AFV Club adds to its growing range of armour accessories Sean Langley reviewss a new kit offering a number of options for the famous M2HB machine gun in WW2.

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If you have comments or questions please post them here.

Thanks!

OK....see my thread in forums on the M2 .50 kits available. I must get this kit immediately, if for nothing else but the M63 AA mount...I own these in real life. Real guns. And an M63 AA mount and M3 tripod. Here's some clarifications, and Sean, please forgive my butting in. "Long Sleeve" and "Short Sleeve". You must be referencing the barrel support. The long barrel support..running the full length of barrel..is actually the AIRCRAFT version, and if the spade grips (handles) at rear are different, wider, and have a larger buffer housing on the back plate (round little cylinder protruding between the handles), then this configuration is an M3AC Aircraft gun. Not commonly seen on any ground mount if at all.
The "short sleeve" is for all M2HB guns. It is the barrel support, holding a bushing that holds the barrel in alignment. M2/M3 guns are recoil operated and the barrels move..they recoil into the gun by almost 3/4 inch.
Now the M63 AA mount..first, they do not fold up for transport. They disassemble, and from the sprues I see here AFV has given correct parts to have this model in disassembled sub groups and in a crate, as it would be in reality. Good work!
Second, the trigger on the M63 does not use the thumb paddles at rear of gun at all. It connects through the side of the gun reciever and triggers a tab internally to fire the gun. The upper handlebars can be removed or folded away if ground engagements are the order of the day. The gun mount is intended to be dug into a circular gun pit, with the gun base firmly sandbagged on a slightly raised mound at center, giving the gunner the handlebars to aim the gun while standing.
I'll get this kit right away (unless AFV or some distributor wants to send one my way!) and get into it further...overall, I'm happy, as long as the guns themselves are better than the average in-kit offerings.

Just a note of interest.
In all of my years I have never seen A M2 .50cal. with a flash supressor.
I think that what they are calling a flash supressor is realy a shredder.
During traning exersises to get the M2 to actually fire they use ammo with wooden bullets. Well you .cant have wooden bullets flying arround , so the shredder which bolt/clamps on to the end of the gun barrel. For the M2 to fire it has to actually send somthing down the barrel , and paper just wont work. This flash supressor thing has always been one of my pet peves with the kit manufactures.

Two different things.
the flash supressor is just that, a flash supressor:


The blank firing adaptor for the M2 looks like this:

AFAIK the M2 doesn't use wooden bullets, just blank casings with the tip sealed. The adaptor is used so the gas system work properly.

M2 blanks:
http://www.defenseimagery.mil/imagery.html#a=search&s=DF-ST-86-07829%20&chk=6cfe0&guid=1c225d82b963e528562bf038d9b0541e78a0bc9c

http://www.defenseimagery.mil/imagery.html#a=search&s=DF-ST-86-07911%20&chk=6cfe0&guid=a9ebc25a456d81130e25992ebf01122380771837



And thx for the review Sean!


Cheers
/E

Zapper is correct. The flash suppressor for the M2HB is a rather goofy looking item which is an afterthought..it mates to the front of the barrel and is held on with 4 long thin bolts that tighten a collar that used a split ring to cinch against that big wad of steel at the muzzle. It looks terrible, and frankly does little at night to "suppress" the muzzle flash.
The blank fire adapter is even worse. Since the M2 won't function without the barrel recoiling to the rear, some gizmo had to be created to "choke" the muzzle and contain the blast of the blank, driving the barrel to the rear so the gun will cycle and reload itself. Since the barrel has to move to do this, the gizmo is that horrible thing with the big muzzle cap and 4 long rods running way back to the barrel support. Ugly.

Unless there's no separate part for the tip of the barrel, the open muzzle of the aircraft variant seems quite too big. Or is it a modern version that is different?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/konabish/5693152235/

yup, that is wrong. Here's a photo of the M3 guns in a B17 ball turret.
The recoiling barrel slides in the barrel support bushing at front of the perforated jacket and protrudes from the front a bit. The bore size of this gun is 1/2", that's the size hole that should be there, unless there is a muzzle tip on the sprue we are not seeing. That being possible, I'll wait until I get mine and unbox it to render final judgement.

Does someone knows if a company is building this in 1/35: GAU-21
Basically, it's a M2 "advanced"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2SIbXksH_U

Just a quick note. The .50 cal doesn't have a "gas system", it is recoil operated so the blank firing adapter has to allow the pressures in the barrel to build up such that the kinetic energy of the blank's gas jet coming out the front is sufficient to drive the barrel back and simulate the recoil motion of a proper firing.

Paul

The kit does not look to bad. Spade grips look a bit "funky".
Most of the old guns we had did have the flash suppressor on them, but I haven't seen one yet on a QCB version.

"EDIT" Disregard my last, just found a couple of photos.

I never used that type of BFA with the long rods.
Then again we never did do much in the way of blank firing. Mostly live fire all the time.
However, here is the type of BFA we use for the QCB.

GAU-21 is based on the M3 aircraft gun with many improvements..to my knowledge, the major supplier for this is FN-Herstal, but I do have a friend who builds a version at his weapon shop in Wisconsin (Central Wisconsin Armory) called the M50 Dragon, which the US is buying as door guns for CH-47 Chinook helos. Fire rate is around 1200 rpm, and the stellite lined chrome chambered barrels are the only reason that works..a standard steel barrel would melt after a long burst like that video shows!
I don't know of any 1/35 kit of this gun and mount yet..But I'd expect if there's a CH-47 or Sea Stallion kit in 1/35 with a tail ramp gun, that's the one.

Well, thank you Gary. Couple of things I ignored, well, in fact, there's a tons of things I ignore but I'll go to bed less dumb tonight, thank's to you LOL.

PLz, if you ever hear something about a 1/35 version, try to remember old me. I sure would love a couple of them. I love the look and I can't stop thinking about Live-Resin quality of M2 and how the GAU-21 would look if they ever decide to make one. Or two LOL

Take care Gary

Marc