M1918A1/A2 B.A.R.

[TommyGunner]

Alright as you might infer from the title this thread will be about building a skirmishable, cheap and practical Browning Automatic Rifle.

As we all know JAC and VFC have produced the BAR for us Airsofters to drool, ooo, and ahhhhh over. But alas the prices for the BAR airsoft guns are simply too much for 90% of us to afford. So those of us that wish to own such and amazing weapon are forced to look at pictures and read threads about our dream gun. Or in the case for us that are lucky enough to see one at an event, watch lamenting as the airsofter who owns it gets to pull that beautiful trigger in the heat of battle.

Well I for one started to get sick of not having a BAR. I have a custom built M1928 Thompson SMG with 10 20rnd mags, and a 1,000rnd Drum mag. I have a customer built M1903A1 Springfield and a near operational customer built M1A1 Bazooka so why the hell should I not have a BAR? But I also decided that me having the cash to go to college was a bit more important ;D So I have decided to set out and try to build my own.

I have set a rough estimate for the overall cost of the components for the gun to be around $200-$250 which is well within the acceptable price range for almost all of us.

I have already received all the components I need for building my BAR with the exception of the donor AEG gear box. The Internals for the BAR will come from either an AK-47 or an M-14. Both have pros and cons to them which I will discuss latter on.

I will also be posting pictures tonight of the BAR components I have thus far and a review of them.

TommyGunner

[schmitty]

will be looking forward to seeing how this develop's.
Schmitty

[airsoftaddict]

if they're affordable and realistic you should make more to sell for about $300

[TommyGunner]

I would have no problem making them for sale, but Im in college right now and I have a 30cal and 1897 Trench gun that I want to build after this BAR is finshed. And trust me this thing when I am done will be very diffcult to tell apart from the reall thing. Im a model aircraft buidler and the entire exterior of the BAR is made out of my prefered material........Styreen! Yes!

TommyGunner

[TommyGunner]

Aright here are the pictures of the BAR components I bought. Sorry for the poor quality pics...and the duck tape...I have to use it to hold the main parts together.





Oh I forgot to mention that I will be using no reall steel components in this replica what so ever, thus my ability to keep cost extreamly low. The BAR components actually consist entirely of the Cushman Products BAR Vacume formed kit.

The site can be viewed here. www.cushmanpaintball.com/replicaBAR.html

A Review of the Cushman Product and what I intend to do to it.

Fist off that I would like to conferm the fact that becuase these kits are produced via a vacume forming process they look exactly like that, a vacume formed kit very soft in detail and a pain to try and build. But I also must point out that the fact remains that the overall shape and form of the BAR exists in this product and is fully usable. Also becuase the BAR had very few external details short of the Charging handle, and sight everything on the exterior of the cushman product will be removed. Leaving me with in the end a rear stock attached to a bare reciver and a front barrel and handgaurd assemebly. After I have removed all the details I will then fabricate my own using the same material the kit was made out of, Styreen. I have taken patterns of the rear sight, charging handle and every other little bit on the BAR reciver and butt plate and enlarged them to full size to fabricate my own. (I build model aircraft under contract and have worked for Revell Monogram in the past so this is right up my ally!)

I also have already taken a full sized BAR outline and positioned the Gear box of an M-14, hop up unit and barrel inside it so that once I obtain the M-14 components I will be able to jump right into it.

One problem I have yet to fix though is how will I make the mags and the mag release. I have determined that I will build a highcap mag for the BAR seeing as making reall cap mags for this gun is simply too impracticle and expensive. But I have yet to determine how i will get the mags into the gun and back out again. I may use the M-14 mag release system or I may attempt an actuall BAR mag relase. Only time will tell I guess.

While I can safely say that the BAR is in its current form totally unsuable this project I will hopefully show everyone how easy it will be to turn this Cushman BAR into a final product that I hope will be comparable the the VFC BAR in terms of finish and performance!

TommyGunner

[Guinness]

Tommy-

ww2aa.proboards45.com/index.cgi?board=technical&action=display&thread=1193151808

Love the enthusiasm man- really do-

But the reason I made that thread then was to avoid things like this.

[TommyGunner]

Criticisms taken with open arms and PM sent. ;D

TommyGunner

[Guinness]

Tell ya what-

We are gonna leave this up and as Schmitty said we will watch the progress.

If anything it should decide once and for all the viability of the clamshell, vacuum-molded product as an Airsoft replica.

Be warned young Jeremiah, you have some very tough competition and quality expectations to compare to and live up to here.


Good luck!

