M1090 ATLSPG.

[Wardukw]

Yup ive been playing again and this is a idea which has been rolling around in my head to ages .
The M1090 Air Transportable Light Self Propelled Gun .
I had the idea and as per the norm with me the idea comes up but the issues arise when i have no idea what i am going to us to make the idea come to life .
Well a while back i scored this Tamiya M2 Bradley with the interior and it was missing the armour from one side and who ever built it painted absolutely everything before they put it together so it quite literally fell apart in my hands as i was giving it a clean ...the entire thing was torn apart with no problems at all ,,, great for the paint stripping side of things so into the brake fluid it went .
What ever he or she ..im not biases    ..painted this in brake fluid took over a week to do any real damage to it and even then it didnt remove some ...what it didnt remove i scrapped away with a knife blade but not everything ,.,.,couldnt be bothered .
And thats how it sat for over 9 months..in a box .

The SPG idea started to take hold again and looking over the pile of bits i have i found the remains of a 155mm gun and then some other bits and then some more and then i just started to cut and glue and see what happened and this is the result so far ....it not finished yet ,,not even close ...still more to do in the hull and as you guys can see the gun is a long way from done ,,
So here it is ,,,,so far 
DSCF3734 by Phill Harrison, on Flickr
DSCF3735 by Phill Harrison, on Flickr
DSCF3736 by Phill Harrison, on Flickr
DSCF3737 by Phill Harrison, on Flickr
DSCF3738 by Phill Harrison, on Flickr
Work has moved on from the above pics ,,,and some things have changed in the overall design ...the gun sits higher now because i was having a problem with the gun getting enough elevation and still being able to swing from left to right at higher fire angles 
DSCF3739 by Phill Harrison, on Flickr
DSCF3740 by Phill Harrison, on Flickr
DSCF3741 by Phill Harrison, on Flickr
DSCF3742 by Phill Harrison, on Flickr
DSCF3743 by Phill Harrison, on Flickr
DSCF3745 by Phill Harrison, on Flickr
DSCF3746 by Phill Harrison, on Flickr
DSCF3747 by Phill Harrison, on Flickr

I am still trying to decide on the camo paint job for this thing but i know its going to be something ive never done before ,,,i know how to do what i am wanting to do i am only just tring to sort out which colours to use ...
More to follow guys 








   

[kerick]

That's fantastic! Looking at the first pic I thought you were making a Bradley/155mm StuG! That would be impressive itself. Now I can't help thinking of the "Super Bonker 9000!



Look up nafo fellas for more of their twitter antics.

[Wardukw]

Thank ya matey 
Its coming along exactly to some plan I make up as I go 
What ya have in that pic is the russian 2S7 Pion ..a 8in SPG which NATO first  got wind off in 1975 and they called it the M1975 SPG ..I do have a model of this from trumpeter and I know that dude who brought it and then sold it to my fav LHS and I got it for way less than the original buyer payed...love it 

[Old Wombat]

Whither the auto-loader?

Nice work!

I prefer the gun sitting a bit lower (I like that "travel channel" in the hull ).

Elevation looked pretty good in the original version but I can't see it or manipulate it to get a true sense of what's happening. With traverse, I'd limit that to from 15^o to 22.5^o either side of the centre-line of the vehicle, otherwise stability is going to become an issue when firing.  Speaking of stability - Don't forget the stabilising jacks at (especially) the rear (45^o out from each corner).

Carry on, soldier!

[Wardukw]

Yup its having a auto loader Guy and from what you see in the pics is about 10% of there's going to be..there's still the lower sections to be built and I'm using a real design for it ..even tho the real on is on a truck 
Your right on the elevation ..it's still pretty good but you had bugger all traverse and I mean less than 10° ..probably less than that ..im still looking at ideas there as the pedestal is at test height for the mo.
It's possible that the rear end of the sides will end up with a taper to give it more clearance or it won't.. 
Part of the reason for the extreme traverse is direct line of sight shooting..many SPGs today have a anti everything abilities but yes there's going to be some form of stabilizing on the arse..be it Jack's or a spade..I like the jacks idea mate..easy to build 

[zenrat]

I think i'd like the look of a big arse spade on the back.
I also think the barrel is a bit on the short side.

