17th Century Naval Cannon - 1:12 scale - by DocBlake [COMPLETED BUILD]

I added some detail to the reinforcing rings. On to final sanding and drilling the bore and trunnion hold. I plan to stain the cannon rather than paint it to preserve the detail in the reinforcing rings and cascabel.

Greg: Ebony is tough to work with, including turning. At the price it's at one can't afford mistakes! Stained maple will have to do,Img_0912.jpg
 
I drilled the holes for the trunnion and bore. The trunnion hole was a little out of square so I had to use a rattail file to square up the hole and a glue a slightly larger diameter trunnion in place. I used wood filler to fill the irregularities in the trunnion hole. Dying is nextImg_0914.jpgImg_0916.jpg
 
Flawless you do some amazing work My Brother. Have you tried the Tamiya paints they are water thin alcohol based so they go on without covering details they seep into the wood nicely and I rarely ever need more then one coat. I use the XF-1 paint from them and its all I use anymore.
 
Thanks, Joe! I have used Tamiya paints. They are really nice.

So I used the lathe and fine sandpaper to smooth the canon. The final polishing is done with handfuls of wood shavings pressed against the turning barrel to use "wood to polish wood". The technique works really well. I then had to decide how to blacken my maple cannon. Three choices: Paint, stain or dye. In the end, I chose Solar-Lux Jet Black wood dye made by Behlen. It's alcohol based, dries quickly, penetrates into the wood fibers, doesn't raise the grain and won't obscure the detail on the reinforcing rings and the cascabel. It turned out well.

Obviously I'll need to protect the dyed cannon. When we blacken brass cannons chemically, the resulting gun has a bit of a sheen to it. The cannons were cast, so would have been flat black in color. The "sheen" doesn't look bad in my opinion, though. So what do you think? Flat/matte poly, or semi-gloss/satin poly for a little sheen?

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I think the finish is too matt - a little bit gloss would look much better in my opinion

I was last week in Copenhagen in the war-museum and made some photos of guns

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Yes Yes - I will make a report of my visit - beautiful ship models there :oops:
 
Sorry to jump in so late but needed to say how much I enjoyed watching your cannon come to life! Now for my 2 cents..I like the idea of a rubbed in satin
urethane. Just out of curiosity, could a bees wax or some similar substance be rubbed on the areas that would have been worn or handled more in real life?
Thanks for taking us along to the foundry!

Ron
 
Very fine craftmanship shown on this model, a great addition to your collection. Jeff posted another canon you might want to look at, the Smasher a 42 Pounder Carronade. This is a photo of the one I built.
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I've seen photos of your model, Mike and read your build log. Very nice job!

I opted to finish the cannon with satin wipe on poly. In deciding how to present the final model, I knew I wanted a little more than just a slab of wood, but I wasn't prepared to build a whole battle station section at 1/12 scale! I opted for a section of decking. I found a walnut cutoff in the shop and rounded the edges. I then glued 2 long parallel pieces of beech (1" X 5/8"0 to represent the deck beams. Then I added the two short cross pieces representing the carlings. The deck will be planked with 1/2" X 3/16" maple. Once the deck is planked, I'll add the ledges between the deck beams.base1.JPG
 
The timber for the planks is really looking authentic, very realistic in grain-size and colour.......
Are you planing to make some butt joints also?
 
Thanks, Uwe! Since the deck section has only two deck beams, there are no butt joints.

I finished the base. It is really a stylized section of decking to mount the gun on. There are black bolts in the deck beams sides that are not historically accurate - just there for visual interest. The carlings aren't visible but you can see the ends of the ledges. Once I attach the metalwork to the cannon, and mount the cannon on the deck piece I'm done!

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Thanks, guys!
I'm thinking about adding a few things to the display, like gun tools, a bucket and small barrel, a rope coil and maybe some cannon balls. Not too much clutter, just a little more interest. It's what I did on my first battle station model (18th century, 1:24 scale).bs1.jpgbs2.jpgbs3.jpg
 
I thought I was done with this project, but looking at the gun sitting all by itself made me feel something was missing. So I added a few tools! First was the triangular shot rack, with cannonballs sized for the 3/8" bore of this 9 pounder. Next was the powder ladle. I used brass tubing to make that. The worm was made of brass wire, but if you look closely, you'll see I cheated! Normally the worm had a double helix on the end. I just left it single. The last tool is a combined rammer (small piece of shaped walnut) and the sponge. The sponge was made by coating a piece of dowel in glue, then rolling it in sawdust. When dry, I painted it flat black.tools1.jpgtools2.jpgtools3.jpg
 
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