Boingo

I can certainly believe it. I purchased a Cushman MG34 several years ago and I was very disappointed by it. It was a very poorly vacuum formed piece of black ABS that probably couldn't pass as an MG34 even if it was viewed from the far end of a very large parking lot. Today I showed a friend the Cushamn I bought (admittedly a little dusty and damaged from lying around the apartment for six years) and he was shocked by how bad it was. Even if Cushman is a nice guy himself, I would not buy one of his vacuum formed items again, and I certainly would not recommend then to anyone else.

Where does one obtain one of these?

It would please me to see it. Do you have it online somewhere? ------------------------------------------------------------------ Speaking of MG34 receiver drawings, I found this thread on another forum ... http://www.mg42.us/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=4679&start=0 ... where a guy posted photos of two pages of detailed MG34 receiver blueprints. http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s278/beltlead/WMEMG34-10.jpg http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s278/beltlead/WMEMG34-11.jpg Sadly, they are photos, not scans, and the resolution is only 1024 x 768. Most of the measurements are very difficult to read. Some person with better eyes than mine might be able to read what they say and use them to create a new set of drawings.

It has been a very VERY long time since I last posted here. For those who don't remember me, I am not a trooper, but I was working on a full sized MG34 prop for making photo based sprites for a game project I was working on (details here). The project bogged down due to a lack of proper tools and measurements and went into hibernation for a few years. Earlier this year I decided to revive the game project and resume work on the MG34 prop. In January I became very excited when I found a user by the handle predalien64 selling resin casts. One of the casts he was offering was of an MG34 barrel shroud (screen shot here). Because this would have completed more than half the length of my prop, I purchased one on January 24th of this year. I paid $125.00 US plus $26.00 US for shipping. The item never came. It usually takes about two weeks for an item from the US to reach me. After three weeks there had been no update on the tracking number for the item. I became nervous and began corresponding with predalien64 to find out what was happening. The first two times I wrote, predalien64 claimed that he was having trouble with a damaged mold. This was irksome, because the there was no indication that the item was made to order. It was implied that the item was already made and ready to be shipped. It was doubly irritating that predalien64 continued listing auctions for the same item despite not filling my existing order. When I asked a third time where my order was I was told there was a computer problem. Unfortunately, these excuses delayed me long enough that I missed the 45 day deadline for filing a claim with eBay. I was still able to leave feedback however. After telling predalien64 that I would leave negative if the item did not arrive or if I was not refunded, I was given the excuse saying that the post office had not sent the item because it resembles a gun part. I have had several real MG34 parts sent to me in the past, including a trigger assembly which actually resembles a pistol (photo) so I was skeptical and decided this was one more delaying tactic, so on the final day I was able to leave feedback I was forced to leave negative feedback, the first time I have ever had to do so on eBay. For those who are interested, I posted nearly all of my correspondence with predalien64 in a thread on another forum. Only the reaction I got from leaving negative feedback is missing. (The thread also starts with details on what I was making my prop for.) Since I left my negative feedback on March 25, six more users have left negative feedback (screen shot). All have been for non delivery of items. My feedback is at the bottom of the screen shot. There is also earlier negative feedback for non delivery from another user, and neutral feedback from a user for an item that was not sent to him for over a month. Since many of predalien64's items are aimed at Star Wars buffs (i.e. blaster parts, greebles, etc.,) I decided it was important to post this as a warning to to any other would be buyers. predalien64 took down all of his auctions shortly after I left my negative feedback, and it is unknown if or when he will resume. Be aware of this seller in case you come across him. He has burned me and he has burned others. Caveat Emptor!

Does anyone know what the shipping cost of one of these would be to Canada? £140.00 ($220.00 CDN) is a little expensive for me, but if the shipping cost is okay then I am willing to order one. In my quest to create an MG34 prop I have obtained several genuine MG34 parts, including a receiver cover, a trigger assembly (grip handle with trigger ring), and a bipod. If I do get the DoopyDoo kit, I would want to incorporate the genuine parts into it. How difficult do you think it would be to marry these parts into DoopyDoo prop? Do you think the polyurethane would be able to handle it, or do you think it would need significant reinforcement?

39 millimetres (1 1/2 inches)

It very much appears that there are guns with both wooden and bakelite butts in that photo. Some are brown, like stained wood, and others are black. Of course the brown ones could also be brown or oxblood bakelite. A Mauser bayonet I have has an oxblood coloured bakelite grip. Personally, I think bakelite (or the closest imitation possible) would be better looking for troopers.