[TommyGunner]

I do have to admit, I am going up against some of the premire custome airsoft gun builders. But I do want to make sure that you guys know that if it turns out that this project flops I have no problem with admiting it. Some times you have to stick your neck out there to make sure you have fully explored every possibility, and Im gonna stick my neck out so far on this one that my head might fall off ;D

TommyGunner

[2nd Bat]

With your model building skills and tenacity I'll watch with great interest your efforts. I can assure you that having built a BAR from a resin replica it is a doable project but I can also assure anyone following this that the VFC BAR is an extremely tough act to follow. I have handled them first hand and have to say there is no way you will match the feel and quality up close.

With the disparity in costs between your intended project and the VFC BAR my prediction is you'll end up with a very nice 10 feet away, visual BAR for 1/3rd the costs and 10 times the effort. But you'll have something you made and that you personalized and it will be very cool.

Good luck with the project. We're all pulling for you.

[TommyGunner]

Alright so I have taken a look at the main problem with this kit. The two sides of the kit must be joined together but there is a big problem with this. The seem between the two halfs must be blended together. I have found that blending the seems on the reciver, rear stock, and front hand guard are no problem and will be very easy to blend. But in doing some testing on the barrel I have found that it is impracticle for me to exert the effort to blend the massive seem along the entire length of the barrel. So I have found a replacement barrel that I will be using instead of the one that came in the kit.

TommyGunner

[YankeeDiv26]

As much as I don't think the cushman BAR replica is a very promising base gun for the conversion.....someone who's a professional modeler can probably do it better than anyone else. Good luck on getting it all together, and hopefully we'll see yet another option in the custom airsoft gun market.

[TommyGunner]

Alright here is an update, I have gotten to work on it sooner than I expected and the resukts of my labor are actually quite satisfying.

I have been working extensively on the reciver group and it really is starting to come together. I have been sharpenign the details and building replacement parts. I have so far built a new working charging handle and assembly, removed the sight assembly and plugged up the hole left in the top of the recieverby removing it. I have opened up the shell ejection port and have rebuilt the entire mag well and removed the molded in magazine. I have alo drilled out the trigger area and reshaped that. In addition to this I have finished reshaping and cleaning up the gas tube in the front of the gun.

Now after this ammount of work I have doen on the BAR I would like to make the statement though, that anyone without extensive experiance in building plastic model kits will have a very difficult time bulding this Cushman BAR into anything acceptable. But I am very pleased with my results so far.

I want to get pictures up but unfortunetly I will be goign back to NIU tomarrow and before I take photos I want to have everything on the BAR rebuilt and the gun ready to have the internals installed. I come back home and start my winter break on December 15th so any new updates on my progress will have to wat until then.

TommyGunner

[jmhpa]

We're all rooting for ya!
I hope that you can finish the proyect sucessfully and that everything comes together easily.
P.S. Be aware that if you do suceed you will be bombarded with orders for them.One of the good things to come out of this is that you will have more money around. :-)

[TommyGunner]

Sorry to disapoint people who are rooting for me that are interested in buying ones that I may make............but this is something that I know for sure I will not go into production with. I dont have the time to make more than one (seeing as I am estimating this one will take at least a full month to build).

I do however hope to have a photoprogression that I will be able to post up with plans so that someone who wants one bad enough will be able to go about making it.

TommyGunner

[jmhpa]

Its OK, don't worry

[Capt. Zak]

My God that is crude! If you pull this off Jer you're a modeling wizard. Glad I opted out of the Cushman MG34 kit.

[gryphon]

Tommy, what kind of plastic does Cushman use - is it styrene or ABS? How thick is it? I wonder why they mold it in white instead of black?

Zak, vacuum-molded pieces are slumped OVER a male pattern (called a buck) instead of cast into a female mold, so the surface detailing is going to be seriously limited by the plastic sheet's ability to suck down onto the buck. That's why vacuum-molded pieces often look kind of crude and rounded-off and "cartoony," because crisp surface details (especially tooling marks and sharp inside corners like where a mag meets a receiver) simply aren't possible. That said, vacuum-molding is really inexpensive because no actual mold is needed, so it would be a cost-effective way to make large and simple parts like the receivers and fluted cooling jackets on Russian Maxims, and maybe the receiver/barrel jackets of PPSh-41s (hmmmmmm....) I bet their Ma Duece looks just fine, that's exactly the sort of gun that would be a good candidate for vacuum-forming.

Cushman's stuff would be a lot better if they hadn't been so lazy in their patternmaking. The part on their BAR that really bugs me is the cocking handle on the left side of the receiver; if they had just done that as a separate piece, or at least drilled rows of vents at the base of the handle on their buck so the plastic would have sucked in tighter, it would look much nicer. The thing that most bugs me about Cushman products in general is that they like to use real gun parts as bucks, which guarantees that the parts they mold will be oversized by the thickness of the plastic sheet they slump.

