Detailing a kit gun carriage with bolts, linchpins, quoin handle and breeching ring
Upgrade the kit carriage with round-headed brass nails, simulated bolts made from the kit nails, linchpins from flattened nails, a turned handle on the quoin and a breeching ring from 0.7 mm wire.
What you need
- hobby knife
- small hammer or flat pliers
- round-nose pliers
- cutters
- small lathe or mini drill
- small drill bit for the breeching ring hole
- 6 mm brass nails with round heads (from pietsan)
- the headless nails from the kit
- offcut of wood for the handle
- 0.7 mm brass wire
- black paint
Dimensions
- brass nails 6 mm long
- brass wire 0.7 mm for the breeching ring
- 28 guns on the gun deck, 10 of them visible from above
- Time
- an evening
- Difficulty
- hard
- When in the build
- Phase 8,
- From the log post
- The first gun with all the details · forum
Before you start
The 28 carriages are glued up and painted red, the barrels are blackened. Get better nails first: the kit nails have no head and are really ugly. Also decide which guns will be visible later; only those get all the details.
Fix the cap-squares (the straps over the trunnions) with 6 mm brass nails with a nice round head, instead of the headless nails from the kit. Shorten them if needed and touch the head in with black paint.
brass nails 6 mm
How it looked at first: the headless kit nails stick out of the carriage like bare pins. Tip from pietsan: I have brass nails 6 mm long with a nice round head, very suitable for the cap-squares. You still have to blacken them yourself, or just use the brass nails and touch the heads in with black paint.
Watch out: The kit nails seem to have no head at all, as Stephan noted. Alternatives: headed nails from Corel, Krick or Mantua via Cornwall, or shortened lace-making pins (tip from Marc w).
With a knife, cut the line between the upper and lower parts of the carriage cheeks. Use the ugly kit nails to simulate the bolts joining upper and lower parts: drive in a short piece, head black.
The cheek close up: the black heads of the kit nails stand in for the bolts, with the scribed dividing line between them. Flatten a kit nail and snip off a small piece as a linchpin, the little thing on the axle that stops the truck rolling off when the gun runs out. Stick it carefully on the axle next to the truck with a tiny drop of glue.
Watch out: This is a lot of work and on the gun deck you cannot see it any more. On the following guns we stopped doing it; on the upper deck we may do it again.
Turn a small handle from an offcut of wood and glue it to the wide end of the quoin. On this first gun that was quite fiddly; the step-by-step on the quoin handle describes the better way with a satay skewer.
The carriage in profile: at the rear the turned handle sticks out of the broad end of the quoin. Watch out: Hans Groenenberg corrected us straight away: it is not the wedge but the quoin, and this is its handle.
Wind 0.7 mm brass wire around round-nose pliers or a drill bit and snip the coil into a ring. Drill a hole in the back of the barrel and glue the ring in. We later cut the rings into half circles, like the guns we saw on the internet.
wire 0.7 mm
Tip from Peter de Vries: Wind the wire around a drill bit and then cut it; that way you make every conceivable size easily in large numbers. Do wind by hand, do not let it spin.
Watch out: Winding around round-nose pliers is a lot of work per ring. Gluing a ring onto the barrel without a hole was not strong enough; Piet drills a hole and glues in a slightly larger eyebolt. On our first gun we forgot the ring altogether.
Do this complete package only on the guns you will see from above later: on the Diana ten of the 28 on the gun deck. The rest get the basic details, otherwise you will never make the deadline.
10 of the 28 guns
Result
The first gun earned compliments on the forum and that gave the motivation to do more this way. On the next eight guns we left out the linchpins and replaced the bolts in the cheeks with the smallest nails we could find: slightly out of proportion, but much crisper.
Problems met with this technique
The kit nails are ugly (no proper head). Received 6 mm round-head brass nails from pietsan for the visible parts; kit nails reused as bolts and linchpins. (Tips from pietsan, Stephan Kertész, Marc w) to the register
The guns lack a ring at the breech for the breeching. Rings of 0.7 mm wire wound round round-nose pliers, later cut into half circles; tip: wind the wire round a drill bit. (Tips from pietsan, Peter de Vries) to the register
Kit errata
Ugly nails without a proper head. 6 mm brass nails from pietsan; kit nails reused as bolts and linchpins. to the register
Guns without a ring at the breech for the breeching. Rings wound from 0.7 mm wire and cut into half circles. to the register
In the same series: Guns
- Lowering the gun in the port by setting the axletrees deeper
- Blackening brass gun barrels with blackening solution
- Detailing a kit gun carriage with bolts, linchpins, quoin handle and breeching ring
- Turning the quoin handle from a satay skewer
- Milling gun carriages for the 9-pounders on the cross-slide table
- Making washers and linchpins from brass pin heads
- Carronades: trucks from brass tube and a working elevating screw