Portuguese Contract Madsen LMG

[GIZMO8Z]

I believe it's all original, Bill... I don't think there is any paperwork with it.

[pitfighter]

Bill,

IMA and other individuals built these from parts kits, they either replaced the receiver section with a solid piece of metal, or took the sectioned receiver and welded it together in an unusable mass of welds. They are non-guns, and require no paperwork.

The mag would be a different issue for Gizmo because of the state in which he resides - I believe, it would have to be de-milled, too.

The IMA dummies were often constructed in such a way that returning them to their original parts was going to be very difficult, welded barrels to receiver and the like.
This looks like an IMA gun, as such it's not much good for someone interested in using the parts either, as they are welded together, unlike some MG34 or MP40 parts kits, where you can remove the parts from the dummy receiver and they can go on to fight another day.
For me this affects the price.


Pit.

[GIZMO8Z]

If I do pick it up, it'll be on the cheap... $150-200 if I can swing it!

[pitfighter]

$200 to $250 is a good price if it's for your personal collection, Gizmo,
Did you visit IMA - they may have some spare parts and accessories for it.
I think the mount for this can be found quite reasonably priced.
Madsen Light Machine Gun Adjustable Tripod Mount ima-usa.com

Wow - mags are only ten bucks each, too - that has to be one of the cheaper WW2 era mags.
Scout - you may be turning me around on these ugly devils - I have a couple of Midwest Metal Creations weapons, I believe they do a pretty nice semi on this, OK more research is needed - I will return to this.

Pit.
Scout - I sent you my phone number and personal email address.

[GIZMO8Z]

I did check it out, thanks Pit! The one I'm looking at was painted black... Did someone mess with it, or is it something the Portuguese did?

[pitfighter]

I don't know what the Portuguese did, unlikely they painted them.

But the paint on that one was applied after it was rewelded as a dummy, look at the front of the receiver, you can see the welds beneath the paint.

The specifics on demilling are written in black and white in the ATF book, and require a certain amount of metal to be removed with the three cuts through the receiver.

That metal has to be restored with weld, or filler, it is quite a refined talent/skill to do it well.
If you look closely you can see the weld I believe through the "N" in madsen from the locking pin below.

If you remove the paint, the welds will be clearly visible, you can either refinish and repaint it, or use a chemical blue, but on two different colors of metal that can be tough.
Look at my semi MG34 below, the welds are quite clearly a different color on the receiver, we're going to refinish and chemical blue this, but it is tricky bit of work to make it look original again.

You may want to just leave your Madsen as is, or repaint it a little more carefully - unless you're experienced with chemical blue which of course you may well be - we have done it on a half dozen of my guns and I watch spellbound as the process takes place, when it's done well it is poetry (I am taking credit as "we" when in actual fact all I do is pay my smith for the service .)





Pit.

[pitfighter]

Gizmo,

At least they have used the original receiver parts on the dummy you found for sale, often it is a replacement solid piece.

This is one is one of my old IMA dummy MG13's you can see they didn't even bother painting the replacement receiver part, and simply welded it in place - it looks from this angle like a section of metal pipe ahead of the magazine opening.


*It is sort of a small market for dummy guns, I have them for movie work, so buy a lot of them - I am always surprised how quiet it is when I sell them off. I think the fabulous abundance of high quality semi conversions now available on many of these wartime MG's is part of the reason there is not too much interest - people are buying the MP40 and MP44 dummies to reconvert and those seem to retain their value, that was how I got mine.

Pit.

[pitfighter]

This one was re-welded and reblued, and then aged for film work, I think it was done very nicely.
It would not fool a collector or connoisseur, but it was also intended to be used on screen.



Pit.

[pitfighter]

Mid west metal's Madsen.

They built my Maxim - and that is a work of art.

Semi Auto Madsen Gun - YouTube

Got you thinking now, haven't I.


Pit.

[37Webbing]

The Madsen LMG, in its many forms (there are several versions) is a nice gun. I like it.
In Denmark (and Norway) it was called "Jomfru Madsen" = "Virgin Madsen".

Some period pics from Denmark:

First is from the early 1950s, the rest of the pictures are from the inter-war period.