Lewis gun

Jim · December 30, 2010, 04:18:14 PM

My latest project is something completely different for me. I recently retired and began volunteering at the Empire State Aerosciences Museum (ESAM) in Schenectady, NY.; some of you were kind enough to help me locate plans for an Ag Cat that the museum wants me to build for a display there. I'll get to that soon...My first model-building project there, however, has been to build a 7/8ths-size replica of a Lewis gun, of all things! They have in their possession a 7/8ths-size replica of a Nieuport 17 -- something someone began building elsewhere, and eventually donated, unfinished, to the museum. The people in the Exhibits and Restoration sections are working jointly to finish the aircraft, which will be painted in Lafayette Escadrille colors in recognition of the several New Yorkers who served in N. 124. My job is to build the wing-mounted Lewis gun. They provided me with some plans they found on the internet, drawn by a "G. Lee" from Canada in 1984. These have many flaws, unfortunately, not the least of which is that they're completely missing any depiction of the drum magazine. Fortunately, the Wylam drawings featured on this website, and a lot of indpendent research of my own, enabled me to fill in some of the missing details. Even so, however, many details in the finished product have had to be treated in approximate terms.

I completed the building phase a week ago; the gun still has to be painted. But for what it's worth, here's a few pictures of sub-assemblies and the aseembled gun, minus its still-unfinished spade grip.

lastvautour · December 30, 2010, 04:56:11 PM

Outstanding work Jim. Do you have drawings? Where can they be found? Even at 1/32 scale, those drawings would make an excellent Lewis Gun for my collection. I have a Nieuport on my todo list.

Lou

Jim · December 30, 2010, 05:50:43 PM

Thanks, Lou. I'll take a crack at scanning the plans they gave me this weekend, and will post them here if they come out any good.

Jim · January 19, 2011, 05:29:50 AM

The Lewis gun is finally finished. I'll be delivering it to the museum tomorrow. Here's a couple photos of the finished project

lastvautour · January 19, 2011, 01:07:45 PM

Fantastic Jim. I have yet to upload those drawings. I will attached them here for now,

Lou

Jim · January 19, 2011, 04:47:51 PM

Thanks, Lou. As you can see, I diverged some from the plans, which were pretty crude. I left off the sights, because the one I was making was a wing-mounted gun, and I dropped the flash-deflector/muzzle brake because those only appeared on the American made Lewis guns built by Savage Arms. Note that there's no detail for the ammunition drum, either. It's 7 inches in diameter, and has 25 equal-size and spaced indentations; you can get details from the Wylam drawings...The drum strap was made from an old rifle sling, sling mounts and pop rivets.

scottzepher · January 26, 2011, 03:29:15 AM

Thank you for posting those plans, Jim and Lou! The Wylam drawings are great (I just finished using the Vickers MG for a SE-5a restoration; new photos coming) but the Lewis Gun drawing is REALLY confusing!

Tom

Jim · January 27, 2011, 04:25:13 AM

Tom:

There is an excellent 12-page Windsock Mini Datafile (#3) on Lewis guns with lots of good reference photos an drawings. I think you can download it for free at: www.hotfilesearch.com/datafile.html

I found it very useful...

lastvautour · January 27, 2011, 02:22:25 PM

Easy download and very informative. I saw some files on other projects that may be of interest. Thanks for the link. I will put in in the link board.

Lou

scottzepher · February 02, 2011, 05:22:57 PM

Quote from: Fingers on January 27, 2011, 04:25:13 AM
Tom:

There is an excellent 12-page Windsock Mini Datafile (#3) on Lewis guns with lots of good reference photos an drawings. I think you can download it for free at: www.hotfilesearch.com/datafile.html

I found it very useful...

Whoa! Nice site! The file was very helpful, Thanks!

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Lewis gun