Airsoft FG42

[kingmaker]

FG 42 airsoft.Hi back again,i have been considering this for 2 years now,at first i was put off by the large size of airsoft gearboxes spoiling the look of the build,this gun is very thin looking at the reciever from above.
Also the components are complex to manufacture as one a off.After many hours of thought i have arrived at a design around an m14 gearbox and mag (mid cap of course),with a g36 hop unit modified to side feed.Thanks to the other builders of FG42's on here and other places whose work i studied and helped with my initial cofigeration choices.
now watch this.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=NstrbkCg_ks
How could you not want one realy,i have a great fascination with inovative,effective and aestheticaly pleasing designs.Oddly enough my name is Vickers also like the guy in the video,i allways joke he is my uncle Larry(i wish).Fg42 copies are being made today(real steel)some believe a modernised version could have its place on a battlefield today.Although there were some drawbacks to the ww2 german version  they were very potent guns to say the least,although by the time they had it in full production the war was just about over
My construction will be all metal,sheet steel, panel beaten reciever and stock.Many parts will be machined from aluminium,this is easy to work with and is light so my final build will be just over 3kg,so it is nice to skirmish all day with,
I have taken the the trigger/switch,cut off lever and selecter lever of the m14 gearbox,this slims it down a bit,it will fire from a remote trigger and micro switch,protected by a programmable burst mosfet.
this will get my semi auto function back,and with some units,you can have single shot,but hold the trigger down and it will go full auto.
I have sought advice on another forum and talked out of getting a King Kong burst wizard2,and advised to get a Jefftron unit that is very affordable and in europe also,but i don't know much about it,although no one has said anything bad about it yet.Any input her would be a great help.
Also magazine choice,cyma mid caps or MAG (the brand MAG),any advice here also please
I used a 1 inch  bar pressed into a wooden vee shape with a fly press this folded the butterfly design reciever into the u shape i need,and mp5/g3 reciever is made in a similar way.

[kingmaker]

Here is the rough shape of the receiver,the rounded section at the top was formed by the 1 inch bar in the press.The L shaped part bottom right is the fillet to form the sides of the pistol grip and will be welded in place.The cut out in the grip is for access to a spring loaded pluger that will actuate my micro switch,the one i have may be designed for a computer mouse,the amperage it must take is very low, it is only the signal current for the mosfet.
the aluminium plate(2 off) will screw onto the side of the grip to get the correct shape,if i need to work in my trigger and mechanism this plate will be removable.
The bulge on the right and side is to accomadate my mechbox motorrThe plate on the left is the front plate,the bent over tabs give it strength and more contact area for the weld.this plate will have a turned
bush, with a small screw,the outer barrel will locate in the bush/ring if that is easier to understand.
Also i will have to fabrictate the side loading magwell.It will be riveted to the receiver later.

[kingmaker]

 TM COMPATIBLE M14 gearbox,nearest to the shape i could find to get the look i want.The two ALU blocks are attatched with a steel pin at the front and a usfull thread in the caseing on the rear block,these blocks will be trapped bettween the reveiver walls and screws will hold it firmly in place.ANY gearbox movement at all will result in crap shooting,or more likely no shooting at all because it wont work.
I want to enjoy shooting this as well as looking at it,if it looks like Fred Flinstone made it and nothing comes out the end when i pull the trigger i'm waisting my time.
The g36 hop unit has been cut in half and a side feeding housing with feed tube attatched,ignore the short barrell it is just to make it easy to work on.These hop ups are known for accurate shooting,and keeping their setting while under gearbox vibration,so boo to all those m4 and Ak hop units.
At the bottom is the trigger plunger the left side of the plunger has an old gearbox bearing on the end to reduce friction.The trigger length of pull will be fully adjustable,with this design,the square part in the middle of the unit is the adjuster.On the far right of the pluger you can just see the white/black microswitch with 3 small pins.to the right of that is Gate Nano mosfet,although this is now fitted in Ar15 i have just built from bits and bobs.

