U.S. Army BAR Ammo Belt in 1/6th Scale
By HankCo1942 © March 2006
PART 1
After more than six years of this pursuit (for those of you just joining, the pursuit of making 1/6th scale miniatures of U.S. Army World War 2 equipment) I embarked upon a project with the intention of sharing the entire process. This will be instructional for some, numbing for others. Perhaps it will be enlightening to some of you out there who are always griping about details. Each item that you see in the toy boxes has to go through a process such as this – and after it’s made, it needs to then be translated into manufacture. If you don’t like what they can do using skilled Chinese laborers paid pennies, try it yourself. You will respect those designers and workers more.
I have to also say at the outset that the 6+ years mentioned above have allowed this item to be made. Not only in experience but in the steady accumulation of tools and supplies. I know have the luxury of having almost anything I require readily at hand. Whether the results are good or poor, there are usually options available, and I’ll attempt to show them here, as well as the mistakes. I’m also going to dispense with explaining anything about the item. If you don’t know what it is, do an internet search! This item is based on a 1942 dated BAR belt manufactured by BOYT from my collection.
Like most films, the order of manufacture has been significantly adjusted. This is for your sanity, as what you are about to experience will seem to follow a logical process. The actual assembly order was very different.
Step one: The Center belt
Common to many ammo belts, the center section has a grommet in the center (a leftover from the rear center strap M1910 Haversack) and metal tips riveted on each end. The strap is not a challenge, a bit of webbing. I would have preferred a slightly heavier webbing. The webbing was soaked with heavy starch to stiffen it. The center grommet was added, using a backing washer and standard setting tool. Note that one final step, rounding the back with a nail set and ball peen hammer, was not photographed.
As a note, grommetting has been 1000 times easier after buying several eyelet setting tools from the scrap booking section of JoAnn Fabrics – and 1,000,000 easier once I discovered www.microfasteners.com – their washers seal the deal!
The distinctive ends were photetched – I admit to being far from expert at this process, but I used the kit available from www.micromark.com which has everything required and careful detailed instructions.
Step Two: The backing belt
One of the interesting assembly features of the BAR belt is the way the pouch sections are attached to a web belt. I’ve read that this allowed more flexibility – these things are awkward and heavy, and this attachment allowed the soldier to sit less encumbered. The web belt section is very similar to a standard cartridge belt backing. Essentially, there are 2 web portions, with adjustment buckles to secure the center belt on one end and the front closure buckles on the other. There are 3 web sections on each side to hold the ends of the center belt tight to the body just like the standard cartridge belt). These were sewn on first (I messed up the placement twice, this is an early incorrect attempt)
The rear adjustment buckles were photo-etched from heavy brass stock, attached with web sections and sewn.
The center belt is then inserted between the two backer sections.
Then the main buckle sections were made of brass sheet and brass wire. After having tried a large number of ways to do this, mostly involving wire shaping, flattened nail heads, etc., I’ve decided that drilling through the SIDES of brass stock and adding wire gives the unique three dimensional character of the buckle and the round loops. Lots of work involving power tools and hand files, but I think the results are great.
As you can see, I attempted to cast this buckle – but the results were far too frail. I will try again in the future with heavier wire! The buckles were painted black. I have used Blacken it with good results but find that the parts often continue to rust.
Continued
