M40A1 106mm (update 27/05/07 mule added)

Spudkopf · Post by **Spudkopf** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 4:08 am

G'day All

Being on a Vietnam kick at the moment I could not help but to be inspired by Gunner's M40A1 armed M-274, so I decided to do one these for myself as my next project.

To start the project off I decided to hollow out the barrel tube of the 106mm, only to make a total dogs breakfast of it, as it turns out that the drill speed was a little to fast and when I was almost finished the plastic deformed due to the heat build up a twisted beyond repair. Needless to say a couple of choice words spilled at this point.

Deciding not to let this set back get the better of me, I then proceeded to chop off the entire barrel forward of the front ring clamp and glued on a new aluminium tube in it's place.

The thinness of the tube and the uniform hole to me makes the whole thing look all that more realistic. To finish off the job I will have to add the little stepped lip on the end of the tube, once this is done I will proceed to re-paint the entire weapon OD green.

I will post some more progress pictures soon.

Spudkopf · Post by **Spudkopf** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 4:16 pm

G'day All

Well morning has arrived and the smell of fresh paint beckoned me out of bed.

After a quick re-assembly here are a couple of images of the re-barrelled and re-painted recoilless.

One of the side benefits from re-painting the recoilless is that the paint also stiffened up all the pivot points so I now no longer suffer barrel droop.

Now I all I have to do is hope that I can win the eBay auction for one of the Glencoe's that I’m bidding on.

MIGMADMAVIS · Post by **MIGMADMAVIS** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 4:22 pm

WOW!!! That is Awesome!!!!! Great Job I love your customs, and by the way hows the BF-110 coming??? Once again I love it!!!!

-Tobin

Spudkopf · Post by **Spudkopf** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 4:28 pm

MIGMADMAVIS wrote:WOW!!! That is Awesome!!!!! Great Job I love your customs, and by the way hows the BF-110 coming??? Once again I love it!!!!

-Tobin

G'day MMM

Thanks for the comments MMM, but as to the 110 well your off by about the 2614 km (1624 miles) give or take as the 110 belongs to Jay in NZ, but a least he's still a fellow ANZAC.

MIGMADMAVIS · Post by **MIGMADMAVIS** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 4:38 pm

oh, im sorry I thought it was yours, my bad

-Tobin

kevrut · Post by **kevrut** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 6:09 pm

Looks real good.

Kevin.

immeww2 · Post by **immeww2** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 7:05 pm

VMF115 · Post by **VMF115** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 10:02 pm

sweet

HardenSteel · Post by **HardenSteel** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 11:34 pm

Really nice custom work. Nothing like real metal to set things right.

Those things pack quite a punch, too!

hd

Spudkopf · Post by **Spudkopf** » Sat Apr 14, 2007 5:26 pm

G'day All

Thanks for all the kind comments.

The good news is I did win a Glencoe M-274 on eBay at 05:00 this morning, so hopefully I'll be receiving it sometime within the next 10 days so I can really get started with this project.

While I am waiting I'm thinking of adding the wheel barrow style wheel to the tripod like the following:

Spudkopf · Post by **Spudkopf** » Sun Apr 15, 2007 4:24 am

G'day All

I spent about three or so hours this afternoon (about 2 of those making the bloody wheel) fabricating the dolly wheel for my recoilless tripod and here are the results.

As you can see I decided to cheat a little and use the notches provided by BBI to locate the new wheel and frame assembly so it is not exactly the same as those pictured in the post above but it sort off works for me that is until the inaccuracy gets the better of me that is.

Also just as an FYI I've used Gunze Spray No. 38 (OD Green) if anybody was wondering.

Threetoughtrucks · Post by **Threetoughtrucks** » Sun Apr 15, 2007 7:49 pm

Very nice work.

I've never seen the 106 tripod without the front wheel. I was trained on the 106 and we had them nounted on M38A1 and M151 Jeeps. The wheel went between the two front seats and for an ambush or fortification emplacement, we just rolled the gun off the back of the Jeep and wheeled it in position. I had the most fun with the gun mounted on a Jeep and tearing around the neighborhood in exercises....

Here is my 1/6 Andrews 106mm mounted on a 21C Mutt:

TTT

Spudkopf · Post by **Spudkopf** » Sun Apr 15, 2007 9:39 pm

G'day T³

I have the original version of the 1/6th 21stCT Mutt which is painted Green with the pintle mounted m60 and also comes with a trailer, this is still one of my favourite vehicles.

What you have done with your 1/6th Mutt is exactly what I intend to do with my second BBI M40, which I hope to mount onto one of the 21stCT TOW Mutts (M825 ) when and if I get one, which I will also re-paint overall OD Green to try and represent a VN version.

