How to Make a Gatling Machine Gun (for Ian)
Okay, a quick and simple Gatling gun can be made from extra cannon barrels. Below is the barrel prior to a new life and
underneath another cannon which has already gone through the required nipping with an exacto knife.
Some small metal washers (to allow magnet sheeting to hold them upright during transport) have left over glue caps
glued
to them. These caps happen to be about the perfect height for gun pintle mounts.
Our converted cannon barrels have some holes pierced in the ends for the many different barrels. Pins (again
"borrowed" from the wife) are snipped to length and bent as required. Two pin shafts are glued together for the
vertical magazine and another is bent at angles for the hand crank. Now, I tried hot metal, plastic solvent, and even
brute
force to make holes for the pins to fit into - all to no avail. My lovely wife pulls out the super tacky glue and instant
progress. So the moral of the story is you may have to get creative but super glue is how I got the pins fixed into place.
The two pintle mount cones have a pin driven through them and glued into place with the excess trimmed from the
bottom. A metal "U" is bent
out of another pin shaft and fits snug to the body of the Gatling.
The "U" is glued to the body of the Gatling (see below) with enough space for the head of the pin from the pintle mount
cone to
fit between the "U" and the Gatling body. Let it dry. And I mean "dry". I'm serious. Because next you
glue the
head of the pintle cone pin between the "U" and the Gatling. This also requires sufficient amounts of super glue.
The
more of these parts that are solid the less pieces shifting around to get the Gatling to set into the right position. The
gun at right gave me a little trouble, notice the extra glue...
Let the guns dry and then they're ready for the patrol boat! The excess super glue can be shaved off if need be but for
me once they are black base coated and painted metallic brass they'll look just fine if held at 18 inches (my personal
sanity check if I am getting too detail oriented).
Thanks to Ian for the challenge!