One tires of building model engines after a bit and I've always wanted to experiment with building model artillery - especially those of the WWI/WWII era. Sadly, plans for such are very difficult to find but, after raising a plea, Jim Hannum was kind enough to send along plans from a war era magazine. Many thanks to Jim for making this project possible.
The gun is a British quick-firing six pounder. Although historical details from the magazine article were sketchy, I would imagine that this is the sort of gun that would have been used on the British Q-ships against submarines or unarmored merchant ships.
The barrel is made from a recycled .22 rifle barrel. A working interrupted screw thread, lever-operated breech action is fitted. This incorporates a removable firing pin (for safety at shows and around inquisitive children), which, when not fitted to the gun, is hidden in the dummy shell shown in the photos.
Elevation and traverse are via worm wheels actuated by the hand wheels. These drive an elevation gear and miter gears hidden in the hollow base. The recoil mechanism is fully operable.
The aimer's (elevation) sight is operable and has a range scale and working adjusting screw. The trainer's (azimuth) sight wasn't specified in the article so I winged it with a design of my own. Both sights incorporate tiny telescopes which have (plastic) objective lenses.
It's chambered for .22LR and has fired a few test rounds successfully.
It was a fun project to build despite, working at typical hobbyist rate interrupted by many honey-dos, taking a whole summer. I hope to be able to get plans for some more artillery - especially a German 88 and maybe some quad mount AA as were used on Navy warships.
