WHO MAKES THE BEST AFTERMARKET FULL 50, RECIEVER AND ALL IN 1/35TH?
In Injection Molded plastic, Academy makes a real good set. Options of barrels w or w/o flash hider. Open or closed feed tray cover, seperate sight and charging handle, choices of ammo can types and some very nice tripods too.
tasca is much more refined than Academy IMHO. Have a look:
http://www.perthmilitarymodelling.com/reviews/vehicles/tasca/tasca35-l8.htm
http://www.perthmilitarymodelling.com/reviews/vehicles/tasca/tasca35-l9.htm
If you want a full examination of .50 cal stuff, look here (this omits the Tasca stuff which is fairly new):
http://www.perthmilitarymodelling.com/reviews/vehicles/50cal/50cal.html
Oh man…That’s just lovely![bow]
Yet another beautiful rendition of Ol’ Ma Deuce.The one girl you don’t want to get a kiss from.
It’s a beautiful weapon. I read that Germans were terrified of them. Their equivalent was the 20mm cannon. The Yanks had .50s on near everything! Whenever they were hit by a round, it’d either tear off the extremity/head or if it was a body shot, the internal concussion would be fatal. I can’t even IMAGINE being hosed down by one of these. I couldn’t dig into the dirt fast enough!
I have spent many a day behind the spades of good old mother deuce. Quite comforting to see those orange basketball size tracers heading down range. Glad I was the gunner and not the target.
Thanks stickpusher and Roy, That’s just what I needed.[tup]
I sank many floating garbage bags with the Ma-Deuce that we had mounted on the bridge wing of the DD I was assigned to. What a blast!
Hi all, may have some bad news here concerning Ma Deuce. About 2 or 3 weeks ago I think I saw something at military.com about the Army looking for a replacement for the “Deuce”. The replacement will still be .50 cal but apparently nearly 100 years of fantastic reliability and hitting power aren’t enough. If a new weapon is designed and selected it will probably end up looking like a camel (you know a camel is simply a horse designed by a govt. committee). Has anyone else heard about this replacement? Rick Martin
I have the Dragon Modern Weapons set as well as an Academy weapons set that is pretty much nothing but beltfed weapons. Both are very well detailed. The DML is just a bit moreso though I think. I might be able to be talked out of one of the Academy M2’s, as I really just bought the set for the M1919 to replace the M60 on my IDF TOW Mutt that I’m converting from the American version. Tamiya’s M60 in this kit was very horrid looking and inaccurate, even if it had some nice engraving. Plus since I shoot a 1919 on a regular basis(it belongs to a friend) it figured a good choice.
As for the M2 being replaces, I highly doubt it. Our military commitee’s aren’t terribly concerned with the equipment of the soldier as their are our mobile weapons system such as the Stryker, etc. Which is why the HK XM8 replacement for the M16 family of firearms was axed. For those who don’t know the XM8 was born of the OICW, and was the kinetic energy part of the weapon. The XM8 was lighter, more reliable, more configurable, easier to maintain and cheaper then the M16 family of weapons, it was also smaller. It was slated to begin replacing our current weapons this year, but instead the project was axed, for more important needs. This is the same commitee that decided to axe the funds for the body armor for our troops as well, that putting the money into mobile weapons systems was more important. Too bad that without living soldiers all that multi million dollar equipment is pretty much 100% useless. Although it does work really good to keep small patches of sand from flying about in the wind.
1st let me apologize for the typos, as I am short on time and coffee
Actually, the items that you stated are the very reasons that the M2 has lasted as long as it has. however, Ma Duece has a major design flaw. Noted firearms designer John Browning, upon developing the fantastic design, scaled up the 30-06 cartridge to a size that would allow belt-fed weapons to be used as antiitank guns back in the day (remember, at this time, single-shot bolt guns were being designed as anti-tank guns with some semi-autos taken straight from ship and aircraft, like the Solothurn and Lahti), with a possible secondary use on aircraft. It is now used everywhere. Back at that time, large caliber ammo of the 50 cal type had alot of issues with quality control, and so John thoughtfully addedin adjustable headspace at the point at which the barrel joins the receiver. Entirely needed in it’s day for reliable functioning. However, the need for a seperate set of gauges and the problems associated with changing barrels under stress of fire meant that if the barrel is not correctly mounted and spaced, you have a headspace issue, which means that you have a buildup of pressure in the worng place upon firing. In this case, it is about 60,000psi, and the gun will self-destruct with possible injury to the shooter.
