Gun Emplacement Mk. II - 2

As the models for the Defensive Walls were finished mid week my attention turned to the gun emplacement.

The main thing was to update the models in light of the mock up I did just after Christmas. The only change to the walls was to add 2mm to the height, the real work was to the base pieces.

The internal diameter of the base wedge (on the left) changed, this meant I had to rework the treadplate, rim and rivets. I decided to increase the size of the rim slightly (1mm to 1.5mm) and then deleting the rivets and doing new ones 0.75mm in diameter. To finish off the wedge I added the lip on the inside face which the gun plate will sit on.

The step (on the right) didn't change dimensionally, but as I had redone the rim and rivets sizes on the base wedge I had to redo the step as well.

The assembled pieces with the revised base wedge and step in place.

I then started looking at the gun plate itself. The plan is to either mount an Earthshaker on there (see the mock up pictures previously shown) or a FW Manticore or Hydra turret. In the centre of the plate is the locating hole for the FW turret locating peg.

The rim and rivets match the base wedge & step. The overall diameter is 77mm. At the moment the model is more of a concept, I do not know if I will have it printed or scratchbuild it. The benefit of printing will be accuracy while the negative will be the price as it is quite large. I may do it in two parts with the bottom 'disc' which will nto be detailed being scratchbuilt. I may look at doing the top plate in two halves as well to reduce printing costs.

 

As you can see the plate is pretty plain. I will be adding more detail on the top surface to make it look more interesting.

However you will not see much of the plate due to the size of the Earthshaker or FW turret which will be sitting on it.

The layout above shows the gun plate - the 77mm overall diameter with the inner line showing the rim (1.5mm offset from the outside edge). The dashed line - of diameter 67 - is the hole which the gun plate drops into (i.e. the hole shown in the first assembly picture in this post). The inner circle of 51mm diam is the FW turret. The other shape on there you have probably already worked out is the Earthshaker base. As you can see there really isn't much room to add any detail. My original idea was to have a hatch each side, but with only 8mm each side between the FW turret and the hole the plate drops into it is unlikely a hatch will work. However I will look at it, as well as other gubbins such as a system the crew would use to turn the platform. This would be swappably with something else if the gun plate was build for a FW turret.

So overall the gun emplacement has moved forward, though there is still some way to go. However...Thursday I ordered the prints for the final pieces for the Defensive Walls and at the same time I also ordered the walls for the emplacement...so in one form or another the gun emplacement will be happening...