A new message has been posted on ebay regarding the sale of gun parts. Although most of us who look for parts are not interested in buying parts required for building a functional weapon, seeing how we are just building props, one has to worry just what parts ebay now considers to be required to firing a gun. Bolts, firing pins, recoil springs, and parts like that are definitely things that shouldn't be there, but what other parts will they be restricting? I personally have already had a grip I had won suddenly made unavailable to me, which I do not consider and essential part for firing. It looked like a pistol however, and so ebay pulled the auction, and that was months ago, long before this anouncement. So, is this the end of using ebay to build up prop weapons, or what?

In an attempt to get this thread back on topic ... Two months ago, Rob Slater (a.k.a. TD5422) took rubbings of the barrel shroud of his demilled MG34. At the time I promised him that I would scan the rubbings and post them here. Unfortunately, I was sick with a fever when the rubbings arrived, and so they ended up being set aside instead of scanned, and sat neglected on my kitchen table ever since. Now after much procrastination, here they are. I have reduced them to 16 colour greyscale for the sake of smaller file sizes. Right click the images to download them. rubbing 1 rubbing 2 rubbing 3 These rubbings were scanned at 100 dots per inch. If you print them out at 100 dpi, then they will be the same size as the originals. Each bitmap is cropped to the nearest 50 pixels beyond the edges of the original to make it easier to print off (50 pixels = 1/2 inch, so you don't have to calculate any tiny fractions of an inch.). The edges of the originals are not difficult to see. If you trim your printed versions down to match to the edges of the paper in the graphics, you will have copies of the rubbings identical to the ones TD5422 sent to me, with the exception that your's will be in greyscale, while the ones I have are in pink crayon. Once trimmed, you can use these rubbings as templates for drilling the vent holes in the barrel shroud of your scratch built MG34. The top of each rubbing points towards the end of the barrel. The bottom of each rubbing points towards the receiver. < In rubbing2.gif, the leftmost column of holes is the bottom centre. The rectangular hole cut in the rubbing on the left side is where a post projects down from the barrel shroud for the bipod to clip on to while folded down. In rubbing3.gif, you will see another metal spring drawn on the rubbing. As with rubbing1.gif, this is the bottom centre.>> Here is a little graphic showing where each rubbing comes from. rubbings 1 and 2 confirm that the diameter of the barrel shroud for these sections is 40 millimetres (outer diameter), or approx. 1 9/16". The barrel shroud vent holes are 15 millimetres (9/16", just over half an inch). Based on a measurement I took from my antiaircraft sight mount, I believe the diameter of the barrel shroud where rubbing 3 comes from is 45 millimetres (a little over 1 3/4"). Is there anyone who can confirm this? Let us all thank Rob Slater (TD5422) for taking the time to make these rubbings. They make great templates, and provide us with a lot of useful information.

Real ones show up frequently on ebay. Just type "MP40" into the search bar. The forum for armouring discussion is here by the way: http://www.mepd.net/forum/viewforum.php?f=3

Arrrr. No truer words been spoke laddie buck. This thread is actually not for discussing the Cushman at all. It is a thread for the collections of measurements and details of the MG34, and various methods for scratch building simple versions for beginners, and more advanced versions for the rivet counters like me. Please, let's end any debate about Cushman in this thread here and now. We can either continue it off board, or start a different thread specifically for it. As many people on this forum already know, I am not a trooper, so it is unlikely we will ever get a good chance to meet in person. My interest in the MG34 is as WWII prop, and I am here discussing the MG34 on a Sandtroopers forum simply because we share the common goal of attempting to build the most awesome and spectacular MG34 models possible. I do dress up on weekends, but as a 13th century blacksmith, not a trooper. If it pleases you, I would like to meet with you on MS Messenger or ICQ, where we can get to know each other better, and perhaps finish discussing this subject without further damaging this thread. With that, I would like to get this thread back on its original subject by mentioning Bounty Hunter's jaw droppingly fantastic scratch built MG34 / DLT shown in this thread from a few months ago: http://www.mepd.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2584 If we are lucky, perhaps Bounty Hunter will be kind enough to share some of his measurements and building techniques. Hint>

