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Detailing PAK 40 page 1
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Detailing a Pak 40 page 6
 
Gun shield modifications
 
There are a number of shield details to consider. The real gun has sight doors that can be secured in multiple positions, and conical headed bolts with spacers held the two shield layers apart. The moving gun tube shield on the real gun is secured to the gun carriage by mounting bracket arms that hold the tube shield in the same relative position to the tube as it elevates or depresses. The two shield layers are held the proper distance apart by a number of structures on the 21st Century version that are not present on the real gun. The main structures are ridges on both layers of the shields on the inside. To begin, I cut off most of these that are visible – the upper ridges, as well as about and inch of the outer end of the lower set of ridges and 2/3rds of the center ridge on the backside of the outer layer, leaving the round male stud to mount to the female stud on the inner shield. I removed all of the inner shield layer detail pieces, and cut off the molded receptacles for the gun cradle to shield mounting arms. The shields were filed off smooth, cleaned and six holes drilled through both layers of the shield on both sides for the bolts. Small sections of brass tubing were cut to create spacers.
 
 
 
Guides for the sight door were glued to the inside of the inner shield. Sight doors were fabricated from two pieces of vinyl coated Styrofoam that were similar to thickness as the center gun tube shield. A notch was cut through the sight opening on the inner shield for the sight shutter latch handles. The latch handles were fabricated from brass tubing and bolts glued into the shutter doors. At the time I created my sight shutter doors, I could not locate very detailed photographs how to make them. I have since come across the following picture, which I believe is of the Jaques Littlefield Pak 40 during restoration (the same one Dubar photographed for the skirt latch).
 
 
As I did not have access to a photograph of this sort, my design was of one set of rails only and the upper and lower shutter latch notches were cut on the same line instead of off set as this picture shows them to be. This picture also shows much greater detail how the gun tube shield is attached/functions. The gun tube shield slides on rollers that keep the shield centered and moving smoothly as the gun elevates/depresses. In order to allow my gun to elevate/depress to the fullest extent possible, portions of the outer edges were removed so it could move past the round male/female shield connecting points on either side of the gun tube shield.
 
 
This picture also shows the location of the holes I drilled for the shield mounting bracket anchor screws. The final screws will be flat headed and countersunk to match the real Pak. In this picture you can also see one of my shutter guide rails on the right edge of the picture.
 
 
Mounting brackets from the backside, also showing the bend in the upper shield arms.
 
The gun tube shield is held in place by two arms that attach to the gun carriage. By fabricating these arms, the gun tube shield anchor tabs are not needed, so they were cut off to allow the shield to move freely as the gun elevates or depresses. The arms are connected to the gun carriage by anchor plates that I fabricated from plastic channel. The channel, 7/16th wide, was cut into two pieces ½ inch long. The arms of the channel were cut/filed so the outside edge of the mounting bracket was 1/8th of an inch from the surface of the gun carriage. These two pieces were mounted to the gun carriage approximately 1 5/8 inches from the square molded bracket where the elevation arm mounts to the carriage, the top edge flush with the bottom edge of the rivet details. The exact location was determined by dry-fitting all the pieces together and noting the required position in order for the gun to meet max and min elevation/depression.  The mounting bracket on each side is held in place by four 0-70 bolts. A section of plastic tubing 3/16ths in diameter 1/8th inch long was glued into the center of each mounting bracket, through which the lower shield arms are anchored to the mounting bracket with brass bolts. Shield arms were fabricated from 3/16th inch wide brass bar, the ends rounded and drilled with holes to accommodate the mounting bolts. The arms are 1 ¾ inches long after bending, and have a short section of plastic tubing glued to the lower end to replicate the design of the real Pak, which you can see in another picture from a real Pak 40.
 
 
The picture above shows the gun tube shield lock tabs removed; the tabs ensured the shield slid down when the gun was depressed. The picture also shows the lower bend of the shield arm.
 
 
Picture of the gun tube shield anchor arms with anchor pivot point, thanks to Tanxheaven. The arms have to be bent so they clear the gun carriage itself on the bottom end and on the top to attach to the shield alongside the gun tube.