Hudson PPSh41 Falling Apart...

Problems with Modelguns not working properly or breaking various parts are common enough, we've all suffered from them often enough.

Reading Jim's post about Hudson's latest STEN being of dubious quality, smootik's comments about poor metal on his MadMax Shotgun prompted me to put this short video together.

My Hudson PPSh41 has just been converted to a gas-bypass system so it'll vent smoke through the barrel so the first test firing session hadbeen eagerly looked forward to.

Video camera set up expecting a good burst of firing and plenty of smoke.... things didn't turn out quite as expected  




The lower reciever snapped cleanly into two pieces   Looking at the damage, there's so little metal at the break it makes me wonder if that lower reciever ever stood a chance of surviving.



Has anyone else noticed fractures appearing in any of Hudson's recent models News of Hudson's imminent closure will probably make spare parts availability a problem too.

Cerwyn wrote:

things didn't turn out quite as expected

Wow!

That's the last thing I would expect with a replica!
The place where it broke is really thin, with such brittle metal it didn't stand much chance

It's sad to see such a failure, sorry that it happened to you :-/

Your shooter seems to be very experienced with cartridges though

D'oh

Still it's lucky if fell apart as it did as springs and bolts can do some damage

8ace

It did come as a bit of a shock These metal models are expensive items, even more so these days, so such a catastrophic break is something I could do without. Hudson's imminent closure makes a spare reciever look bleak, but, hopefully a repair will be possible even if it means using steel supports either side. It may not look exactly like a PPSh afterwards but it'll be in one useable piece again

My "shooter", Carol, is pretty good at handling these things by now God knows she's had some practice

It is indeed fortunate that all the bits flew in the directions they did... the thought of a recoil spring, heavy bolt hitting her in the face doesn't bear thinking about (I mean, who'd help me shoot 'em afterwards )
Claymore's video of his abs MP40 flying apart was even more spectacular, the recoil spring and tube shot out of that as I remember.

WTF
So metal modelguns aren't really much better than plastic ones

Trouble is with Zinc is that it's not particularly strong. I've had things like zinc bolts wear out, chip and break but this is the first major failure I've experienced.
I've read about zinc barrels and things breaking amongst these pages.

When you look at the width and thickness of the sections that snapped, see that it's at the weakest point of that casting, then if that zinc alloy wasn't of particularly good quality it was almost doomed to fail.

Steel would've been fine, but sadly the Japanese aren't allowed to use steel anymore.

That's really unfortunate mate!
These things do test our patience
Still I wish my lady could stay that calm under pressure.
Any chance of drilling horizontally along/inside the two halves and inserting steel rods as a discreet repair?

Nothing much to say...simply shocking!

JohnnyV wrote:

Any chance of drilling horizontally along/inside the two halves and inserting steel rods as a discreet repair?

It would probably "brittle apart" completely during drilling :-/

Pity that real receivers are out of question for use with modelgun parts.
Even if you get a deact receiver, it would be forbidden to modify it in any way, at least here.

I believe it is illegal here also to modify a De-Activated gun in any way, even if it is to make a cap firing replica.
I'm not even sure if it's even legal to import a real reciever

We're going to have a look at possible repairs first. Welding material is available for Zinc Alloys but I don't know if there's enough metal there to hold everything together.
We'll see Never say Never eh

That's the coolest I've seen her react to "things going wrong" ... I think the sight of my jaw dropped to the floor made her realise trhis was more than just an inconvenience

Cerwyn wrote:

[b]That's the coolest I've seen her react to "things going wrong" ... I think the sight of my jaw dropped to the floor made her realise trhis was more than just an inconvenience

Yup, she looks either 102% cool or so shocked that there is no major reaction :-)
Some people would just drop whatever they had in hands ;-)

Lucky that only replica got damaged!

( hmm, in the background there is a lot of dings in the wall, is it from cartridges? )

Bloody hell mate what were you loading in the carts

Cerwyn sorry to see that happen to your Ppsh especially after all that work that has just been completed to get it firing as it should ,but i glad to see that Carol was not hurt in any way or form
It does make for a good video though!

Kickback

kickback wrote:

Bloody hell mate what were you loading in the carts

Cerwyn sorry to see that happen to your Ppsh especially after all that work that has just been completed to get it firing as it should ,but i glad to see that Carol was not hurt in any way or form
It does make for a good video though!

