Hi fellows, could you recommend suppliers for good quality cannon balls ? With small diameters around 2.4 mm ? Thanks
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Cannon Balls in Scale
- Thread starter Luiz B. F. Grassi
- Start date
- Watchers 7
Check this out, Luiz
Small Stainless Steel Ball Bearings 1mm, 1.5mm, 2mm, 2.5mm, 3mm, 1/8" | eBay
Stainless steel, Grade 100. st class and 2.
www.ebay.co.uk
Thanks Jimsky ! The cannon balls provided by kits are always out of scale !
You could also buy glass or plastic beads from a craft shop and fill the hole and paint them black.
Louis, you must have gun shops. They sell shot for hunting cartridges. Our modellers use it, or, as Jimsky suggested, balls from bearings
I agree with Alexander 74. Shot for shotgun cartridges comes in a variety of sizes for scale canon balls, and already the right colour. They also make great ballast medium for any vessels which will end up as RC.
Out of curiosity I looked up the the diameter of naval cannonballs by gun sizes, then calculated the size (in mm) of shot/BB/ball bearing to replicate that size cannonball. I only calculated for 1:96 scale because that's what I'm working in at the moment. If you would like to convert to a different scale, just divide the "Diameter (mm)" column by whatever your scale is.
BTW, I'm thinking these sizes might need to be adjusted down slightly to account for paint thickness in a model but I may be wrong.
BTW, I'm thinking these sizes might need to be adjusted down slightly to account for paint thickness in a model but I may be wrong.
| Gun | Diameter (In) | Diameter (mm) | 1/96 |
| 64-pounder | 7.55 | 191.77 | 2.0 |
| 42-pounder | 6.84 | 173.736 | 1.8 |
| 36-pounder | 6.7 | 170.18 | 1.8 |
| 32-pounder | 6.4 | 162.56 | 1.7 |
| 24-pounder | 5.82 | 147.828 | 1.5 |
| 18-pounder | 5.3 | 134.62 | 1.4 |
| 12-pounder | 4.62 | 117.348 | 1.2 |
| 9-pounder | 4.2 | 106.68 | 1.1 |
| 6-pounder | 3.67 | 93.218 | 1.0 |
| 4-pounder | 3.2 | 81.28 | 0.8 |
| 3-pounder | 2.9 | 73.66 | 0.8 |
A friend shoots trap and skeet, and just happened to have steel shot in sizes very close to what I needed. Problem is, if you don't have a friend, you probably have to buy a pound of shot to get the gram or so you need.
Or a box ofshotgun shells (25 ea)
Here's a chart that might come in handy:
It lists American, English, Australian and European shot numbers with their diameters in inches and mm.
It lists American, English, Australian and European shot numbers with their diameters in inches and mm.
I think that if you went into a gun shop and told them that you need 2 grams of shot they would probably give it to you. Or go to a range after a shoot and drag around a magnet.
You'll need to know the size....
I think you'll get an assortment. 
Actually I think they use no 6 and 7 for skeet don't they.
Gun Shop would be your best bet for proper size for the scale you are working on. Dragging or digging the ground at a gun range for your proper size would be very difficult. I used to shoot a 45 caliber flintlock pistol that I built years ago, and you really don't want the balls that size unless you are building very large ships.
Thanks, Greysteele for the useful iron cannonball size chart! I expanded it a bit using MS Excel and here are the results.
| Gun | Full Size Diameter (In) | Full Size Diameter (mm) | 1:96 Scale (mm) | 1:84 Scale (mm) | 1:75 Scale (mm) | 1:64 Scale (mm) | 1:48 Scale (mm) |
| 64-pounder | 7.55 | 191.77 | 2 | 2.3 | 2.6 | 3 | 4 |
| 42-pounder | 6.84 | 173.736 | 1.8 | 2.1 | 2.3 | 2.7 | 3.6 |
| 36-pounder | 6.7 | 170.18 | 1.8 | 2 | 2.3 | 2.7 | 3.5 |
| 32-pounder | 6.4 | 162.56 | 1.7 | 1.9 | 2.2 | 2.5 | 3.4 |
| 24-pounder | 5.82 | 147.828 | 1.5 | 1.8 | 2 | 2.3 | 3.1 |
| 18-pounder | 5.3 | 134.62 | 1.4 | 1.6 | 1.8 | 2.1 | 2.8 |
| 12-pounder | 4.62 | 117.348 | 1.2 | 1.4 | 1.6 | 1.8 | 2.4 |
| 9-pounder | 4.2 | 106.68 | 1.1 | 1.3 | 1.4 | 1.7 | 2.2 |
| 6-pounder | 3.67 | 93.218 | 1 | 1.1 | 1.2 | 1.5 | 1.9 |
| 4-pounder | 3.2 | 81.28 | 0.8 | 1 | 1.1 | 1.3 | 1.7 |
| 3-pounder | 2.9 | 73.66 | 0.8 | 0.9 | 1 | 1.2 | 1.5 |
Not that there's a big difference, but the tables I've used indicate diameters somewhat smaller than the above (not that you'd ever see it in scale). Just for additional reference:
British Cannonball Sizes
As specified in Borgard's Standardized Ordinance:
And of course the bore size of the cannon barrels were always larger, by 4%-5%, as noted by the above source. I think that may be where the tables posted previously came from (bore, rather than ball, diameter). Good article, though; you might want to check it out. An article on the same site shows the most accurate representation of Armstrong pattern barrels that I have found.
British Cannonball Sizes
As specified in Borgard's Standardized Ordinance:
| Mass of Cast Iron ball (lb) | Diameter (in) |
|---|---|
| 4 | 3.05 |
| 6 | 3.49 |
| 9 | 4.00 |
| 12 | 4.40 |
| 18 | 5.04 |
| 24 | 5.55 |
| 32 | 6.10 |
| 42 | 6.68 |
And of course the bore size of the cannon barrels were always larger, by 4%-5%, as noted by the above source. I think that may be where the tables posted previously came from (bore, rather than ball, diameter). Good article, though; you might want to check it out. An article on the same site shows the most accurate representation of Armstrong pattern barrels that I have found.
Many thanks for the cannon balls charts / tables , it will help a lot !