Aldi Airfix

[Rob Pulham]

Flushed with the success of the FK96, I spent another £12 on the British main WWI Field Gun the 18 Pounder QF. It arrived just before Christmas, another Emhar kit this one only had 13 parts (not including the 3 crew).

A couple of hours had it put together, including clean up of the parts.

I wasn't able to do as much in the way of upgrading this one as it had had wheels provided. So I had to make do with, drilling out the barrel, fitting a piece of 10ba stud to replace the stub of plastic that was the elevation screw and binding the recoil mechanism as shown in many photos.

The other thing that I did was carve out and define the recoil slide. Emhar had it moulded as a solid flat across the top of the barrel, when in reality it is two strips.

I am still undecided as to whether to tackle the moulded on rope or indeed replace the whole gun shield as I have a feeling it's too big height wise. I now have a good photo which I need to scale and then check against the shield before doing anything else.

 

[SimonT]

Rob,
thank you for a delightlful new rabbit hole to explore. I had never seen a gun shield like the model before. I wonder how it folded as it incapable of moving over any ground. However, lots of useful photos from my internet search (18 pounder gun). The wheel hubs on the model need some attention to look like the real thing.
Now your challenge is to get both guns into a single diaorama! I have a memory of some British guns taking over German gun pits on the first day of the Somme, so probably around Mametz/Fricourt.

 

[Rob Pulham]

Hi Simon,
I am glad that you are enjoying the small diversion.

My original intention was to have the German gun in a small diorama with the Rolls Royce Armoured car that I got for Christmas. However I made a bad choice of kit (for my plans). I bought the Warslug kit because I fancied one with a full interior but I didn't know until after it was away for Christmas, that the kit actually represents a 1924 pattern car. So not likely to be seen in company with the FK96. Another company, 'Meng' do a kit that can be built (with some alteration) into either the 1914 pattern cars or the 1918 pattern cars but it doesn't have an interior. Hey ho!, an excuse for another at some point I think.

Re the 18 pounder wheel hubs, they are not fitted yet - what you see is the ends of the axles.

 

[Eastsidepilot]

Rob,
I had never seen a gun shield like the model before. I wonder how it folded as it incapable of moving over any ground.

Simon,
This may explain ...........

 

[Tim Birch]

I did get the detail painting done prior to Christmas, but I only just remembered where I posted this

When I get a bit of time I plan to scratch build a limber for it. Now I have 3D printed wheels to hand.

Although it is of no relevance to your modelling, I thought you might like to see the bottom end of a casing from one of these guns. It was brought back from France by my grandfather who was there in the BEF from January 1916. There are two of these which were converted into a tobacco jar after the war. They sit on my shelves now with pens in them. One is dated November 1917 and one, April 1915. I cannot explain the significance of the codes on the base, and it has even stumped the internet.

 

[Rob Pulham]

I have just done a bit of scaling on a good photo and a drawing that I have and it seems that as suspected Emhar have the bottom plate of the shield way too deep.

From the drawing I get 10.13mm deep
From a photo I get 10.15mm deep

The Emhar plate is 14.5mm deep

Also, I haven't been able to find a single photo of the bottom plate having the vertical reinforcing straps. All the photos have a horizontal straps top and bottom. It may just be simpler to make a new shield.. at least that way I would also lose the moulded on rope too.

 

[Rob Pulham]

Although it is of no relevance to your modelling, I thought you might like to see the bottom end of a casing from one of these guns. It was brought back from France by my grandfather who was there in the BEF from January 1916. There are two of these which were converted into a tobacco jar after the war. They sit on my shelves now with pens in them. One is dated November 1917 and one, April 1915. I cannot explain the significance of the codes on the base, and it has even stumped the internet.

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Hi Tim,

I had a similar sized, 18 pounder shell case that I recovered while scuba diving off a ship that was bring them back from the Somme when it was sunk.

I did have a couple of complete shell cases too but I traded them to a friend for something 20 odd years ago. Then really stupidly, I added the part shell case, which I had kept like you as a pen pot on my desk, to a bag of scrap that I was weighing in not long before I moved house. An act I deeply regret.