[kingmaker]

The FG42 is famous having a number of relatively  modern features for its day all in one package,even if this gun did not show all of these ideas 1st.It was a 94cm hand held gun with selective fire,although it fires a full size cartridge it reduced recoil in 3 ways,a flash surpressor with compensation ports,a tapered cartridge in a parallel chamber,the case would expand in the chamber softening the recoil,also the stock was spring loaded.A repro FG is seen on youtube and several shooters fire the gun and state it kicks no more than an AR15.Accuracy is further enhanced by firing from a closed bolt semi auto,and cooling is aided in full auto by firing open bolt.The mechanism is not overly complicated also.The model E I am making was not that durable that is why it was re-designed after only 2000 were made,only about 100 exist today.Other features include bayonet,bipod,folding sights and semi bullpup design which allows a long barrel for accurate shooting.The side load mag will allways be downside on this rifle as it makes it unbalanced,also the bipod apears to be effectively usless it just folds when you fire.
History lesson over,back to airsoft dreams,i have machined my compensator from aluminium and used one of those cheap compound vices to drill the holes,this vice will turn your drill into a kind of cheap milling machine.The sight mount next to it is sheet metal,i was going to make a former for this but got away with using a vice and hammering around round bar with a big nylon mallet.The tube is 16mm steel,any parts that fit on the tube must be a close fit or you will have problems.
Further down the barrel is the gas block and bipod mount.This has been machined(ali)in the lathe then band sawn and finished of with belt sanders,this is ideal as there will be several threaded holes that must be durable,a casting will never be as good.
The stock is 0.9mm steel to save weight,although generaly i use 1.2mm elsewhere as it is easier to weld and stronger,i have carved a piece of oak,place it on the metal and add about 16mm to the outline.
clamp it in a big vice and give it good f***ing with a nylon mallet with a 2 inch diameter face.Its not that hard trust me.The relieved detail on the stock is stamped in a die,I don't have that option,so i will braze strips of steel to get the ribs.

[kingmaker]

Here is the receiver, the square hole is at the top,the hop unit goes here.Also the fire selector,this passes though the body,inside it turns a drum that blockes trigger movement,flats on the drum allow trigger to move in certain positions.The fire selecter is band sawn from 10mm ali sheet (as is rhe trigger) it is then turned in the lathe,these are the 2 L shaped parts on the left,the knurled knob rotates on the arm,and has a spring loaded pin inside to make it stay in position.Pointing down is safe.
Many good images are seen here claus.espeholt.dk/fg42.html almost my only good reference source for detail.Even a Shoei replica eludes me let alone an original.

[insterburger]

Certainly seems to be taking shape. Good work!

[2nd Bat]

Lots of pent up desire for this weapon. Keep us posted on your progress. Nice to see you extending your talents to a weapon that actually saw combat!

[kingmaker]

Well the oddball choice of my builds was discused before with 2nd Battalion,and i asked him what I should build,he sent me a list but i felt they were too USA specific for me,but when the FG is ROCKING
I will no doubt need a new project,suggestions below please.
A german customer did request an EM1  www.forgottenweapons.com/rifles/em1/ This is a UK bullpup from 1949 that used a sheet metal receiver and gas operated roller locked bolt ,like the mg42.
Initialy i rejected the idea,these things take an age too make,its only a mad hobby.However a few months ago a real sword type 95 gearbox was on TigerIII daily deals for some time,and would fit the bill,but did not buy one. Here,this is another interesting gun that fired a .280" Enfield round that puts all other assualt rifle ammo to shame.Yep 5.56 Nato is ****.
Any way just come out the workshop with my FG parts.The point where the wood fore grip meets the reciever front is a potential flex or weak spot.The barrel does locate in a 13mm long bush in the receiver front,but it was no good enough so i have extended the bush by brazing some more tube to this point to locate the outer barrel better.the silver block(gas block) in the photo goes at the front end of the fore grip and a long piece of threaded 6mm bar will bolt it to the receiver traping the fore grip and bracing the structure.It will also break down quick also.
There are now detail panels to make the reciever look more like it shouid these are brazed on also.
If any body buys a butane torch and silver solder rods they will be able to do some strong sheet metal construction without much outlay.It will be almost as strong as braze.The only weld i have done so far is the strip I put in the fill in the bottom of the metal body and the top section of the pistol grip,there will be another section to do on the other side of the grip.
My hope is that if my post's are detailed enough some people will be able to copy this,as the thinking out of the design is time consuming,and build some more of these.

