does anyone have some pictures as to how the guns are assembled as the instructions don't seem to tie up very well with the parts that they are suggesting?

if anyone has any pictures of that sub assembly that has been completed, i would really appreciate seeing them.

Please describe the problem in more detail referring to the images below.



I don't know what those curved sticks are, looks a little like hockey clubs, but I would guess that it could be pipes to eject empty shell cases.
Dragons representation of these, parts C6 and C9, could be improved.





YouTube-clip with some good close-ups
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZW6-x8Rv2I
Irritating music in the background though .....

/ Robin

Hi there, thanks for getting back to me, in step 7 I am finding that part C5 doesn't fit C9. It's more likely that it should be part C2 which is part of the second assembly as the holes line up for fitting but if I do this then I can't attach part C4

Hi David & Robin;

"YEA" Those are the Spent Shell Ejection Shoot's ! DMLs kit's of the Shilka were about what you could expect of DML at that Time, and I built two of them over the year's. There Instruction's were IMHO there Weak points when you purchased there kit's ! Since then, I have added the Meng kit to my collection and when I was finished it was Not all that much Better, and for Me, looks under scale in the Turret.

CHEERS; MIKE.

If it'll help, I can send you close up photos of the actual guns in that area. Maybe you could even try your hand at using thin wall brass tubing to try and replicate the chutes.

The ejection chutes are close together when the barrels are close together and wider apart when the barrels are wider apart.
The two upper barrels are close and the two lower are wider apart.
Sorting out the parts:
Ejection chutes: C6 and C9: C6 is the wide and C9 is the narrow pair
Rear mounting plates: C2 and C5: C2 is wide, C5 is narrow
Front mounting plates: C4 and C3: C3 is narrow, C4 is wide.

When I add this up I get this result:
C6, C2 & C4 are the wide ones
and
C9, C5 and C3 are the narrow ones.

If the parts are labeled correctly on the sprues then the instructions should work. I built this kit in 1999 so my memory of possible assembly problems could have faded ...

I measured the distances between the locating pins on C6/C9 and the holes in C2/C5 on an untouched kit and they line up according to the assembly instructions. There are 4 holes in each of C2 and C5, the front ones are for C6/C9 and rear ones are for the pins at the rear end of the guns, E30/E49.
The "humps" on the top side of C2/C5 goes between the guns, the wider "hump" faces the inside of the turret and the narrow hump receives part C19 which is between the guns and aligns with the guns. The "wings" at the rear end of C6/C9 mount underneath C2/C5, they do not fit into slots and they do not go outside the sides of C2/C5. C33/C34 fits to the sides of C2+C4 and C3+C5.

There is a lot of flash on my untouched kit though .....
/ Robin

The tricky bit is to shape that curved half-pipe at the front
Maybe by bending a brass tube and the grinding off the inside of the bend. I bought a PE-set back in 1999 and it tried doing those chutes with flat plates so the result, if it had worked, would have been as if square section "pipes" had been curved and then had the inner curve opened up.
"Dang difficult" is just the beginning of it ....
/ Robin