Marcus's 25 pounder

[Marcus Kwa]

After assembling the gun to check the fit-up and areas needing extra detailing I took it apart again to start the real work!
The only real issue I found was that the gunshield cut-out was not centered on the guntube. Rest of the kit went together almost by itself

Areas needing extra detailing were the backs of the wheels (where the brake drums should be) and the towing hook arangement. Further I decided to replace the gun shield M2.5 bolts with bolts M2 and the rivets for ones one size smaller (if someones needs some extra rivets just PM me).

Waiting on the supplies to arrive, I started on the detailing of the wheels. I replaced the wheel bolts by threaded rod and added nuts as on the actual piece.

As said, the inside of the wheels is not detailed and the keeper ring for the bearing and its 4 bolts are in plain view. On this side the brake drum should be visible. The actual brake drum is a steel casting with distinctive reinforcement ribs, 5 tubular turrets and a larger turret for the brake actuator which are integrated in the ribs. The left and right drums are identical.

My brake drum is entirely made from styrene. Shape is pretty straight forward, base is a styrene disc 60mm in diameter with a cut-out for the wheel axle. A rim was added 3mm high. Ribs (1mm strip) and turrets (5mm tube) are 6.5mm high. Center of the drum is a tube 27mm in diameter (actually build up from strip styrene). The actuator turret is 12mm high and 6.5mm in diameter.
I only have to flesh out the bottom of the ribs for a more fluent transition as on the real casting.

The brake lever axle brackets were replaced by styrene ones. The one that will be beside the brake lever has a fixture for the brake lever ratchet.
The tear shaped mounting plate is actually not part of the brake drum but is on the real gun welded to the wheel axle. Nuts (M1.6) will be added later (hope they will arrive next week). Below a shot of all components in place. I might have to shave some material from the 4 bolts on the bearing cover to move the drum more towards the wheel.

Next will be the brake axle itself, the actuator arms on the brake drums and the actuator rods.

[Dave Dibb (Armorpax)]

Superb work Marcus.

Dave

[Adrian Harris]

Great looking parts you have there Marcus

Really adds to the overall look of the wheel assembly.

Adrian.

[Marcus Kwa]

I have just finished the axle supoort plate in between the Christmas shopping sessions! I saw that Dave had the same brainwave and even has fitted his plate to his gun frame already! No doodling, have to stay sharp!!
Also made a new shield house for the linkage system of the sights. The kit item is symetrical where the actual housing is not.

That is it for now. Just received a load of tiny bolts & nuts (overall detailing), shackles and turnbuckles (to suspend the platform under the gun frame) to play with during the holidays!

Wish you all a great Christmas!

Marcus

[Dave Dibb (Armorpax)]

Hi Marcus,

Where did you find the miniature turnbuckles?

Cheers

Dave

[Marcus Kwa]

Hi Dave,
I found them on ebay:

http://www.ebay.nl/itm/180884910324?var ... _822wt_715

They also have very small shackles to connect them. Incidentally I also used part of a turnbuckle for the reach rod running alongside the barrel slide (visible in my last photograph).

Best regards,

Marcus

[Dave Dibb (Armorpax)]

Thanks Marcus,will see about getting some

Dave

[Marcus Kwa]

I started the fitting of the rivets. I chose to use a smaller rivet than the ones supplied in the kit to be more in scale. Problem encountered was that the smaller rivets's heads are only slightly bigger than the holes in the gun frame. If not centered in that hole a gap would be visible around the rivet......
What meant that every rivet had to be shimed, by adding a small piece of foil around the shank! Well it is raining cats and dogs out here so I had nothing beter to do...

On the first photo the difference in size is shown.

Next adventure was the tail section with the 2 small wings (what is the use of these winglets?). By comparing some photo's I decided to move the wings one rivet aft and move the rivet line in the middle of the plate also one rivet down. The old rivet line/row had a backing strip soldered on at the back and the individual rivet holes closed with a drop of solder. After sanding the excess down it looked like this:

The old rivet holes are just visible in the photo. The spade wings were also enlarged with styrene sheet and are ready to be drilled for the fitting of even more rivets......

To break up the rivet job I also started on the front of the barrel slide The front cap should have all sides rounded what was easily done by with a file and a drill with a grinding bit.
The connection of the front cap to the slide was next. The cap is connected with 4 bolt clamps and I chose the riveted (butterfly shaped) backing plate (just to add to the rivet count! ).