[kingmaker]

Hi seasons greetings to all.
First pic shows the detail added to the stock.I have cut strips of sheet steel and shaped them to fit.I drilled several holes behind each one and used acetylene to silver solder them in place.I used silver solder flux also,this solder melts at a lower temperature and causes less distortion.Heat had to be applied by swapping the torch from one side to the other.
The L shaped cut out at the bottom of the stock is for the sling mount,i carved this shape onto my wooden fromer and clamped the metal stock and former in a vice,and wacked the indentation in with a piece of 2mm square aluminium bar,it came out very neat and needs almost no cleanig up.I was surprised, i thought it was going to make a big mess and scrap my part.You can see i have been tiying up again also.

Next i cut the 8 barrel cooling slots in my fore grip.This is my set up,heath robinson may be but it worked.On the left is the main lathe chuck the thin slver piece is my milling cutter.I have an off cut of 40mm plate,this is in my tool post and the stock is clamped to this plate,the slot positions are marked with masking tape.

FG 42 receiver panel beating,so easy 5 year olds can do it

[kingmaker]

FG42 First Model

I have finaly instaled my barrel hop unit and mosfet with wiring.And have finaly let loose some plastic balls in anger,to see them fly out my work shop door ,across the field and into the hedge 200+ feet away certailny created that warm glow rising up through my body that i have been waiting for.
I had two 52 cm brass tight bores that I got of ebay for a mega price,I chose the one wiith the longest hop window as I feel this allows more contact area of the rubber on the BB.
First i got a 6mm reamer and used it to unsure no burrs on the hop window,then i put the berrell in the lathe and used a tapered tool to machine an extended barrel crown at the muzzle,this  gives it a bluderbuss shape,but the taper is very subtle,and allows more air around the bb as it leaves the barrel and stabilises it as it leaves the end.Then i got a piece of precision ground carbide,coated it in diamond paste and ran it up and down the bore a few dozen times to ensure superior finish.The g36 hop adjuster unit came with a rubber that has an internal mound that is a pair of raised rounded lumps in the hop window instead of the one mound usualy seen.It is a copy of the firefly rubber from japan,exept i can get hold of one of these and it does not cost a fortune,it does give good lift to 0.2's without protruding into the barrel very far.Further testing will check its worth later on,maybe,I have heard they vare not good with heavy weight ammo.
My microw switch was easily damaged by soldering luckily I bought a few,they are not expensive.I have an APS fused mosfet for now to get me going,thanks to Tiger111,only $7.
I put the barrel ,gearbox and mag in.There was no mag catch,the hop unit was just trapped by the gearbox which itself was just wedged in the body.I dont want lots of screw holes in all the wrong places if i need to make any adjustments later.
I got some double feeds and only 190fps,370 was the target with the spring I belive is in the gearbox,some filing to make the nozzle extend nearer to the hop rubber lips got me to 270fps.Strip down again and more filing and a tempory pressure bolt to hold the hop unit better got me to 338 and some more alignment fiddling yielded 344fps,with good feeding from my cyma and a MAG (brand name) 70round mid caps.I have dimpled the chamber wall as you look down the feed tube from the magazine.this can help eliminate double feeds.The magazine feed tube must be centered  with the hop unit feed tube,same with the nozzle,centred with the barrel,0.25 mm is your max error here in both cases.Thats why many guns malfunction,eratic feeding,double feeds,erratic fps on even good brands of gun,often there is movement in these areas so problems may appear later on.
Also some nozzles only overlap the hop rubber 0.5mm ,file away .5mm from the front of the tappet plate and it will extend the nozzle travel length and give you an extra 30fps very often,be sure you do not file too near where the nozzle sits in the tappet plate,leave a lip just around this portion.

