British Sterling SMG

I've been thinking it would be pretty cool to make a British Sterling submachine gun, which is the successor to the STEN. It's pretty much just a 1.5" diameter tube with a side-mounted mag. I'm thinking I ought to be able to rearrange an MP5 as they are similar sizes and the magazines look almost identical.



Before I pick up a boneyard item to tear apart, I want to make sure everything will fit into the tube. I've looked all over the internet trying to find any measurements for a version 2 gearbox, but haven't been able to find any. I also haven't been able to find out much on what the hopups look like that come with many MP5s, to see if there's anything in the way of redirecting the BB feed to come from the left.

Can anybody here help me out?

hey check this out : http://www.airsoftpost.com/product_info.php?products_id=31522

im not sure if its what you were looking for but it sounds the same from how you described it

That's the Sten, the sterling L2 came about in the 50's. You'll recognize it as the star wars storm trooper blasters.

The sterling has been done before, there was a great write up on it I'll try and track down for ya. I think the person used an AK style version3 in it though. It also retained the AK's trigger and grip.


[edited to add]
http://johntom.wordpress.com/2009/04/05/sterling-sub-machine-gun-9mm-mk4-l2a3-replica/

not exactly what I was looking for, but the guy claims to be able to fit a gearbox in his design if one is so inclined.

Yeah, I've seen that. I actually already have schematic templates for the body of the weapon, I just am trying to make sure which version of gearbox is going to fit in there. I have to make sure that the motor is the right angle to fit inside the pistol grip, and the length is right so the hopup is in the right place in the magwell, that the whole thing will fit inside the tube, etc.

I've got pictures of different gearboxes from off the internet, but I don't know how to scale them when I compare them with my schematics. Even if I knew the overall length of the gearbox I could work out the rest of the dimentions and find out if it would work. However, I haven't been able to find out any dimentions on any gearbox from the internet, nor get my hands on one to measure it.

If anybody could tell me how long their gearbox is, and what version it is, that would be great! Thanks

I'll run a tape measure along my AK's guts for ya sometime soon.

Sweet. I really appreciate it.

direct link also https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v484/camokid68/V3measured.jpg

There ya go, I hope that helps.

Sweet, thank you very much. I think this is the only diagram there is like this on the internet.