Installing Gaspatch Spandaus on a WNW D.VII

[rhallinger]

The Gaspatch Spandaus arrived, and they are beautiful little replicas.  However, test fitting on the assembled WNW D.VII cockpit/fuselage assembly revealed that they do NOT fit the stock WNW gun mounts, unless I am being totally obtuse (always a distinct possibility).  It appears that the stock guns have a notch in the lower rear which fits over the rear mount, and a pin which fits into a slot in the forward mount.  Neither of these are present on the Gaspatch gun, which is far truer to prototype, and simply does not fit the WNW mounts in stock configuration.

Has anyone installed these on the WNW mounts?  Any tips before I breakout the blowtorch and start cutting?   Thanks!

Cheers,

Bob

[uncletony]

Yes, the Gaspatch Spandaus are far truer to the prototype vs. the WNW blobs which are designed to be easy to install at the expense of  realism. Maybe you now understand the crazy lengths I am going to model the Fokker D.VII saddles with brass



An alternative would be to cut notches in the rear of the breech ala the kit blobs and cut down the front mount, replacing it with a pin to go into the kit front mount.

[kornbeef]

Bob,

I'm just installing mine on my D.VII. What ive done is notch the rear of the guns slightly but cut the blobs down on the mount too. (My fuselage is built and cowls on so I couldnt do much more. If I hadn't been so far down the construction line I would have replaced the rear mount with rod and fabricated the rear bracket like Bo has just not so painstakingly perfect!

At the front I cut the Gaspatch mount down to just the flat block beneath the barrel jacket.  One point with the Gaspatch Maxims is they have the cartidge ejection tube beneath the jacket, beautifully done for an Albie but the D.VII ejected via the deflection shutes so they can be disposed of with the mount. Unless you are building a cowls of model its probably easiest.

Hope this helps.

Keith

[coyotemagic]

Yes, the Gaspatch Spandaus are far truer to the prototype vs. the WNW blobs which are designed to be easy to install at the expense of  realism. Maybe you now understand the crazy lengths I am going to model the Fokker D.VII saddles with brass



An alternative would be to cut notches in the rear of the breech ala the kit blobs and cut down the front mount, replacing it with a pin to go into the kit front mount.

Looks like you've made the front mounts telescoping in order to facilitate alignment once mounted.  Very smart, Bo.  Thanks for the tip!
Cheers,
Bud

[uncletony]

One point with the Gaspatch Maxims is they have the cartidge ejection tube beneath the jacket, beautifully done for an Albie but the D.VII ejected via the deflection shutes so they can be disposed of with the mount. Unless you are building a cowls of model its probably easiest.

This is a good point -- there should be a .25 mm hole drilled where you cut off the tube if you really want to get nutso (no it won't show )

Looks like you've made the front mounts telescoping in order to facilitate alignment once mounted.

You have good eyes Bud. Yes, they are telescopic and fully adjustable (On real Fokker only rear mounts were adjustable. In case anyone cares.)