Kickback

Hiya matey

Cartridges were loaded as normal with a single MG 7mm cap. God knows what caused it to fracture as it did.

The video didn't turn out quite as I'd expected... There's a lot of work gone into it, the gas by-pass works well though, smoke vents out of the muzzle nicely now

We're looking at that Durafix rod as a possible welding repair, but it'll most likely need the extra support of plates too. Internally with luck, but outside if there's no other option.

The first and last time a modelgun blew apart in Carol's hands, a Marui P38, she refused to touch one for a few weeks, this one didn't phase her too much, she didn't realise how disastrous the break was till she saw the colour drain out of me

Sorry to see that happen Cerwyn, good video again though. Let me know if there is anything that I can do to help rebuild it for you. I dont suppose you could blame Carol for breaking it and get her to buy you a new one for Christmas to make up for it???

the thought of a recoil spring, heavy bolt hitting her in the face doesn't bear thinking about (I mean, who'd help me shoot 'em afterwards )



I hope for YOUR sake Carol does not READ this forum Cerwyn , or else you are toast mate !!

Glad to hear nobody was hurt in the making of the video .

Carl .

Spencer-Man wrote:

Sorry to see that happen Cerwyn, good video again though. Let me know if there is anything that I can do to help rebuild it for you. I dont suppose you could blame Carol for breaking it and get her to buy you a new one for Christmas to make up for it???

phobus wrote:

the thought of a recoil spring, heavy bolt hitting her in the face doesn't bear thinking about (I mean, who'd help me shoot 'em afterwards )



I hope for YOUR sake Carol does not READ this forum Cerwyn , or else you are toast mate !!

Glad to hear nobody was hurt in the making of the video .

Carl .

Thank you very much for your offer of help Spencer Certainly any ideas or "know how" you may have as to the best way of repairing fractured zinc castings would be very, very welcome mate
Blaming her DID spring to mind, but I thought better of it... I'd have found it difficult explaining to the Doctors in Hospital why I had a rather large machine gun shoved up my ar*e

Carl, I'm pretty much toast anyway mate... all I have to do is mention a cartridge or modelgun and it's

Cerwyn wrote:

Blaming her DID spring to mind, but I thought better of it...

Probably just as well. Just goes to show though that you should always wear eye protection when firing a gun of any kind, you never know what will happen. Now send that video to youve been framed and see if they give you 250 quid towards a new gun!

I am so sorry to hear about it! Anyway your video is top notch again. I can imagine it takes balls of steel to keep on filming and editing and putting up a video of that disaster.

I must admit Carol is getting better and better handling those modelguns. She is a real export now. I am very glad she is not harmed in any way.

Seing the broken parts I can't get rid of the feeling that the receiver MUST break at thie weak point. Of course I understand that modelguns have to be weak due to legal restrictions. Anyway it hurts so much seeing such an expensive model break. I hope you can fix it.

Well Spencer, "You've Been Framed" Noooo, probably best not too
Steel Toe Capped boots might be an idea, a drum mag's heavy

'Mike, the video was intended to show a PPSh firing properly, which it was capable of. I was in a state of shock when it self-destructed, so much so I couldn't switch the camera off

The more I look at the reciever, and the way the gun is assembled, it's clear that firing will put a great deal of stress at the point it broke. Stress Fatigue, weak metal, possibly poor quality metal almost makes failure inevitable.
If only they could start using steel again....

I hear you. Anyway I am sure you got to have balls of steel.

It is a shame they can not use stronger material. I had MGC HW M4A1 parts break like that. Right now I only fire three or four of my models. This is because I can't hardly find the time, but this is also because I do not dare firing my rarer models as I feel spare parts getting rarer day by day ...

Cerwyn wrote:

The more I look at the reciever, and the way the gun is assembled, it's clear that firing will put a great deal of stress at the point it broke. Stress Fatigue, weak metal, possibly poor quality metal almost makes failure inevitable.

Hmm, as I look at PPSh receiver, it has a similar weak point to Thompson M1 receiver, probably due to design feature: both of them being drum-fed. Thompson has a significant advantage, as the top is a single part together with sides, while in PPSh receiver goes only on sides, while top (together with barrel cover) is a separate part.

Even after a seemingly catastrophic failure as this, a repair has been successfully carried out

For full details, please open :-