The main weapon of the RHA during the early war period was the 'quick fire 13 pounder' (despite this name the shells did not weigh 13 pounds). It was initially valued as it could be transported by a carriage of horses over rough cross country terrain at speed . Despite this the gun was quickly over shadowed by its bigger brother, the 'QF 18-Pdr' as it could fire shells at a greater distance. This was due to the increasingly stagnant nature of trench warfare in WW1. In terms of modelling it appears that there is a high amount of mechanical complexity. This combined with the lack of technical drawings (due to limited production and usage during war time) makes it difficult understand. To simplify this process the gun is divided into its various components. As of now the components include the wheel, gun shield, recoil tube, barrel\breech and pole. Even then the gun will not completely match the real life counterpart as specific details will be simplified for ease of modelling. One example of missing details is the lack of detail on the sight or optic used of the gun. various images on the Imperial War Museum website showed the gun with what appeared to be sight mountings but lacked the sight itself. It was not until an army manual was found confirming that a no.14 type sight was used.
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| Behind the real gun at the previous IWM |
Currently only the wheel and plough at the back have been modelled in detail with all other components currently having place holders. Looking over the source images it appears that the wheels still need some changes such as details to a metal rim covering the wooden circumference of the wheel and changes to the centre details.
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| Beginning stages of QF 13-pdr model |
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| Model back view |
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| Model side profile |
I am happy with the positioning of the bigger parts of the weapon as it carries the basic shape of a field gun yet a lot of work is still required to get the model up to scratch. However for the next few days I will not have access to a computer with Maya, hopefully the next update will be on Sunday with more detail added to the gun shield and recoil tube.
:)
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