Lethalchem

I've been tinkering around with a way to store some of my stuff that would help keep them clean and also let me display them at the same time. I've seen some really nice setups from people online, but nothing really along the lines of what sort of money I wanted to spend. Instead of buying expensive displays, I just thought I'd have fun and try making some myself. I'm pretty pleased with how they came out, considering how much I don't know what the hell I'm doing most of the time.

I just snapped a few pics of them real quick, so don't bother pointing out the fingerprints on the glass or flash glares. I know they're there. I will need to clean the black backgrounds, glass, and give the pistols a light coat of protective oil before I'm actually ready to display them. I'm not going to do all that until I'm sure I like where I positioned everything.

Even though I took the pics of the boxes with them laying flat on a desk, I made them to be hung on a wall, so everything you see in the box is secured to the background. That was the fun part aside from digging up all the pieces.









Now that I have them all set to hang on the wall, I pride myself in being true to form when it comes to consistency of thought. In my usual fashion, I put a lot of time and thought into how I was going to make these things work in the box, but I ALWAYS leave out one or two details out of anything I undertake. In this case, I left out considering where the hell I'm going to hang these things! Oh well, I'll figure it out.

Dads44

Very nice. I'm sure it will look great on your wall!

joshualeon

Very very nice!

dubshooter

I've been planning on making a display box for one of my trainer's guns. I'll let you guys know how it turns out. It's been pretty hot to be working in the garage lately

Lefty

Beautiful display boxes! What are the pistols?

Schwammy

Looks great! Awesome job!

James6591

Will look good up on the wall.

Jsmurphyphone

Very nice indeed. I've been wanting a nagant revolver but had no idea what to do with it. Hope you don't mind if I steal your idea. Too bad if you do. I'm stealing it anyway. Haha.

Seriously though, do the uniform items have a significant tie to the guns or just items from the time period?

Wing Nut

Well since you don't know where to hang them I will tell you where they belong. They can hang on my living room wall on both sides of the fireplace mantle. Don't worry I will let you sign the boxes and give you full credit for the workmanship!

BuckJM53

LC ... Those are well thought out and nicely done. You should be proud of the results

78CJ5

My thought as well, they do look professional.

JRICKARD81

Wow!!! Those are NICE!!!

TheWall

Nice collection and great job with the display cases. Have you thought of having brass engraved plates with the make, model, and caliber?

Lethalchem

Thanks for all the kind words guys.

1. The first display in this thread is of two Tokarev T-33's, one from Romania and the other from Yugoslavia. I collect WWII firearms as an amature hobby, but properly dated T-33's are hard to find. These two, while the same as the Tokarevs used in WWII, are unfortunately dated 1953 and 1957 .

2. Next display is Russian Nagant M1895 dated 1944.

3. This one is my favorite because of it's history and difficulty to find (here in the US at least). It's a Smith & Wesson Victory Model that was part of the Lend Lease Act and sent to the New Zealand armed forces (which is why it's in a display with all the NZ items and not US). My mother is from New Zealand so I wanted to represent what my relatives on that side did as well.

4. Last one is of a 1943 British Enfield No2. Mk1

Lethalchem

Hahahaha...knock yourself out man! The more people who appreciate and remember the history of these firearms, the better as far as I'm concerned!

I tried to pick up military items from the same period and nationality as the pistol itself. All the medals except one is an original WWII dated medal that was awarded for services during that conflict. The 1939-1945 New Zealand Defense medal in the NZ display is the only one I had to buy a replica of. It's too shiny and stands out, so I'll replace it whenever I can get hold of an original one. I chose all the non-Russian medals for the displays because they are the exact same ones that were awarded to one of my New Zealand relatives for service during WWII. They still have his medals on their wall, so I had to source authentic ones elsewhere. I recently visited them in New Zealand in March and took this picture of their display so I could be sure to get the right meals:



Seeing this during my visit is partly what got me started with the idea of using these displays to honor him, several other relatives, and my father for their part in WWII.

I was happy to find the WWII New Zealand Army hat to go in the display, as it also matches the hat he wears in the above pic. The green stone object in the left of the NZ display is a New Zealand charm called a Tiki, which he actually wore with his dog tags during the war. I just added the 1939 dated ANZAC stamps as a kind of "Soldier writting home" kind of vibe as if we were looking at his gear tossed down on his desk while he had a brief bit of down time. As for the flags, those are all new production, and I only added them to show the nationality of each gun.I wanted to use actual flags, but I felt they crowded the boxes too much.