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Eighteenth century British cannon in Gibraltar.


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This is a model my dad started in 1983 or 1984 when we were living there, he scratchbuilt about 80% of what you see here the carriage is made from wood with some lead wire detail and white plastic card. The cannon itself is gunmetal my dad turned this on a lathe. The parts of this kit have moved through several countries and I can only imagine that it was all but forgotten about. I was asked by my dad late last year if I would be able to put it together so here it is. I black based all of the wooden parts to get a uniform starting point and then started a simultaneous painting and weathering process. The barrel of the cannon was far too smooth to be in anyway looking like cast iron so I decided to try something. Since it was completely smooth metal no much was going to stick to it so I gave it a quick sand with 180 grit sand paper and then mixed polyfilla with superglue and used an old hard brush and applied the mix in a stippled pattern to get the pollyfilla to stand up and leave a rough surface. I'm happy with this result as after a thick coat of gloss black enamel ot actually turned out as I had hoped. Anyway enjoy the photos. It was started about 39 years ago, this is now just about finished I may have a bit more to add but it's an unusual model of very old artillery. Any tips or comments are welcome I normally build aircraft so this is a bit of a different direction for me. At a guess I think it's about 1/10 scale perhaps the barrel is approximately 6" long or so. 

 

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On the off chance anyone wondered about the super glue and pollyfilla. This was the barrel.before and during the process.spacer.png

I took the plastic off in the end and used thicker pollyfilla around the barrel. I did ask was it brass but my dad insisted it was definitely gunmetal. I think older gunmetal was this colour but I'm not convinced. Either way the barrel must be 3kgs.spacer.png

This is after the application. I think it made a much better looking barrel.

3 minutes ago, Roman Schilhart said:

Wow, this is a nice replica.

 

Thanks.

Edited by Deano353
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1 hour ago, JohnT said:

That finish looks great to me. Made me think of the numbers of times I’ve been to castles and seen that finish on the cannons sitting outside on the walls 

Nice one

Thanks very much. Are you on about the cannon itself or the carriage or both? Just asking as I'm curious.

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10 minutes ago, Deano353 said:

Thanks very much. Are you on about the cannon itself or the carriage or both? Just asking as I'm curious.


Both are good but it was the finish on the barrel that caught my attention first. Since you asked I have looked again this time looking at the carriage and you know you could enlarge the whole thing and plonk it down at a historic site and it would look the part

Edited by JohnT
Spellun
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The camera isn't quite as good in this post but I realised I had left off the crossbar support. I made it and attached it to the carriage. The top part os glued to the crossbar while the crossbar is not glued to the carriage. I didn't feel an new post would be worth it so I figured I'd add them here. I did a bit of extra painting and added a second coat of humbrol 21 gloss black so it'll be wet for the next 30 years. spacer.pngspacer.pngspacer.pngspacer.png

The only other detail would be the rope which I would suspect is for recoil so the cannon didn't go flying backwards when fired. I had one which would work but I think this is going to be a stand alone model on a desk at my dads house or a shelf and as there's no wall in front of the cannon it probably wouldn't have one at any rate as I assume they were removed when being moved. It's not 100% accurate but it's probably as accurate a model I have ever made and it's not even a kit. Anyway apologies for the sub par photos my phones camera has a break where the lens is and some dirt has gotten inside and the light is fading.

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23 minutes ago, Bandsaw Steve said:

Mate! That is one outstanding model!

 

I love everything about it, and pollyfiller with super-glue!?!? Who would have thought it?

 

👍👍👍

Thanks very much there! Yeah pollyfilla and superglue lol. I was thinking for a while how to make the cast iron appearance and it came to me one day so I gave it a go and it's solid and definitely never coming off the barrel.

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What an interesting project. Great to see one of these as a modeling subject, especially scratch built. Kudos to you and your Dad.

 

I reckon your Dad has modelled a naval 32-pounder long gun on ship's gun carriage. The degree of corrosion represented on the barrel suggests long exposure to sea air and salt spray as would be typical of an open-air emplacement in a coastal fortification, or even recovery from the seabed. The carriage on the other hand is presented in good condition, typical of a reconstruction/replica as we would see today.

 

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The only other detail would be the rope which I would suspect is for recoil...

 

Typically, a rope attached to the cascabel (the knob at the breech end of the gun, which often had a hole in it to thread the rope through) and the bulwark, and other ropes attached to the sides of the carriage, were used to control the recoil, sometimes together with wedges, chocks and slides. After reloading, the ropes were used to run the piece back into firing position at the embrasure.

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