Post by gryphon on May 28, 2009 22:38:42 GMT -5
Gentlemen, I'm back. Did you miss me?
Here's some pics of my latest prototype build, a quick-but-not-as-dirty-as-expected plastic-stocked Mosin Nagant fashioned from a VSR-11:
The conversion can be done with common handtools, requires no original Mosin Nagant parts at all and uses nothing more than the stock VSR parts, a single strip of wood, a plastic rear sight from any cheapo AK springer (or a homemade mock-up,) a short length of metal pipe, a piece of 3/16" dia. steel rod, some soft or semi-soft wire, a small container of fiber-reinforced body putty, a wedge of 1/2" exterior plywood, a few small rectangles of 1/16" styrene sheet or aluminum sheet, some 1/4"- and 1/8"-wide strips of thin-gauge sheet steel or medium-gauge sheet aluminum, a little epoxy, a handful of screws, some spray enamel, a small can of gel stain, and a can of spray satin urethane spar varnish for a protective topcoat. I was able to build the entire thing from scraps lying around in the shop with about 10 hours of labor, but the next one will take much less time since I now have measurements and cutting patterns.
The existing plastic VSR stock is trimmed into the proper shape with a sabresaw and the holes/incorrect contours filled with fiber-reinforced body putty. Once the putty sets, the stock is sanded to its final shape with a belt sander or random orbital sander, or shaped with a rasp. The wedge of plywood is tacked in place with epoxy just behind the mag well to make a base for a dummy Mosin mag, then fastened from inside the stock with screws. The 1/16" rectangles are epoxied and screwed to the sides of the plywood wedge to extend the sides of the dummy mag back to the front of the existing VSR triggerguard. Two sling slots are drilled and filed into the lower portion of the buttstock, and the stock conversion is complete.
To convert the front, a 17 1/2"- long strip of wood is shaped to make the lower foregrip and fastened to the bottom of the existing outer barrel with three self-tapping screws set into the cleaning rod well. A short length of metal tubing is fashioned to look like the end of a Mosin barrel and is epoxied and wired to the front of the foregrip - the wires are covered up with body putty, which is then sanded down to extend the front of the existing outer barrel and make it look like the upper foregrip. A dab of body putty is added to form the rear swell of the upper foregrip, the AK sight is epoxied in place, the cleaning rod is bedded into its well with epoxy, and the sheetmetal strips are bent and screwed or nailed in place to make dummy barrel bands and retainers.
The completed conversion gun is then masked and painted flat black on the "metal" areas and reddish brown on the "wood" areas; the metal areas are drybrushed with a little steel silver enamel if desired, and the wood is given a faux grain pattern with gelstain and a stiff brush. A satin varnish topcoat seals everything once the faux finish dries.
This conversion requires absolutely no modification of the existing VSR magazines or mechanism (unless you have a drill press and a tap & die set and want to do the optional conversion to a straight bolt.) The resulting gun is fully upgradeable with standard VSR-11 upgrade parts, is a 1:1 scale Mosin Nagant rifle replica, and looks far, far better than I expected it would. Anybody with basic woodshop skills should be able to easily build one of these over a weekend.
I plan to put these into production later this year, after I've completed a test-run for my unit and we've fieldtested them. There will also be a carbine version and estimated purchase .cost for either version should be under US$300. There might be a more pricy upgrade option with a steel sear and maybe a glymov-style sleeved straight bolt (if I can figure out how they did that....)
Here's some pics of my latest prototype build, a quick-but-not-as-dirty-as-expected plastic-stocked Mosin Nagant fashioned from a VSR-11:
The conversion can be done with common handtools, requires no original Mosin Nagant parts at all and uses nothing more than the stock VSR parts, a single strip of wood, a plastic rear sight from any cheapo AK springer (or a homemade mock-up,) a short length of metal pipe, a piece of 3/16" dia. steel rod, some soft or semi-soft wire, a small container of fiber-reinforced body putty, a wedge of 1/2" exterior plywood, a few small rectangles of 1/16" styrene sheet or aluminum sheet, some 1/4"- and 1/8"-wide strips of thin-gauge sheet steel or medium-gauge sheet aluminum, a little epoxy, a handful of screws, some spray enamel, a small can of gel stain, and a can of spray satin urethane spar varnish for a protective topcoat. I was able to build the entire thing from scraps lying around in the shop with about 10 hours of labor, but the next one will take much less time since I now have measurements and cutting patterns.
The existing plastic VSR stock is trimmed into the proper shape with a sabresaw and the holes/incorrect contours filled with fiber-reinforced body putty. Once the putty sets, the stock is sanded to its final shape with a belt sander or random orbital sander, or shaped with a rasp. The wedge of plywood is tacked in place with epoxy just behind the mag well to make a base for a dummy Mosin mag, then fastened from inside the stock with screws. The 1/16" rectangles are epoxied and screwed to the sides of the plywood wedge to extend the sides of the dummy mag back to the front of the existing VSR triggerguard. Two sling slots are drilled and filed into the lower portion of the buttstock, and the stock conversion is complete.
To convert the front, a 17 1/2"- long strip of wood is shaped to make the lower foregrip and fastened to the bottom of the existing outer barrel with three self-tapping screws set into the cleaning rod well. A short length of metal tubing is fashioned to look like the end of a Mosin barrel and is epoxied and wired to the front of the foregrip - the wires are covered up with body putty, which is then sanded down to extend the front of the existing outer barrel and make it look like the upper foregrip. A dab of body putty is added to form the rear swell of the upper foregrip, the AK sight is epoxied in place, the cleaning rod is bedded into its well with epoxy, and the sheetmetal strips are bent and screwed or nailed in place to make dummy barrel bands and retainers.
The completed conversion gun is then masked and painted flat black on the "metal" areas and reddish brown on the "wood" areas; the metal areas are drybrushed with a little steel silver enamel if desired, and the wood is given a faux grain pattern with gelstain and a stiff brush. A satin varnish topcoat seals everything once the faux finish dries.
This conversion requires absolutely no modification of the existing VSR magazines or mechanism (unless you have a drill press and a tap & die set and want to do the optional conversion to a straight bolt.) The resulting gun is fully upgradeable with standard VSR-11 upgrade parts, is a 1:1 scale Mosin Nagant rifle replica, and looks far, far better than I expected it would. Anybody with basic woodshop skills should be able to easily build one of these over a weekend.
I plan to put these into production later this year, after I've completed a test-run for my unit and we've fieldtested them. There will also be a carbine version and estimated purchase .cost for either version should be under US$300. There might be a more pricy upgrade option with a steel sear and maybe a glymov-style sleeved straight bolt (if I can figure out how they did that....)
