The bod yanking the fuse rope. The molded Version of the rope was too short and too thick so it got replaced with copper wire. Easy Job. Slice off plastic rope, drill hole, add wire. I could have used thinner wire but then it would have sagged.
The Shell being lugged looks a tad too big for the gun but apart from that a fine looking Crew.
My question would be "Why a 30pdr and not the more common 10 pdr versions?" Ok, 30pdrs are recorded as being used in the field but not as commonly as the 10-20pdr versions.
The wheels apart from the 4 odd looking "Renaissance style" reinforcement blocks on the Wheel rims they have 16 spokes. In reality they had 14.
According to :
The Hand-book of Artillery, for the Service of the United States, Army and Militia. With the Manual of Heavy Artillery, Including that of the New Iron Carriage"
By Joseph Robert, Major, 4TH Regt. Art., U.S.A., and Colonel ed Penn. Art.
Fifth Edition, Revised and Greatly Enlarged. New York: D. Van Nostrand, 192 Broadway, 1863.
http://www.civilwarartillery.com/books/ ... ArtCarMach
How many kinds of wheels are employed for field carriages?
Two: No. 1 for the 6-pdr. gun-carriage, the Caisson, the forge, the battery-wagon, and for the limbers of all field carriages. No.2 for the 24 and 32-pdr. Howitzer and the 12-pdr. Gun-carriages.
In what respects are these wheels similar ?
They are of the same form and height, and they fit on the same axle-tree arm. The height is 57 inches, and each wheel is composed of 14 spokes and 7 fellies.
The Trunnions. For some reason, the sculptor decided to have them seperate from the Barrel. This means having to drill a hole through the Barrel, which by the time I´d done this, I´d decided to use a bit of copper wire to create the trunnions rather than try to fiddle the plastic ones through the Barrel.
The cascable (round bit at the end of the breach) Again seperate...why? It means another hole needing to be drilled.
The Manouvering Bolts at the Trail end were ok but a bit stumpy so they got replaced with copper wire.
The adjusting screw. The hole to fit it is dead centre of the carriage..it would be better a bit to the left so when added it sits just beside the cascable as it did in real life....like this;
Any way, I used the 16 spoke wheels as this will become part of the ACW wargame Project so historical accuracy isn´t really called for.
Here´s a great vid of an original 30pdr being fired. Loads of interesting stuff, first a bit of history, then explaining the difference between Percussion and time charges, all the parts of the gun, what parts each crewman played etc.
