team118, here is cannon rigging 101:
For other novices in modeling, the steps used are detailed as follows. Of course, a magnifying headset and tweezers are required unless you happen to be a human microscope.
Follow ths steps below, and it should go much easier for you. Keep in mind that the carriages shown below are from 1635, not 1778.
1) A 9cm length of 0.8mm diameter is used for the breech rope. for these size carriages, this will place the eyes of the eyebolts just forward of the muzzle of the gun barrel when the breech rope is stretched taut. The breeching rope lengths are figured out by making one carriage as a test piece. You pre-cut the ropes after you figure out how long they have to be. People often make the breeching ropes too short.
2) The breeching rope shown tied and glued around the cascable with a very small amount of CA glue. In general, CA glue is used in very small quantity and applied to places not easily visible when the gun in complete, so darkening stains will not be visible. The ends of the breech rope are shown leaving the casable at the bottom of it, but more often the line was wrapped such that the ends leave the cascable nearest the top of the cascable. On HMS Victory, the breechope simply passes through an eyelet which is above the cascable:
View attachment 487826
The steps are numbered in the photo below.
For speed and simplicity, the line is tied in an overhand knot at the center on the cascabel at the rear of the gun barrel. Typically, the line would be wound with one turn around the cascabel, and seized with small cord to hold it there, but since that cord is practically invisible at this scale, the line was tied and glued instead.
3) Each end of the breech rope is passed through the rings on the side of the carriage and led forward.
4) The etched eyelets are 2mm at the eye. I usually get the smallest ones which willl still allow the rope to pass through in order to keep the hardware as close to scale with the model as possible. This also goes with the gun tackle blocks which we will get to later. At the ends of the breach line, the tip of the rope is passed through the ring of a 2mm diameter eyebolt. Only 3mm of the rope from the end is folded over the eye, then tacked in place with a bit of CA glue, drying by pinching it between your fingers. For additional detail, a black thread is tied around the loop with an overhand knot, secured with a bit of CA glue, then trimmed. This makes the seizing appear very small, thus very close to scale, yet visible because of the contrasting color.
5) Most people stop before step, but the breeching rope on a model does not drape properly over the wheels and hang like real rope, the tan rope being rather stiff. To make the entire gun look realistic, this has to be addressed. The breeching rope ends are pulled rearward until the eyes of the eyebolts are positioned just in front of the front edge of the carriage cheeks. To make the rope droop properly, a bit of CA glue (not enough to soak through the line) is placed on the top of the rear wheels and the line is glued there. Then to make the line loops hang down far enough at the rear of the carriage below the casabel, apply some CA glue to the bottom surface of the lines just below the cascabel and hold the line downward until the line stiffens and stays in place. Again, do not use too much CA glue or it will soak through the line and create dark spots. Apply the glue with the tip of a toothpick. When ready to install the guns on the deck, the the breech rope eyebolts will be glued into holes predrilled in the bulwark, and then tweezers are used to hook the gun tackles to the other eyebolts on the bulwark and to the carriage, then are adjusted to the proper tension. Note that the position of the eyelets is at the front edge of the carriage. Also, the length of the shanks of the eyelets should be trimmed such that it is not longer than the width of the hull.
6) if you have not yet made holes in the bulwarks to accept the eyelets for breech lines and gun tackles, now is the time. A jig is used to make these holes, and they are dilled from the outside of the hull before final planking has been installed. The center square of wood for the jig is inserted into the gun port from the outside, ensuring consistent location of the drilled holes. The arrow on the jig points upward.
The holes in the jig line the drill up perfectly and consistently. The two lower holes are for the breeching rope eyelets, and the upper two are for the gun tackle eyelets.
7) Attach the gun carriages to the deck. Using tweezers, hold each eyelet by the loop of breeching rope connected to it, apply CA glue to the shank, and insert it into the proper hole, the
lower hole. If the end of the shank protrudes through the hull, file it flush with a needle file. You don't want it to interfere with applying the final planking.
