I need advice. I’m building a Hasegawa 1/32 scale P-47, and for the first time I would like to try using metal tubing for the machine guns instead of the plastic pieces that come with the kits. Unfortunately , I need to know everything— what kind of tubing is best ?(I’m thinking stainless, but perhaps alum, brass, ??.), what is the correct size for 1/32 scale (or for 1/48 for that matter)?, what’s the best way to cut it to get a clean edge (especially stainless)?, and anything else I need to know about going metal. Thanks,
There are some nice aftermarket metal gun barrels out there now. Like these from Master Model available at Sprue Brothers.
Note that they are not just tubes. Machine gun barrels are quite complex. A barrel, a jacket and a muzzle.
Stainless steel. Cut with a cutoff wheel and a rotary tool. You can source SS tubing from various places or you can visit your local farm supply store and purchase some hypodermic needles used for livestock. They usually stock various gauges of needles.
You can use brass or aluminum tubing as well. Just do your homework to see what the scale diameter is and find the appropriate sized tubing.
Thank you. You’ve given me a couple of options to try. If I buy tubing, and it looks like practice cutting and finishing will be required before getting a good result. The aftermarket parts look fantastic— as long as you don’t look at the price— but I notice they are brass. The photo of the guns on the P-47 show clearly polished steel (I have a great photo to attach, but I don’t know how, sorry). Does this mean you would have to paint the brass barrels? If so, no thanks---- kind of defeats the purpose. Now if someone had a stainless set that looked as good as the brass one, I just might spring for it.
Also, is there any handy-dandy conversion chart for modelers with metal tubing sizes for various kinds of guns at various scales? If not, there should be… care to produce one? Thanks again,
Wjhat look like Gun Barrels protuding from the wings of a P-47 are actually Blast Tubes. They were Aluminum on the real Birds, so I use either Aluminum tubing or Brass tubing painted Aluminum.
1/32 gun barrels can be simulated with a 16 gauge hypodermic needle.
If you cannot get your hands on any the width of this is about 2mm across. What I do is if there is an odd size barrel I take one of the kit parts to the store with me and compare sizes with the various tubes I find. When one get as close as I can that’s what I will use.
You can also make small tubes from larger plastic tubes… Just stretch the plastic tubing the same way you stretch sprue… I like using the tubing from Q-Tips for that kinda work… Bright, shiny tubes weren’t the norm though… The aluminum oxidizes (gets dull) just like the rest of the operational aircraft… The shiny stainless steel tubes on private warbirds are just for looks and ease of maintnence…
And ditto what Rick said about the blast tubes for the Jug… The gun barrels are inside those…
I’m learning a lot from all of you. Since what I’m seeing on my photo are the blast tubes, and they are aluminum, it would seem that someone would produce an aftermarket barrel set in aluminum instead of brass (like the ones suggested at the link at Sprue Bros). I may try to track down the proper tubing and do this myself (for the experience), but I’d like to know if there is an aftermarket alternative in aluminum. Any info will be appreciated. Thanks,
I measured a .50 cal at the Air Force Museum one time, and the outside diameter of the cooling jacket was 1 7/8 inches. that scales down to .0585 in 32nd scale. On the same trip I also measured a Thunderbolt blast tube, and if memory serves correctly, it was 2 1/4 inches o.d. That scales down to .070. Maybe that will be helpful in some way.