In the fall of 2019, an author of historical books approached me with a request to make a model of a Hotchkiss heavy machine gun wz. 25 (i.e.  a modified version of the Hotchkiss Mle 1914) for his publication that he is working on. Along with the proposal, I received a model plan. After a cursory comparison of the plan with photos of the rifle available on the Internet, I decided that the topic had little chance of success. One view of the model (only its left side), as well as the impression that it did not match the actual situation, raised enough doubts to not undertake this work. A few weeks after this meeting, an unusual offer appeared – a certain museum, which had various types of old machine guns, offered to help. I gained access to a real, authentic model. It was a treat for me, because all the models I had made so far consisted solely of working based on plans (which were more or less internally consistent, generally less so : ) and photos. I realized that I had a lot of work ahead of me, but also that I was facing an unusual opportunity. So I returned to the client, offering to make the model for free, and I started working in January 2020. First, careful documentation had to be made, i.e. many photos of the model and dimensions of its components. Since the museum management stipulated that I can only take photos for my own needs, I will not post them. Below I present the stages of work on the rifle…