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Elbonia had a brief partnership with Egypt in the mid 1950s through which they acquired some early-production Hakim rifles. These were used along with Israeli surplus MG-34 machine gun barrel jackets to build an experimental Hakim LMG for Elbonian service. The gun was fed by adapted German MG-13 25-round box magazines. Surprisingly, it remained semiautomatic only. The design was fatally flawed because the Hakim barrel was retained, which was far too light in profile to meet the requirements of sustained fire that a light machine gun would be used for. In addition, the Elbonians were apparently unable to acquire MG0-34 bipods and instead fabricated their own from RPD bipod legs. The result was a really quite awful bipod.
Note: Just to clarify, YouTube does not allow discussion of gunsmithing or “gun modifications”. So when I find neat or interesting gunsmith creations, I will present them as Elbonian guns. This is an end run around YouTube’s policy, and also a fun way to invent a whole narrative for poor unfortunate Elbonia…
Will we ever see weapons from Freedonia? I hear the crank-operated carbines designed by Rufus T. Firefly, Chico, and Harpo are particularly interesting.
Best comment of the day right there!
Fun fact only us science-fiction role-playing game geeks generally know;
FASA Corporation, makers of the Star Trek Role-playing Game and creators of the Battletech universe, began as makers of supplements for the Game Designers Workshop Traveller SF RPG.
My early FASA pack of deck plans for merchant type starships includes a cover letter stating that the ships are ones from the Freedonian system.
The letter is signed,
Rufus T. Firefly,
Director
Freedonian Aeronautics and Space Administration.
F.A.S.A.
cheers
eon
Everyone needs to watch Duck Soup again! Especially the little quasi-minstrel bit here: https://youtu.be/yyeKYQdYISg?t=114 “They got guns! We got guns! All God’s chilluns got guns!”
Interestingly, Fredonia is a small town in SE Wisconsin as well. I saw nothing of their aerospace industry’s capabilities to speak of, haha.
I guess it is the equivalent to April 1st in the Elbonian calender today? 😉
The censorship committee strikes again, with ignorance of its own stupid idea that making everyone equally stupid with regards to crafting “deadly weapons” results in world peace. Political shenanigans aside, this particular piece looks like a nice idea implemented horribly wrong. The concept of turning a rifle into a machine gun isn’t a great idea in hindsight, as the design would require extensive modifications for the new role. The M14, AVS-36, and the FG-42, amongst several others, demonstrated why you can’t have a rifle double as a machine gun. The M1918 was an oddity, being the squad supporting automatic weapon. I could be wrong.
The Hakim LMG was designed by the Lithuanian-Mexican designer Vilus E. Nezahualcoyotl. Great series. I hear Vilus also modified SKS carbines.
WALLA-WALLA-WALLA Mud test WALLA-WALLA-WALLA
Too bad this early prototype didn’t have the Elbonian national crest, which at this time period I’m to understand depicts eight men leaning on their shovels as one man works filling a hole. Or maybe it was an armory mark, it’s not really clear…..
“(…)Elbonian national crest, which at this time period I’m to understand depicts eight men leaning on their shovels as one man works filling a hole.(…)”
And what was their national motto then? Improvise, adapt, overcome I guess.
“And what was their national motto then? Improvise, adapt, overcome I guess.”
Either that or “It’s not my job.”
Elbonia is an impoverished western European country in the Dilbert universe. Is this a fictional gun?
“Elbonia is an impoverished western European country in the Dilbert universe.”
This name reminded me about Albona Republic (alias Labinska republika) – short-lived (~month) anti-fascist entity: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albona_Republic
What, no mention of other weird places like Arstotzka?
Read the bottom of the article, sir.
Ian for President of Elbonia, then the NRA, then the United States, then the World….and of course, eventually the Federation of Planets!
Its a well known fact that most elbonians also spoke french Due to the curvature of the magazine I bet the preprototypes were in 8 mm Lebel and used a surplus greek chauchat barrel
Interesting to see the MG-13 magazine fit so well.
The MG34 barrel shroud is silly useless, but fitting the bigger magazine makes some sense in a WW1 trenchmagazine or aero rifle kind of way.
Thank you for that final note. I saw “Elbonia” and was all WTF.
And you should get the Elbonian firearms industry added to this wiki.
mirror.uncyc.org/wiki/Elbonia
when’s the range test. dare ya.
So is this truly an Egyptian prototype?
Damn this has potential! Find a mg34 bipod, clean up the part where the shroud is fixed to the stock and you have a very cool semi auto to silence the tacticool crowd at your shooting range.
Was Dilbert the head engineer of this weapon?
Needs more dakka
If Elbonia is a fictional country, why did I have a granduncle die there operating for a US government agency?!?!
The CIA has created at least one fake country that people ended up dying for.
(See: Col. Edward Lansdale)
Was it before the 1963 coup which put the former defense minister at the head of th e country?
“If Elbonia is a fictional country, why did I have a granduncle die there operating for a US government agency”
Well this reminded me about one poll from 2015, suggesting that many dwellers of U.S.A. are strongly anti-genie.
https://www.snopes.com/news/2015/12/18/agrabah-aladdin-republican-poll/
Not funny.
Wow, some of us have way to much time on our hands. For the others, here’s a coffee, reflect a moment, and try to keep up with the other kids in the pool.
Don’t treat this guy as a joke. There’s serious academic research to back it up. See recent publications by Professor Müller-Fokker of the University of Porchesia.
Zees eez Professor Müller-Fokker of the University of Porchesia, unt I am tellink you zat zee nation of Elbonia eez zee real sink. Unt, I vill add, zo eez Porchesia.
What other proof do you need, folks?
Just ordered 2 Elbonian T-shirts. Do I get a bonus of a bucket of Elbonian mud?
The Elbonians got boned pretty hard, same with Youyczinstan. Molvania did just lightly better. Great work sticking it to the Powers That Be, Ian.
“This is an end run around YouTube’s policy…”(С)
Bravo Ian!
It is not funny, it is informative (in the sense of studying the kind of shortsightedness) how some figures imitate an ostrich trying to hide its head in concrete, yelling like ass wounded “no politics!”, when talking about weapons.
Once again BRAVO!
is this a leftover prop from Generic WW II Fantasy Squad?
Development of the rifle into a light machine gun may have gone smoother if they hadn’t messed up the mutual defense/technology sharing treaty with the Duchy of Grand Fenwick. Alfred Kokintz’ cousin Erwin had studied under John M. Browning and was in charge of the Grand Fenwick Armory at the time. His input would have been invaluable.
Looks like the Elbonians are “butterfingers” as BOTH Elbonian rifle samples have bent front sights, proving that the Elbonin’s scrimped just a little too much in their procurements. Always get the”protection when dealing with military matters.
Will there be any Elbonina sidearm reviews? Officer’s models or other special forces items?