 

[SimonT]

Rob,
shame about the armoured cars. I thought of one engagement in 1918 where 17th Armoured Car Battalian did damage to German guns at the Battle of Amiens. I've just checked and unfortunately their vehicles were from an inferior manufacturer - Austin! I only know of the action through my father's great uncle winning the MC nearby when he charged (yup, on a horse) a machine gun nest that had two squadrons of the regiment pinned down.

Can I join the 78mm Case Club? I have a brass one that holds all my packets of Evergreen strip. God knows why my late mother-in-law had it in her wardrobe!

Col,
different gun, though I do get the point.
Simon

 

[Rob Pulham]

Hi Simon,
I am sure you won't be surprised to hear that there is a kit out there for the Austin armoured car. There is also a kit for the Lanchester AC which were the next biggest numbers wise after the Rolls Royce.

I hear you on your mother in laws wardrobe, when my late father in law passed, we found a Duraglit tin, full of live bullets on his bedroom windowsill. He was a tank driver in the 8th Army during the war and no doubt brought them home as souvenirs. We took them to the local police Station for disposal.

 

[adrian]

we found a Duraglit tin, full of live bullets on his bedroom windowsill.

 

[Tim Birch]

My grandad didn't have bullets, but he did have two large cigars taken from a German. I couldn't understand why, 40 years later, they had not been smoked. It was because they were taken from a dead German, and second thoughts made my grandad and his mates feel that it would probably be unlucky to smoke them!

 

[Arun Sharma]

Further to the long term saga of 1/200 scale HMS Vanguard, I drew the main armament turrets and their barrels this week and have printed them off. As they are the sort of part that young fingers naturally gravitate to........ The turrets and their rangefinders and gun barrels will be lost wax cast in bronze. I have found that larger [perhaps I mean thicker walled] items for lost wax casting seem to be more often cast in bronze than brass by the Jewellry Quarter.



The turret was by no means a straightforward thing to draw as its sides are partially conical and thus were mostly drawn using lofted segments - as of course were the gun barrels.

 

[Arun Sharma]

The ship I want to model isn't available in a suitable kit so I'm scratchbuilding it. Fortunately its hullform cross-section drawings are readily available as are 1/200, 1/128 and 1/192 plans of the ship. It is HMS Vanguard [1946] and I'm building it in 1/200 scale i.e., it will be about 49inches long. The basic hull, less keel strakes, props, rudder and portholes is in the picture appended. This currently exists in two halves as it is just a little unwieldy if actually bolted together [using M6 nuts and bolts].
I imported the twenty one cross-sections into Autodesk Inventor and lofted two or three together to produce a section of hull and then had them 3D printed on an industrial FDM printer using ABS so that the sections could eventaually be glued together with Mek-Pak.

The secondard armament 5.25inch turrets were also drawn and printed in 3D but on my home printer.

View attachment 175161View attachment 175162
I've sprued the turrets because I will probably get them cast in brass for robustness.
Obviously there is tons left to do but it is an interesting diversion from railway and bus modelling. The portholes have been printed and are being cast in brass - then comes the fiddly job of drilling holes and gluing them in position.
For those who might remember it, the 14foot long builder's model of the ship that was in the Science Museum in London has since migrated to the Dumbarton Art Gallery - so close to John Brown's yard where she was built and I went up there a while ago and took a couple of hundred pics that should help eventually.

Afternote: The builder's model is actually in the Clydebank Museum which seems to be in Dumbarton and was also doubling as an art gallery on my visit.

Following on from the IPMS Show at Telford last week, I have designed and printed a few more bits of HMS Vanguard's superstructure, turret barbettes and boats. They are laid out in rough approximation of their eveentual positions on the deck:

 

[Eastsidepilot]

In Aldi today, the same as this time last year.



Col.

 

[Osgood]

Never mind the Cromwell or the Tomahawk - how about that JCB artic dumptruck lurking in the adjacent bay? Can't be far off S7