Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length.

[Edward Pinniger]

The final stage of the build is the guns - one 40mm Bofors and three 20mm Oerlikons, all single mounts. Some SCs had different armament configurations (notably, earlier vessels had a 3in/50 gun instead of the 40mm) but this is the most common. I opted to scratchbuild all the guns (a lot cheaper than buying commercial castings, and I enjoy the challenge! - plus, detailed reference material is very easy to find for these ubiquitous naval weapons), though I'll be using a few commercial parts, such as etched gunsights.






The basic shape of the 40mm Bofors (seen in place on deck in numerous photos posted earlier). The barrel is aluminium tube with a conical flash-hider from the spares box (I think it was originally from a 1/35 tank gun). The gun doesn't elevate, but it can rotate - it's held in place on deck by a "rare earth" mini-magnet inset into the deck and the circular base of the mount.




The basic shapes of the 20mm Oerlikon guns and their shields. The guns are made from aluminium tube (with the muzzle ends flared out) and various gauges of styrene tube, with copper wire wound around them to make the recoil springs.






More detail added to the guns, and the shields have the mounting brackets and supporting framework added.




Assembled guns and shields. Still plenty of detail left to add, including the ammo drums, gun sights and shoulder rests, and the rivets
on the shields.

[unbuiltnautilus]

Excellent set of gun build photos. I built a full set of guns for HMS Matabele about ten years ago, including the 4.7" main guns, single pom poms, 4 barrel pom poms and quad 0.50" guns, great fun. Will be watching with interest as I will be building AA guns for SS Ohio soon, and this looks like my gun building masterclass to watch. Great job.

[Edward Pinniger]

Thanks for the positive comments - however I have to add that these guns aren't 100% accurate and fully detailed, I've made some compromises to fit my skill level, budget and available materials. For example, the 40mm barrel has no taper (the 20mms don't either, but I don't think the real ones do, or at least not enough to be easily visible in 1/48 scale), there are no oval holes in the 20mm barrel housing forward of the recoil springs, and the housing around the 20mm recoil springs is a bit too big - and that's just the errors I've spotted myself  They're just assembled from oddments of metal + styrene stock, plus a few spare plastic kit bits and etched fittings - were I attempting to get the guns exactly right in every detail, I'd have used lathe turning and machining (none of which I really know much about!) and possibly custom photo-etching (ditto, it's also expensive!)

[unbuiltnautilus]

We are all allowed a bit of self criticism, however, they still look great, with a coat of paint and a bit of weathering they will complement the rest of the model. My pom pom guns used Oboe masonry nails for barrels, this gave the ends of the barrels their distinctive look. Mind you, they started to rust after two years.....

[RaaArtyGunner]

If they look the part then they are OK.

As you say bigger scale means more detail.

Looking good 

[Edward Pinniger]

The distinctive cylindrical ammo magazines for the 20mm Oerlikons were made from three discs of 1.5mm styrene sheet, cut out with a hole punch, and detailed with styrene sheet + rod.










The final details to be added to the 20mms were the shoulder rests, rivets on the shields, and sights - the latter use etched parts from John R. Haynes. Here are four views of the completed gun mounts. Overall I'm pleased with how they turned out, and enjoyed building them (most of the time) but I can certainly see why many modellers opt for buying commercial gun kits/castings instead! I'd estimate there are close to 100 parts in each gun, including the tripod mounts and the shields.




Temporarily placed on deck. The guns are attached to aluminium wire pegs which fit through the tripod mounts and into holes drilled into the deck; when finished they'll be secured with Blu-tack or similar under the deck, to prevent them falling out but allow them to be removed or repositioned if necessary.

[pugwash]

Well Edward I think you have done a great job with the 20mm.
geoff

[longshanks]

Making one is good !

Making three that look the same is excellent 

[Edward Pinniger]

Making one is good !

Making three that look the same is excellent 

Thanks! I used an "assembly line" method to build the guns (measured + cut the parts for all 3 at once) so it didn't take that much longer than building a single one.





The 40mm Bofors gun mount is significantly more complex than the Oerlikons, but at least there's only one required! There are a couple of photos of the basic barrel/mount assembly (which I made a few months ago) earlier on in the thread. These 2 photos show the first lot of details added, including the supporting frames for the seats and pedals, the shell ejector chute (curved strip at the back of the gun) and the recoil cylinders.






More details added including the pedals, elevation controls and ammo hopper.










Last of all, I added the etched sights and railing stanchions (rigged with copper wire)

[Niall]

Just one comment on the Bofors gun.

The curved part from the rear of the gun to the baseplate is a spent cartridge chute. It is "U" shaped in cross section and does not attach to the gun.

See this photo -
http://www.flickr.com/photos/13439092@N04/3309110827

[Edward Pinniger]

Just one comment on the Bofors gun.

The curved part from the rear of the gun to the baseplate is a spent cartridge chute. It is "U" shaped in cross section and does not attach to the gun.

See this photo -
http://www.flickr.com/photos/13439092@N04/3309110827

Interesting - thanks for the photo link. I knew the curved part was a cartridge chute, but didn't realise that this part of it wasn't attached to the gun breech. I don't really want to attempt modifying the gun now it's painted and weathered, but since the barrel doesn't elevate, it shouldn't be too noticeable (at the elevation shown on the plans I used, the gun breech is at the same level as the chute, hence me thinking they were connected).
I didn't make the chute U-shaped in section, as I didn't have any brass stock of the right size/section and didn't trust styrene to bend into that shape without breaking! It's not that noticeable now that the gun is painted.

[Edward Pinniger]

Next, I airbrushed all 4 guns overall grey (the gunmetal parts will be brush-painted later). A coat of paint improves their appearance a lot, making them look rather less like the cobbled-together assemblies of styrene bits they are!



The gun barrels are undercoated black.



To give the guns a metallic look, I drybrushed them with Vallejo and Games Workshop paints. The barrels were given an unpainted look using brighter metallic shades.

[Edward Pinniger]

Some views of the completed 20mm gun mounts installed on deck:






- and of the 40mm gun. I used a light oil wash (Ivory Black oil paint dissolved in turps) to weather the grey-painted areas of the gun mounts.

With the gun mounts finished, the model is now finally complete other than rigging and the glazing for the wheelhouse windows. Once these are done I'll post some photos of the finished model - and hopefully some on-water photos too within a couple of weeks.  I'm also working on painting a few crew figures to put on deck (converted from 1/48 aircraft ground crew).

[unbuiltnautilus]

Nice, looking forward to the on the water shots

[longshanks]

I like the weathering effects 

[tassie48]

any updates on the model yet and any on the water shots

[Norseman]

Hi Edward

Really enjoyed reading through the build, any more to show?

Dave