New MG-34 in town! (Denix)

[jkno]

MG34 is here. Darn it is heavy. It is a BFG. Very cool piece. Had to clean the oil off it and then took some pics. Will look into the other mods later on, as well as a way to properly display it.

 

[Mara Jade's Father]

Back in the Golden Age of the RPF, this would have been a Boba Debt active project.

 

[ConvergencePro]

Pretty sure this "box" is just a thin, folded piece of sheet metal. You can tell from the gap in the upper left corner. Just a rectangular piece of sheet metal with square tabs cut out of the corners, then folded into a box. You could probably over-bend the top and bottom surfaces by a few degrees and get the box to pressure-fit onto those side rails of the gun. Seems like a good solution if they knew they had to break these back down and give them back to the armourer after production. Would be pretty easy to replicate this way! Hit it with some satin black and weather the crap out of it. That back surface (or right surface from this angle) may even just be open ... no folded tab. Or it could be a shorter tab that butts up against the top rail. Could be contoured as well.

View attachment 1537312

So im pretty sure that’s actually a aluminum billet. The edges look too sharp for anything like folded sheet metal.

I haven’t ordered mine yet, but if folks are interested in replicating that exactly I could probably do up a few machined billets for us that will fit into the loading breeches on these.

Whats the inside of the loading area look like with the cover up on these?

 

[jkno]

So im pretty sure that’s actually a aluminum billet. The edges look to sharp for anything like folded sheet metal.

I haven’t ordered mine yet, but if folks are interested in replicating that exactly I could probably do up a few machined billets for us that will fit into the loading breeches on these.

Whats the inside of the loading area look like with the cover up on these?

This folded section here is quite interesting:

 

[ConvergencePro]

This folded section here is quite interesting:


View attachment 1538645

Insert foot in mouth. I totally missed that corner!
That’s really interesting. Do we have any better photos of the box on these? Im just surprised the top and bottom corners are as sharp as they look, but I suppose it might be the paint helping. Makes me especially curious what the underside of the box looks like now. Im almost wondering if they might have even soldered the box together maybe? But thatd be a fair bit of work

 

[Mara Jade's Father]

Insert foot in mouth. I totally missed that corner!
That’s really interesting. Do we have any better photos of the box on these? Im just surprised the top and bottom corners are as sharp as they look, but I suppose it might be the paint helping. Makes me especially curious what the underside of the box looks like now. Im almost wondering if they might have even soldered the box together maybe? But thatd be a fair bit of work

I don't think they did anything special. I think they it is pretty much what you see. They cut some sheetmetal with fold over flaps and then just used something as simple and non-permanent/non-destructive like using two sided tape to hold it in place. Isn't that what they used to hold the counters and the cylinders onto the Sterlings?

 

[ConvergencePro]

I don't think they did anything special. I think they it is pretty much what you see. They cut some sheetmetal with fold over flaps and then just used something as simple and nor-permant/non-destructive like using two sided tape to hold it in place. Isn't that what they used to hold the counters and the cylinders onto the Sterlings?

Yeah, its more just interesting to me from a machinist view that they got the edges looking so sharp is all. Even with paper thin aluminum in a nice folding rig I’d still expect to see some evidence of rounding to the fold corners where the outside edge material stretches in the folding process (inside compressing slightly)

This Supertrooper flamethrower box for instance is probably twice the gauge of what looks to be used on the Mg34’s box above, but the rounding effect you see in the fold corners is kinda what you’d expect to be present on the Mg34 box to a degree even with sheet only like .015”-.020” thick, though to a smaller degree than here. Instead we have what looks to be oddly crisp edges on it. Just an interesting detail is all, but again the paint could be helping to hide it

 

[jkno]

I don't think they did anything special. I think they it is pretty much what you see. They cut some sheetmetal with fold over flaps and then just used something as simple and nor-permant/non-destructive like using two sided tape to hold it in place. Isn't that what they used to hold the counters and the cylinders onto the Sterlings?

Indeed, they simply glued the Hengstler counters on the E-11, you can see the glue residue here:

So it could be possible they simply worked in the easiest way

 

[MastahBlastah]

I just mentioned that corner in my last post ... it's definitely a folded box. I've seen plenty of folded sheet metal structures with corners that square. Looking at one right now! The thinner the metal the easier it is to bend accurately, right?

So im pretty sure that’s actually a aluminum billet. The edges look too sharp for anything like folded sheet metal.

I haven’t ordered mine yet, but if folks are interested in replicating that exactly I could probably do up a few machined billets for us that will fit into the loading breeches on these.

Whats the inside of the loading area look like with the cover up on these?

This folded section here is quite interesting:

View attachment 1538645

 

[Ryan Clinton]

You can sort of see the box in this photo. Its still pretty blurry

 

[Boba Debt]

Back in the Golden Age of the RPF, this would have been a Boba Debt active project.

Not sure if I have the time for a full blown AP but I might be able to do a group buy, however, I'm concerned about the cost of shipping these out to everyone

 

[Mara Jade's Father]

Not sure if I have the time for a full blown AP but I might be able to do a group buy, however, I'm concerned about the cost of shipping these out to everyone

Even if each person was responsible for getting their own Denix, I just loved the organization of it all. How one topic was created to discuss each part with talking points or questions about details, or options for parts and who was willing to step up to get custom parts made if they were not openly available elsewhere. I know it was very helpful for me because there were details or even parts thatI did not know about, It’s like prop replica building for dummies.

 

[Boba Debt]

Even if each person was responsible for getting their own Denix, I just loved the organization of it all. How one topic was created to discuss each part with talking points or questions about details, or options for parts and who was willing to step up to get custom parts made if they were not openly available elsewhere. I know it was very helpful for me because there were details or even parts thatI did not know about, It’s like prop replica building for dummies.

I could organize the project, but I couldn't get parts machined, nor could I offer assembly services like I used to in the past

I'm sure there are enough resources on the board that the group could get the parts made

 

[MastahBlastah]

Insert foot in mouth. I totally missed that corner!
That’s really interesting. Do we have any better photos of the box on these? Im just surprised the top and bottom corners are as sharp as they look, but I suppose it might be the paint helping. Makes me especially curious what the underside of the box looks like now. Im almost wondering if they might have even soldered the box together maybe? But thatd be a fair bit of work

Whoops, missed this post! Didn't mean to beat a dead horse. I've wondered too about that bottom surface ... my instincts are telling me glthat it's just another folded surface at the botom, and they made this piece to sort of "clamp" onto the side rails using the box's top and (maybe) bottom flap, maybe with additional fastening/adhesive or maybe nothing at all. Obviously just a hunch, though. Who's got the photos!!

 

[jkno]

Roy t-tracks cut and tapered, now to decide if I'm going with the wire or not, and thus to add the notch or not.

 

[JetSetWilly]

I cut and folded sheet aluminium, 0.5mm I think. The top of the MG34 clamps down and hold the box in place.
No idea if this is how it should be done but it seemed the easiest option when I put it together.

 

[jkno]

That goes well for demilled. We'll see how it goes to Denix replica when getting there

 

[Ryan Clinton]

I found this photo yesterday. I might have cut mine differently than the screen used dlt-19. Not sure

 

[Ryan Clinton]

I guess not looks like this one was cut like mine.

 

[jkno]