my friends, I am new to this site, I live in Malta and at present I am building a 1:35th scale model of the french autocanon de 75mle1913, a beautiful piece of french anti-aircraft mounting of the great war. it was mounted on a Dion Chassis, and was very effective. Some 400 pieces were delivered to the British forces to defend Great Briton, while American expeditionary forces were trained to operate them on the western front. I managed to build the chassis and the out rigger stabilizing jacks, but got stuck when I came to the details of the gun mounting assembly, front shield and the operating controls and crew accomodation. Can anyone help me out? If you have any information, especially any photographs and plans, I shall be very grateful. By the way, I am also the president of the Malta Society of Model Makers, we shall be organising a model engineer exhibition from the 28th to the 31st of March 2008, during which we shall be signing a twinning agreement with the Ribble Model Boat Club UK. our official website address is www.maltamodellers.org.
Hello gerd, Many thanks for the tip, i have downloaded those photos,but the detail of the gun controls and the crew accomodation are difficult to scale and produce from the photos available. I am quite sure that at least one of these mounts are present in a french or american museum. The problem is, in which one. builing a scratch built model of these assemblies is already difficult, let alone with lack of details and information. And of all assemblies this conversion was the most elegant and successful until the german issue of the famous 88mm towards the end of the great war. best regards Paul Anthony
Hello Paul, think you noticed the drawing i put in zoomed version here again. The scale i recherched from the original by the known diameter of 75mm at the muzzle is nearly 1: 18,5 . If you can find the measures of the barrel somewhere you can take control if i am right. Hope this helps a little bit. I struggle often enough with the problem of finding out the scale by looking at pics and those "detailed drawings" without any meassurement.
Best regards Gerd
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Steel can be helpful - you have only to bring it into the "right form "
Hello Gerd, Many thanks, I have downloaded your picture. That mounting was used on a lorry type assembly. the auto canon was mounted on a 1913 Dion Bouton chassis, which was the equivalent of a modern van chassis. If you look at the photos shown in the forum, you will notice that the mounting pin of the gun was relocated at the rear of the barrel, thus allowing a low width to height profile ratio, when the gun was elevated and providing more stability while firing. the design was a very elegant one, when considering that it dates back to 1913. it was not a haphazard design. For once in a lifetime the French designed a well proportioned and elegant mobile, fully dedicated anti-aircraft gun. Due to the fact that the mounting pin was relocated to the rear, the control gear is somewhat different, than the one shown in your picture. BY the way, I am also building an 18 pounder lorry mounted AA gun as well, and is nearly ready. Got all the information and photos from this site. I will post all the photos in this site once finished. thanks a lot for your aid Gerd, I really appreciate it. When are you coming over to Malta?, lots of MIlitary historical sites to see here. Best regards Paul
