Jump to content

ARES PPSH-41 to K50-M Conversion


Josiah Hull

Recommended Posts

I am nearing completion of the latest commissioned project and thought I might share progress.

 

The goal of the project was to take a ARES PPSH-41 and turn it into a K50-M, which makes sense considering that is exactly what the VC did in their little clandestine workshops. Also I am working in a garage workshop, so I am taking their spirit of ingenuity and running with it. Anyways, enough with the blabbering and on to the build.

 

ARES made this build fairly easy by building the gun with a nearly complete receiver. I only had to fabricate the lower back half of the receiver to make it have the necessary profile. The receiver is 18g sheet metal, which is very robust.

 

img2437jm.jpg

 

Welding up the receiver I made the receiver to affix to the rest of the gun using the same bolt holes that the original stock tang on the ARES attached to.

 

img2440w.jpg

 

The U shaped cut out is for the upper receiver latch to catch on and works just like the OEM latch, only a touch tighter so absolutely no wobbles.

 

After this I moved on to modifying the barrel shroud. Again ARES was helpful in the way they attached the barrel as it is solid even without the shroud. I am not sure if it looks quite right yet, but it looks better than with the huge shroud on the front.

 

img2467uw.jpg

 

I am currently in the middle of making a battery holder/ pistol grip attachment point and just finished making the spacer piece that goes between the grip and the receiver. This will run off of a 1300mah Lipo battery that will sit inside the pistol grip and should provide more than enough power for play. I will have a box built up that will hold the battery and also allow for a place to mount the pistol grip to. If my idea holds up, it should be sturdy enough to use without fear of the grip breaking off.

 

This will leave me with modifying the MAT-49 stock to fit the slightly wider airsoft receiver and welding up the stock tubes on the receiver. Also need to design a stock catch to fit in the gun, have some ideas how to go about it just need to do it. After that affixing a front sight to the barrel and the gun should be complete. I also need to get the "wings" on the front receiver portion to be flatter and less obtrusive as they cannot be removed completely as they serve as a anchor point for the front of the receiver.

 

It really isn't as hard as I thought it might be, and frankly I am surprised that nobody has done this yet (that I am aware of). Anyways, it is a fun project and glad I can be a part of this build. I hope to make significant progress this weekend, if not finish it.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Got a touch more work done on this, nearly finished with the pistol grip mount. I must say that it is solid and there should be no need to be gentle with this, which is good considering the gun is quite hefty.

 

img2469w.jpg

 

As is shown, the grip spacer ring is welded to the receiver which locks the top of the grip in place and will keep it from rotating. Inside this is the battery holder/ pistol grip attachment post. All that is left is to weld a nut onto the top so that a screw can be threaded in holding on the grip just like on an AEG.

 

The battery is held nicely between the posts and the wiring gets pushed up into a cavity inside the receiver keeping everything nice and clean looking and the battery should have enough power to keep the gun rocking all day without needing a retarded external battery pouch.

 

img2470s.jpg

 

A little bit of grinding and the receiver should look pretty good. Just need a wood grip and it will look even better. Although I bet if I added a couple of rails to the front end and a tactical M4 stock adaptor and some Magpul ###### it would just go off the charts awesome :P

Link to post
Share on other sites

Got some more work done on the gun, modified the front lower receiver by removing the "wings" that went up around the upper receiver and the stock mounting flanges for the wood stock. Originally I had thought that these would not be able to be removed because they held the rear lower receiver in place. I discovered that I could indeed remove them and modify the rear lower a tiny bit and it would be just as secure, and also look 100% better.

 

I also have half of the stock mounting tubes done, would have done both but I thought for sure that I had enough metal for two, should have bought more while I was at the store. Still needs a little work because the stock wire is very difficult to pull out. It works but I want it to be able to nearly drop out if you point the stock at the ground and hold the stock release button.

 

img2473h.jpg

 

img2474ef.jpg

 

Stock in open and closed position, as estimated by eye since it does not have the stock catch in it yet. I had to cut the stock supports on the butt so I could widen the stock so now I have to weld them back with a touch wider pieces, but it is coming along nicely.

 

And thank you all for the compliments!

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 1 month later...

Anyways, after much procrastination and the desire to work on my MGB without feeling guilty about pushing this project off I have gotten to the point that it is nearly finished. Hooray.

 

Things left to do are attach front sight, make sling loop, paint/finish/blue outer parts, find wood grip, finally let Serov (local member I am building this for) have fun shooting children with it at Bing (Local field). Not so big a list anymore, I am sure there will be something that will come up, but off the top of my head it is almost finished and is pretty fun to mess around with.

 

Picture time!

Picture of right side of weapon

 

img2916g.jpg

 

Close up of right side stock catch. I am worried that this piece being made of aluminum may deform over time and not work anymore, time will tell. It is currently having an issue of unscrewing itself from the other half when the stock is extended but I think that a bit of thread lock will cure the issue.

img2917tt.jpg

 

Image of left side stock catch mechanism, this is the button that is pushed to move the other side out of the stock channel and allow the stock to slide back or forth. It is a touch small I think, but any bigger may get in the way of other operations. It works

 

img2918v.jpg

 

And finally is the sling swivel stud/ bracket thingy. I still need to make a sling swivel out of some wire, but this looks pretty close to what I could make out of the pictures I have for reference. If it is not entirely accurate it will work like the original ones

 

img2920d.jpg

 

Cant wait for the front sight to get here so I can finish this beast up. The recoil from the ARES version is actually kinda cool because the vibrations are transferred through the stock wire into the shooters jaw making it at least feel like something is going on.

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 2 weeks later...

Thank you both for the praise.

 

I wish I had a final update but am stuck waiting for the front sight to arrive. A friend had an identical sight to the real ones that was on an old Chinese air rifle, of all things. As soon as I take posession of said sight I should be able to put the finishing touches on this replica and have it off my workbench.

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 2 weeks later...

And finally she is done!

 

Finished it up the other day and just finished painting it. I think that the paint will be tough enough to last a good while, but time will tell. It is some sort of Rustoleum metallic black over a metallic bronze, and then flat clear coated for durability. I did not have too many scratches when re-assembling the gun, and the ones that did occur where expected.

 

I made some adjustments to the stock button and it works a little better now, a dab of lock-tight should fix any and all problems remaining.

 

Anyways, its picture time!

img2986wg.jpg

 

img2985hm.jpg

 

It's heavy and awesome, wish she were mine! Just needs a wood grip and it would be complete.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use and the use of session cookies.