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Restored MG34 Trommel Magazine
Hello folks.
Nothing major to report here. Just the results of a little mini-project I've been working on for the last couple of days. A while back, I posted my Yugo M53 and the various accessories. Among the latter was a 50-round drum magazine painted in the usual Yugo green. In places, the paint had flaked off, revealing what looked like a very nice original bluing to the metal underneath, as well as a three letter factory code. For those who don't want to go hunting for the thread, here's how it looked.
After two days, and the careful application of a razor blade, I have managed to remove the rest of the paint. The result? A very nice MG34 trommel magazine returned to its original German configuration.
Now, the results are far from perfect. There is some scratching in places where the paint was tougher to remove, and the Yugo green remains in areas that couldn't be easily reached with the razor. But in the end, I have ended up with a perfectly presentable magazine for less than half the price of an unmessed-with original. The overpaint really has done wonders to preserve the bluing.
Regards, B.B.
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12-10-2018 12:18 PM
# ADS
Circuit advertisement
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In France they take of the paint with a product to clean oven(four) and soda...
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by
lebus12
In France they take of the paint with a product to clean oven(four) and soda...
I was considering doing that, and may do it with this one to remove the paint I couldn't reach. As it's blued rather than painted, it shouldn't hurt the original finish. Magazines with original German paint would be a different story.
B.B.
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Interesting to learn that its gun blue which is present on the drum mag!
Turns out my one is of the same manufacturer. Shame there is no year present on either of ours.
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by
Jb4046
Interesting to learn that its gun blue which is present on the drum mag!
Turns out my one is of the same manufacturer. Shame there is no year present on either of ours.
My guess would be that they are early-war produced drums. I'd imagine they switched from bluing to painting midwar, perhaps with the introduction of the MG42, as the latter would have been much less time and resource intensive. The code pertains to the manufacturer 'Lohmann-Werke, A.G., Bielefeld'. It is a shame that there is no date code to be seen. No WaffenAmt markings either, which I find strange.
B.B.
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Patronentrommel 34 für MG34
Heres a good link on the belt holders for the MG34. I have learnt what i call a “drum mag” is in fact a ammo box just in the shape of a drum which just holds a belt. Not a magazine!
The German name For this bit of kit anyway is the Gurtrommel 34
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I've done the same job on the same kind of magazine with paint stripper Brodie. The secret is to neutralise it with white spirit as soon as the paint begins to bubble. Old fashioned razor blades (and oil) are better used to (very carefully)remove rust from the surface of guns. Once you learn the technique, it's a doddle. You don't use the blade to 'scrape', you use it to 'cut'.
Cheers,
Steve
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by
HARRY THE MOLE
I've done the same job on the same kind of magazine with paint stripper Brodie. The secret is to neutralise it with white spirit as soon as the paint begins to bubble. Old fashioned razor blades (and oil) are better used to (very carefully)remove rust from the surface of guns. Once you learn the technique, it's a doddle. You don't use the blade to 'scrape', you use it to 'cut'.
Cheers,
Steve
I would have used paint stripper, but there wasn't any in the house at the time. I used the razor blade to 'lift' the paint off the drum. In some places huge chunks of it just lifted off and peeled away. The rest of it was fairly easy to chip off. The only scraping I did was with the blunt handle of the tool I was using, which I used to go around the sides. The lid, base and various latches were all done carefully by hand. It came out a lot better than I thought it would. In future, if I ever need to remove Yugo paint from something, I'll use white spirit.
B.B.
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Great results BB. I can see this all coming together very nicely.
Nick
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Standard car brake fluid also removes most paints just fine, it just takes a bit longer than the more aggressive paint strippers.
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