Kevin Kenny

More gun carriage brackets

I’ve had my first Vaccine, the second due in June

We are now in total lock down for the next two weeks as our Covid cases are exceeding India, we are actually the highest per capita in The WORLD. Local post office is now closed. 
so back to making more cannons. 

Quoins and beds ready to put into fully assembled carriages

Took up your suggestions, reduced the size of the muzzle, sanded and polished the cannon barrel and it is now more in scale. I could polish it more but do not plan using these on the model. Now to complete 20 more carriages. Had trouble cutting the wheels, they often split. Used different wood but it did not seem to matter. Then treated the finished blank with thin CA. This worked perfectly. The contrasting wood is interesting but feel that i will use similar colour.

How do u like this one daughter gave this for my birthday 

Big brother and small brother

These are temporary trunnions which are two small, out of scale. Hoping to find the correct size, if not ill machine them. Will spend the next day or two on the tackle.

I have some cannons coming from Greg. I’ll compare and adjust the flare. Thanks for the feedback.

I decided to make a larger cannon and carriage to better understand the process and to decide on the jigs. I finally got a solution to accurately drill the trunnions using the Sherline mill..  

Its always such a relief and most times a disappointment when a model get completed. Perhaps the most interesting memory is looking back on those times when you could not figure our something, or when everything went wrong. Now you think back and wonder what the fuss was  all about. 
 

congratulations on a very fine model. Now for the case.

Whats a smokey black?

Now to figure out how to put the engraving on the cannon.

This is my first attempt at making a cannon on the Sherline  lath. Not a bad first attempt, used the Lignum Vitae. Fantastic for this fine work. 

Already done Maury. I have been collecting wood for. Long time now and have friends in the lumber business so have experienced the problem when the ends dry out before the center. I have had problems with the coffee wood and with Sea Grape that cracks so easily. Recently  i decided to keep the new stock of coffee wood in branch form and not cut it until it dries.  It splits terribly. Sea Grape is the worst.

Just back from Tobago and settling back down. I have been collecting modeling wood for a number of years and just got my first large piece of Lignum Vitae the most dense wood in the world. Not sure how long it needs to dry but will leave it for at least a year in the drying shelf. As would be expected the grain is very tight but i was disappointed that the   heart was not darker and more consistent in colour. Oh well, just glad to have it in my collection of tropical hardwoods. The woods grown in the caribbean and usually found in very thin trunks because it grows so slowly.  It should be excellent to cut on the lath to make cannons. 

If you read the history of this boat early in your build you will realize that no one knows for sure what she looked like when she won the race in 1851. I only found  this out close to the end of my kit build. There are a few photographs over time that show different deck layouts. All the early paintings were done without the artist even seeing her. This caused me to do two models, one is the Constructo kit and a second scratch built of what i think she would have looked like when she raced the British.