WWW1 British Trenchers out of Warzone plastics - block painting continues

[Engel]

Ohh nice. 
Love the work with that water cooled machine gun.

[Red Orc]

From what I heard recently it might be 'water' only in the most poetic sense...

[Daeothar]

Ohh nice.  
Love the work with that water cooled machine gun.

Actually, and with hindsight I suppose for the best, I simply went with what felt and looked WW1 British, without doing any actual research. All imagery came straight from memory.

As it turns out, I sort of mishmashed a Lewis and a Vickers gun into one, but it does look the part; not too much of either gun, but reminiscent enough of both to be instantly recognisable.

I basically cut off the barrels of the Gatling type gun it originally was and replaced it/them with a piece of plastic tubing, capped off at the front, and a small piece of sprue drilled and filed into shape as a flash suppressor.

The cloth/fabric around the cooling shroud is made from paper packaging tape cut to size, including the straps. the buckles on the underside are small plastic cut-offs.

The cartridge belt is pewter and from my winnings in the 2012 Trash Bash comeptition and are made by Secret Weapon Miniatures. These are great and let themselves be bent and glued into shape perfectly. The cartridge size is a very near match for the rudimentary ammo belt moulded on the underside of the gun.

It wraps around the underside and then ends on the left side of the gun (so between the body and the gun), and I suspect that the pouch/bag strapped to his torso is supposed to be the ammo container, but since those do not line up at all, it was dead easy to shape and bend the SWM belt to link up with the belt on the gun and be 'thrown over the shoulderpad'...

A real easy conversion and, most importantly, just as easily repeated for other guns. I thought to build an emplaced one on a tripod, and this simple process will enable that perfectly.

From what I heard recently it might be 'water' only in the most poetic sense...

Now you have me baffled... 

[Red Orc]

...
Now you have me baffled... 

Apparently it was common to wee in the guns to cool them. One Russian heavy machine gun allegedly had a little urinal-like attachment on the side for that very purpose.

So I heard, anyway.

[Daeothar]

 

Ah, the smell of cordite and boiling urine in the morning...

[Red Orc]

Yeah, well, the cordite sticks in your throat so you need a cup of tea.

No, Baldrick, don't use the hot water from the guns!