For the past couple of weeks I have been working on a relic Mg15 flexible machine gun which was recovered (in the 1970's) from the wreckage of a German bomber shot down over Kent in 1940. All details of the actual aircraft have been lost, but the gun was excavated by a prolific wreck-hunter during the 1970's/80's. Upon his death some time ago the gun was acquired by another collector - and then sold on to a dealer of such junk. The magazine was not recovered with the gun - the magazine dating from 1943.
The pistol grip/trigger guard are missing, items which I hope to replace at a future date. If anyone on the forum has such an item, please get in touch if you wish to sell. The Bakelite receiver cover was also gone, but I was fortunate enough to locate a modern copy in Latvia. The receiver has a slight bend upwards and to the right. The magazine housing is bent inwards on the right side, and the barrel was rotatable and free inside the receiver, it has since been pinned to stop it rotating. I suspect that the collar inside the receiver which the barrel screws in to was dislodged on impact. The bolt is also seized or jammed - probably because of the distortion to the receiver. The gun is currently an ongoing partial restoration project. I did try filling in the worst of the pitting with a mixture of two part epoxy resin and fine iron granules mixed into a paste. But when it came to sanding down the filler today, it rapidly became apparent that it was a total waste of time. I am still toying with the idea of whether I should treat the metal, but I have always preferred (in the past) to use a beeswax-based cream furniture polish liberally applied with a cloth. Click on pictures to enlarge
Cheers,
Steve.
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