40mm/56 Twin Bofors by oneslim - FINISHED - scratch diorama by Bob W

[oneslim]

Well, after a couple of health problems and a serious modelers block, I have finished Mount #9 40mm/56 Twin Bofors in 1/32 scale. This diorama will be donated to the Millville Army Air Field Museum in the name of Owen Garrison. He was an original Plank Owner aboard CVL-26 USS MONTEREY. At the age of 93 He serves as a Docent, and along with His wife, opens the museum every Saturday to welcome visitors.

The ship structure is scratch built. The gun mount is a SRS resin kit with 20 parts and many items added. The jeep/mule, is a reworked Tamiya kit. The 40mm rounds, with clips, and spent brass, are from Orange Hobby. The figures are a combination of Italeri PT sailors, and Warrior PT crew. With the case the size is:
18 1/2" wide
16 1/2" deep
14 " high

Any And All Questions are Welcome

Bob W

The first four are general shots, second four are macro shots.

[mtaylor]

Beautiful work, Bob.  And welcome back to MSW.

Edited May 30, 2018 by mtaylor

[jud]

Good looking Bofors and crew. I will include some photos of one in action in RVN, you can then see how the loaders held the 4 round clips as they loaded them. We re-barrelled this gun without unloading as the photo shows. This gun sure looks a lot like your model, but we had more ammo. Just noticed, the large helmets were to fit over the sound powered phones, the Pointer and Trainer in the seats wore them, if the mount Captain was not pointing, he would have been wearing one also.

 

 

Edited December 20, 2019 by jud

[Tigerdvr]

Really great work, just got to love the 40mm Bofors .

[mtaylor]

1 hour ago, tigerdvr said:

Really great work, just got to love the 40mm Bofors .

Unless you're on the receiving end...  

[oneslim]

Thanks for the comments Guys.  And Jud many thanks for those photos of in action.  The figures are 1/35 scale, so they came out a little short.  That's why the clip is at an angle.  I guess I should have elevated the guns more.  BTW,  where did the empty clips wind up?  I placed them on the loaders deck of the mount.

 

Thanks

 

Bob W

[jud]

There was a slot, as the 4 round clip was fed into the loader, the clip dropped out of the loader ending up on the deck where the first loader was standing, just as you thought. In the second photo above and just left of the First Loader with his back to you, you can see the slot where the clips dropped clear, looks like one is just clearing the loader in the photo.  Here is a photo your friend might enjoy, could put a lot of rounds through those twin Bofors and we did. 

 

 

.

Edited December 20, 2019 by jud

[Canute]

The older versions of the AC-130 gunship in Viet Nam carried a 40mm. The new up-engined model has a 30 mm and a 105mm as armament. Think the 30mm is belt fed, like the 30mm in the A-10 Wart hogs.

[oneslim]

Thanks Jud.  What is the RVN?  Did the brass get saved,  I think it was given the 'Deep Six' by the USN.

 

Bob W

[jud]

Republic of Vietnam. We started to save it, but we went through so much it was crowding us off the ship because we couldn't get it picked up and we never left the river to dispose of it. It went overboard, sometimes the popular forces would get some cans to fill with mud and build forts along the river bank, most of them went over the side, we shot holes in every one so they would sink. Second photo, Bob had just thrown an empty 40 MM can overboard, it was a 20' throw from there, but on the 01 level so the rail was cleared

 

Edited June 1, 2018 by jud

[oneslim]

Once again thanks JUD.  Great photos.

 

Bob W

[Roger Pellett]

Some of them were made into ash trays.  My father-in-law brought this one back from Florida Island in the South Pacific at the end of WW II.

[jud]

Some of the brass ones were made into ashtrays, but very few in relation to what went over the side. I have an ash tray that I made in RVN from a brass case. We were receiving a lot of steel cases, the brass was also a mixed lot, newer had less copper than the the older WW2 stuff that seemed to be softer and a different color, if you look at my above photo of spent ammo, the steel cases can be picked out from the brass and the two different colors of brass is also detectable. Your ash tray is clearly of the WW2 vintage, we had two of that vintage split the case when fired, one of them the projectial just cleared the muzzle and exploded, pattern in the water was a half circle, almost a perfect straight line on the gun side perpendicular to the line of sight. That ammo was part of a deck load that had been hit with recoilless rifle fire and set on fire and the fire put out, we sorted it out, but we were happy to see the last of it fired. Navy 40 MM ammo because of the volume fired over the fleet, used a self destruction feature as part of the tracer that exploded the round after about 4000 yards, out of thousands, only experienced the one that was that early. Delivery day, everything we consumed was delivered by these small ships, they were often fired at, slowed that down after putting 81 MM-50 Cal combo Mortars on them, they could return the fire much better. Reminds you of Mr. Roberts.

