Items needed
- Hypodermic needles of different diameters from the pharmacy (to get for only a few cash. one must only convincingly explain that one is not drug addicted),
- a thin aluminum plate from the iron goods business (also food packing alu is sufficient),
- an electrical mini drill as "turning lathe",
- tool for mini drills: a friction disk; a buffing wheel; 0,012mm drill or a pin,
- a semicircular metal file,
- instant adhesives (I use highly liquid cyanoacrylat adhesive),
- a metal ruler,
- a soft eraser.
Preparations:
The diagonal point of the hypodermic needles should be cut off even and then cut off to the length of the model construction section with the friction disk. For the MG 34 one cuts out a piece of the aluminum sheet metal, according to the broadness of the cooling jacket. The length is no matter because the cooling jacket is cut off anyway later. Thus the handling with the following work procedures however is a little bit improved. Into this rectangular piece of aluminium one bores with the drill or the pin four parallel series in each case around somewhat more than the hole strength of transferred holes after the sample of the picture 1.
- Tip 1: As underlay one should take the eraser or a soft work mat.
- Tip 2: The pin makes fine round edges into the holes, which I like more than the sharp ones that come with the drill.
After this laborious work, only of our metal ruler supported, we recover somewhat with the turning of the recoil improver of the MG's (muzzle):
The hypodermic needle is fixed into the mini drill. At a fast turning rate one mills the groove into the muzzle by means of a metal file. Now the hypodermic needle and the "cooling jacket" are glued together with superglue in the correct place at right angle(!) in only one winding. Once wrapped, one cuts the excess length off, as I promised beforehand. One should file down any rim at the abutting edge, if it might be clearly visible. All further details of the MG develop similarly only that the Aluminium sheets are smaller. A small difference: more than one times taping is better! The principle clarifies again the picture 2.
© 2002 Georg Schachinger