Grenade Hand Offensive MKIII A2

[ekim199944]

I couldn't seem to find a MKIII for my collection so I thought I make one myself. I searched the web for photos and found a few. I used the photo to scale up my effort, basing all my dimensions on the fuze in the photo, scaling off of it. I found a paper container, which had a lid on both ends, that was the right dimension. I glued the lids on then trimmed the sides to the proper thickness. I then cut a circle in the ends that was smaller than the tube inside diameter and folded and glued the remainder down to form the inside lip, as you can see in one on my photos. I cut the end off on an old smoke grenade that I had to use as the top to screw the fuze in. The bottom was a piece of tin mounted on a wooden plug and pushed in. I soaked the paper ends with super glue and when it had hardened I was able to sand away any creased that the folded paper had made. I then painted the top and bottom with a semi-gloss black and colored the remaining tube with a large Sharpie marker. The label I made up on my computer, printed it out on yellow paper. I then glued it around the tube and sealed it with orange shellac. I am quite happy with the results.

 

[Fragman]

Nice work!

 

[xPANZERx]

that looks awesome, how long did that take you?

 

[ekim199944]

Thank for the compliment.

It didn't take as long to build as to find the right size paper tube. I had to search the web and found a wedding supply company that sold the right diameter and they came with paper lids. The lids worked out great. The only problem I had was cutting the wooden plugs the right size. I used a circular saw blade, the kind you use to cut large holes, but the one I bought cut the plugs just a bit too small so I ground off the saw teeth that were bent to the inside of the blade. It made the plugs the exact size I need for a very tight fit in the tube. All in all when I actually started construction it took about 4 hours. It also took about an hour to recreated the label. I wanted it to match as closely as possible the one in the photo from the web.