M1928 Thompson project

[hairy apple]

New project!

M1928 Thompson. The '28, the project will be to "defarb" the gun as much as I can. I will be replacing the forgrip with a horizonal one, changing out the buttstock for a RS one that I will hollow out for the battery (that should be the hard part), and modifing the reciever to be correct with the charging handle on top and the more squared look to it. I am also going to replace all the internals with the Marui parts from my broken M1A1. Also I will either be adding the sliding sights for a '28 or removing the "ears" and making it a later style with the unprotected peep sight.

As bought...



The foregrip replaced and a 20 round stick mag instead of the drum. Already looking more WW2.

[hairy apple]

Ha ha.. only took about an hour for me to start hacking my new gun to bits. So far so good... tomorrow I'll go to a craft store and see if I can find something to use as the nob as the m1a1 one looks totally differant the the 1928. I will also get some sheet plastic to add the the sides of the reciever and get it squared up. Some bondo, sanding, and paint and it's going to look great.

[Sgt_Tom]

Looks great so far. Can't wait to see it done. Do they sell sheet plastic at your hardware store? If not what kind of place do you buy it from. I know I could get it online buy I'd rather just buy it locally if possible. Thanks!

[hairy apple]

I was thinking a craft store or a hobby shop? I may actually try to use aluminum to sheet the sides, metal body... might as well keep it that way mostly. We'll see what I come up with tomorrow.

Ever since shooting the real deal in Jan, I've been dying for an airsoft '28. I knew there was no way I could affored a MM/CAW one if I could even find one, so this seemed like the best bet. I think I got through the hardest part... that was the part I was really nervous about. The rest should be easy. I have to drill and tap the front barrel rail for the handguard still. Other then that it will mostly just be the reciever for now. The stock doesn't really bother me all that much looking at it now, I am not sure I'm going to bother with the RS stock for the '28. It seems like a lot of work for a small gain. I will probally just get a wood kit and call it good.

[sarge12]

Did you make the top bolt hole from a drill press or what?

[hairy apple]

Drill press and a grinder. A little dremeling to clean it up. Still needs a little more clean up, but I'll get to that when I sheet and putty up the rest of it.

[Adler69]

Ever consider using lead to fill in the bolt hole on the side?
It works great for body filling when restoring metal bodies on cars.

[hairy apple]

Hum, my guess is that takes some tallent that I don't have. Never done much body work on cars, other then a little bit of welding and sanding here and there. Nothing major enough to require lead work. I a sheet of metal or plastic and some epoxy and some body filler and it'll look good.

[CharleyNovember]

Do you have a clear shot of an actual 28 reciever? I have an extra receiver I could do this to just not sure what the difference is exactly.

[hairy apple]

Yeah, I have a couple of REALLY good photos of a later style '28. I will email them to you if you'd like.

[CharleyNovember]

Cool man....paintgames AT hotmail DOT COM

[sarge12]

im in a hurry for church, but go to midway usa or watch their videos on quick easy bluing. It really works!

[springfieldarmory]

You'll probably have to modify the horizontal fore grip from the wood kit to fit the M1928. I experimented with putting one on mine, but found that I would have had to remove some material from it as the rail on the M1928 is longer than the M1A1's.

[Sgt_Tom]

www.thompsonsmg.com/DISPLAY%20RECEIVER%20PICTURES-%20EARLY%20COLT.htm
Here's some good shots of the receiver CharleyNovember. The differences are the bolt is on top, and the sides are wider and flat. The sides don't come in like the M1A1.

[hairy apple]

Those are pretty good photos Tom. It's interesting to note that the true "gangster" thompons were not the m1928, but the ones in the photos that you posted. The 1921 model had a much higher rate of fire, when the military ordered there first batch of Thompsons they actually asked that the rate of fire be slowed down. The horizontal grip and the compinsator were also added for the m1928. Most of the original '28s were actually refit 1921s and the original 21/28's were actually built by Colt as Auto Ordnance did not have the machine and tooling equipment to build the guns that they designed.

