Art by Wayne Chan
Springfield T148E1 grenade launcher
Designed c.1957-60 at the Springfield Armory as part of project NIBLICK.
40x46mm grenade three-round harmonica magazine, semi automatic.
The 1950′s were an interesting time for firearm development in the United States, as they tried to create a small arm design that’s still elusive to this day. The weapons that were developed were in general high-velocity super-high-rate-of-fire flechette-firing assault rifles coupled with grenade launchers, which I assume would equip jetpack assault troops to invade Mars.
The research done to develop this complementary grenade launcher however produced very concrete results however, as it was during that time that the M79 and its 40x46mm cartridge were designed. The T148E1 was a variant of the M79 made to provide repeating fire in an effort to make ever more advanced weapons, but its harmonica-type magazine proved to be a structural weakness and it was not adopted.
Sometimes simpler is better.
Belgian flintlock blunderbuss
1″ caliber flaring up to 2″ / 25mm to 50mm, brass barrel, flintlock mechanism.
Looks like the stock just straight-up caught on fire a few time while shooting this monstrosity.
Same character with color added.
Also, a variation in which the chainmail ventrail is fastened.