In my ongoing effort to pretend I don't need to add the second layer of planking to the hull (or plank the decks) I worked on the cannons that will show up "on deck." Earlier you saw a sneak peak of the black gun carriages - again, the black is a known color for these carriages. But black carriages with black trucks and bronzed guns (also approaching black) just didn't sound too great to me. So here is what I came up...
On these short guns I painted the cannons a rusty bronze color and barely highlighted the crest. I drilled some tiny holes in the trucks and inserted brass pins and similarly added the brass pin holding the wheels on the axle. While I did paint the wheels black I left the rolling edge natural to capture the reality that these guns were moved
to the ship and
on the ship. The retaining clips (whatever their real name is...) for the cannon should probably be black but I didn't want them to disappear against the black carriage - so I tarnished them (see below for how I did this) and then added black nail heads to simulate the bolts holding them in place. Oh, and I built the wedge out of scrap and added a nail head for a handle. There are 8 of these small guns but I need to order more tiny drill bits to finish them up (only three are completed). It turns out I'm very good at breaking tiny drill bits. Unexpected (and humbling) given my professional training...
And also these...
These long guns were painted the same rusty brown color as the short guns (and dummy guns). I distinguished these long guns by adding copper disc to the trucks and then used a black headed nail as a hub. For these cannon I added a wooden block (instead of a wedge) for the men working the cannon to configure the firing angle. I'm not sure if this (my added wooden block) was how the "stepping" of the carriage was used - but it made sense to this landlubber. Again, I left the rolling edge of the wheels "natural."
A brief word about technique...
I appreciate that the metal bits would probably be black. But I wanted to distinguish them from the (mandatory?) black carriages. So I chose to
tarnish the clips holding the cannon in place (as well as the copper discs on the trucks of the longer cannon) rather than blacken them.
I experimented with several options and ended up aging the brass and copper using a hard-boiled egg. Its really quite simple: you hard boil an egg until it is thoroughly cooked through (maybe 10 minutes - you want the egg over-cooked for best results). While the egg is boiling away you prepare all the metal bits in some sort of sealable container. I used a glass bowl with a tight cover - but even a zip-lock bag would do (though the metal bits should not be touching each other). When the egg is cooked through - working efficiently - you smash up the egg and put it in your container with whatever you are trying to tarnish. In this image the smashed up egg is in the white cup).
The copper discs took about 90 minutes to look like you see them - you can customize your final result by adjusting the time. The brass clips took much longer (overnight). Resist the urge to open the bowl or bag because the gases that are causing the surface reaction will drift away. I found I could easily monitor progress using the glass bowl. I then "sealed-in" the final result using a bit of spray poly.
I am very open to your suggestions for improving these guns!
I saw some examples that included strapping on the sides that would have been used to hold the axles to the cart (perhaps that would add a bit to the long guns?) but I think the hydrogen sulfide vapors from my overcooked eggs got the better of me at some point. Ordinarily I have no problem going back to rework something that can be improved. But I lacked that enthusiasm today...
Maybe it
is time time to get back to planking! Thanks for checking out my build-log. You really are a fine group!
!
