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Long Tom 155mm blueprints?
Posted: Sun Mar 08, 2015 8:59 am
by wibblywobbly
Considering how well known the Long Tom is, and how many detailed drawings there are of every tank and armoured vehicle known to man or beast on the internet...there is a total drought of anything useful regarding this famous piece of artillery.
I have only found one set of barrel drawings which are on Scribd but it looks like I have to pay to get them, and as they are only of the barrel and nothing else, it doesn't look like much of a bargain. I can view them but the dimensions in preview mode are so blurry that I can't be sure what they are.
Having read posts on other modelling forums it looks like the smaller scale kits aren't accurate either, and that includes the AFV kit (though they do an alloy barrel which apparently is close).
If anyone knows of any drawings, blueprints etc, or has a Long Tom in the garage

please post up the details, this is as far as I have got, it's still very much work in progress. The only measurement that I have is the barrel length, but it is the spacing of the rings, width of the rings, start/end of the tapers etc that are so elusive. Once I have those figures, I can use photo's etc to scale the rest of it, I just need an accurate start point.
RobG
Re: Long Tom 155mm blueprints?
Posted: Sun Mar 08, 2015 9:22 am
by jackalope
I don't have one in my garage however there is at least 1 a couple hours drive from my house. I want to go check out the new museum anyway what do you need? That is if they let me climb all over it.
Re: Long Tom 155mm blueprints?
Posted: Sun Mar 08, 2015 9:32 am
by jackalope
Re: Long Tom 155mm blueprints?
Posted: Sun Mar 08, 2015 9:40 am
by AlwynTurner
Re: Long Tom 155mm blueprints?
Posted: Sun Mar 08, 2015 9:45 am
by jackalope
Watch that 2nd to the last link I keep getting a virus warning every time I click on it. You may want to skip that one.
The one that has gun pictures in its title
Re: Long Tom 155mm blueprints?
Posted: Sun Mar 08, 2015 10:55 am
by wibblywobbly
jackalope wrote:I don't have one in my garage however there is at least 1 a couple hours drive from my house. I want to go check out the new museum anyway what do you need? That is if they let me climb all over it.
The measurements I am really after relate to the barrel.
If you can get the measurements that are illegible on these drawings I would be eternally grateful. In the meantime I will order the Barbarossa book and hope that the rest of the dimensions are in there. I can get the layout of parts etc from a 1/35 AFV build of the 8 inch version though there is no way that I am going to write code to generate a 3D version of all of it, I don't possess those sorts of skills

. As long as I can get something together that looks 1/16 and has the main components, I will give it a go. I haven't seen a 1/16 Long Tom, and no one makes one in this scale, 1/18 being the closest from 21st Century toys, but they are as rare as hen's teeth.
Many thanks for all of the help and info, it is much appreciated.
RobG
Re: Long Tom 155mm blueprints?
Posted: Sun Mar 08, 2015 1:00 pm
by jackalope
I don't think I'll have any way to get all those measurements, pics sure maybe some stuff but I don't see them letting me climb all over it like you're needing. But I'll try. It may be a few weeks if you can wait.
Re: Long Tom 155mm blueprints?
Posted: Sun Mar 08, 2015 1:08 pm
by wibblywobbly
No worries, if you can't get the measurements then I will simply take a calculated guess, and hope that the book has them. Then all I need to do is update the data in the CAD program and everything should magically fall into place.
Re: Long Tom 155mm blueprints?
Posted: Sun Mar 08, 2015 10:20 pm
by jackalope
I'll call the museum tomorrow and ask if they would let me take all those measurements before I drive all the way down there. I know when all the stuff was at Aberdeen proving grounds museum they'd let you climb all over the stuff to get pics and measurements but they moved to Fort Lee in Virginia a couple years ago and I don't know how they are down there, but I'll find out.
Re: Long Tom 155mm blueprints?
Posted: Mon Mar 09, 2015 9:15 am
by wibblywobbly
Just to save you some time, I have pics to work from, these are ( I think ) from the Aberdeen site
http://www.primeportal.net/artillery/da ... _long_tom/
I have completely reworked the dimensions that I had taken a guess at on the drawings, the only one that I 'know' is the barrel length, so I put all of the different section lengths from the drawings into a spreadsheet and kept adjusting them until they came to within 6" of the true length. I then multiplied each one by 25.4 to get them in mm, and then divided them by 16 to get the scale lengths. I am not at all sure what those dimensions are in the drawings, I put them all in and they didn't add up to within a country mile of the barrel length using either inches or cm's?
It still didn't look right, so I adjusted a few to get it looking like the pics.
The diameter then looked way off, so I have adjusted that as well all the way down the barrel. It now looks 'right' but as to whether it is I have no idea.
If they won't let you take all the measurements the ones that would be the most useful would be the diameter of the breech, and the muzzle. Trying to get the diameters of the various tapered sections would be very difficult without some giant calipers, so don't go to a huge amount of trouble on my part, this is a favour after all.
Cheers
RobG