Airsoft Panzerfaust Build

[p40warhawk]

I'm going to try my hand at making a Panzerfaust for airsoft. If it goes well I would be happy to make some for people.
The Panzerfaust was a disposable anti-tank weapon developed by the Germans. The real thing used black powder to fire the shaped charge at the target.

The build is seperated into several stages....

First Stage-The cannon. The cannon has has to be small enough to fit into a tube that is 4.5-6 cm in diameter! Thats tiny! I will use copper tubes most likely to form the cannon parts. It is made up into several sections.
Quick Change adapter- This allows the 12 gram CO2 charges to be used. Simply insert charge, fire, and if you want to reload just snap in a new charge.
Expansion Chamber- Allows the gas to be pressurized to the ideal PSI. The largest part of the cannon diameter wise.
Valve- For this project I am gonna use an electric valve. This makes firing easy and quick.
Narrower...thingy...-This makes the expansion chamber narrow into the size of the barrel.
Barrel-.....its the barrel..... ;D

Second Stage-The Body- This is decorative, but it does allow for mounting sights, triggers, and the like.
Body Cover- A simple PVC tube, 4.5-6 cm in diameter. Will be painted and lettered to resemble a real PF tube.
Sight- Simple rear sight, just like the real deal.

Third Stage- The Trigger
Battery Box- Allows the electric valve to open and close. Must be discreet, but it cant fall off.
Safety Switch- A simple sliding two position switch. Will be connected to a Red LED to show device is armed. Must be activated to fire projectile.
Trigger Switch- A simple spring loaded lever. When lever is pressed it hits a small button which opens the valve.

Fourth Stage- Projectile- Im thinking this will be a modified NERF Vortex. Carved, painted, rebalenced, and made to have folding fins. I may have to meld two together to make the 5.5 inch warhead. This could also be adapted to make a "sonic warhead" like the grenades featured in another post.

Any comments? I will post pics when I start. I need to know what the dimensions of the blast chamber and barrel should be! Any ideas?

EDIT: Another question! Where can I find a small electric valve that could be used for such a task? All I can find are really clunky ones..

Some pics of the real deal....

i16.photobucket.com/albums/b24/hybenamon/LAND/INFANTRY/WW%20Antitank%20Weapons/Panzerfaust01.jpg

upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/32/Panzerfaust_helsinki.jpg/300px-Panzerfaust_helsinki.jpg

www.geocities.com/Augusta/8172/pzfaust1.jpg

[biged]

You can get CO2 rated electric valves here. Expensive and large to fit into faust.

www.vtkustoms.com/GC800.html

Download a copy of GGDT - Gas Gun Design Tool

thehalls-in-bfe.com/GGDT/

You can enter the values and dimensions of the gun to see it's performance and speed before you build it.
You may want to build a ball valve style to help get you started.

///ed///

[p40warhawk]

Thanks for the info. Now I gotta figure all the math out, yuck. That does seem rather large, I belive I have seen smaller valves out there.... I will have to take a look.
What about electric solenoid valves? They are much smaller, and they are rated for crazy large PSI's. Are these usable, or is there something I shoud know?

[CharleyNovember]

I'd be concerned how much volume a small electro sol. type could push. Sure they are fast but they have to be able to let out a large volume through quickly aswell. I made a ball valve variety a long long time ago it worked pretty darn good. used a 12 gram.

[gryphon]

I loaned my old beater 12-gram ball-valve Panzerfaust to Ersatzjack, otherwise I'd post some construction detail pics for you. For my money, the way to go is with a good well-oiled brass ball valve ,screwed onto a length of high-pressure brass pipe to make an expansion chamber, capped at the back with a 12-gram quick changer. The business end is a length of 2" schd. 40 PVC, into which is muzzleloaded a 2" dia. Nerf Vortex finned mini-football. With a little practice at slapping the valve open, one of these things will throw foam with conviction (especially if you have a PVC barrel length of around 24" to 36" - my Bazooka barrel has much great range than my snubnose Panzerfaust barrel, even though both mount on the same valve assembly.)

As for sprinkler valves, don't use them with CO2 - the rubber diaphragm can't take the cold. Besides, the only way to get one of those things to dump air like it means it is to completely remove the solenoid, port it up to at least double the original dump vent size, and thread a pneumatic air gun or other momentary pneumatic valve assembly into the vent as a dump valve. With a diaphragm/dump valve combo, the bigger and quicker, the better.

For that slim, elegant Panzerfaust look, the 12-gram ball-valve assembly is the jammy, Jerry, Ja Wohl....

[biged]

That's the one I saw at the Bulge Event. It was a very good looking repro!
I was killed by it during the 1st game while manning my .30 cal & mortar.

The GC800 valves were designed to be used with CO2.

Irrigation "sprinkler" valves can be used with regulated CO2 only. It is safe up to 120 psi and a pop-valve. Unregulated and a catastrophic failure will occur at around 150+ psi.

Ball valves can handle pressures up to 1000 psi before they start to leak. Catastrophic failures do not occur until twice that pressure.

Swag-Lock ball valves ($$$) have a rating on the side each one. A friend gave me a 3/4 inch rated for 2200 psi.

Piston valves are scratch built valves which can handle pressures to which the material is rated for.

