Syren 1803 1:64 Model Shipways

[Corsair]

Replacement chaser cannon and parts

I haven’t posted on my build for a while as personal issues are taking precedence but I’ve worked slowly away on the chaser cannon, which will be placed soon.

I changed out the kit supplied metal cast cannon because I just didn’t like them (see photo). Much the same as I did with the carronades, I purchased two brass Caldercraft 18 pounders from Cornwall Model boats in the UK. So much better looking after blackening. However, I see I need to titivate where the black seems to have rubbed off.

Changing out the cannon meant adjusting the carriage height so they poked out sort of realistically through the aft gun ports. Note the nautical term “poked out” for “run out and deployed”. The only way I could do that was change out the trucks.

I didn’t want to change the height of the cheeks so did a little research on realistic truck diameter. Turns out for this size of cannon and carriage a for’d truck diameter of 17/64” (6.77mm) is ok with rear truck diameters of 7/32” (5.65mm) at my scale. That gives me real scale 17” front and 14” back. My solution was to make new trucks for the front end and replace the rear ones with the original ones from the front end. That gave me the little extra height overall needed for port clearance. More height would have been ideal but then the trucks would have been way out of scale. They look a bit scruffy but I’m done farting around with them. I fired the ship’s chippy .

Other small fabrications included eye ring/bolts drilled and placed in the neck of the cascabel for the breech line/s, brass brackets (cap squares) for the trunnions, new trunnions from brass rod, replacement breech line rope from Ben @BenD (Ropes of Scale) whipped and seized, pre-rigged eye bolts and rings to attach the breech lines to the stern, and trimmed down the quoin to assist with cannon to port elevation. No pins in the axles though, too tiny for me. There’s still some clean up to do and small things to add but they should be ok for now, maybe, I hope.

Thanks for following along, it’s always much appreciated.

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Great upgrade ! Well done !

 

[RogerD]

Thanks Jeff. I’ll mount them soon but I think the steering gear needs to be fitted first. Lots of fiddly stuff on the Syren but my fault for changing things out too.

 

[serikoff]

Replacement chaser cannon and parts

I haven’t posted on my build for a while as personal issues are taking precedence but I’ve worked slowly away on the chaser cannon, which will be placed soon.

I changed out the kit supplied metal cast cannon because I just didn’t like them (see photo). Much the same as I did with the carronades, I purchased two brass Caldercraft 18 pounders from Cornwall Model boats in the UK. So much better looking after blackening. However, I see I need to titivate where the black seems to have rubbed off.

Changing out the cannon meant adjusting the carriage height so they poked out sort of realistically through the aft gun ports. Note the nautical term “poked out” for “run out and deployed”. The only way I could do that was change out the trucks.

I didn’t want to change the height of the cheeks so did a little research on realistic truck diameter. Turns out for this size of cannon and carriage a for’d truck diameter of 17/64” (6.77mm) is ok with rear truck diameters of 7/32” (5.65mm) at my scale. That gives me real scale 17” front and 14” back. My solution was to make new trucks for the front end and replace the rear ones with the original ones from the front end. That gave me the little extra height overall needed for port clearance. More height would have been ideal but then the trucks would have been way out of scale. They look a bit scruffy but I’m done farting around with them. I fired the ship’s chippy .

Other small fabrications included eye ring/bolts drilled and placed in the neck of the cascabel for the breech line/s, brass brackets (cap squares) for the trunnions, new trunnions from brass rod, replacement breech line rope from Ben @BenD (Ropes of Scale) whipped and seized, pre-rigged eye bolts and rings to attach the breech lines to the stern, and trimmed down the quoin to assist with cannon to port elevation. No pins in the axles though, too tiny for me. There’s still some clean up to do and small things to add but they should be ok for now, maybe, I hope.

Thanks for following along, it’s always much appreciated.

View attachment 536972

View attachment 536973

Definitely the new guns are much better. The ones from the set are garbage. I also really like the milled brass guns, but I looked at the ones in my Alert set and realized that they are even of good quality, naturally with some minor modifications, polishing, etc.

The end result turned out very well!

 

[RogerD]

Definitely the new guns are much better. The ones from the set are garbage. I also really like the milled brass guns, but I looked at the ones in my Alert set and realized that they are even of good quality, naturally with some minor modifications, polishing, etc.

The end result turned out very well!

Hi Sergey, the quality of kit supplied guns seems to vary quite a bit depending on the kit manufacturer. I’ve changed out and scratch built many of the kit parts for the Syren and much of the supplied basswood for pear and AYC. The carronades and cannon are, to me, a prominent visual part of a build so I knew, in this case, they also needed to be upgraded.

Thanks for your comments, stay safe.

 

[GrantTyler]

Good morning Roger. What they all say on the upgraded cannon. I must add that you acheive beautiful blackening of the brass. The effect and polish is superb. Cheers Grant

 

[RogerD]

Good morning Roger. What they all say on the upgraded cannon. I must add that you acheive beautiful blackening of the brass. The effect and polish is superb. Cheers Grant

Morning Grant, the cannon are the largest pieces of brass I have blackened but they turned out ok. There are tiny areas that need a little touch-up though. I tried using a tiny black permanent marker or alternatively finely applied black paint. The “repairs” show under scrutiny but I might be able to partially hide them with strategically placed clutter, like tackle or rope messengers, just laid over the cannon. Remains to be seen.

Thanks for your always welcome posts and comments.