New Lafette 42

Post by **DARIVS ARCHITECTVS** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 5:06 am

The lafette 42 has arrived. It's an early 1942 tripod. The search fire unit needed disassembly and cleaning to get it working, and an adjustment and modification of the trigger linkage was necessary to get the trigger of the MG-42 to be fully depressed. Ryan did an excellent job on the paint, both primer and ordnance tan. Thanks for a fine lafette, Ryan! Can't wait to try it out.

Post by **DARIVS ARCHITECTVS** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 5:12 am

More pics...

Post by **mp5** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 8:47 am

DARIVS ARCHITECTVS wrote:The lafette 42 has arrived. It's an early 1942 tripod. The search fire unit needed disassembly and cleaning to get it working, and an adjustment and modification of the trigger linkage was necessary to get the trigger of the MG-42 to be fully depressed. Ryan did an excellent job on the paint, both primer and ordnance tan. Thanks for a fine lafette, Ryan! Can't wait to try it out.

Great job!

Ryan is doing my 1939 34 Lafette, and I hope it looks as good as this !

Jorge

ak47dennis · Post by **ak47dennis** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 8:59 am

Looks good! Just curious why some of you guys are choosing to have them done for you?

Its not difficult at all the RAL paint codes are readily available a lot of disassembly and off to the sand blaster then to the paint both along with the re-installation of all your freshly blued partsâ€¦half the fun is watching it come back to life

You mount looks almost exactly like mine (except for the pads) I better go check my gun room

.

Post by **DARIVS ARCHITECTVS** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 10:24 am

My lafette was bought from Ryan, and since he had a painting booth and lots of experience, I decided not to try my hand at rebuilding it. The cleaning and tweaking I did when it arrived did teach me how the search fire unit and other features worked, but having never seen one before, I wasn't all that sure I could do as good a job as Ryan could. My garage shop doesn't have the correct painting equipment anyhow.

Post by **Mg34gunner** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 11:17 am

I have restored a lafette and it was a big job to be sure.
Currently I m restoring an MG08 sled and Ryan is fabricating some of the missing parts. I'm doing what I can myself. The sled is off at the sandlblsters as we speak.

I will say he surely did an outstanding job on your MG42 tripod.

Wow.

Post by **mgfun** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 12:04 pm

Congratulations, that looks fantastic. It looks like it's never even been out for a test drive yet. Great job.
Regards,
mgfun

Post by **TOM R** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 10:27 pm

with a tripod that looks like that I cannot believe you want to shoot off it, that is what the mg3 laffete is for

or at least thats what i do

Post by **DARIVS ARCHITECTVS** » Fri Jun 23, 2006 11:26 am

Tom ole buddee....

Aside from a few scrapes to the paint job, which even Ryan agreed would make it look more original, there won't be any harm to the lafette by using it occasionally. That's the point, actually Tom. Using a REAL WWII MG with the proper equipment and the correct 8mm ammo. I suppose you wouldn't mind trading in that old weasel of yours for my station wagon. I mean, you REALLY wouldn't want to actually USE the weasel, would ya? That's what teh station wagon is for . . . I'm open to offers for you weasel (but you gotta get it running first).

Post by **ntrestdonlkr** » Thu Jul 13, 2006 7:51 pm

that looks great! i was curious about 2 things. when i did mine,the recoil mech had that green coloring on it as well as the optics mount. neither had much left on them when i received my lafette, so i used a wire wheel to clean them up to complete aluminum finish. what is that green color? was it an anodizing of some kind? i considered having both parts hard coat anodized near the same color as the tripod, but i may consider the original color if anyone here knows what it is. also, where did you get the search fire replacement tag?

d65 · Post by **d65** » Thu Jul 13, 2006 11:02 pm

The Lafette tripod looks great! After shooting mine FA off the cheap AA tripod, I understand why the Lafette is so useful. Just wish the price wasn't so high on them.

Post by **DARIVS ARCHITECTVS** » Fri Jul 14, 2006 1:02 am

d65: Yeah, they are darn expensive and hard to find. ntrestdonlkr: The green is what remains of the original aluminum finish. The surface of all aluminum parts was coated somehow with a forest green transparent coating. Too bad you removed yours. I suppose you could replace the coating with a thin paint enamel veneer. I suppose the coating was there to resist corrosion, which aluminum is wont to do. The sight base and other aluminum parts should be an opaque green, that shows the metal sheen beneath. It could have been an anodization treatment. The search fire unit depth of fire table is a replica that Ryan obtained. It is only usable for the MG-34. All early Lafette 42's had the MG-34 tables issued on them, and the corrected tables for the MG-42 were issued later. Orders were issued NOT to use the tables on the tripod, but to use the separate tables that the machinegunner carried, until the new revised tables were available. Since MG's were sometimes shot over the heads of friendly troops during an assault when coordinated fire was arranged, use of the old revision of the tables could be fatal to German troops. The lafette 42 was often painted with a dark red primer with ordnance tan over that, as this early lafette 42 is. MG-34 mounts were grey early on, and tan later on. Soldiers often painted green and brown over the original paint jobs to camoflage them. Ryan reblued those bolts and nuts and their anti-rotation sheetmetal keepers as they were originally were treated. They stand out against the tan paint. Did you get your search fire unit working? I had to dismantle mine very carefullly so as not to loose parts and clean out WWII grease that was as hard as plastic. After regreasing, it works fine. Grab some pics off my website for your desktop!

Post by **ntrestdonlkr** » Sun Jul 16, 2006 3:39 pm

could you take and post some close up shots of the recoil mech, optic base, and search fire aluminum lever? i'd like to see the color in detail so i can replicate it. when i got my lafette there was very small traces of that green color left on the recoil tube, almost looked like someone had spilled laquer thinner or some other chemical on it, and the other aluminum parts were just plain no coating. thanks

Post by **DARIVS ARCHITECTVS** » Sun Jul 16, 2006 11:17 pm

The green coating on the aluminum parts is very thin, transparent, and on the recoil shock absorber on my lafette, it is nearly gone. The best remaining sample is on the elevation unit stud. See the photos below for the green coated parts.