Hennepin's Mauser build

[hennepin15]

Base rifle is a snow wolf m24. Here's the progress and pictures so far. More detailed building instructions will be on the way. 

[2nd Bat]

Nice start! Keep us posted on your progress.

[hennepin15]

Here's day 3 of my progress. I am almost finished with the top and lower guards. Unfortunately all my sanding discs broke for my dremel so to the rasp it is.

Bondo is extremely messy and takes a ton of sanding/layering to make the piece solid and not have pits/crevices

After this build inventing some sort of mould before hand/maybe not even using hardener would be wise so you don't have to sand constantly. My whole workbench is covered in white particles but I must soldier on. Next is filling in the band space and making the handguards fit together seamlessly.

That metal area sticking out up front is the outer barrel. More layers on Bondo will cover that up as well as the crack in the forarm.
I'm trying to think does bondo dry without hardener? I thought so but I heard it takes an extremely long time.

[2nd Bat]

It won't harden beyond a powdery clay like substance. No integrity at all. Hopefully someone will create 3D or silicone mold pieces for this type of project. Bondo is not going to prove to be very solid in the thicknesses your showing. If you're using the marine application with fiberglass strands it will be more than strong enough. It's hard looking at your pictures to see your exact material. The plain Bondo is easier to sand to a smooth finish. Either way you have to work through a series of layers, sanding between to reveal gaps, air bubbles and dips that need to be filled in. I find if I'm lucky I can do it in three if not it might take five or six.

Your efforts look great and your're making great progress.

[hennepin15]

Thank you! For mine I'm using plain bondo (I got 1 gallon for $15 on sale) but mixing in some polymer shards from the body. I'm doing a massive coat to finally get the handgaurd all leveled out. I'll post that picture. It's very thin but I still can add a few millimeters for strength. The stock should be the easiest part.

You have a great point. 3d print for molds then bondo for mass production. That should solve our problem. I noticed with bondo builds there is a high fixed cost for sanders, paste, and tools. But once that is done you could get a miniature economy of scale going and could theoretically churn them out much faster with 3d printed stuff.

[hennepin15]

Stock is cut down to the proper angle. More reinforced bondo was added on top. All this will be sanded of course.
More sanding, dremel to come.


Like the 2nd bat cheap smle sanding down the front area for the rear band is very tedious, thins the bondo to a large degree. I might just fake my own rear band out of bondo and attach a sling mount to it. This will save much time and allow me to get the precise angle of the front end.

[2nd Bat]

If your bondo is laid on thicker in any place than say 1/2 inches you are going to need to strengthen it with some kind of rebar effect. For example your wooden dowel extending your stock forearm. Where you added depth to the butt stock you perhaps could have drilled into the stock and partially screwed in some short screws. When you add the "ball shape" to the butt stock band grip base you may want to set two or three screws that your bondo will fill in around. Otherwise with a sharp jarring impact the bondo will likely crack or chip off. The dyna glass Bondo with fiberglass mixed in is absolutely the right way to go. Having said that you should be fine. Your latest picture shows that this series of layering is tedious and T times disheartening because as we slop on a new layer after sanding if often feels like a step back.

Keep at it you're doing great. At this stage a rasp is probably you're best bet for general shaping if you don't have a sander. Once you get into final sanding be sure you have a respirator! In fact when mixing and working with these two part epoxies it's always a good idea!

Where you're at now was always my least favorite part. It gets better from here on as you're sculpted efforts look more and more like your intended result.

[hennepin15]

For reinforcement im using liquid cement my brother uses for models. I also can use some of my dad's heavy duty marine fiberglass to fill in cracks or seams. I'm creating wooden reinforcement in the stock so I don't have to slop bondo down 4 inches. I will screw things in for sure! Now that I don't have to fit the rear band I feel much more motivated to continue! Hopefully my faux band will turn out well

I just figured with the vz24 there is alot of rear wood/bondo to keep in place. I'm not sure if the h band can support the entire upper guard. Have you ever done bands out of electrical tape and just painted them? I'd have to sand inlets for the tape of course.

[hennepin15]

Day 4 of progress. I was working for about 4 hours on properly seaming the upper, lower guard. To anyone who does this use thin peices of sintra/wood to make a perfectly straight handguard edge. It'll make your life so much easier than trying to sand each bondo one down. Either way I can see its starting to slowly get there. I also did some cutting to the stock, have my wood support drawn out.

I also switched to a k98 because it'll be so much easier. Still working on getting the fake rear band looking nice up front.

[2nd Bat]

It's taking shape very nicely. The small electric Sanders are a big help with this kind of work but if you get one try to get one with a built in vacume. It will still leave dust on everything but not quite as badly! Do NOT breath in this dust and wear ear plugs (to keep the dust out)

When I spoke of using screws I meant install them BEFORE slopping on the bondo. This creates your rough outline and shape as a kind of guide AND rebar for strength. Drilling and installing them after the fact might chip off your bondo so I wouldn't do that but rather hope for the best. Another technique is to drill holes in your plastic stock or dig a bunch of gouges (before applying your bondo) so your resin paste can sleep into it for greater strength.

