My latest project almost done.

[rob love]

There was a thread on MLU a little more than 2 years back where Dennis Walker had a bunch of pieces for sale on Kijiji. Thread is here: http://www.mapleleafup.net/forums/sh...ht=searchlight


In a photo of the 25 pr chassis he was selling, I noticed a bent piece of metal in the background and recognized what it was. Another photo of a CMP trailer chassis had the base. I called Dennis, made a deal for the 25 pdr chassis and also a deal on the twin 50 mount. I went out in the spring and picked up both. To my pleasant surprise, Dennis had pretty much all of the small bits and pieces for the twin mount, and had already restored the sight assembly.

Here are the original photos from the ads, copied from the other link.

[Harry Moon]

Did you get the wagon as well?

[rob love]

When I got it home, I realized some parts were missing. I called Dennis, and he swore everything he took off it was in the items he gave me. I took him for his word.


Anyway, fast forward to a couple weeks ago and there was a pair of M2HB guns (dewats of course) on the floor of my shop that I kept tripping on. So I decided to get onto this project. I did take some photos of the one marking on the front shield to try and ID at a later date. Apparently Canada bought a very small number of these for costal defense. Later, a lot of them seem to have found their way to the RCAF as you can find them with the crest on the shield. We have an almost complete mount at work, and had a second one that a naval unit has borrowed for display. They left behind the shield which has the RCAF crest.


I sanded the area trying to bring up more, but it would seem whatever the base colour was was long gone, and just the red number and letter, along with a little bit of the white name strip on top remained. When the time came to sandblast the shield, I gave it a light blast, and some stencilling appeared. I gently blasted and took photos. With the help of my wife, who loves things like suduko and word puzzles, combined with my minor knowledge of military nomenclature, we translated most of it.

The main text was basically a part number along with "homogenous armor plate spec (undidentifed number) class B". This was under all the layers of paint, which appeared to be olive green along with battleship grey.

[rob love]

No Harry, I did not get the wagon. I already have two of them. Are you looking for one (or two)?

[rob love]

Here are a few shots of the assembly as it came together. I went with the semigloss green over the POR15. The green will flatten over time to give it some patina.



As I went to install the first cradle, and comparing with the manual, I realized I was missing two large bolts with nuts that the two cradles hinged on. I searched a few places, and had just about given up, when I realized I brought home that 25 pdr chassis at the same time, and Dennis had included some spare parts with it. The spare parts were sitting in a box just 10 feet away, and sure enough, the two missing bolts and nuts were there. Dennis, if you are reading this, you were right. In the end, there was one missing 6" long 1/2" UNF bolt, nut, a tube that fits onto it, and lockwashers, but I will be able to buy the missing bolt downtown and make up the missing tube.

[Jordan Baker]

Great project and really nice to see one of the items Dennis cherished getting the full up rebuild it deserves. I’m sure he is pleased.

[rob love]

I have mis-filed some in between photos, so jump to today and here is where it sits now. I got the mount mostly together yesterday and tossed the pair of 50s onto it. I still have to change one to right hand feed configuration, which can be a bugger on a deact. At this point, I now have to refinish the clamps for the shoulder braces, the cradle pins, and clean up and install the tombstone drums. I missed out on the ones at Dennis' auction last December, this pair of drum mags cost me considerably more than if I had made it to that bidding ring. As well, the swing chair has to be refinished and installed. I also have to figure out what marking will go on the shield.

My plan was to move this in to the gunroom, but the damn thing weighs in at 875 pounds without the guns or drums. It is likely at around 1100 pounds with those items and the dummy ammo. I am now leaning towards it residing in the workshop, as that shield is too heavy to install without a tractor.

The photos make it look pretty simple, but in reality I had to remove the left cradle about 4 or 5 times trying to get the elevation clamp adjusted properly along with other tasks. There were a few other instances of having to remove major assembly's in that old adage of "two steps forward and one step back". Then I had to remove the front portions to get the front shield onto it.

[Wayne Hingley]

Very nice Rob. A great piece for sure. What fun that would have been to fire!