Thank you for the little insight into M40 operational use, the Australian Army used the same mounting method on their Land Rover only difference these had a split windshield like on the M38 Jeeps did, below are some shots that I took over Easter of an Aussie RR Land rover, this example has been re-painted in the current 3 colour ADF camouflage as it was still on the books until recently.

pickelhaube · Post by **pickelhaube** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 4:43 am

Spudkopf,
You nailed it, the rifle looks great.

Thanks for the tip on the paint.

Spudkopf · Post by **Spudkopf** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 5:50 am

G'day Spike ( pickelhaube is just so long

) thanks for the comment, but nailed it, well then again maybe not.............

As I hinted above the front tripod leg over hang was a little to long and after a short 24 hours of self criticism I decided that I simply could not live with such a glaring error and would have to rectify the situation ASAP. I soon came to a simular conclusion with the acuuracy of the dolly wheel that I so painstakingly fabricated yesterday, deciding now that the shape was simply just far to flat and looked plain wrong, so it was back to the drawing board for this item also.

Here are my further attempts to nail it:

Next up I am thinking of adding the two firing cables and also adding a hollow barrel end for the 50 cal spotting riffle which also needs to have at the very least, the magazine painted in a gunmetal or black, for this I may try out those new Tamiya weathering pastels, but this may have to wait until the weekend as I will not be near a hobby shop before then, so the OD base colour will just have to suffice until then.

Threetoughtrucks · Post by **Threetoughtrucks** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 10:21 am

The split windshield didn't carry forward from the M38A1 to the Mutt. There were a few Mutts with a split windshield but most used the solid windshield and held the gun in place with an upright mount with a barrel travel locking braket which held the barrel in a forward travel position over the windshield.

All the 21C Mutt needed is to have the spare tire relocated. The radio shouldn't be on the rear fender but I like it there and after all, it is my army.

BTW, the .50 spoting rifle should be all black, and as I remember, the traverse and elevation wheels were also black and the firing knob was another color, red I remember but I could easily be wrong on that color.]

The firing knob on the traverse wheel was pulled up to fire the spoting rifle and when you walked your .50cal rounds to your target, you simply pushed down on that knob and it fired the main weapon. Whatever the spoting rifle hit, you hit that with the 106mm. .50cal rounds were tracer and white phoropsus (spelling?) and easily to see. Spoting rifle had 10 round clips. BTW, it was figured, in the heat of battle, nobody would notice the .50cal rounds leaving a tracer trail straight to the 106mm. Being mounted on the Mutt allowed us to IMMEDIATELY leave the area. The blackblast was horrendous. The loader stood next to the gun looking to the rear to make sure no "friendlies" got in the kill zone of the blackblast, which I believe was a 150' triangle.

The weapon was the first of the "shoot and scoot" class of weapons.

I loved it until my last day of Advanced Infantry training when we received a lecture on Ruskie armor. At the end the lecturer says.."A good 106mm rifle crew on a Jeep, riding down a road and seeing a T-54 or god forbid a T-72, the 106 crew will take 50-60 seconds to unlimber the gun, load, fire the spoting rifle to trarget and fire the main weapon. The Ruskie, seeing us at the same time, with electronic range finding would take 30-40 seconds to load and fire their weapon at us." Figuring even a near miss would take us out seeing as how the only armor we had was our GI shirts.

I didn't like those numbers at all and even when I fired "Expert" with the 106mm, I transferred to mortars (81mm and 4.2"). I figured my life expectancy would be higher, even playing with the nitro wafers we used to set range on the mortars.

TTT

Spudkopf · Post by **Spudkopf** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 3:35 pm

G’day T³ this is something like what I plan to do:

In the above photo it would appear the barrel brace is located in the middle of the passenger foot well and it also looks like the brace is telescopic so it can be stowed in both the above windshield position and as shown above in the low stow position is my assumption correct?

Again thanks for the operation information in regards to the M40, as far as recoilless weapons go during my reservists days the only such weapon my unit had access to was the Carl Gustav (more a bazooka really) of which I only ever got to fire two live rounds and one of these was as the loader. The BDA on this weapon was a killer also, the strangest thing is as the gunner you felt very little effect from the firing of the weapon, but it was a extremely different experience for the loader as you received both the shock wave and heat blast from the projectile as it was launched while you where busy bracing the gunner. The only other anti-tank weapon I ever got to shoot was a sub-calibre version of a SRAW which was the post VN version of the LAW.

With the M40 it surprises me that they chose to use a spotting riffle for aiming, the Gustav used a very accurate optical sight and even a Chinese version RPG7 that I once held had a decent optical sight, I suspect the main reason for the using the spotting rifle is due to the ranges that are involved, for short range engagements say 500 metres or so could the m40 rely purely on optical sighting?

