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Sunday December 24, 2006

It has been five months since I was last able to update this page at all.  The project has been badly bogged down since July.

The problem has been with an early attempt I made to reproduce some of the parts of the receiver and grip by using the vacuuformed piece of crap I got from Cushman Paintball as a mold.  The theory was that even if the cast was undetailed and blobby, I would be able to carve the casting down to something reasonably accurate.  Unfortunately, the ABS of the Cushman reacted badly to the polyester resin I used, causing the Vacuuformed ABS to curl in on itself.  This warpage had enormous consequences.  Although many measurements were unaffected, a number of important measurements, particularly those that needed to be made across the two halves of the Cushman, became impossible to use.

In an effort to get things back on track, I hooked up with a Star Wars reinactors forum.

A Star Wars reinactors forum?

Yup.

Believe it or not, most, if not all, of the weapons used in the original Star Wars were real weapons from the Pinewood Studios props department, and the MG34 was one of them.  Some of the stormtroopers on Tattooine (a.k.a. sandtroopers) carried MG34s during their patrols, and Han Solo carried one while disguised as a stormtrooper on board the death star.

It seemed very promising at first.  A number of troopers with real MG34s enthusiastically volunteered to send me some measurements, but aside from a few reference photos, which got added to the hundreds of others I already had from my online research, I got nothing.  Not a single measurement has come my way.  If the force was with anyone, it sure wasn't me.

Things have started looking up however, thanks to this real MG34 component fresh in from a fellow in New Jersey:

It doesn't seem like much.  In fact, only the largest section of it can be seen externally as a metal ring between the receiver and the butt.  That however, is what makes it useful, because that little ring happens to be the same diameter as the butt where it meets the receiver, and the diameter of the receiver where it meets the butt.  This means that two of the vital missing measurements can now be taken, and, as a result, a number of other unknown measurements can be inferred.

Life is good.  Add a little ice cream and it will be perfect.
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 

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