///ed///

[Ersatzjack]

As hinted at here are some pictures of the panzerfaust that Gryphon built. Hope it helps you. As you can see, I patched some damage and plan on painting it with some new durable paint that won't come off as easily. But that will be once it warms up a bit as I want to paint it together with a larger project in the garage.









biged - I didn't get to see your demise at the hands of the nerf rocket but it's pleasing to know that it happened and in that way stopped the tennis balls raining down from your mortar. At least for a little while.

[2nd Bat]

That looks quite good and undoubtedly works well also. What did you use for the housing around the 2" barrel to give it that fat nose cone look?

Obviously the rear tube is simply cosmetic to hide your mechanicals.

[gryphon]

I was in a hurry, so the nosecone was a circle of 1/4" plywood hot-melt glued to a length of 2" sched40 PVC, with smaller circles of yellow polyisocyanurate foamboard slipped onto the pipe and laminated to the ply on both faces. I just shaped the foam to taper with a shurform rasp and coarse-grit sandpaper, then slathered fibre-reinforced body putty over the foam (that's why I used the yellow stuff, polyester resin won't eat it.) If I hadn't been so lazy, I would have first laid up a stiffening undercoat of fiberglass and resin over the foam. Because I didn't, the nose dents kinda too easily now. Someday, I'll probably just make a quick set of female molds and kick out a batch of durable fiberglass Panzerfaust noses - I know a couple of guys besides me who want them. They'd be easy to make, therefore pretty inexpensive.

BTW, nice patch, ersatzjack - Thanks for posting the pics!

[CharleyNovember]

Yep that i almost exactly what I made. Except Fryphon did a better job on the nosecone.

[p40warhawk]

Very cool. What do you think of the possibility on building a rocket that can actually be shot instead of it being fake? A carved foamie cone that was weighted/balanced would be very cool. I would have to find a suitable material though.
What are the specs for your expansion chamber and barrel? You made it very slim! Is the whole body to scale or is it a little bigger?

[gryphon]

If I recall correctly, it's built to scale for the Panzerfaust 60.

from the archives:

"The Panzerfaust 30 tube had a diameter of 4.4cm (1.73 in.), the propellant now weighed 95g (3.35 oz.); the projectile now measured 49.5cm (19.49 in.) with a warhead diameter of 14cm (5.5 in.), and weighed 2.9kg (6.39 lb). The resulting projectile velocity was 30m/s (100 fps) making for a range of roughly 30m (100 ft.). The complete weapon now weighed 5,1 kg (11.23 lb) and had a length of 104.5cm (41.14 in.) (other sources: 103cm). Panzerfausts were supplied and transported in wooden crates that contained four complete weapons. The Panzerfaust 60 tube diameter increased to 5cm (1.97in.) and it had the same length as the 30, but now weighed 6.1 kg (13.4 lb.). Panzerfaust 100 had a tube diameter of 6cm (2.36in.) on the same length tube (other sources state that Panzerfaust 100’s length increased to 115cm.)"


I suppose a full-scale foam "rocket" could be made with a hollow base so that it would slip-fit OVER a length of 3/4" pipe, but I have no clue how well it would fly. Let us know if you try it.

Specs: Aluminum 12-gram quick changer mated to a 3/4"x1/2 brass pipe adaptor with JB Weld (this will be the joint to fail in an overpressure situation, which is why the whole thing is mounted inside a length of not-entirely-cosmetic PVC); 3/4"x 6" high pressure brass pipe with threaded ends well wrapped with teflon tape (brass splits when it fails, instead of throwing shrapnel like iron and PVC pipe will); 3/4" brass ball valve; 3/4' x 1" threaded brass high pressure pipe, teflon wrapped; 2" x 3/4" threaded Sched 40 PVC adaptor cleaned and cemented to a 2" Sched 40 PVC sleeve (alternatively, use a 1 1/2" x 3/4" adaptor cemented to a 1 1/2" x 2" reducer); length of 2' sched 40 PVC pipe inserted (but not necessarily glued) into sleeve.

[p40warhawk]

Thanks, that will be a great start for a prototype. I was looking at that program thinking....

[2nd Bat]

I would be interested in some Panzerfaust caps (pre-done for purchase) if you ever get around to it as I have some already produced ball valve/ Co2 plumbing ready to be turned into something.

I for one am fine with the NERF being launched as a Sabot. For a big old nose cone to funbction even reasonably well you'd have to have some fold out fins to stabalize things and that could be both tricky and potentially dangerous if they struck someone. Cosmetically the replica looks great when deployed and I know how well the NERF rocket launches. (Probably greater range and accuracy then a real Panzerfaust!)

[p40warhawk]

2ndbat said:

(Probably greater range and accuracy then a real Panzerfaust!)

I don't want it to! I would rather have historical accuracy, as long as I am making a 'faust I want it to be accurate, for range I will make a 'shreck.

I was thinking about the fins, I was thinking about maybe foam like a NERF, hopefully I can kind of fit them in the tube, if that doesn't work I would need to figure out a light-weight spring loaded cardboard rig or something. Obviously I would have to make it safe. I wouldn't ever shoot anything at anybody that I wouldn't want shot at myself.
I hope it doesn't come to a spring loaded rig I do not want to have fun time with a pen spring...

[savoy6]

you mean like a PIAT?....lol...