 

Edited June 1, 2018 by jud

[Roger Pellett]

Yes, mine is stamped 1942 on the bottom.

[oneslim]

Here are a few shots of Owen Garrison and His wife Florence Saturday when I presented the model to the Millville Army Air Field Museum in His honor. Owen was very pleased, and somewhat emotional. It brought back many memories of his time aboard USS Monterey. He plans to use it as a teaching aid when he gives tours at the museum.

Bob W

[jud]

Happy seeing just what happened with your fine work. Excellent job.

 

An old Gunner, jud       First loaders

[dvm27]

Great looking diorama, Bob!

[Canute]

Well done, Bob. It's great that we can do things like this for our remaining WW II vets.

[oneslim]

Thanks Guys for the comments and likes.   

 

Jud which first loader are You?  Fingers or Clip.

 

Here is the link to the build log, if anyone is interested.  Hope its OK to list here:

 

http://www.shipmodels.info/mws_forum/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=76455

 

Bob W

[jud]

The first photo, ( Wed 1638 ), shows me at the pointers position, we fired using  local control and our sights, so as Gun Captain, it was common practice to take that position, could use the sights and when satisfied, it was me that pressed the firing pedal. Our gun crews almost lived on the guns and did not need close observation, all were cross trained, I could call a second loader up and put him in the pointers seat and go repair a gun if needed. Replaced the extractors in the right gun of a twin while the left was firing one nite, hadn't noticed until then, with my feet and legs in the pit above the ejection shoot, that the gas in the empty cases glowed as they went by and the opined breach also emitted a glow. Forces ashore needed support and it was this gun providing it, no others were maned so needed those extractors changed..

 

 

Edited December 20, 2019 by jud

[Torbogdan]

Very interesting thread to follow. Did the guns have some kind of cooling system for the barrels? 

[oneslim]

Torbogdan, 

Yes,  a small tank mounted on the rear of the loaders deck with a pump below.  Each barrel was capable of 160 rounds/minute.  In fact the 40mm/56 mounts,  twin and quad,  where credited with downing more Japanese planes than both the 5"/38 mounts and the 20mm Oerlikon.

 

Bob W   

[jud]

We kept a fire hose to run into the cooling tank, if you weren't careful The water would turn to steam and pressurize the tank and a hot flow would come out the breather filler cap, bounce off the tank and scald us all, Quick fix throw a flack jacket over it and keep on shooting, second loaders would start to cool the tank with the fire hose. Here is a cooling tank getting replacement water it had boiled out. Each gun had it's own tank, looks like one tank but is two separate tanks and cooling pumps. Yes, that is a helmet, fine pouring spout on the front of them.

Edited December 20, 2019 by jud

[jud]

We didn't unload the loader to drop the Breech to remove a barrel. Cleaning this one, the water jacket is clearly seen, a close look will reveal the hose connections on the right gun, that fitting recoiled with the barrel through the slot clearly seen on the top of the left guns housing. This gun was manned 24/7 and did most of the shooting, we seldom went to GQ to provide fire support or transit the river, to much to do and not enough men so this gun took up the slack, we re gunned this one because of barrel wear, quick change, half hour per barrrel would do it.

 

Edited December 20, 2019 by jud

[jrsiii50]

Hello,

 

I'm interested in putting together a Bofors quad mount diorama in 1/32.  I realize yours is scratch built.  I'm thinking about getting 3D printed models from Shapeways.com in the right scale and populating with figures from the same site.  I'd like to include the quad mount in a tub, a single 20mm Oerlikon and a Mk51 fire director.  These were arrayed in a relative compact area port and starboard on the main deck just forward of the number 3 turret on BB-55.  I presume I would need some photo etched parts as well (gun sights, shell casings, shells and clips, etc. for both 40mm and 20 mm).  Any comment, advice or guidance from you would be most welcome. 

[oneslim]

Hi jrsiii50,

 

I have a complete build log Here:

 

http://www.shipmodels.info/mws_forum/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=76455&hilit=40mm%2F56+Twin+Bofors

 

Everything that I used is in the build log.  Best of luck with Your build.  I will follow along if You post a blog of the build.

 

You may have to 'Cut and Paste' the link above.

 

The Best

 

Bob W