micro Master website has a general guide for how to work with 3D printed parts:  https://micromaster.co.nz/pages/preparation-guidelines

These parts are highly recommended for anyone who demands the absolute maximum detail and scale appearance for their kit, or wants perfect looking gun barrels with minimum fuss.  For me, these little gems were well worth the money.

These parts can be purchased directly from Micro Master at the link below:

https://micromaster.co.nz/products/1-700-royal-navy-13-5-45-34-3cm-mkv-x5-iron-duke-kgv-class?_pos=1&_sid=6b9fb886a&_ss=