[Guinness]

Why couldn't they take it to the next logical (at least to me) step and use much thinner 'gauge'? plastic that would produce better detail, like shrink wrap, then use that to do some kind of negative cast mold from?

...if that makes any sense...

[CharleyNovember]

profit.

[Capt. Zak]

gryphon said:

Zak, vacuum-molded pieces are slumped OVER a male pattern (called a buck) instead of cast into a female mold, so the surface detailing is going to be seriously limited by the plastic sheet's ability to suck down onto the buck. That's why vacuum-molded pieces often look kind of crude and rounded-off and "cartoony," because crisp surface details (especially tooling marks and sharp inside corners like where a mag meets a receiver) simply aren't possible. That said, vacuum-molding is really inexpensive because no actual mold is needed,

I'm very familiar with the process. I used to make Stormtrooper armor pieces. They are probably using a shop vac to suck down the plastic. If you have good suction and use a .75mm instead of a .90mm you'd have better results. It doesn't look like "original pieces" were used either. Probably wood cut outs of the various guns. I vacu-formed a 1976 Kenner Stormtrooper blaster and once painted the only visible difference was the seam up the middle of mine.

[TommyGunner]

Im actually very happy with the thickness the Cushman BAR, the reason being it alows for alot of sanding without going through the plastic so easily. As soon as I get back to my hosue and can resume the project the next thign I must tackle is actually removing the molded in charging handle an guide rails on the exterior of the BAR. While I have fabricated a new charging handle and everything that goes with it on the exterior I have yet to remove the molded in one and filling in that massive open space and making sure my replacement parts are secure will take alot of time and patience.

TommyGunner

[gryphon]

Wow, .75mm or even .9mm is thin sheet for a rough-and-tumble toy like an airsoft gun! I figured they'd be out of 3/16" or so. Are Cushman shells really that thin? If they are forming over wooden bucks instead of original parts, and using sheet of less than 1mm thickness, there is no excuse at all for that crappy charging handle.

Zak, did you fill your blaster shell with foam to reinforce it, or how did you stiffen it up to stand up to being holstered and handled?

[CharleyNovember]

It is pretty thin stuff I have an MG42 shell right here. Also have a few of thier helmets around. It will get ya started but I don't recommend them. My MG42 was made of black plastic.

[Capt. Zak]

gryphon said:

Zak, did you fill your blaster shell with foam to reinforce it, or how did you stiffen it up to stand up to being holstered and handled?

Gryphon, the blaster was put together over a wood & PVC frame. The wood added "heft" to the blaster. The folding stock was fabricated from metal. The 2 halves and the metal stock were screwed into the wood frame so the whole thing was sturdy and durable.

I wish I still had a few. I sold the last one I had on ebay about a year and a half ago. The guy I new with the vacu-form "studio" has moved on to more profitable ventures.

[gryphon]

I've been meaning to build a vacuum forming table for the shop for a couple of years now. Here's a nice one from scrounge parts:

www.halloweenfear.com/vacuumformintro.html

[2nd Bat]

Wow, Think of the possibilities! That would be an awesome item to have. I am quite sure you could think up some marketable products that could be very beneficial for our hobby and quite lucrative for you.

[TommyGunner]

Well my Christmas break is about one week away meaning that I will soon be able to get back to work on the BAR. There were two main problems that I needed to figure out as to how I would tackle them concerning this project.

The first one was how the hell am I going to mount the gear box, hop up unit and barrel inside the body. Well I figured all of those out. I will be making a plug that goes into the BAR body that will be glued into place. It can be best described as a Styrofoam plug (the pink kind) that is in the shape of the BAR receiver. It will be mounted inside the BAR body and then a space for the internals will be carved out. The the carved out space will be lined with styrene sheet so that the gear box, and hop up unit can be safely mounted inside using industrial strength adhesives.

The second problem will concern how the hell am I gonna attach the entire frotn handguard/ barrel assembly to the reciver group.......well I have yet to figure that out and I have a feeling that I have to install the internals into the BAR body so all the parts are in place before I can begin to solve that problem.

TommyGunner

[2nd Bat]

Welcome to the world of Custom Guns my friend we're all pulling for you. Have a nice Christmas break and keep us posted.

[TommyGunner]

Oh I came to another conclusion, thsi being abotu hwo the BAR is imployed at events. Until I have built enough reall cap mags for the BAR I will be using the single highcap mag I will build for it. This being the case I was thinking at how much an advantage the BAR gunner has when using a 400-600rnd highcap mag. So to impliment some restraint on the BAR gunner (until I have built a full loadout of 20rnd mags for it) I will be filling my BAR belt with the weight equivilant of the 240rnds a BAR gunner would carry. Thus restricting the mobility and speed on the field.

I may also add weights in the front handel, and the rear stock of the BAR.

TommyGunner