Gatling Guns for "fighter jet" models...

[luke strawwalker]

Ok... I've mentioned these before but never actually did a 'build thread' on them, and recently the topic surfaced again, so as promised, here's how to make GATLING GUNS for "fighter jet" type models, though I've used them on a sci-fi model in the past and it looked REALLY cool...

Ok here goes.

First, the materials. You need a box of round toothpicks and some "BIC-Stick" pens, the kind typically handed out at conventions, trade shows, farm shows, etc. They're pretty common-- the kinda fat ones with a stepped ball point end and a fat slide off cap, with a flush plug in the end of the tube. Dead pens usually tend to accumulate and are the easiest to use. You'll also need pliers, a sharp hobby knife, and a razor saw if you have one. For glue I used thin CA.

Take you're hopefully dead pen, and using a pair of pliers, gently twist slightly and pull on the curved "adapter" part to remove the ballpoint and ink tube from the pen tube. These ink tubes make good micromax launch lugs from what I've read and I'm sure can be put to other uses if you drop them in paint thinner to remove the ink-- capillary action over a couple days should dissolve the ink for you. Otherwise you won't need the ink tube, so I usually toss them. Be careful so you don't get ink everywhere... The ink tube can be gently pulled out of the adapter and ballpoint end with the pliers, and sent to the paint thinner jar or the trash can.

Take the pen tube, and using a piece of launch rod (or the rod from those store clothes hangers that have the two "clothespin" clips on them (typically used to hold pants in store displays) push the plug out of the end of the pen barrel tube. Set the cap aside. As a side note, I LOVE the rods from those clothes hangers-- you can pull them out of broken hangers and remove the clips and they're PERFECT for aligning launch lugs on the model when gluing them on and clipping fins to them to keep them straight while the glue dries, and other stuff like that. VERY handy little buggers and they're FREE.

Now, you can make a "cannon" out of the ballpoint tip and stepped tube adapter. They look fairly close to the "laser cannons" typically found on stuff like the BSG Viper, various starfighters from various movies and shows, etc. They also look pretty close to the conical-tipped rocket pods found on Hind helicopter gunships and various aircraft. Cut a peice of the pen tube an inch or two long (whatever looks best to you) and put the ballpoint tip and adapter back into the short bit of tube, and the plug in the other end. The plug is chamfered slightly so it looks really cool once installed in the "cannon". The front end, being stepped, ends in the ball point "laser emitter" and after gluing on the model and painting, it looks terrific. Best of all, it takes all of 2 minutes to do!

Here's a few pics to get you started... more to come... OL JR

 

[luke strawwalker]

Cont'd...

Ok, so now we get to the Gatling Guns...

Grab 7 toothpics out of the package. Take one and cut the entire tapered ends off both ends, usually about 1/4 to 3/8 inch back from each end. This leaves you with a "dowel" rod about 1 1/2 inches long, more or less. Set this one aside, as it's your "axle" or center of the barrel assembly.

Next take the other six toothpics, and arrange them so the ends match in taper and shape as best as possible. You'll often find that flipping them end for end will usually give you ends that will be pretty darn close in size/shape and amount of taper. They don't have to be perfect, but the closer to uniform, the better.

Line the toothpics up and even the ends up against a box or ruler so they're all even. Look at the other ends, and see how closely they line up. If they're off by quite a bit, well, now we know you bought CHEAP toothpics and you'll have to settle for one fugly end and one pretty end. Cut the tip off each toothpic with the hobby knife, approximately 1/16 to 1/8 inch from the pointed tip, so the end is flat. Try to cut the tips off all the other as close to the same as possible. Don't worry if they're off a little bit, as we can fix it later; close is good enough, but again, the closer the better.

Grab two toothpics and the center 'axle' toothpic, and lay the two snipped ones on either side of the center 'axle' one. Put them on a bit of wax paper so you don't glue the toothpics to the work mat and have to pry them off later... Make sure that the 'axle" one is pretty much centered lengthwise in between the other two 'barrel' toothpics to either side of it, and that the 'barrel' toothpic's snipped ends are even with each other. I pinch them together gently and press them against the edge of the hobby knife to ensure that they're even. Once everything's even and looks good, while gently pinching them together at the "ugly" end, put a little thin CA between the toothpics at the other end. It should look like the picture. Once the glue's had a chance to set up and dry a bit (so you don't glue yourself to it-- try explaining to your spouse how you glued yourself to a Gatling Gun!) pinch the glued end and apply a bit of CA to the other end. Let it set up and dry a bit (few seconds or so usually will do it.)

