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Carronades: trucks from brass tube and a working elevating screw

Replace the white metal 'trucks' from the kit with trucks made from brass tubes slid into one another on a 1 mm axle, and the elevating screw with a 1.2 mm bolt that cuts its own thread in the soft white metal.

A finished carronade: blackened, with the brass trucks under the slide, the elevating screw with its pin handle and all the rings fitted.
A finished carronade: blackened, with the brass trucks under the slide, the elevating screw with its pin handle and all the rings fitted.

What you need

Tools

  • 0.6 mm and 1 mm drill bits
  • small drill or Dremel
  • needle file
  • side cutters
  • tweezers
  • blackening solution or black paint

materials and suppliers

  • two sizes of hollow brass tube that slide into one another
  • solid 1 mm brass rod
  • 1.2 mm bolts
  • brass pins
  • the white metal carronades and slides from the kit

Dimensions

  • trucks 2.4 mm in diameter
  • axle 1 mm
  • bolt 1.2 mm
  • hole in the head 0.6 mm
  • hole for the thread 1 mm (slightly undersized)
  • eight carronades
Time
several evenings
Difficulty
moderate
When in the build
Phase 12,
From the log post
Carronades trucks and a working elevating screw · forum

Before you start

Lay out the white metal carronades and slides from the kit and look at the kit part for the trucks: it is a little white metal thing, not trucks. Order brass tube in two sizes that fit into one another, 1 mm rod and 1.2 mm bolts. Work one carronade through completely as a trial before tackling all eight.

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  1. Slide two hollow brass tubes into one another, so that a thick-walled truck with a central hole results. Saw discs from it 2.4 mm in diameter and file the sawn faces flat. Four per carronade.

    truck 2.4 mm

    Left the slide with the new brass trucks, right the white metal kit part they replace.
    Left the slide with the new brass trucks, right the white metal kit part they replace.

    Watch out: The whole still has to be blackened, but as a first go it is already better than the kit part.

  2. Make the axle from a solid 1 mm brass rod and push the trucks onto it. Drill the holes for the axle in the slide so that the trucks turn freely. Later you can replace the axle with two tubes in one another with a pin head in the end, which gives a domed effect at the axle.

    axle 1 mm

    The carronade on its slide with the trucks on the brass axle.
    The carronade on its slide with the trucks on the brass axle.

  3. Take a 1.2 mm bolt and file the hexagonal head round. Drill a 0.6 mm hole across the head and push a piece of pin through it as the handle of the elevating screw. Cut the pin to equal length on both sides.

    bolt 1.2 mm, hole 0.6 mm

    The elevating screw from a 1.2 mm bolt: the rounded head with the pin as handle, under the breech of the carronade.
    The elevating screw from a 1.2 mm bolt: the rounded head with the pin as handle, under the breech of the carronade.

  4. At the bottom, where the screw rests on the slide, drill a small hole too and fix a piece of pin in it. The screw can turn on that without wandering. Check that the bolt stands straight under the breech.

  5. Drill a 1 mm hole in the white metal part, slightly undersized for the 1.2 mm bolt. Turn the bolt in carefully: the white metal is so soft that the bolt cuts its own thread. After that the elevating screw really turns and everything works as it should.

    1 mm hole for a 1.2 mm bolt

    The eight carronades, each with its own elevating screw, still in bare white metal.
    The eight carronades, each with its own elevating screw, still in bare white metal.

    Watch out: Turn carefully, do not force it: the white metal is soft and otherwise the hole becomes too loose.

  6. Set the carronade loose on its bed and guide it with a small rod through the slot in the rails, so that it can move forwards and backwards. Use pin heads for the round nail effect on the truck base. Then blacken everything and fit the rings.

    The bed with the slot that the rod of the slide runs through.
    The bed with the slot that the rod of the slide runs through.
    The truck base close up: pin heads as nails, the axle from two tubes with a pin head.
    The truck base close up: pin heads as nails, the axle from two tubes with a pin head.

Result

The carronades run on real trucks and the elevating screw works, something the kit part did not offer. The idea of the axle with a pin head and the loose bed only came during finishing; next time include it from the start.

Problems met with this technique

2023-12-03

For the carronade trucks the kit contains a white-metal blob, not real trucks. Trucks made from two brass tubes (2.4 mm) slid into each other on a 1 mm axle. to the register

Kit errata

Carronades

A white-metal blob instead of trucks. Trucks from brass tube (2.4 mm) on a 1 mm axle. to the register

In the same series: Guns

  1. Lowering the gun in the port by setting the axletrees deeper
  2. Blackening brass gun barrels with blackening solution
  3. Detailing a kit gun carriage with bolts, linchpins, quoin handle and breeching ring
  4. Turning the quoin handle from a satay skewer
  5. Milling gun carriages for the 9-pounders on the cross-slide table
  6. Making washers and linchpins from brass pin heads
  7. Carronades: trucks from brass tube and a working elevating screw

All how-tos · Guns, carriages and carronades in scale