As another sideline 3D design/print project, I began work on the old U.S.N. Mk. 2 1.10 Inch Quad Anti-Air Gun Mount and its accompanying gun director, Mk. 44. Once again, the basis for this project will be the 1945 U. S. Navy Turret & Mount Catalog cut sheet (Pg. 16) and any other drawings/photos that I can find to support the design. While there are available photos of the mount & director online, detailed drawings of the Mk. 44 I haven't located. Perhaps at NARA II, but that's just a guess. I recently discovered that both Veteran Models & Bunker Studio are producing 3D printed versions of this mount & gun director. Both are different and my guess is that they either don't have the actual drawings or have taken obvious liberties with the design in order to make a successful print. At scales of 1/350 and 1/200 it's simply impossible to create a "perfect" copy of the actual item. As I don't work in those scales, I do have a bit more ability to try to get this as correct as possible. After reviewing several photos of the gun mount on various ships, I've come to the conclusion that there were a couple different variations of the mount (there were Mods 2-6) and these variations have more to do with the ancillary equipment on the mount (sight setter/training gear) than the actual gun & chassis.
NOTE - FORUM TROLLS are not welcome on this thread and will not be replied to. I began the design on both items a couple weeks ago and was able to get a couple successful prints of the Mk. 44 Gun Director last week. At this point I will make a comment that this is my first edition, and it may get changed.
Here is a design shot of the Mk. 44 director, followed by the slicing software rendition. I haven't taken photos of the printed part yet as I haven't removed supports or primed it yet -
Attachment:
Mk. 44 Gun Director_1.JPG [ 57.37 KiB | Viewed 1529 times ]
Attachment:
Mk. 44 Gun Director_4.JPG [ 41.98 KiB | Viewed 1529 times ]
With only two not exactly pristine illustrations of this item, I guesstimated at the size based on the drawing of the Quad Mount, so this is somewhat "iffy" at this stage. I had also begun design on the gun mount itself and as this is certainly more involved and complex than either the 5" dual gun mount or the Mk. 44 director, I have worked on this off/on for the last week or so when spare time pops up. Retired guys are ALWAYS busy!
Here is a picture of the work I've done on the upper equipment that is now located in a separate design file - this was done as the original design file for the gun mount was getting rather large and beginning to slow the CPU down.
Attachment:
1.1 in Ancillary Equipment_1.JPG [ 57.56 KiB | Viewed 1529 times ]
So, this worked out well and I had moved this work to the new file but this evening I did something to the original file to cause a fatal save error. So, I created a 3rd file for the gun mount and began moving parts to this file and have just about got everything moved at this point. Some items are still "surfaces" and will need to be modified to "solids" but at least they copied and I only lost about 15 minutes of actual parts - which is minor in the scheme of things
So, at this point the gun mount looks like this, well....I should say it DID look like this last night -
Attachment:
1.1 in Mount Progress_3.JPG [ 49.55 KiB | Viewed 1529 times ]
Attachment:
1.1 in Mount Progress_2.JPG [ 42.39 KiB | Viewed 1529 times ]
So, this little project is quite interesting and complex - but something that is intriguing to see if I can do as well as others have done. I might add that the 1/200 scale parts that Bunker Studio has pictured in their advertisement are quite detailed and well designed for such tiny parts. I think my final version will be a variation of what is currently offered commercially.
Hank
Login
Register
FAQ