My bipod legs are hammered from .92mm cs70 carbon steel,light and strong,I will harden them also.This is a temporary assembly,some parts are just taped in place or have rough bolts,also there is detailing to the hand grip and fore grip to complete.Generaly I am super happy although the time to get it how I like it is putting a bit of a dampner on it,so I will hopefully be able to get my steel parts chemicaly blacked and the ALI ones anodised black.The original on Claus Espholt looks painted but that will soon look horrible and add thickess and stop parts fitting correctly.The finished battle ready weight is 3.4 kg which is near my target limit to make it skirmish friendly.St George Armoury will be back soon with the finshed job in a couple of weeks.

[2nd Bat]

Looks like M14 mags?

[stuka]

very nice man

[2nd Bat]

This is definitely a good choice for a replica airsoft gun. You're doing a great job on this.

[scvngr]

Outstanding work!

[kingmaker]

I must say the front of the M14 mag where it hooks in has a very small indent,very shallow,will I get problems when it starts to wear
at this point.
Also M.A.G magazines seem to locate better and seem better made internally,but they are grey which is wrong and the metal case has very sharp edges indeed,and they are more expensive.I did want to go for the cyma's but they don't suit my mag well as much,or so it appears at the moment.
In the UK people are saying shoe will make the FG42 maybe in the next year,is there any truth here.
 

[stuka]

couldn't you just repaint the MAG mags?

Also, here is Shoei's website, looks like they'll be ~1300 USD

www.shoeiseisakusho.co.jp/

[kingmaker]

That link seems to be for the Fg replica,i think,don't read Jap text though,the talk i heard was of a new Airsoft version.No doubt it will be a £1000, so at that price i would never buy one,well not that i would need to now.
i could paint the grey mags but the paint will chip and i don't like that look personally,although it is authentic in war,obviously.The paint that comes on bought products always seems more durable than when you paint yourself,even Krylon paint is not as good.

[2nd Bat]

I have had real good luck with consistent functionality and durability with MAG brand magazines. Thank you for sharing your efforts. Your craftsmanship is very impressive. Should you choose to pursue it. I believe this has 100 times the market potential than your equally impressive work on the never fielded but designed, next generation, STG/ MP44 replacement.

[stuka]

You're right, it says model not airsoft, my bad.

If this became a similar price to the mp40's/stg44's we could see an influx of FJ kits I would think =P

[kingmaker]

Hi been away from here for a while,I managed to actualy make it to some WW2 games and test the gun,before I got it all blacked,colour anodised aluminium and hot chemical blacking which the latter is very scratch and wear resistent on my other guns that have extensive use.
Spec as follows

weight with mag and lipo = 3.4kg,balance is good, its  around the pistol grip due to the gearbox mostly being behind this piont.

RPS =13with mosfet and 7.4 lipo,it has a cyma grey motor with black endbell,not the greatest of nmotors but they do the job,have had no lockups due to lack of torque.

Gearbox -cyma V7 TM COMPATIBLE.This brand is very very  dependible considering the cheapness,£32 from Tiger111.I have added shims to the gears as normal otherwise it is stock,it is is 345-350 fps although i have seen 368 from it but my nozzle may not now be so well aligned or the spring has been left compressed as there is no cut of lever to help park your piston all the way forward.I have drilled a hole in the bottom of the gearbox and reciever so i can poke a wire in and pop my AR latch.
Also it seems to have a medium length motor(unconfirmed) and not a short,AK MOTORS DO NOT FIT,BUT IT IS LONGER for sure.Also my bevel gear had a tight spot,due to one of the teeth so i changed it,only the spur gear is non standard i think.
The tappet plate spring seems to be not that powerfull due to friction so feeding with the mid caps seems to stop once the mid caps are fully loaded.Not sure what to do about that.