Next, grab two more 'barrels' and lay them on top of the three you just glued together, sorta like you're going to make a 'woodpile'. The two should drop very neatly right into the two grooves between the three toothpics on bottom and self-align. Pinch them slightly together and make sure the snipped ends align with the other two snipped ends you just glued to the axle, (pushing them against the side of the hobby knife blade) and once you're satisfied they're all even, apply a little CA to the ends you're not pinching together. Apply a little between each toothpic and the adjoining one. Let dry a bit and apply to the other ends. It should look like the pic below, with four barrels in a half-circle surrounding the center axle.

More to come... OL JR

 

[luke strawwalker]

Cont'd...

Ok, so we have the half-barrel assembly. Roll it over onto the two barrels we just glued on. The center axle should now be on top, flanked by a pair of barrels we glued on in step one. Take the two remaining barrels, put them on top of the axle barrel like you just did with the last two. Make sure the snipped ends are at the same end as the others, and make sure they're all even against the side of the hobby knife blade so the barrels are even. Pinch it slightly to hold everything true, and apply a bit of CA between each barrel on the opposite end. Once dried a bit, swap ends and apply the CA between the barrels on the the other end. Voila-- your Gatling gun six-barrel assembly is now completed! Set it aside for the CA to completely "lock up".

Take the leftover pen tube, and cut a piece about 1 1/2 to 2 inches long, whatever "looks right" to you. This is the main "body" of the gun into which the barrel assembly will be pressed. Now you're pen tube should be getting pretty short (what's left of it) but go ahead and cut a VERY SHORT PIECE off the end of it, maybe 1/8 to 1/4 inch long. If you're using a razor saw, it's much easier to cut the pen tube, but you'll have to carefully shave the ends of the tube where it's cut to smooth it out with the hobby knife and eliminate the "fuzzy" plastic edge from the saw blade. If you're using the hobby knife, be careful as it's easy to slip when cutting plastic like this because it's slippery yet resists cutting fairly strongly. This little "ring" of tubing will be the front "bearing" of the Gatling gun and will band all of the barrels together. It'll also give you another place to glue to when you glue the gun to the model. If the ring doesn't come out exactly parallel and even, lap it on a piece of 220 sandpaper to smooth it out and even it up. Once your satisfied, you're ready for final assembly of the gun.

Take the "gun body" piece of pen tube and gently press the barrel assembly into the tube. It should fit snugly but not exceedingly tight-- a firm push should slide it in. Stick the uneven unsnipped "ugly" end into the pen tube and slide the whole thing in about 3/8 inch to 1/2 an inch. Now take the short band and slide it over the barrel ends so it's about 3/8 inch or so from the tapered 'pretty end' of the barrels. This will hold the barrels together (such a band is commonly found on Gatling guns and is often used for a forward support bearing for the rotating barrel assembly).

Once the thing is where you want it and how you want it to look, apply a little CA between the band and barrels, and around the barrel assembly and the main body tube of the gun. Insert the pen body tube plug into the back end of the pen tube, and Voila! Your Gatling gun is now virtually complete!

If the ends of the barrels are slightly "off" in their alignment to each other, simply stand the gun on the ends of it's barrels on a piece of sandpaper flat on your work surface, and gently sand in little circles to "lap" the gun barrels even and to the same length. You can also "floss" between the barrel tips a bit with the sandpaper if you're VERY CAREFUL to make the tips more evenly shaped to each other. Remember a little sanding goes a LONG WAY with such fine parts...

Enjoy! OL JR

 

[luke strawwalker]

A few more pics... some by the "ruler" on the edge of the workmat for scale.

These are similar to the Gatling gun "pods" that were grafted onto the F-4 Phantoms in Vietnam after it was discovered the fighter jets actually DID need more than just missiles to dogfight!

Enjoy! OL JR

 

[sodmeister]

Man....this is getting good ! Not sure how you came up with this idea ,but it`s very creative and looks fantastic so far ! :clap:
I`ve always been a fan of scratch building ,both in my 1/48 scale plastic aircraft models and rocketry.


Paul T

 

[luke strawwalker]

Just tinkering when I was in high school...

You can make them in 3,4, or 5 barrel version and they'll still fit that pen tube. Any more barrels than that and you'll have to find a bigger pen tube (or other tube, launch lug material or micro-tubes or something...

Only thing is, going with fewer barrels and you have to MANUALLY space them evenly around the center axle. Getting them even and holding them securely while the glue sets can be problematical...