In the works are (apart from the rivets): the transportation bracket

and the towing eye assembly, though I might wait to see what Dave is cooking in his resin kitchen

Cheers,

Marcus

[Dave Dibb (Armorpax)]

Hi Marcus,

More great work. I've had a look at my pics and have now also moved the 2 rear side brackets back. I'm not going to redo the rivets as I will be casting a canvas bag to sit on the rear trail like the old Tamiya kit. It is probably laziness as it means I don't need to do the cutouts for the tie downs.

I'm only going to make the foot pedal assembly that goes on each of the sockets on the tow hitch assembly rather then the whole thing. Not sure how far you plan on going but at least you know what I will be offering.

Best regards

Dave

[Marcus Kwa]

The transportation bracket is on hold, I need more detail on the connections with the gun slide (the reinforcement on the end of the slide links with the transport bracket).
I think I will pay the museum a visit again (if anyone needs detail shots of a certain part of the gun please let me know!!!)!
In the mean time I started further work on the tail end of the gun slide. The slide has some box like projections aft of the trunnions which appeared to be enveloping the whole slide after studying the photos.

Shape is not set yet as I lack photos of the part closest to the trunnions, especially the part where the elevation quadrant is connected to this box. Somwhere the dimensions (or position) of the kit's elevation quadrant does not appear as depicted on the photos, will be continued!!
The gap between the perpendicular plates is intentional to add weld beads later on.

Best regards,

Marcus

[Marcus Kwa]

Finally some time to report the progress on my 25 pounder! I am home with the flu so have some time to catch up. The gun is almost finished, most of Dave's parts have been fitted (gun breech details are still missing, as are the foot pedals for the hand spikes).

Incidentally the photo also shows some shell casings I sourced with the right dimensions (cut down .577 NE casing). Working on the projectiles on the moment......

Since I decided to use smaller rivets I had to remove all the rivets from Dave's beautiful castings........ I made new angles for the spade connection since I enlarged the spade wings.
The towing eye assembly was modified by beefing up the steel frame supplied in the kit with styrene. In the mean time the sockets for the handspikes were connected to the base plate with rivet brackets. The only parts still missing are Dave's foot pedals.

Also since I moved the two wings one rivet to the rear I had to lengthen the round bar connected to it (actually I should have moved it two rivets down as Dave already mentioned in his build). The kit part is two dimensional (flat) so I decided to replace them altogether by 3mm aluminium tube. By squashing the ends and round the tops of a bit they resembled the original very nicely!

The item recently tackled was the sighting system. First I was only intending to make a panoramic (dial) sight but after a further visit to the museum eventually remade the remaining parts of the sight system as well. Parts still missing are the dial sight, iron sights (to be attached on top of the telescope bracket) and the clino meter and its bracket (to be connected to the lowest part of the moon shaped disc).

Last big challenge will be the gun platform. I have contacted someone who will weld the rings together since the gaps are too big for soldering. After that the connection holes need to be re-drilled to have the spokes line up with the pointed part of the platform rim.

I keep you all posted!

Cheers,

Marcus

[Marcus Kwa]

The sight system is nearing completion! The telescope was a tad too small in comparison to the rest so it was replaced by a slightly larger one. As a finishing touch a rubber boot was added to the ocular of the telescope.

The rubber boot is part of a bicycle brake dirt-cover and incidentally also supplied the cone shaped rubber cover for the ocular of the panoramic sight!!

The clinometer is added (at the bottom of the half moon) and work has started on the panoramic sight.
The top part of that sight is almost finished (hence the empty platform) and will be the last part of the sight system.......

.
Both clinometer and panoramic sight holder feature a spirit level to adjust the sight system regardless of the position of the gun.

When the sight assembly is finished I will take a picture of the separate components of the sight system.

Best regards,

Marcus

[Leon Benjamins]

Looking good!
Do you have some photo's of the inner beams? where the holes are for the tie downs.
I only have this one:


I could use some more from a straight angle instead of a far sideview..

[Steve Stuart]

Hi All,
I had better put my head above the parapet on this one as I run a bike shop. So if anyone needs a bellows, let me know and I will see what I can do to supply.
All the best
Steve

[Marcus Kwa]

Hi Leon,
Unfortunately I don't have any photos of the inner beams!
What I have is a detail shot of such an access opening but you probably want to know the positions of the openings!!! On the bright side: you got yourself a good excuse to go to the museum!

Best regards,

Marcus