Where should the pintle mount for a GPMG be fitted on a Land Rover for T2K?

[Ultravanillasmurf]

Hi,

I am assembling an Empress SWB Land Rover as a Twilight 2000 gun buggy armed with a GPMG on a pintle mount.

I was wondering where the pintle mount is best mounted?

Most Jeep models have the pintle mounted behind the front seats, but that really restricts the fire arc.

Now on a short wheelbase vehicle, is there a recoil reason for placing a pintle mount in the middle?

[carlos marighela]

The recoil on a GPMG is not so appreciable as to impact on  the vehicle greatly as long as the pintle is reasonably robust and secured to the floor. There's more shock from a recoilless rifle than a 7.62 machinegun, to that end the Australian gun buggies had their suspension beefed up.  It's nominally recoilless but firing the gun often knocked out the gauges and indicators on the vehicle. The 106 was sort of mid mounted in the rear. In part because that accessed the mid crossbeam for the mounting and in part because if possible it's definitely desirable to have the venturii of an RCL outside of the vehicle itself.

As the tray of your average Series 2, 2A or Series 3 is generally flat, you could bolt an MG down where you fancy.

The Marshalls built SAS Pinkies typically had an offset  gun for the front left seat and a pintle towards the rear a foot or two short of the back end.

I suspect that the real reason for mounting gun forward on GS type Land Rovers is to make the best use of available stowage and passenger space. Working theory at any rate.

[Ultravanillasmurf]

Thanks.
I will mount it as far back as I can using the AAMG figure from the Empress range.

Murphy's Laws of Combat
Recoilless Rifles are not!

[Daeothar]

I was in an infantry recon unit back in my days in her majesty's service, and our long landies all indeed had a MAG pintle mounted in the middle, right behind the front seats.

My suspicion is that this was done because with the canvas hood built up, there was still a way to stand up and man the gun, through an especially applied flap in the roof. Would have been decidedly more difficult in other positions.

Additionally; this indeed allowed for more guys and gear to be transported in the rear, and communication between the observer/gunner on top was easier with him close to the driver and patrol leader. Especially when going flat out on dirt roads.

I remember having to completely wrap up when in those things because sand is course and gets everywhere and stuff. In winter, being on top was inviting frostbite, so nobody did that for more than 30 minutes before switching positions. And your entire mug covered by multiple layers of cloth made communication difficult enough already without having to shout across an additional meter or so to the guys up front...

The range of fire was never a real issue; the front arch was 100% covered, and if you were shot at from the rear you had either probed too deeply into enemy territory or were bravely advancing to the rear anyway

To be honest; Firing archs never really were an issue and it never came up that we'd need to project into the rear arch...

I'm running a T2K campaign right now and my players started out with exactly that type of landrover, pintle and all. I blew it up for them, but they did make good use of it (and the pintle) when they still had it.


Also: recoil-challenged would be a better term

[Rickf]

You can stick GPMGs anywhere on rovers, I've used them on proper mounts all over, strapped to the radio frame/roll bar with rope. You can't go wrong. In GW 1 we replaced the tailgates with special mounts made for the tailgate fittings.

[Ultravanillasmurf]

Thanks.
That is an interesting photograph, nice loading.

This is a dry run test.

That is not a wheel clamp, I just have not removed the tag from the wheel.
The base of the gunner will be trimmed and a plastic card insert created with the pintle mount attached.

[carlos marighela]

Looks good! Clever use of that figure.

[CapnJim]

Yeah, that should work quite nicely....

[carlos marighela]

By the by if you have second thoughts about the 'wheel clamp' then Minifigs make an armed traffic warden in the Wo79 range. 

[Ultravanillasmurf]

By the by if you have second thoughts about the 'wheel clamp' then Minifigs make an armed traffic warden in the Wo79 range. 

As does Crooked Dice in their Militia 1 set (armed with an SLR).


And no, I never got round to eating that spam.

[carlos marighela]

Sensible chap, it's hardly fit for human consumption. That said, out of a sense of misplaced nostalgia and a weird sense of duty to the good people of Uruguay, I did purchase and consume a Fray Bentos tinned steak and kidney pie a couple of years back. I was pleasantly surprised. It was nowhere near as ghastly as it promised to be.