My previous postings, in April 2015, talked about my grandfather's involvement with The First Shot, and how I was starting a model engineering project to design and build one in 1:8 scale. So what have I accomplished over the past 10 months? Basically, I have the axle and the steel/wooden wheels done. Every step in the process has had its own set of challenges!
One overarching challenge is developing a set of precise engineering drawings for each piece. I have visited two 75mm guns for purposes of measuring, sketching, and photographing them.
The first visit, in April, was at the Camp Roberts Museum, San Miguel, CA. However this piece is one of the US-made versions, a M1897A3, with the dual trail, steel wheel, and rubber tires. Therefore only the "gun" portion was really relevant to my research. The entire piece was painted gray.
The second visit, in July, was to the Old Orange County Courthouse, Santa Ana, CA. This is a French Canon 1897, again painted gray, with some black trim. I got excellent information for making the wheels, which kept me busy for the past 5 months.
The wheels are nearly done, I just need to bolt through the tires, felloes, and felloe plates. Having primer painted the wheels, I needed the exact coloration of the camouflage-painted piece that has been discussed in this forum thread. Attached: a photo of my efforts thus far.
One of my fellow participants on www.hobby-machinists.com responded to my needs for a photo recon mission to the West Point Museum. I spoke with the museum's Arms Curator, Les Jensen, to arrange special access for my photographer, Tino Giusto. During my phone call with Mr Jensen, he said the camouflage was done at the French factory. I had assumed it was done in the field. He also said that not all the names scratched into that paint job actually deserved to be there.
Tino did his photo mission two weeks ago and has posted them on Flickr. One of the them, by my request, shows the serial number on the breech end of the barrel, it is #13579. I see that was a question of discussion in this forum a year ago. Here is the link to his folder of 172 photos, almost all related to the First Shot gun.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/133495471@N08/albums/72157663157435569/with/24193620309/
I don't believe that is my grandfather standing between the wheel and barrel.
Now I can try to match those colors.