Pride of Baltimore II guns 'way out of scale

[Brewerpaul]

Although I'm nowhere near ready to install the guns on this kit, I decided to put one at least temporarily together to check the guns' clearance of the gun ports, which I seem to recall some builders had a problem with.

The kit guns are totally out of scale to the carriages and ,perhaps, to the ship.

The laser cut carriage parts match the size of the 3/16" scale gun on the plan. However, the gun barrel supplied is much bigger. It hangs way off the back of the carriage and it's quite a bit longer and thicker than the one on the plan. I have no idea why the plan shows a 3/8" scale gun, but the barrels I have don't match that either.

On the deck, to my newbie shipwright eyes it doesn't look too awful but I'd rather have it be closer to scale. What would be the best way to reconcile the size difference?I don't want to spend a whole pile on 4 complete new gun setups.

[ccoyle]

Well, since turning down your white metal barrels to the correct size is probably not an option, your best bet is to source some replacement guns, such as these from Vanguard Models. They're fairly inexpensive, too.

 

 

[Brewerpaul]

On 12/29/2020 at 1:32 PM, ccoyle said:

Well, since turning down your white metal barrels to the correct size is probably not an option,

Hmmm... that's not totally out of the question actually. I make Irish penny whistles on a metal lathe so if I could figure out a good way to chuck the metal barrels nice and concentrically, I could give it a try. It's not a CNC lathe, so getting them all to look the same wouldn't be easy.

How strong is the white metal with regard to machining? Assuming I could get them properly chucked, I could gently "machine" them using only files and abrasives.

[allanyed]

Paul,

As you have a lathe, you might want to consider getting a drawing of the properly sized and shaped barrel and turning your own from brass.  These can then be blackened using Blacken It or some other agent.    OR, if there are a lot of barrels, make a master and then make a silicone mold and cast the barrels in metal or resin.   They will all be the same, (warts and all)  From the looks of the drawing you posted, the barrels and carriages don't look right.  For example there are too many reinforce rings on the barrel and the trunnions are centered with the bore rather than being lower.   For the P of B, should there be cascabel rings as well?   Just some thoughts, but there are others here at MSW that no doubt have experience with these vessels that will hopefully give some help.  Happy New Year.

Allan

[Gregory]

Why do they show two different size on the plans?

 

Here is a shot of the actual ship:

 

 

You could probably get a good idea for dimensions by looking at the port and the height of the bulwarks..