Angled Grip - This is generaly ok but if you hold the gun one handed when doing lots of mag changes my wrist does start to ache,i dont get this problem with any other guns so i hold the gun differently
when mag changing which partly negates the advantage of a pistol stock grip on an assualt rifle,well in my opinion.

Disassembly - A dream compared to most TM constructed guns.
I just press the spring button on the stock slide it off,pull off the motor connectors,undo the 2 m3 allen screws on the side of the reciever slide out the gearbox.the barrel wont quite slide out the back after the gearbox,so i split the forestock and outer barell from the reciever,by removing the long m6 bolt that sits bettween the bipod pivots,so less than 2 minutes all together.Also the gearbox is much easier to work on as all that m14 crap is removed externaly.I dont even need a screw driver to change my trigger micro switch,it just slides on to two pins,although i do have to undo the screws on the grip side plate,also i can get at the trigger mechanism,and do any repairs or change my length of trigger pull.

Looks -- type 1 Fg42 so say no more most awsome looking assault rifle on the planet-EVER.

Accuaracy and Range when i poke it out my workshop window the bb's are in the hedge on the other side if the field,so i know that is 230ft,dont tell the farmer.Also hits can get a grouping the size of a head at 80ft so i am happy.It just has the cyma firefly clone bucking that came with the cyma g36 hop unit i am using, that cost $4 all in.Bargain,Tiger111 again.The hop is adjusted by a drum the best design by far in my opinion,stays where it is set,is not too sensative like on an m4, and is just inside the ejection port and you dont have to touch anything to get to it and you can do it with gloves on.

Magazines  they are MAG brand,i had them blacked with the other parts,i did not want them grey,yuk.I have one of the short ones too,that is my 10round jump mag.Loaded in the gun when parachuting

A good tip for builders- I use M3 Socket head hex drive or allen screws,thay use a 2.5mm key,if you use m4 button or dome head and m5 grub screws,that just a thread with a hex drive hole in it,all 3 types of screw need only one tool or allen key when working on it,a big advantage,I will put one of these keys in the stock as often vibration can make them come undone.Also these screws last longer without rounding off on the drive hole,I use high tensile engineering quality black ones,they are very good on gearbox casings too.You can buy small quantities on ebay,so ****off all those soft philipes screws on your guns now.


So generaly its all good apart from that feed issue when the mags are fully loaded.

These are my annodised aluminium parts,they way 0.34kg,steel has a specific gravity 3 times that of ali,so these parts could have weighed 1kg instead,big difference.
Top is the bayonet
2nd row pistol grips,flash hider,bipod pivots,front and rear sights,hop unit(half of it) 2nd grip
3rd row,mag catch,catch side cover,gas block and bipod mount,trigger,silver drum to lock trigger,small flat on one edge allows shooting,below selector lever and knob,charging handle.

[2nd Bat]

Fabulous!

[vietnammarine]

Wow, outstanding job!

[insterburger]

As Paul McCartney sang, "It's getting better all the time!"

Awesome job!

[2nd Bat]

What an impressive end result. spectacular.

[CPL. Mills 2nd Rangers]

That is freaking sweet!

[kingmaker]

Hello i'm back,guns still working well,apart from a broken female motor connector,and a blown mosfet fuse,i have have had to to nothing to it,although it does not get used much to be honest.Mid caps and lots of mag changes not my thing,I like hi caps and lots of spray.Hope that does not offend any of you milsim guys .
Any way how come the photos come back after photobucket blocked all the photos,did the forum buy a license so they could be viewed?
Its good the pics are up again ,so many interesting forum threads were ruined,they are a valuable resource for hobbies like this.