[hennepin15]

Here is the rifle at this point. Paint is all finished, structurally everything is done except for the rear band. Of course shortcuts were taken with the sling mount and the distinct circle part on the rifle stock. Sintra sights will be the finishing touch for thus build. Bondo was frustrating and its discouraging to see the finished product have minor infedilities that would take hundreds of hours of layering to perfect. Either way I have myself a 30 round spring k98 which is fully m24 compatible so the tradeoffs are apparent.

I'm also thinking of using melted down pvc for the rear band like the guy who build the g41 conversion. Duct tape would look cheapish as a band. Pvc would also be more acceptable for a sling mount.

I also shot the gun today and the performance was awesome up to 150 ft. I guess the end result was worth it. A skirmish able k98 for airsoft.

[2nd Bat]

Layering to a super smooth finish is tiresome (even with a power sander). In your case adding the stock disc and cutting in the sling groove would go a long way toward improving the overall impression but your efforts show what can be done and are certainly equal to or nicer than my first conversion effort! You managed to do it on a tight budget which hopefully will encourage others. Melting and shaping an abs stock band and adding the front and rear site will be a nice touch. Hopefully someone will create 3D printer parts that could be purchased inexpensively perhaps even the forearm and handguard.

There are some things you could do to your blonde stock that would create the illusion of a laminated stock and certainly something to consider but absolutely not critical at all. Another thought is to cosmetically tweaked the butt plate to more closely resemble the KAR 98 butt cup. A silver and grey acrylic paint job could accomplish that nicely.

Thanks so much for sharing. When you're all done a picture with your full impression would show what a nice enhancement your efforts produced.

[hennepin15]

Thank you! I'll do that to the buttplate and cut a recess for the sling and that gap under the bolt. I'm almost there I just have to pick up a heat gun so I can bend the sintra into the shape for the sight hood and rear band. Sintra has such potential. I plan on using it down the road for future projects.

[2nd Bat]

Those final touches will add a huge amount of appeal to this project and finish it up nicely. These conversions are so much more skirmishable than the gas offerings or the DBoys KAR 98. Quantumly better shooter than the S&T Springfield so it's absolutely a rifle that allows you to hold your own on the airsoft field. Nice job but don't stop now go back and look closely at lots of Kar98 pictures as motivation and do those final detail touches. Also at the risk of sounding like a parent (which I am!) Clean up after yourself!

[hunterj]

How did you paint it? What was the process for that? Looks great!

[hennepin15]

I coated it with dark wood satin first. I then used yellow ochre acrylic paint and painted it over the dark coat. I then used black acrylic paint in water and dipped it in a rag to soak over the gaps in the ochre. After that I used a Carmel satin coat of spray paint to finish it off.

[hunterj]

hennepin15 how does the snow wolf compare to the VSR 10's? Also, could you measure the Height/Width/Length of the mags? The VSR 10 ones are too long to fit in the italian pouches and i was wondering what the size of the M24 ones are, thanks!

[adrg]

SW M24 mags are similar to L96. Basically they are shorter and higher than VSR. You can dismantle them and obtain much lower profile but will lose some integrity and the pop-off mechanism. You can't dismamtle the VSR ones.

[hunterj]

thanks adrg is there also anyway you could measure the dimensions? that would be extremely helpful.

[adrg]

It's 10/4.5/2.15 cm

[hennepin15]

Update, I find for these conversions using sintra board as the edge of any wood parts is extremely useful instead of having to shave down bondo to form a perfect edge. I am doing this with all of the edges on the front end. Hopefully it looks much better when I am done with all the bits and peices.

[hennepin15]

I've always wanted to come back to this project, just to refine it and make mass production easier. I think the biggest obstacle last time was the sighting system, I will return to my home work bench in December and try out my designs. 

[rullow]

Well seen the amount of work put into grinding off the putty - it seems to me that making a full wooden stock wouldnt be no more difficult- especially given the fact that you can do it even from the plyboard - since the late kar98s were made out of layered wood.....

[volkssturm]

On my last (still unfinished) Kar98 project I got a real steel Mauser rear sight. I don't recall which model, but it's not the Kar98 sight with the integral scope mount on the side. The Dboys Kar98 sight screws on top the barrel, which makes mounting it a problem on an airsoft gun. Most Mauser sight bases are on a sleeve that slides onto the barrel rather than are screwed in place. So I cut the length of the bottom of the sleeve and spread it apart until it fit on the VSR outer barrel, then epoxied it in place.

[2nd Bat]

I am still hopeful that some one will 3D print all the components needed to creats a "Bar98" kit so skirmishable, decent looking conversions could easily be completed at low cost. There would still be some minor tweaking needed and some cosmetic work but the end result would hopefully be lots of Kar98s equipping our Whermach troops.

[CPL. Mills 2nd Rangers]

That looks awesome, great work!