In regards to painting the entire 50 cal black, this is something I’m considering, but during my Googling I have noticed several M40s that have had this item also painted the same colour as the tube, however a far more concerning trend that I have noticed is the vast majority of images of this weapon (and on the only physical example that I have seen) the tube appears to be actually raw gunmetal, but in the end as you said above, it’s my army and only I have to live with it .

Threetoughtrucks · Post by **Threetoughtrucks** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 9:25 pm

Looking at your pic, it appears the windshield has been removed, that's the reason why the tube is in the lower position. It would depend on the unit and climate whether the windshied was on the Mutt or not.

While the 106 has a telescopic sight the gunner is looking through while firing the spoting rifle, the tracer, exploding .50cal bullts had exactly the same trajectory as the 106mm shell.

A hit with the .50cal bullet guaranteed a hit in the same spot with the 106mm shell.

For training we fired the 75mm Recoiless Rifle from a ground tripod (30cal MG tripod) with the gunner on his knees next to the gun, when you fired the gun it didn't move but I was lifted straight up about 5 inches in a cloud of dirt and dust. The loader was in a worse position. Firing the 106 from a Jeep mount, we only dealt with noise.

TTT

Spudkopf · Post by **Spudkopf** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 5:42 am

Ok I officially just can’t stop, I'm now a recoilless addict.............

I went ahead and added the two firing cables by using some black PVC sheathed telephone cable.

I’ve learnt a lot from my mistakes doing this weapon, chiefly among these is that on the next one I’ll know to make all these modifications before I paint it, but to be fair I really did not intend to take it this far, as my original objective was only to drill out barrel, but the old custom bug got the better of me again.

It’s all good practice for when the Mule arrives.

Threetoughtrucks · Post by **Threetoughtrucks** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 6:07 am

Great work Spud:

I have beenm a Recoilless Riofle adict for a long time and I see no ill effects, outside a little drooling when I see one, no matter what scale.

I have all the 1/6 RRs that are made by Hasbro and the prize, my resin Andrews 106.

Hasbro 106, 75 and 57, of course, are overscale but the new DML 75mm and the Andrews 106 are things of beauty. I have the Hasbro 106 hidden away somewhere, it's just too toylike to be displayed with MY "toys". Pictured is the Andrews 106, DML 75 and the Hasbro 57.

Make believe you don't see the Andrews barrel droop, I should have fixed that before I took the pic but that RR adiction overcame me when I unpacked the 106 and was in a hurry to take the pic.

TTT

Spudkopf · Post by **Spudkopf** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 6:25 am

T³

That is sure a nice collection you've got there.

I was recently in a Japanese Vidoe / collectors store and they had these Dragon quality RPG, Dragon and SRAW type weapon sets, I asked the shop keaper what the deal was, and it turns out that its a luky dip style thing in that you do not know which weapon you will get until you open the packet.

Here's one on eBay:

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/1-6-GUN-COLLECTI ... dZViewItem

and another or two:

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Bazooka-4B-1-6-M ... dZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Bazooka-3A-1-6-M ... dZViewItem

And here's another M40 to add to your collection, or maybe not

:
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/RAMBO-106mm-Reco ... dZViewItem

Spudkopf · Post by **Spudkopf** » Sun May 27, 2007 12:00 am

G’day All

I thought some progress shots are well overdue.....

So here is how the Mule/Recoilless project is shaping up, the thing that has delayed me the most is the fact that all my local hobby shops (all of them) have run out of the paint colour I was using, so I have had to switch to a USAF version of the same colour which is similar but has a semi-gloss sheen to it. I will probably have do some touch ups once I can get hold of the original colour.

As you can see I have added a shell cradle to the rear of the tray deck to carry the rounds and have also added a little more detail to the foot basket at the front. Due to the sloppyness of the workable four wheel steering I have had to eventually glue this fixed, I have also added a battery box to the right hand side of the mule.

What’s next, well I still need to add a barrel stowage brace collar to the rear of the vehicle (if any body has a surplus one from any tank please let me know) and I also need to add some data plates, then it will be time to weather, however I intend this to only be very light.

echoes · Post by **echoes** » Sun May 27, 2007 5:43 am

pickelhaube · Post by **pickelhaube** » Sun May 27, 2007 7:46 am

Hey Spud,
When are you going to start selling them?

blaster_e11 · Post by **blaster_e11** » Mon May 28, 2007 7:24 am

ouch that's what i call customizing

Small Scale Military Headquarters

M40A1 106mm (update 27/05/07 mule added)

M40A1 106mm (update 27/05/07 mule added)

xd