Breda-SAFAT 12.7 mm Italian WW2 machine gun

prusaprinters

<p>Together with its 7.7 mm variant, the 12.7 mm Breda-SAFAT was probably the most widely used Italian WW2 gun - mounted both in fighter and bomber aircraft and used as an AA and infantry support weapon. It was later used in post-war Spain as well, and one specimen was reportedly found with rebels in Idlib, Syria a couple of years ago (although it was probably not actually used, due to lack of its rather exotic ammo).<br><br>This project started off easy, the barrel was finished in an hour or so. However, later I got really bogged down in all the details of the gun body. There are many photos and drawings available, but it was very hard for me to get oriented in that crazy patchwork of panels anyway (I know nearly nothing about guns). The most problematic was the belt feeder system (that rectangular funnel thingy on the right side). In the end, it's very simplified and probably not too accurate. In reality, there was an axis with two large drive gears for moving the belt, with corresponding cutouts in the funnel bottom. I didn't find any good pics or drawings of it, so I skipped it altogether.<br><br>Note that details would differ based on how the particular specimen had been used (i.e. different sights, belt feeding system, a pistol grip, tripod mount, etc.).<br><br>Everything is scaled down to 1/72 (yes, I know some of the details are unprintable, but they might make sense when scaling it up to 1/48 or 1/35).&nbsp;<br><br>There are two STL versions, a whole gun and just a barrel alone.&nbsp;<br><br>&nbsp;</p>