20mm Oerlikon Cannon

The pictures above show the Oerlikon cannon fitted with shoulder cups and sights, this was usual on British MTB's and seems to also be the case on some of the earlier US PT-Boats (maybe where they were retrofitted to the boats by the crew).

Sometimes there was a bag fitted below the cannon cradle to catch used shell casings and there also seems to have been a strap for the operator.

Later US PT's used the leaning brace shown on the model cannon below and they didn't seem to bother with sights. The leaning brace would have given much better control over the guns elevation for shooting at aircraft.

The objective is a (possibly operational) 1/20th scale 20mm Canon.

Excuse the base on the photo above, this is actually the base for the 37mm Canon and if you look at the photo for that canon it shows the correct base for the 20mm.

Basic barrel made from brass tubing, in order to make the cooling spline I used gold plated wire wrap pins cut off an IC socket, 16 fit perfectly around the tube, pull eight forwards, hold them in place with silicon tubing and solder in place, then remove the other eight, perfect and simple to do!

Another bit of tubing drilled and filed with needle files.

Assembly starts

Leave the silicon tubing on until it's all soldered

Voila!

Make some side bits, a bottom thingy and a back bit

This shows the sides, bottom, back and a couple of top thingy's in place and the folded leaning brace.

Leaning Brace soldered in place

Looks quite the part so-far

The ammunition Magazine folded out of sheet with wires soldered on. Cut around the front and back (not soldered on yet) with scissors and then file to shape.

  The cradle 

The cradle and tripod mount.

   The tripod legs soldered in place

  The base cut out with a hole saw. A countersunk screw in the middle will hold it in place.

  Solder legs to base

  Brass nut soldered at the top.

I use the stand drill a lot at low speeds with a range of files to trim up things that are supposed to be round, like the base and the nut.

Not sure what to do with the finish yet!