Your assumption that I complained about the Cushman, then went and bought one is incorrect. I only started complaining AFTER I got the Cushman. The quality of the thing was so bad that I had to complain, in order to warn others not to make the mistake I did in buying it. Had I known it was the piece of unusable garbage it turned out to be, I would not have bought it in the first place. In regard to my taking measurements from the Cushman being "hypocritical, I am afraid you are incorrect on that point. Despite the extremely poor quality of the Cushman, some useful impressions remain. For example, the safety lever may have its details badly obscured, but an impression of the circular part of it is still visible. If one measures this impression (13mm), one can then infer the measurements of all the other parts of the safety (completely obscured and invisible on the Cushman) by using reference photos, and construct an accurate model version of the safety that is far superior to the quality of the blobby and difficult to see version on the Cushman itself. Let's put it this way: The details of the original MG34 used by Cushman are obscured by the vacuuforming process in much the same way as the details of a chair would be obscured if you covered it loosely with a heavy blanket. If you know what the chair is supposed to look like, and you take measurements from the details of the chair that show through the blanket, chances are that you can construct a reasonably accurate model of the chair, in spite of the blanket. Is the Cushman crap? Yes. Is using it as a source of measurements hypocritical? No. The only part I have chopped off is the butt, which I used to make a rough wooden butt via a duplicator. I then proceeded to finish off *by hand* (See the site for details). What is not mentioned on the site is the time I spent correcting errors of the Cushman in the wooden piece. In wood, I was able to correct these problems with some creative sanding and carving, while it would have been impossible to fix these problems on the vacuuformed piece. (Thank God for belt sanders, rotary tools, and sharp chisels.) No other parts of the Cushman are useful in any way, except for measurements (See above). No. I am simply attempting to construct an accurate MG34 model for my own use. If I was going to make an MG34 to replicate, I would probably shell out the money for a real one, and make molds from that. I wouldn't spend over a year working on a model. I am a detail minded person. Even though I am not a professional, I try to be as professional as possible in everything I build. It is as true in this in virtually everything I make. I am not in this for money. This is not a flame thread, and there has been no flaming here. I do not flame. Cushman is not being singled out for any reason other than the fact it is especially bad quality. Time and time again, I have heard people say that they bought the Cushman MG34 and were bitterly disappointed. Saying Cushman is poor quality and not worth buying is not flaming. It is just a statement of my honest opinion. IF I WAS TO TYPE LIKE THIS, SWEAR A LOT, AND SAY NASTY THINGS THAT WEREN'T TRUE, that would be flaming. Truthfully, I am unhappy there has been any talk of this at all, since it takes away from the original purpose of this thread--the creation of a high quality reference for builders. I am not creating a model meant to be seen from 100m away. I am attempting to built a photo realistic capable of looking good at close range. The whole purpose of this thread is to create a resource for scratch builders to build decent or (preferably) high quality MG34 models, not to talk about the Cushman. Talk about Cushman simply intruded upon this thread. I do not have money to burn. I am currently living on a disability pension, and paying off two student loans at the same time. After making my loan payments and paying for this internet connection, I am left with $180.00 per month to live on. Try living on that for a few months, and tell me if I have money to burn. The reason for buying the occasional real part is simple. Real parts are 100% accurate. Buy a real part, and you don't have to model it. Also, if you have a real part, you can use it to easily infer measurements of other parts associated with it from photos. For example, I bought a receiver cover. Thanks to it I now know the exact width of the receiver itself, and can more easily figure out the sizes of other parts of the receiver because of their sizes relative to the cover. The cover, being real, also tells me what kind of finish I need to put of the receiver, because the two parts match. It tells me whether I should put hard edges on this area of the model or softer curves. When one is trying to make a good model, the information gleaned from authentic parts is extremely valuable. I do find your remarks out of line. For starters, they are baseless. You have implied that I am defaming Cushman. I am not. Expressing my honest opinion is not defamation. You have called me a hypocrite. I am not. You say I am flaming. I am definitely not. Calling something that is poor quality "poor quality" is not flaming. --Mark

Drat! I've had the rubbings for well over a month, and I have not posted scans of them yet. Duh ... I will write a reminder note to myself, and make sure I do it right away.

The rubbing arrived just this morning. I have it in hand, but I was hit hard with the flu this morning, and will likely not be doing anything but sleep for the next day or two. I will make use of it when I am feeling just a little better.