Misc: Detailing my 88s...

My collection of scratch-built bits for resin casting nears completion....

Here's where I was at around midday today, having added a three shell wicker ammo-box (inc. lid), a single shell metal canister, and a spent round. These are in addition to the carriage mounts, erdpfahl (the trefoil perforated stakes), a winding handle, and a linkage for the folding legs, that I'd already made earlier.

Making the live shell - the only new element in the second pic, below - took ages. First I tried sculpting sprue using a Dremel style hobby tool. But this span too fast, even wound down to its slowest speed, causing the sprue to overheat and snap. I then tried working with brass. Not having any brass rod, I hacksawed a strip off a piece of brass sheet. I then span that in the drill to round it down. This also overheated and snapped off, long before it had gotten properly shell-shaped.

And bingo... all the sundry elements I'm intending to cast.

So, after numerous failed attempts, I reverted to searching out bits of sprue of roughly the right diameter, that might be viable for the different segments: base, propellant case and warhead. I wound up gluing three different diameter bits of sprue together, which, with some minimal profile shaping, finally gave me a shell I was happy-ish with. 

I think I'll make an initial mould and cast several sets, and then perhaps I'll make a second mould with a proper complement of items; two carriage mounts, four stakes, x ammo boxes and shells, etc. Or maybe the first mould will suffice? I guess I'll see which way the wind blows when the time comes...

Misc: Scratch-Building Details for 88mm Guns

Making fins for the erdpfahl.

I'm really enjoying learning about the 88mm guns of Germany's WWII arsenal, and building a few models of them. I've decided to take my first steps into casting resin parts. Today I started making several small bits and bobs with a view to moulding them. First, my beloved erdpfahl, and then the carriage-hooks that support the gun between the two bogies. 

As can be seen, above, I tried two sets of erdpfahl, or stakes. The first, on the left, were pretty poor. The second, at right, were more satisfactory. I used the wire mesh to space a series of five pin-prick locator marks, made with my DIY pointy tool. I then drilled through these with a 0.5mm drill bit. Despite it being pretty poor, I put the first one together anyway, as pictured below. This revealed that the 'wings', or fins, needed trimming down, which I've started to do to the second set, as yet unassembled.

Refining the second set of stakes.

Below, the two erdpfahl, along with a wing or fin template. Upper is the less successful of the two. The lower is the better one. The central core is yet to be sized/shaped. I turned the cruciform base upside-down, so as to compare them with the ones integral to the Zvezda 88mm.

Erdpfahl #1 and #2, and the fin template, alongside the Zvezda example.

Next up, I started on a pair of the mounting hooks. The plan will be to make sets of four stakes, and two pairs of these hook mounts, a few other bits and pieces, such as a couple of crank-handles, linkages (for the folding arms or legs, or whatever they are), and numerous ammo boxes and shells, etc. Once I have a full complement of these oddments, I'll make a master mould, so I can cast complete sets in one pass.

Making a pair of scratch-built carriage mount hooks.

I'm keen to find or make some decent crews as well. I'm not too keen on any of the figure sets I've seen so far. I'm thinking crews in overalls/boiler suits, crews in shorts, crews with braces but no shirts, etc. The sort of stuff you see in many wartime photographs. I've wanted to sculpt some wargaming figures pretty much all my life. I've even tried a few times, albeit never very successfully. So this next step is something I'm both excited and anxious about...

Misc: 88mm Flak Madness

MORE FLAK 88 STUFF!

Since recently building a Hasegawa 1/72 Flak 36, and buying the Haynes 'manual' on this famed WWII workhorse (in its several types), I've kind of gone a bit nuts for the 88mm! I just bought another Hasegawa 1/72 kit, this time the Flak 18 variant, and a second 1/76 Airfix kit. The plan is to build these sans armoured shield.

Two new big guns...

One detail that emerged from studying the Haynes manual on the 88, was the absence on most 1/72 or 1/76 kits of any 'erdpfahl', or stakes, on the articulated side legs/arms of the cruciform gun mounts. I need to check, but I think the Zvezda 1/72 models might have them. Certainly the Airfix and Hasegawa don't. A desire to scratch-build these little doodads - used to help cope with gun recoil - perhaps even to batch-produce some in resin, is thus born! 

The erdpfahl, or stakes, are labelled in this German diagram.

Erdpfahl are 'trefoil', three-lobed/winged; part 8, the distinctive holed fins (AFV Club 1/35 PE).

Interest in other details, such as the presence or absence of the crew shield, and how that's mounted (the Zvezda is the best of the kits I've made so far by a long way, in this latter respect), or the rolls of cable on the bogies, and how these facilitate the communications wiring of the guns electronics, starts to rumble into life. Details like the sextant, dials and fuse-calibrator all start to seem more important.

And then there's the issues of deployment and transport: on or off the bogeys? And how about guns with recoil, or mid-firing? What about prime-movers, or guns mounted on vehicles, or even buildings? And how about the 128mm or even 150mm cousins of the 88mm? And I still haven't addressed my latent desire to sculpt my own crews*... This hobby certainly taps right into an obsessional part of the nervous sytem, no doubt about it!

The short video above, with a primitive but effective soundtrack added, uses archival WWII footage (much of which is also colourised) to show the 88mm in action. Fascinating! It leaves me wanting to convert at least one model so as to give it recoil, or depict it in the firing/recoil state.

* I ordered a resin casting kit from a company called Sylmasta.com, with a view to making various parts, like the erdpfahl, some ammo, and perhaps even some crew figures.