8) Now for the gun tackles. These take lost of time to prepare, but a cannon looks incomplete without them. I make right hand and left hand gun tackles using the smallest etched hooks and strops and blocks as possible, because in all cases, gun tackles on models are oversized. The difference between right and left hand tackles is how the line is rove through the double block at the front end of the tackle. The bitter end of the line as it leaves the double block should be on the outboard side relative to the carriage.
Photo etched 3mm copper strops purchased from HiS Models in the Czech Republic. Because 2mm Falkonet blocks are too large to squeeze into the strop, the strop is cut and reformed around the block. All the blocks had their holes drilled with an Archimedes drill to enlarge them slightly and allow the glue stiffened thread to pass through easily. Here is the process I used to make these strops work.
9) First, cut the strop from the nippers or the tips of the Fiskars scissors, which are very precise in cutting.
10) The cut is made on the bottom, which is the side that the hook points toward, so when the gun tackle is on the carriage, it won't be seen.
11) Open the strop a bit so it can accept the block. You should have a couple of narrow needle nosed pliers for this work.
12) This example uses a single, 2mm block from Falkonet. The block is suspended on the tip of a large coat needle in the jaws of a helping-hands tool. Using tweezers, place the strop around the block, then carefully squeeze the loose ends of the strop where it was cut against the block to hold the strop in place. Then squeeze the strop as shown below to make the strop fit tightly around the block. You need steady hands and a magnifying headset for this. The strop will settle snugly in the recesses of the block and stay in place.
13) Apply some CA glue to both sides of the block to anchor the strop to the block.
14) Since working with the strop wears some of the blackening off, use a Sharpie marker to color the copper black.
Here is an example of a 2mm double block. The strops provided by HiS Model for the double blocks were too large, so the strop meant for the single block was also used on the double block. It seems to work.
Both blocks stropped.
15) With a tweezers, the hooks on the blocks were twisted 90 degrees. Remember, the eye loops on the double block should be cut off, since they are not needed for a gun tackle. Shown below are the two types of gun tackle I have been assembling.
The one on the left uses photo etched strops, and the one on the right uses very thin 3mm hooks with the tackle made using blocks tied with thread. Which do you think looks better?
Many hours are spent mass producing stropped 2mm single blocks with hooks and eyes and stropped 2mm double blocks with hooks for gun tackles. Some of the single blocks are small enough to slip strops around them without cutting and opening them. After a while, I could identify when this was possible. Cut the eye rings off the double blocks, leaving only the hooks. Leave the eye rings on the single blocks.
16) Take a 9" length of 0.25mm tan rope and tie the end to the eye loop on the single block, and rove the other end through the double block and single block to make a gun tackle. The bitter end of the lanyard should extend away from the double block in the same direction as the hook if you rigged it correctly. Which hole in the double block your choose to pas the lanyard through first will determine if the tackle is right or left hand. Now spend a few days as manufacture one right hand and one left hand gun tackle for each gun carriage.
Six days work making gun tackles for 102 guns on
HMS Sovereign of the Seas.
17) Adjust the length of each gun tackle such that it is loose enough for the hooks to to be place on the eyes on the bulwark and carriage. The next part required patience and steady hands. Using tweezers, hook the tackle to the carriage first, then to the bulwark. Using tweezers, carefully tug the loops of line of the tackle to take the slackout until it is taut between the eyes. Apply a small amount of CA glue to the hooks to secure them to the eyes and prevent them from popping off should the tackle go slack. Take the bitter end of the lanyard and glue it to the deck with PVA glue and trim the end to length by chopping it with the edge of a chisel shaped razor knife.
18) PVA glue on coils of line stuck to double faced tape. Once dry, remove the coil from the tape by prying it off with the tip of a razor knife, cut off the dangling line close to the coil. Make equal amounts of left hand and right hand wrapped coils.
19) Glue the coil to the deck, matching the end of the line on the coil with the end of the line on the gun tackle. Note the difference between right and left hand coils matched to the appropriate left and right side of the carriage.
DONE!
In summary, the tedious part is making all the gun tackles. The trick part is hooking them into place, and drawing the lanyards taut. Just listen to music or podcasts and spend the time. It will go faster as you get some practice. In the end, the model will look striking with properly rigged guns!
