22-NOV-2015
Gun Carriage Construction
My trusted DREMEL hobby drill at work. The drill bit is 0.6 mm thick. The gun garriage is 20mm long with brass wire strips for axles. The hoops that hold the barrel is being drilled in this picture. The 0.6mm hole is drilled right through the sides of the carriages so it must be square... I had a ~95% success rate. Fortunately not all the guns on the gundeck will be fully visible so the ones where the holes exited the sides are will be part of the hidden guns.
22-NOV-2015
Completed gun Carriage
A completed carriage. Axles fitted, barrel hoops fitted and pinned. The lugs at the back is where the gun tackle that was used to pull the guns forward after being fired, will be fitted to.
28-NOV-2015
Views of completed guns
Three views of a completed gun (without gun ropes). The side lugs are to guide the (very sturdy) rope that stopped the recoil once the gun has fired)
24-NOV-2015
The Armoury
In the armoury. Gun battery lined up for inspection. The cutting mat on which they stand are marked with 1cm x 1cm squares - giving an idea of size (or should that be absence of significant size :) )
25-NOV-2015
Hidden guns fitted
Aerial shot of incomplete gundeck. The "hidden" guns fitted. With the top deck fitted these guns will only be seen through the gun portholes - hence no need to rig the gun tackle.
24-NOV-2015
Gun tackle
And on to the guns' block and tackle used to roll the gun back forward after being fired . Left gun has tackle blocks tied on already. The tackle "block" is a 3mm long piece of wood with rounded edges and a groove around it in which the thread to tie it to the gun lug is fitted ith a 0.5mm hole in where another thread will be looped through.
24-NOV-2015
More gun tackle
A completed gun. ready for fitting to the deck. This will be one of the "visible"guns - hence ropes and block & tackle will be fitted as well as barrel rope.
28-NOV-2015
Inner hull preparation to fit visible guns
A sequence showing the preparation on the gun deck to have the "visible" guns fitted. Four lugs on the inner hull wall per gun. The outer top 2 for the gun/rigging tackle to pull a recoiled gun forward and the inner bottom two for the recoil rope. The gun tackle blocks for the inner hull being prepared in the middle picture and fitted to the inner hull in the lower picture. These could be better. I will shorten the galvanised wired used for tieing when fitting the top deck. Fortunately the inner hull walls of the gun deck will not be that visible once the top deck is fitted so decided to leave like this.
28-NOV-2015
Visible guns fitted and rigged
Picture of the gun with its gun/running tackle fitted. It probably took one hour per gun to fit the guns. The other parts of the gun deck (grating and hold covers were made almost a year ago)