Also interesting is that Thompson designed the 1903 Springfield rifle and the 30-06 round. John Browning designed the .45 ACP (automatic colt pistol) round. Then when they two men were designing "automatic rifles" Browning used Thompson's 30-06 round for his rifle that would become the B.A.R. while Thompson used Browning's .45 ACP round for his gun which would become the Thompson.

[jerseyite]

I just love it when gun designers play nice . Beautiful work on the gun BTW, I have the M1A1 version of it. I have a friend with the CYMA 1928 and I always give him crap about how "incorrect" it is. Good to see someone dedicated to making it more historically accurate.

[sarge12]

I heard Ares might make a more "historically" accurate one.

[Sgt_Tom]

PS: Sarge12 bluing won't work right on metal that has epoxy on it so you couldn't use it for this project.

[hairy apple]

Apr 11, 2010 18:24:25 GMT -5 Sgt_Tom said:

PS: Sarge12 bluing won't work right on metal that has epoxy on it so you couldn't use it for this project.

Indeed. And I plan on doing a later version as to get around the lack of the lyman sights, therefor it would not be a blued gun, it would be packerized. Although, I'm really tempted to buy some RS lyman sights for this... it would add a lot to the project... but they are $200 for just the sights.

So went to the hardware store today, looked around a bit and desided that the best way to go about this would be to work in my favorite medium... STEEL! This flat stock fits perfectly, both in thickness and width, and adding a foot or so on each side of the reciever is going to add a lot of wieght to the gun, making it feel a lot more realistic.

I'd have done more work today, but I crashed my quad a few days ago and my arm is so bruised and swollen I finally had to take something for the pain and power tools seemed like a bad idea... so tomorrow I'll get it cut to fit and cleaned epoxied on there. I have some JB weld to use for filler as well, and I found a small nob that is almost the same shape as the charging handle, I just need to dremel it out in the middle.

[sarge12]

Oh! My bad, I didn't know that you were going to use epoxy. I thought that he was going to use some kind of pot-metal.

[deacon]

Big heads up, although I'm sure you already know this. Don't try and weld those 1/4 inch flat bars to the receiver. Pot metal and welding don't mix.

[hairy apple]

Ha ha.. don't worry, it's all about high strength epoxy for the add ons. As funny as it might be to burn a hole though the reciever, I would be sad.

[hairy apple]

Epoxied the metal on there today. Once it's good and cured tomorrow I'll start grinding and shaping the edges, but you can already see the '28 shape taking form. I have the small part in between the magazine well and where the shells eject to fill, I will probally use plastic or build it up with JB weld rather then metal for that part, it's too complicated of a shape to do in 1/4 steel with a dremel and grinders.

[hairy apple]

Sanded all the extra goop off. It's looking good so far. Still have to shape the edges and add the section between the magawell and where the shells eject. I'm very happy with it so far. THe flat bars have almost doubled the wieght of the reciever, which is a good thing to me.

[click]

Looks 100 times better already! Keep up the good work!

[hairy apple]

Thanks! I'm very happy with how it's coming along. I did a second coat of epoxy today to fill the gaps and clean up the edges a little. Tomorrow I should be able to have the shaping done. I'm hoping t have the reciever done by Saturday as I'd like to use the gun for our event this weekend, we'll see though, epoxy can only dr so fast.

I am for sure going to use the simple unprotected peep sights, I found that they cost about $25 and the lyman sights cost $200... so this will be a late production '28.

[sarge12]

WOW, That will look good with your dodge weapons carrier

[hairy apple]

Reiever is 90% done. I need to buy the peep sights and add the charging handle, but the major work is done. I'm really happy with how it came out.

I still need to drill and tape a new hole for the horizontal grip in the rail and for now I am just going to paint the plastic stock to make it look a little better, I will replace it with wood someday.

[jerseyite]

Are you still going to stick with the M1A1 style stock?

[hairy apple]

I'd like to replace it with a NOS '28 stock. They are not that much money, but I'm not so hot with wood working and hollowing it out for a battery isn't going to be easy. Plus, it's going to be tough to get it to mount the the reciever. For right now, yeah I'm going to keept he wrong stock, but I'd like to change it at some point. I also might try to modify the plastic stock to look more '28ish. We'll see what happens.