During the past week I concentrated on the gun carriage and then started the barrel. The carriage is two main sub assemblies, the mount and the sled. The two assemblies consisted of a few main parts and about another 30 or so detail parts.
After cleaning up seams and pin marks the two assemblies were given a prime coat of Tamiya Flat Black. Then after checking the seams and clean up, I masked the main elevating and traversing gear assemblies and base coated each with Poly Scale OD.
Once dry the masking was removed and the gear assemblies were painted with Alclad Steel.
Here is the mount assembly. Note the gear inside the mount painted steel. The plate is the facing plate for the traversing gear with the gear point also painted steel
Here is the underside of the sled assemble showing the main elevating gear.
Once everything was dry the facing plate was installed on the mount and the sled and mount were connected.
While painting, the equilibrators were also primed and painted OD with the equilibrator cylinders painted with Alclad Dark Aluminum. With all the parts assembled, here is the carriage minus the shields. Some touch up is needed but that will wait for final finishing.
I also began work on the barrel. I cast a few resin plugs of the back end. Then into the tool box....time to take out the rarely used but handy when you need it x-acto miter box and fine saw. Two cuts were made in the barrel, one about half way and one near the breech end. I then took one of the resin plugs and cutting from the same spot as the barrel cuts, began operation bologna slice.
A 4mm slice was added to the middle section and a 4.5 mm slice to the rear. After a little sanding and gluing with CA glue, here is the extended barrel
As a historical note, as I worked on the barrel and thought about the fact that the picture at the start of this thread was B Battery, 937 FA. They were a reserve unit called to active duty during the Korean war. During their time in theater, the battalion fired well over 200,000 rounds while going through 65 barrels or almost 4 barrels per howitzer in the battalion. The 937th was awarded a Presidential Unit Citation for their actions during Korea.
Lastly, I began work on the shields. The backs were full of pin marks and after cleaning them up, I used Mr. Surfacer 500 to create the weld lines on the mounting brackets to the shields.
Still have some work on the front of the shields and seam cleanup on the barrel. Getting close now, also in between drying cycles working on the tools and other small details......then....the tracks!
As always all comments are welcome and thanks for looking
Rounds Complete!!