Other than that...

    

[Wardukw]

Dew to bad design work on my behalf I had to go with 2 spades as stabilizers and they look like they'd do the job .
I kept the pedestal the same height cause once the auto loader is complete it will need that just for the elevation and at say a minimum of 10° it would still have plenty of traverse for direct fire ..at 80° as ya said Guy it dont need much for traverse and it doesn't which works out very good in deed .

Fred I know it's weird but the barrel is nearly 300mm long from breach to muzzle brake.
On my table it looks long but on the model it looks a wee short...it's strange mate.

[Wardukw]

Righto lads its built ...all the plastic surgery has been done and next will be the painting part which is gonna be a goodin ...if it turns out the way my brain sees it looking .
So it was mentioned by a good mate of mine that the barrel could do with being longer and so the barrel got longer ,,,now the extension isnt that long but damn if it didnt make the barrel look like it .
DSCF3748 by Phill Harrison, on Flickr
DSCF3759 by Phill Harrison, on Flickr
The annoying thing is i forgot the measure it but its about 50mm long but considering how much longer the barrel looks now it may as well have been 100mm.
The auto loader is done ...alot of work here to get the shape right and also movement ..its still got max elevation but its also limited to ,,which works out great as its not got a huge amount of traverse which is what you want anyway when firing at ranged targets .
DSCF3749 by Phill Harrison, on Flickr
DSCF3750 by Phill Harrison, on Flickr
DSCF3751 by Phill Harrison, on Flickr
After a heap of dicking around the barrel is straight 
DSCF3752 by Phill Harrison, on Flickr
DSCF3753 by Phill Harrison, on Flickr
Stability time ...two spades should do the job and these came from a real pile of crap model of a French 155mm SPG and its not even worth knowing its name the model is that bad but ive now got a not so bad 155mm gun and the spades ..a little bit is braided line and bugger all else ..simple on this bit of work .
DSCF3754 by Phill Harrison, on Flickr
DSCF3755 by Phill Harrison, on Flickr
DSCF3756 by Phill Harrison, on Flickr
DSCF3757 by Phill Harrison, on Flickr
Cutting and shaping and filling and the auto loader came to life ..in a model sense 
DSCF3758 by Phill Harrison, on Flickr
DSCF3760 by Phill Harrison, on Flickr
DSCF3761 by Phill Harrison, on Flickr
Youll notice a couple of extra hydraulic rams have been added...well with the now extra length of the barrel the original rams didnt quite look right so two more were added and damn that was a real mission to get right but with about 4 cups of coffee and a few ciggs ideas started to flow on how to get it right...and in the end i ended up with this ...
DSCF3762 by Phill Harrison, on Flickr
 DSCF3764 by Phill Harrison, on Flickr
A few extra details to fill in some empty spots ..
DSCF3763 by Phill Harrison, on Flickr
The finished building part ...
DSCF3765 by Phill Harrison, on Flickr
 DSCF3767 by Phill Harrison, on Flickr
DSCF3768 by Phill Harrison, on Flickr
Next comes the paint   

[Captain Canada]

Holy wow ! This is incredible !

[Wardukw]

Thanks Captain mate ,,,it did kinda turn out how i envisaged it ,,kinda   

[Rick Lowe]

 

[buzzbomb]

Working on the bigger is always better... wow   

[rickshaw]

As Uncle Iosef once said, "Quantity has a quality all it's own."  Well done that man!   

[Dizzyfugu]

Cool. The mechanics are impressive. 

[Wardukw]

Thanks guys  it's the best use of that old hat Tamiya kit I could think of.