In today’s military climate, there have been major issues getting troops in Iraq to get this, either thru a lack of proper training (most likely) or a lack of understanding that unlike newer machinegun designs, it is not “plug & play”. At one point, I was working as a contractor for Lockheed Martin, and thru the company newsletter we learned that all 50 cals were temporarily withdrawn from service in the Army only, as they were destroying an average of one per day, due directly to incorrect mounting/maintenance of the barrel. This was in 2003-4, and though they were shortly released to service after troops got up to speed in thier proper care, the Army realized that todays troops think more in terms of “plug & play” and so they needed a gun that was capable of same. THIS IS IN NO WAY a detriment of our troops. it is just that a design that is nearing 100years in age was in need of a update, so that is what they are doing. Another aspect of this design is it’s extreme weight, about 120-150 lbs, less ammo (receiver, barrel, Tripod, T&E. I think the barrel alone weighs 35-45lbs). So they are looking at a new deisgin that weighs less, and can better able change barrels, and also have a better method of optical sight mounting too. And look for it to likely come from the fabled company of Fabrique Nationale, or FN, based in Columbia SC (My state - YEAH!).
A good weapon that will remain in use for some time to come, but soon to augmented with a better design.
For iiambrb: HMMM, seems I did forget about the headspace problem. Its been a long while since I’ve had a reason to associate with old Ma Deuce and I did forget about that and the weight. When I was in 'Nam assigned to a Navy PBR base I worked as a Radioman but during alert I was supposed to provide an M60. Lots lighter than a .50cal which we had at a couple of bunkers and also installed on both of the bases LCM’s. We even had two Browning .30 cal. belt-fed with shoulder stocks. I thought they were some local mod. but looked them up and I think they were intended to be lighter and more portable than the aircooled .30. Don’t remember the model number on those. I guess in light of your info, replacing the .50 cal with something more state of the art will be a good thing as long as it doesn’t turn into another “Sgt. York”. LOL. Thanks for the update…Rick Martin
Any good armor crewman has had headspace and timing down to a fine art. You could put any two trained tankers together and tell them to set the headspace and timing on a .50 and one will jump to the back and one will grab the barrel and they will set it like they have been doing it together for years. It is part of TCGST, the closest thing to a religion the Armor community has.
Headspace and timing has become such an issue recently because of the addition of .50 cals to vehicles that normally never carried them. While many tactical trucks 2½ tons and larger often had a .50 cal assigned, they were normally wrapped in tarps or clear trash bags and left in the cargo compartment. With the war in full swing, all vehicles are mounting multiple .50s.
The Sergeant Major of the Army even felt the need to address the issue last month:
http://www.army.mil/-news/2008/09/11/12332-leaders-book-notes---accidents-involving-m2-50-caliber-machine-gun/
Actually, the Browning 30’s were M1919A6. A darn fine weapon, but VERY heavy for the ground punder, and no interchangeable barrel meant that you had to be careful about hooting the one that was one htere. A darn-fine gun though, in that the South Africans took the deesign and slightly modified it, then sol that mod thehnology to the Israelis, and both are still using the gun as such, outlasting the M60 which was deligned to replace the M1919.
For reference, it wne in this rough order:
M1917 - watercooled
M1919 - Aircooled
M1919A6 - aircooled, with shoulder stock and bipod
A Marine Gunner, who I think was Mr. Browning’s assistant back in the day, demonstrated his way of setting the headspace. Screw that barrel in, back it off 1/4 turn, fire. He could set the headspace by osmosis…
I knew that I would never become that proficient so I used the guage.
Never blew one up, nor did anyone I know.
Good Times…
If it aint’ broke dont’ fix it. But beaurocracy has to try to fix everything.