An American in Japan

[abufletcher]

I'm not a ship modeler so I don't know if this is the right forum for me.  But here goes...and bear with me.  I'm an experienced builder of scale WWI RC airplanes (see second photo below).  So here's the connection.  A friend asked me to scratch-build a 1/3.3 scale Russian ShKas light machine gun for a Polikarpov Po2 biplane model he is building.  He was so pleased with the result that he has now asked if I'd be willing to build the 37mm flak cannon and M42 mount for a huge 1/5 scale DKM Schnellboot S200.  At 1/5 scale the model will be some 22 feet long!  The deck cannon will also be huge.  The first photo below shows the (yet unpainted) Shkas gun relative to the size of the new project.  This will be a large undertaking in several senses of the word "large" though, in principle, not much different from the other scratch-building I have done. 

 

So I'm not sure if a build documenting JUST the flak cannon for the S200 would be welcome here.  I'm sure someone here has built an S200 and may have knowledge and advice on on how to do the cannon.

 

 

Edited November 14 by abufletcher

[ccoyle]

Welcome! I have built the Po-2 in 1/33 in card, along with its gun (what a chore that was!). Yours looks excellent. We have a section here for uncategorized non-ship builds, and I'm sure our members would enjoy watching your progress.

 

Cheers!

[mtaylor]

Welcome to MSW.  What Chris said will work.  If your friend is up to it, have him post a log of the Schnellboot.

[Jim Lad]

Hello, and welcome to MSW.

 

John

[Backer]

Great models

[abufletcher]

Thanks for the warm welcome.  I've scratch-built a couple of other guns in the past for my WWI models, such as a Danish Madsen to go onto a 1/6 scale Albatros CI (almost finished after 7 years), but nothing even vaguely this big.  (Though the scratch-built Benz BzIII dummy engine did have over 300 hand-made parts.)  Anyway, doing the 37mm flak cannon will be a wonderful challenge...which is what scale modeling is all about.

 

Where should I post the build?  I saw a section on "discussing deck furniture, etc." but I looked there and it didn't seem quite right.  As for my friend, he's not a forum kind of guy. 

 

**BTW, congratulations on getting the site up and running so quickly again.

 

 

[ccoyle]

Post your build here. I look forward to seeing it.

[JToma]

Welcome to MSW 

[Old Collingwood]

Welcome aboard  - deffo space for you and your work in here   - looking forward to seeing more.

 

OC.

[abufletcher]

This new "smaller" project suits me at the moment since the university that I work for is moving all the on-campus professors off-campus.  This means that my workshop area will be significantly reduced.  I'll still have a space about 5.5m x 3m to build in (and keep all my building supplies and power tools in) but the rest of the house is a traditional Japanese house with tatami floors so no building inside (unlike my current "house" which is really more like a factory).  So even though this will be a large object, it's nothing like a 3 meter wingspan RC model.