Woah! That thing is huge!

I love how it looks though.

Would that be illegal if it was real?

if the shell as made inert, it would be legal. An exploding shell would be a no no, but a shootable round is okay, not that I'd want a live round anyway. Especially as the originals were electrically primed and I don't know how stable they would be. The other trick would be to find a functional Mk108 cannon to go with it, and the technical complications that would go into that (over and above the legal ones). The gun was pnumatically charged and electrically fired, and the firing cycle would make me nervous to be around it (it is a simple blow-back action, fired from an open bolt with the ignition of the round while still in the process of loading to mitigate the recoil) I'm much happier with non-functional mock ups.

Live weapons illegal? What country do you live in?

Well since the National Firearms Act of 1934. Most Automatic Weapons are illegal to posses unless the owner apl;ies and recieves a Federal Tax stamp (with a yearly Renewal), and the local authorities acquiesce to your request for said Tax Stamp. That is one stamp per automatic weapon. Certain U.S. States do not permit those applications, others are lenient about them. Semi-Automatic weapons are legal in the U.S, though certain Municipalities prohibit them now.

What's the difference between automatic and semi-automatic?

Automatic = pull the trigger and hold it, Bullets come out as fast as the mechanicals cycle, until trigger is released.
Semi-automatic = Pull the trigger and hold it, and ONE bullet comes out, until the trigger is released, and pulled again, releasing another single bullet.
Single Action = Firearm must be cocked manually, Then the trigger is pulled to release one (1) bullet. Then the firearm must be cocked again to prepare it to be fired.
Bolt Action = Same as above, but the firearm is cocked and cleared by the manipulation of a bolt handle ont he side of the rifle.
Lever Action = Same as above but the cocking and clearing of the rifle is handled by the maniplation of a lever, usually behind the trigger.

Why would they ban automatics then? That sounds like the best way to defend yourself with.

Well before 1934 there were no restrictions on the firearms one could own, but because of the large amount of organized crime that arose because of the Volstead act (Prohibition), it was debated, and the decided to remove automatic weapons from most public hands, as the criminal element often had the upper hand in engagements with police, and in the United States the "Posse Comitatus" act prevented the Military from involving itself at all in civil affairs. As such, the further sale of those weapons became severely limited. in 1986, it became even more limited in that no further weapons can be imported, and no weapons made after 1986 may be sold to private individuals.

But wouldn't restricting that mean only criminals would have automatic weapons? Because I hear that a lot. If we put any kind of restriction on fire arms then all the bad guys would have them. But that is conflicting because I don't hear to many reports of criminals having those kind of weapons... confusing...

Criminals in the US tend not to use the Full auto weapons very often because other weapons are much cheaper. Even stolen Military weapons tend to be rare, because the alternative of cheaper Semi-Automatic weapons are much more plentiful (even to steal).You occasionally see mechanically altered weapons made to function fully automatically., but that's more in the realm of Terrorists, than bank robbers. The legal owners of Full auto weapons are a very law abiding group, in the history of the NFA since 1934, only one Automatic weapon was misused, and it was misused by an off duty Policemnan. The rest of them. Generally your suppositions are correct. Generally one of the problems of using an automatic weapon in the commission of a crime, these days is the disproportionate response by authorities, in that rarely will they ask for a surrender if they think you are a "terrorist" with a fuly automatic weapon.

So expensive guns stops criminals from using them? You are a very well informed person.

Doesn't stop them but it limits the availability. Also the disproportionate response when they are used is a factor.

If there was only some way to make them safer.

Define safer?

Oh, that is a hard one. Um, just less gun related violence in general, I guess.

Well in that case. one has to address both crime and mental illness. because certa9in areas with high incidence of gun ownership have low incidences of crime or violence, but others have higher numbers of occurrences. At that point the reasons for vo8ilence are cultural and not technical.

the "School Shooter Phenomena is actually statitically quite rare, but the theory of that seems to be that the shooter were all boys that came off Adderol or other psychotropic drugs, and that caused the psychotic break that precipitated the school shooting. all but oen of the shooters were young men, and all but I think two of them were on perscriptions or recently off prescriptions for Adderol or similar drugs.

Maybe guns don't actually have an effect on crime. Maybe there would or wouldn't be just as much crime around without guns. Detroit has a lot of guns and a lot of crime, Texas has a lot of gun with average crime. How much of an impact does guns have on crime?

Well there are studies that purport to have results that fall on both sides, but generally there is a deterrant effect for guns This Harvard University study seems to lean that way.
http://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/.....ence-with-ban/

So they say areas with less guns have less crime? Then what can we do?

Not sure that was the message of that study, ifyou read it, It also shows that different cultured have different rates of murder. Russia, has nearly a ban on private ownership, but the murder rate is higher than the U.S. per capita. there are a lot of other studies, Curently, no one agrees on what to do, But ownership of weapons was guaranteed in the constitution as an individual right. So we get to have semi automatic weapons, but subject to local laws. I could suggest though, if you have a fear of guns, take a safety course at a local range and learn to use one safely, even if you do not buy one.

While ownership of weapons was guaranteed in the constitution it never specified what kind of weapons, including guns, and we can all agree that certain weapons are considered to dangerous to own...

Actually, personally, I cannot agree to that, philosophically, But I think we have reached the end of this discussion. thank you. I hope I was informative.

Oh, you were great. I learned a lot. Thanks. I see you like to pull out of a conversation before any form on conflict can start. I wish i was more like that...

Welcome!

Thank you and good day, sir.

Good heavens that's big.

650 rounds/min, hate to be in front of that!

