Note the traverse equipment is now brass and green paint:
Most of the markings are still very clear:
The bore rates NRA train tunnel:
"Light frosting in the grooves, should clean up well..."
Breech mechanism is functional and feels solid to my untutored hand.
Tires are solid - holding air and appear NOS - they still have the wee moulding hairs on 'em.
So here I am, utterly new at arty or projects of this size, and ignorant in the ways of Very Large Guns. Step one in such situations is to RTFM. Alas, I can't find one. Been all over the internet, and come up empty. The IWM will run me a copy of the one they have for about a hundred Canadian bucks, and make no guarantees of quality. If any of you know of one, please let me know.
There's an interesting political/financial angle on this job. The gun is currently the property of the Friends of the Regiment Society and NOT National Defence. I'm told that this means there can be ZERO spillover in resources between ND and the organization that owns the gun. No parts can change hands, no transport resource can be employed, no labour on government time can be used. The RCA museum may have a ton of spare bits, but we can't access any of it. I understand this and am very OK with playing within the rules outlined by necessity, but it does make the job harder.
Things we need right now:
- sight mount
- associated sights
- uncut gun shield
- big-ol' round firing platform
- various bins, boxes, bags, ranging sticks, shovels and accoutrements to hang off the multitude of brackets, webbing, and such.
- a pull through about the diameter of my Popeye-like forearm.
I've done some internet nosing around. There's that outfit in the UK has the sight mount, but won't ship overseas. There's that Australian source for drag ropes. But that still leaves a lot of bits and bobs. I want that firing platform more than my next breath, and every time I look at that cut shield I die a little inside. If any of you have blueprints that would allow us to make a replica shield here, that'd be grand. The Society has corporate connections in oilfield manufacturing, and some clever bastard with an equally clever machine could doubtless make us a fresh shield with the holes in the right places.
Once that's done, I have to figure out how to do big ol' rivets...
Thank you for the benefit of your wisdom, folks.
Dan