Somewhere around I have a model of the Scorpion fighter from Buck Rogers in the 25th Century that I made back in high school-- just piddling about with balsa. I always thought that the Scorpion was the coolest looking "space fighter" in the Buck Rogers TV show-- it just LOOKS tough, in that A-10 Warthog sort of way! I can't seem to find the model though-- it may be in deep storage (somewhere under tons of boxes WAY BACK in the office, or it might have lived in Grandma's garage until my brother cleaned the house out after my Grandma passed almost three years ago... I asked him the other day and he said the rats got to some stuff I had stored in an old aquarium up there, so he tossed that stuff. I had some "paper towel and balsa" "spaceship" models like the Scorpion fighter up there, including one that had two paper towel tubes with balsa sheets on top and bottom to make a "hull" with gull wings like a Klingon Bird of Prey, and fins underneath for "landing gear" which had a flat bulkhead at the front with the cockpit of an old "Blue Thunder" helicopter glued on the front for a cockpit ala the Millenium Falcon, except centered... Never got around to seeing about making it into a flying model.

My Scorpion fighter https://www.universalhartland.com/code/buck101s.shtml used balsa wings and tailfins, with a pair of Saran Wrap (BT-50-ish) tubes with the front ends cut like a Kraken for the 'jet engines' and scoops underneath like the Scorpion fighter had in the series, with a balsa sheet body between the 'engines' and the pen 'cannons' at the wingtips like the show model, and used the cockpit section of an Apache attack helicopter model for the cockpits. I used to have a lot of plastic models that would end up getting broke, so I recycled them into new models using rocketry stuff... I made a four-barrel Gatling gun that was belly-mounted under the cockpits for the Scorpion fighter. IIRC, that four barrel Gatling was made out of one of the thinner pen tubes, the slightly smaller "BIC mediums" with the end of the pen barrel stepped down to a smaller diameter for the last half-inch and using a smaller curved ballpoint end, with the triangular 'pocket clip' on the pen cap. I might not have used a center axle on that gun either IIRC... Been a long time.

I hope that model's in storage somewhere... it was pretty cool...

Later! OL JR

PS... Here's another link for you Earth Forces Starfighter fans...

https://www.universalhartland.com/code/buck000m.shtml

 

[Micromeister]

Nifty Detail Luke!
very very nice.

 

[luke strawwalker]

Thanks and you're welcome! OL JR

 

[troj]

Nifty Detail Luke!
very very nice.

Agreed!

Talk about a neat little trick!

-Kevin

 

[Fred22]

Very cool idea but what a about the face plate or whatever its called. Might be a small further refinement on a great idea

 

[sodmeister]

I noticed the part of the pen with a taper and pen nib look very much like Russian rocket pods (B-8M1 , UB-16/57UMP & UB-32A/57 and similar)
Just drill holes into the tapered portion and you would have a good copy of the pods.

Paul

 

[luke strawwalker]

I noticed the part of the pen with a taper and pen nib look very much like Russian rocket pods (B-8M1 , UB-16/57UMP & UB-32A/57 and similar)
Just drill holes into the tapered portion and you would have a good copy of the pods.

Paul

Yep... that's what I thought... I've got a Hind D helicopter model and they look quite similar...

Thanks for the specific designations for the rocket pods tho...

Later! OL JR

 

[luke strawwalker]

Very cool idea but what a about the face plate or whatever its called. Might be a small further refinement on a great idea

Oh, I guess if you REALLY wanted it you could find a way to model it...

I was sorta going for that "Spectre/Spooky" Gatling gun effect, or the "open barrel assembly" look of the Gatling guns under the Huey Cobras back in Nam...

Just me but if ya can't see the barrels, what's the point??

I think they may have put that "cover" on the A-10's for airflow reasons... I know I read one time that they basically built the plane around that gun, and when they got to the flight test phase and started firing the Gatling gun, the muzzle smoke was SO bad and screwed up the airflow enough that the right engine kept flaming out, and they had to do some tweaking to solve that problem...

Later! OL JR

 

[Fred22]

Oh, I guess if you REALLY wanted it you could find a way to model it...

I was sorta going for that "Spectre/Spooky" Gatling gun effect, or the "open barrel assembly" look of the Gatling guns under the Huey Cobras back in Nam...

Just me but if ya can't see the barrels, what's the point??

I think they may have put that "cover" on the A-10's for airflow reasons... I know I read one time that they basically built the plane around that gun, and when they got to the flight test phase and started firing the Gatling gun, the muzzle smoke was SO bad and screwed up the airflow enough that the right engine kept flaming out, and they had to do some tweaking to solve that problem...

Later! OL JR

Makes sence
Cheers
fred

 

[sodmeister]

OK....you guys must have been "rivet counters" at some point in time ?


The Hind gunship as always been my favorite....Imagine that thing comming at you with full pylons....full of ...wait for it...."ORDINANCE"....


Could never get that....


Paul (ordnance) T