Resized to 51% of original (view original)
original drawn by caldwellb734

Artist's commentary

  • Original
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    Shortening the Buzzsaw

    I've always wondered why there weren't more variants of the infamous MG42 since it was such a successful design, one that is still used today as the H&K MG3. The main modification I've always imagined is shortening the barrel and lightening the design, turning it into a SAW-style weapon like the M249. So I did just that:

    1) Standard WW2 MG42

    2) MG42K - Shortened barrel

    3) MG42CP - Ultra-short barrel, a synthetic handguard and modified stock, and high-strength polymer parts to lessen the weight

  • Comments
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    baroquebro
    [hidden]

    Myony said:

    Nah, these are all MG42s, according to the description. Also the fact that the Ameli's barrel shroud looks very different and has this giant carry handle on top.

    I know, it was more in regards to the question over where the MG42 variants are (though the Ameli barely qualifies as one tbf)

    1 Reply
    Crise
    [hidden]

    So the reason why you don't see everyone going Call of Duty on poor barrels is because the round needs to burn all of its gunpowder load while the bullet is still inside the barrel, else it won't hit the full effectiveness. In that case you would opt for a smaller round to save on a lot of things. The bigger the round, the more gunpowder to burn, obviously. MG-42 uses full rifle caliber rounds, which are pretty damn beefy, so it needs the barrel length to burn all that powder. M249 can get away with being a bit shorter because it uses a lower caliber ammunition, and it still has regular barrel length of 465mm vs MG42s 530mm. So it's not that much shorter and certainly not as short as the 3rd MG from the picture.

    2 Reply