Another Beta Build of Wayne McCullough's 155 mm French WW1 Heavy Artillery Field Gun

[ashevilleangler]

I have finally started this build. I found some 1/8 inch dowels at my local hobby store that turned out to be 4 mm in diameter instead of the 3 mm they were supposed to be. This was not really close enough so I did some sanding on one of them to get it close to 3 mm dia.

It only took three attempts to get an acceptable result. On my first attempt everything came out way too large in diameter, so I unwrapped cut off some of the width of each part and re-wrapped it. The first three pics show that second result. It looked pretty good until I started the build of part 7 which is the breech block, I think. In the third pic you can see that the gun barrel is still too fat. It needs to be 9 mm or slightly less to match up properly with part 7. This was probably due the the extra thickness of the brochure paper that I used instead of thinner copier paper.

You can also see in the second pic some damage to the open end of the gun barrel. It takes a lot of handling and manipulation to roll all of the gun barrel parts around the 3 mm mandrel. I managed to put a kink in the thinnest part of the barrel where the mandrel ends. So before rewrapping the barrel a third time, I cut another short length of wood dowel to extend the mandrel and inserted it into the gun barrel end. That extension makes the unsupported open end of the gun barrel much shorter. I think that extending the overall length of the mandrel so that only about 3 to 4 mm of the open end remains unsupported would be a good modification for this kit.

The fourth pic shows the gun barrel unwrapped to a point where it can be re-wrapped. I reprinted the parts on copier paper this time and carefully re-wrapped the barrel to get a much thinner profile.

Finally, the fifth pic shows the final, acceptable part temporarily attached to the breech block. This time I'm pretty sure that it's going to work.

The lessons learned from all this is to put in a little more study of the instructions before starting a model. Waynes instructions for this model are comprehensive and detailed with loads of diagrams, photos and build tips. I think I just got a little overwhelmed with all of this information, so I just kind of jumped in and started building. None of my difficulties so far have anything to do with the design of this model, with the possible exception of the kink in the open end of the gun barrel. I think that can be corrected by simply extending the length of the mandrel as I described previously.

Curt

[CharlieC]

Good start - I think I learn much more from "this is where I went wrong" reports than "everything went together perfectly". I agree the barrel on the GPF model is tricky to get right. In part, this is because the barrel itself was quite complex in its construction. Most barrels of the period might have 3 tubes shrunk on to one another - the Filloux design had 5.

Are you planning ahead to build a Schneider CD tractor to tow the GPF model?

Regards,

Charlie

[ashevilleangler]

Thanks for the feedback Charlie. I don't know if I will do the Schneider tractor at this point. Right now, I'm just hoping to actually finish this model. Next I will be adding details to the breech block in anticipation of completing the gun barrel portion of this model. Hopefully, I can get that done over the weekend.

Curt

[douglasmarrel]

Do you think tjis will be released soon? Love me some WWI arty

[CharlieC]

Originally Posted by douglasmarrel

Do you think tjis will be released soon? Love me some WWI arty

Could always warm up with Wayne's 4.5inch or 6inch howitzer while you wait.

I'd expect the GPF to be released once the beta builds are finished and any required changes incorporated into the build.

Timescale - weeks probably

Regards,

Charlie

[THE DC]

Looking forward to seeing this build!

[MonsieurE]

Hello, nice start , it seems to be he GPF 155mm that you are buiding am i right?

[ashevilleangler]

It seems to be he GPF 155mm that you are building am I right?

Yes it is the that one. I have made a little progress with the details on the gun breech. Lots of work but the result will be worth it in the end, I hope.

My test build is nowhere as clean as Wayne's instruction build, but I wanted to point out the need for edge coloring on parts 7c and 7i. The first photo is my build and the second photo with the part numbers comes from the instructions For 7c, I used an extra strip of paper that I had printed on thin copier paper. For 7i, I used a colored pencil.

The last image is a copy of the name block from the model instructions.

It supposed to rain again tomorrow, so a good chance to make progress.

Curt

[CharlieC]

Originally Posted by MonsieurE

Hello, nice start , it seems to be he GPF 155mm that you are buiding am i right?

If you wanted to be picky it's the "Canon de 155 L Mle 1917 GPF (Grande Puissance Filloux)"

The model could also be the "155mm M1918 Gun" so long as you recoloured it Olive Drab. The gun was the standard heavy field artillery piece in the US Army until the 155mm M1 Long Tom was introduced early in WW2. The Long Tom gun was a GPF gun with an extended barrel in a new wheeled carriage.

Charlie

[MonsieurE]

great that means this canon could be declined in numerous other type and different carriage