Howdy,
I've always had a thing for custom guns, and recently I decided to sell my sterling which was my first scratch built gun (not by me though) to be replced with something even more oldschool. I love side-feeding submachine guns, and old wooden rifles, so the MP-18/Lanchester type guns are perfect for me.
Therefore, when the money is raised (i.e by sale of the sterling), i'm commissioning a very skilled friend of mine (who wishes to remain nameless) to build me an airsoft replica of a lanchester submachine gun, to be used in british, german (as an MP-28) and Japanese (As an MP-34 and type 99 smg) loadouts.
I have some experience with side-feeders already, and we will be using the internals from an m14, with the battery going in the stock. Magazines will be the agm mp-40 type, and the construction materials wood/steel/aluminium.
Progress on this will be very slow, as we're aiming for a decent replica, if the project gets started at all. If my mate refuses to do it, I will do it myself with cheaper materiels, and post the results here.
Fell free to ask any questions, i'm sure i've missed something.
thanks for reading,
Matt
Absolutely beautiful gun, that. I used to have a Deac one years ago, All that brass and wood made it so bloody heavy though, I'd hate to have had to use it in anger!
Along with the Patchett/Stirling, it's a gun that i'd love to make too. Keep us informed with your progress! 
we will be using the internals from an m14, with the battery going in the stock. Magazines will be the agm mp-40 type
V. interesting - look forward to seeing progress.
I utilised a similar approach on my STEN MkV here
we will be using the internals from an m14, with the battery going in the stock. Magazines will be the agm mp-40 type
V. interesting - look forward to seeing progress.
I utilised a similar approach on my STEN MkV here
Saw that, was very impressed. We used the same system on my sterling as well. It's a lot easier than people think to make an airsoft gun side-feed.
One thing that one of you could do to help me is find the measurements of the AGM mp-40 gearbox- some people have said it may be a better fit then the m14 one.
Cheers,
matt
Stick to the M14 - if you can accomodate a 'pistol grip' gearbox and motor config, there are better ones out there than the MP40.
PS: I love my MP40 but it's ROF isn't great.
What we're worried about is having to have the motor in the thin part of the stock- that could seriously challenge it's structural integrity. I think though it'll come further fowards than that, and we should be ok.
Is it possible to have a length of barrel between the gearbox and hop unit, or does this cause compression probelms? It may be necessary to get the trigger in the right place.
-Matt
Is it possible to have a length of barrel between the gearbox and hop unit, or does this cause compression probelms? It may be necessary to get the trigger in the right place.
-Matt
How ever long that section is, you'll need a nozzle to bridge that distance. The nozzle is the part that'll load the BB from the feed into the hop and it's the part doing all the transfer of air from the piston chanber to the hop/barrel opening.
A Proud Member Of 'Team Spleen!' who play mainly at Gunman Airsoft, Tuddenham, Suffolk.
Hmm, I see what you mean. In which case we'll either have to mount the trigger forwards or the magazine well further back.
-Matt
I know absoutely nothing about building guns, but are there any other suitable donors? eg MP5 ?
You've got nothing to ein, zwei, drei, vier
I know absolutely nothing about building guns, but are there any other suitable donors? eg MP5 ?
No MP5 gearbox is no use as the motor is in the grip this is why the M14 and MP40 are so useful.
The M14 is great for many things like the 1919A4
http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?doc ... 1237332213
Free speech is expensive these days!
If you move the M14 box forward so it lines up with the mag well the motor won't need to be fitted into the thin 'wrist' of the butt plus as the Lanchester was for the most part auto fire only you could set up the box so that it would run fully auto as soon as you put power on it and just have the trigger operating an electrical switch, this is something along the lines of how I'm going to try and get my G43 working except in that case it would but set to single shot only.
As to alternative gearboxes, MP7s have been used successfully with Stens and M3s, the down side is that they are only about 230fps as standard, also the recently released cheapsoft Skorpians are supposed to be a good option especially as they shot about 270fps, although the Skorpian has a pistol grip apparently it only contains the battery.
MP40 box is too high for most SMGs , looked at it for a Suomi KP36 attempt. M14 is a better box but as you say it means thinning out the neck of the stock . I couldn't get one to fit in the two Suomi stocks I bought 
having seen a couple of similar PPSh projects the way to go is to fab up your own stock so the motor will fit, and play around with the reciever dimensions gently to help yourself with the rest of it . No one is going to get out a ruler at an event .
Changing dimensions by 2-5mm is also a good idea, as it means you can work in steel . If you get a visit from the police , your creation can be proved not to be suitable for adding things like real bolts to to make a firearm , and therefore makes that bit easier. Of course if you are going to build make sure you are UKARA registered or similar to prove you have a defence to manufacture.
this is something along the lines of how I'm going to try and get my G43 working except in that case it would but set to single shot only.
Can't wait to see that, Pete. Of course it should be single shot only! 
You've got nothing to ein, zwei, drei, vier
The stock will be one from an air rifle, of which we have several available, so we should be able to choose one that fits. I'm going to go for the M14 gearbox, as it's the largest gearbox we can fit in; I don't really want to use and aep box, but if we have too, then we will.
I agree about throwing the dimensions a little out, probably a good idea in todays climate. About 1mm greater diameter on the tube should do it, as the mag well etc will already be off-sized to cope with the mp40 mags. I'm Ukara registered already luckily.
Like I said though, no work can start until the sterling goes - the capital from that is needed. I might draw up a set of blueprints though. Does anyone have a deac lanchester they're willing to measure up (Length of reciever, diameter, depth of gun from top of receiver to bottom of stock.)?
In regards to setting it full auto only, we're having a selector switch if it's convenient (the first lanchesters had them). I should warn you with setting a gearbox to semi only if it locks up, you need some sort of device to make it run full-auto to un-jam it.
Cheers,
matt
I agree about throwing the dimensions a little out, probably a good idea in todays climate. About 1mm greater diameter on the tube should do it, as the mag well etc will already be off-sized to cope with the mp40 mags.
I wouldn't worry about preciseness and correctness; especially if you intend to use it in-game realistically, as the Lanchester was only given to and used by the British Navy.
A Proud Member Of 'Team Spleen!' who play mainly at Gunman Airsoft, Tuddenham, Suffolk.
Here`s a PDF file which has a Lanchester receiver blueprint in it 
http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=11b9b14baff519aeab1eab3e9fa335ca6a540d9b2f1ef6f7
Thankyou very much, thats just what I need. This means even if my mate won't build it, I can.
It is legal to own plans like that isn't it?
-matt
Yep, its for information purposes only...as they say. 
"For British eyes only"
Will send them to my mate tonight and see what he thinks.
-Matt
Just thought ud be interested to know there is a deac one of these for sale on Milweb.