Yeah My Dad's friend said having an ME-262 shoot at him was unpleasant. He had been a Navigator aboard a B-17, before he became a University professor.

Ooooooh- I like the idea of a wooden 'winder.

I was going to say... and how did you get that?

Unloaded originals are available in the collector market, but not cheap and tend to be rather beat looking, so make my own better than new versions. I'll likely turn a more precise second one out of acrylic and cast some copies. May also make a 55mm Mk112 round, the scaled-up version of the Mk108 as a very heavy autocannon for both a aircraft weapon and a anti-aircraft gun for some very late war armor projects.

I would be interested to see those techdocs on the Aim9. I'll trade you flight manuals for a Saturn 5 and a SR-71 :}

Don't have any technical data, just measurment notes taken from one.

Wow, I was looking at the thumbnail and thought it was something else...

Me, too. lol

Never have I seen a cartridge with a rim that was small than the overall diameter of the case. Was the case made out of steel to contain the pressure better?

I'd WAG that the steel case was more a matter of wartime economy. Most late war German ammo was steel cased. The 128mm gun in the Jagdtiger went so far as to use welded steel rather than drawn cartridges. The rebated rim on the case was explained to me as needed for the bolt to extend a touch into the chamber. The gun's action didn't have a locked closed position, the round was fired while the action was still closing, the recoil would blow back the bolt. The extra reach of the bolt into the chamber allowed for more chamber support for the case during its travel.

I never considered that the bolt face could be contoured to acommodate the unusual shape of the rim.

There are any number of rebated rim cartridges, though it was done more usually to accomodate a common bolt face. Most recently, a new cartridge for the AR15 family. A modification of the 308x1.5 wildcat (the 308 case shortened from 2 inch to 1-1/2 for a smaller action/intermediate load) that has the case rim reduced so the case will fit an unmodified AR bolt, so all that would be needed to convert the gun to the round is a new barrel.

Making a lifesize Sidewinder would be pretty groovy. Mount it on a plaque over the fireplace, like the proverbial sailfish. At one time I had a desire to own a 20mm canon round, the sort used by the RAF for Spitfires and Hurricanes. It seems like a rather silly thing, now, especially since I've been trying to cut down on the amount of useless kipple I have around.

However, it would be about 9 feet/3 meters long, so would be a bit awkward, size-wise. If I can get the dimensional data, I'd like to do the 37mm cannon round for the P-39 and maybe some other fat, short autocannon rounds.

Or you could take up making from scratch 1/4 or 1/8 scale WWII aircraft engines. Start with a Pratt & Whitney Wasp, work up to the RR Merlin, add an Allison, then whatever the Japanese installed in the A6 Zero ... the list is endless.

Already doing that with the Allison V-1710 in 1/8. Though, at this point, it is more a matter of adapting a print-on-demand kit into a proper aviation engine. The kit is intended as a super hot rod or hydroplane engine, and isn't a very tight representation, rather a general impression of the engine type. I'll be cleaning up the basic crank case and cylinder blocks and such, and scratch-building a V-1710 F-series final gear nose (the kit has no reduction gear). I'll also be making new cylinder barrels, as the kit parts are uselessly inaccurate, and substaintially redoing the blower end. Eventually, I will do an early C-series engine, with the long gear nose. Only the cylinder banks from the previous work will apply, everything else will have to be scratch-built.
Beyond that, I'm not too keen on such, as it is a LOT of work, and I don't have the data up front to start with. Getting the information is actually more effort and time-consuming than the actual making. Further, even if I were to do such stuff, I'd likely do them as 3-d print files rather than hardware, especially radial engines, as doing the cylinders cooling fins and then reproducing them is just too much of a PitA.
The only other large scale engines I might consider, since I already have the data, would be the WWII German jets, the BMW109-003, Jumo 109-004, and HeS 109-011.

The Allison was extremely poplar with hot-rodders and land-speed-record types for a while. My guess is that not only were they powerful and better suited to automotive use than radial engines, but after they passed out of front-line service there must have been an awful lot of them to end up War Surplus.

The Allison was a pretty good engine all the way around, especially in the later F and G models, and were dirt common after the war. In theory, the big radials had a better power/weight ratio, but would have been impossible to cool.

The fact you made it actually look like it was made of metal is impressive.

The trick is to saturate the wood with CA glue while turning it, effectively making the tool work in plastic, so metallic looking tool marks and finishes can be acheived.

Aha! I was wondering that, myself. Ya lern sommat new every day. :D

I have an actual inert round on my shelf and I am impressed as to how yours came out.

I just sold an inerted warhead for an AIM nine. I still have a rocket motor if you want it. Check my newest Scraps, One of the cooler things I have collected of late is there. cutaway prototype M39 Submunition shell!

Looks Pretty good. I trcvognixe the round. Now with the V-2 out of the way, Has the dam burst for your creativity?

More a matter of having finished the project, now find myself at loose ends, so to speak.

ooh. Comics?

Very nice work on the mockup! Never would have guessed it wasn't real.

I don't know a lot about munitions and such, but that seems like a small-ish powder-to-bullet ratio. I'm sure there's some technical term for that. My brother has a 30mm case from an A-10 round, sans bullet and that case is relatively huge. Totally different purposes, I'm sure.

The Mk108 is a short range, low velocity weapon intended to merely throw a lot of relatively big explosive shells against big but delicate (in a relative sense) bombers. The GAU 8 is a gun intended to penitrate tank armor, so shell velocity, even at extended range, is everything.

Is this one suppose to be a Minengeschoß round?

Exactly that!

Cool!

Also I totally meant to type "supposed". I feel bad!