XM-14 Gun Pod, Scratch Built Conversion

1
February 6, 2023
Zuni body and end caps
2
February 6, 2023
Measuring 8 mm out of the Zuni body, please note that the suspension lugs on the gun pod are more centered than the Zuni pod so I cut the body to center the lugs
3
February 6, 2023
The Zuni body with the plug sawed off using a razor saw and micro miter jig
4
February 6, 2023
Using a 1/72 Dragon M2 Heavy machine gun for guidance on the scale of the barrel. I could have used the M2 barrel but I did not want to ruin the M2 which I might use on another project.
5
February 6, 2023
On another 1/72 Dragon Sherman sprue I found a tool that had approximately diameter as the M2 Barrel. It is the center of the frame looks like an offset wrench. I was OK with sacraficing this, but you could also us plastic rod or strecthed sprue
6
February 6, 2023
I used a pin drill to open the end up for the gun barrel. The opening is larger than the barrel.
7
February 6, 2023
Since the opening is larger than the barrel, I packed the cap with blue tac so I could insert the barrel centered in the opening. Again you could do something more exotic but this seemed to work well.
8
February 6, 2023
Painted pod with Vallejo Air olive drab, I could have sanded down the collars to match the body but after painting they were less pronounced and I am satisfied with the overall look of the pod.

Comments

1 6 February 2023, 17:58

Album info

I just purchased the Clearprop OV-1 kit and I wanted to add an XM-14 50 cal gun pod to its weapons load out. I searched for a resin or 3D printed version but could not find one. I decided to try to scratch build one using the following reference forum.warthunder.com..suu-12-gunpod-specs/ Using the 16 in (406 mm) diamenter and the 118 in (2997 mm) dimensions I converted these to 1/72 scale of 5.6mm and 41.6 mm. I

Looking in my stash found that the zuni rocket in the Hasagawa Aircraft weapons:1 matched the diameter at 5.5 mm, which is close enough for me at this scale. Although the body is longer then 41 mm including the end caps I simply took out an 8 mm plug out of the body. I drilled a hole in one of the end caps and inserted a scale size plastic rod into blue tac packed in the body of the cap. It looks the part the zuni caps have a slight collar which could be sanded smooth to the body diameter but I thought it looked the part as it was. The final step was a quick coat of Vallejo Air Olive drab. I might try to scratch build and XM-13 40 mm grenade launcher but I am having less luck finding dimensional data on that pod.

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