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Saturday July 22, 2006

There is not much new to report today per sé, although much work has been going on. I am still fiddling around with variously shaped parts within a six inch region at the end of the barrel shroud, so progress appears to be much slower than it actually is.

Between the flash cone and the barrel shroud itself, there is a piece that screws into both on a real MG34 with four holes in it, and an integral nut.  Here is a picture of the real thing, with the flash cone attached on the left side of the picture:

I am not reproducing all of the detail of the original part, only the detail of what is exposed, indicated in the photo by the white lines.  The rest will be hidden and can look however it wants to, since it will just be gluing surfaces.  This is what came up with:

I hope you can recognize that same portion from between the white lines in earlier shot.  I took a short length of 1" PVC pipe and lathed it down about a millimetre in the middle, and lathed it down severely on one end to allow it to fit inside the polyester resin piece at the end of barrel shroud (shown attached), and left the full diameter for the section that will be glued inside the flash cone (left).  The nut like part (black square on it), is an integral part of the original part, but had to be made as a separate piece for the model using polyester resin, ground and sanded into the appropriate shape, then glued in place with a little more resin.  The joint between the two pieces was filled and sanded after this scan was taken.

Drilling the holes proved to be rather nasty.  I had difficulty keeping the piece steady as I drilled, and was forced to hold it in my hand.  This was quite a mistake, because the drill first badly mangled the holes, then unexpectedly shot through the entire piece, and did the same thing to my hand.

Ouch.

To fix the mangled holes in the part (as opposed to the one in my hand), I enlarged them with my dremel tool, then glued thin slices of ¹/₂" PVC pipe into the enlarged holes.  The slices where roughly filed down a bit, then the whole thing was lathed again (using sandpaper, not a chisel) to get the slices flush with the rest of the piece.  Appropriate filling and sanding then ensued.

Another part made up this week was the main body of the front sight.  This part has been cut, ground, sanded, and filed from a solid piece of polyester resin.  It is in the upper right of the photo.  Like an original front sight, mine will be in two pieces, to make it look more authentic.  The second piece will fit into the T shaped slot on the main piece.

The large chunk of resin in the upper left of the picture is destined to become a clip that is supposed to hold the flash cone in place, once a heck of a lot of shaping is done to it.

Also worked on heavily, but not yet completed, is the section of the barrel shroud that the weapon’s bipod fits in to.  The following photo shows the section I am writing about, indicated by the black lines:

The real MG34 bipod that arrived last week (see the July 14th entry) has been quite useful in helping me figure out the measurements for this section, seeing how it is supposed to fit into this part.

This main section of this part is being made from a length of 1 ¹/₂" ABS pipe with a connector for 1" PVC pipe glued inside, which was lathed down until it fit inside the clip on part of the bipod.  This section was then further reduced in the middle.  The parts that hold the bipod in place a being made from the end caps for 2" ABS pipe, which have been severely cut down and reshaped.
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 

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