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Victory at Trafalgar
Wow! Sounds most impressive. Wish I'd seen it when I was down the Smoke. I will try to emulate that but without the smoke. By the way, did the guns look Black or Dull Bronze?
I think I should enclose a diagram of a cannon with labelled parts to assist those who don't know the various names for the parts.
View attachment 523503
You may need to enlarge it to read the names. Working late tomorrow so will attempt more on Thursday.
Some damned fine work there!Check out
Victory at TrafalgarSheperd Paine — Box Dioramas.com
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Shep was a master of the art of boxed diosSome damned fine work there!
Have you ever been tempted to use real (or even artificial) hair?Hair colour was Desert Sand for the Powder Monkey, overlaid with Woodgrain. The Marine was given a Burnt Umber hair colour, again followed by an overlay of the Woodgrain.
So not much has changed-- recently acquired a pair of Cdn Forces boots made in PRC (cheapest source of course) and after 1 patrol after grouse noted stitching on uppers was fraying and tearing away. Not impressed at all although the attached instructions stated no bulling allowed --- drab is the order of the day!Left and right shoes came in much later and all armies in europe at that time had a standard shaped shoe. IIRC the wearer was supposed to alternate them on the feet so that they wore evenly. They didn't last very long though - about a month on a hard campaign was considered pretty good. The French army regularly seized stocks of shoes from the towns they passed through so they could keep their infantry in footwear.
One major problem was the contractors who made the shoes often skimped on the materials and it was not unkown for the shoes to be glued together (rather than stitched) or haave the soles made of a think skin of leather and the rest being cardboard. There are cases when the shoes fell apart during the first march in the wet or rain and lots of accounts mentioning barefoot troops.
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In the Penisular campaign both British and French troops adopted the Spanish espadrille style footwear as it was easier to get hold of than proper boots/shoes (like the chap on the left of the pic below)...
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Generally it was only the officers who would (or could afford) to have proper boots made for them.
Even as late as the American Civil War the contractors were supplying inadequate footwear.
Yes, used to collect the shavings from my old electric razor. End result looked crap so I gave up. I also went back to wet shaving as you get a much better and closer shave.Have you ever been tempted to use real (or even artificial) hair?
I have an abiding memory of a junior school history project where a friend brought in a caveman modelled from an Action Man made hairy from the clippings from his dad's armpit. At least, he said that it was from his armpit. This was before Action Man was manufactured in a hairy version.
However, I have also read that the navy got first call on the best quality bronze for their guns.
Wow! Sounds most impressive. Wish I'd seen it when I was down the Smoke. I will try to emulate that but without the smoke. By the way, did the guns look Black or Dull Bronze?
HMS Victory had iron guns although earlier vessels had bronze ones. It was done as a cost saving measure so some things don't change!
That's a photo of a bronze 42 pdr from the previous incarnation of HMS Victory that sank in 1744. No sign of any paint so I expect they kept them well polished....
Cheers mate, much appreciated.It appears eel skins apparently
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Bugger beaten to it, after around 1780 RN started to use Iron guns. As paddyplanty said cast at Low Moor and designed by a ex Artillery Officer by the name of Bloomfield.@Smeggers Further to @Bad CO post.
The iron barrels* were painted using a paint mixture of lamp black and carnauba wax thinned with turpentine - so they probably had a slight sheen before prolonged action but would be very black - actually Lamp Black oil paint is probably spot on.
* Many big guns would have been cast at Low Moor near Bradford - look for 'LM' on the trunnion end.
Due to the industrial revolution we'd perfected large single pours of homogenous iron unlike continental guns which often had multiple pours and therefore, inconsistencies which required a slower rate of fire to avoid the barrel exploding.
@Smeggers Further to @Bad CO post.
The iron barrels* were painted using a paint mixture of lamp black and carnauba wax thinned with turpentine - so they probably had a slight sheen before prolonged action but would be very black - actually Lamp Black oil paint is probably spot on.
* Many big guns would have been cast at Low Moor near Bradford - look for 'LM' on the trunnion end.
Due to the industrial revolution we'd perfected large single pours of homogenous iron unlike continental guns which often had multiple pours and therefore, inconsistencies which required a slower rate of fire to avoid the barrel exploding.
Thanks for the feedback guys. As I have a flintlock mechanism to attach to the cannon, I'm going to have to rethink my metals. Curses, foiled again! Back to the drawing board.Bugger beaten to it, after around 1780 RN started to use Iron guns. As paddyplanty said cast at Low Moor and designed by a ex Artillery Officer by the name of Bloomfield.
At the same time the flintlock mechanism, started being used through out the Navy.
They came at the same time as the new Iron guns, but couldn’t be retro fitted to the old Bronze guns.
Interestingly, when they discovered the wreck of the previous HMS Victory. It was discovered that all the guns were Bronze and the guns on the lower gun deck were 42 pounders.Thanks for the feedback guys. As I have a flintlock mechanism to attach to the cannon, I'm going to have to rethink my metals. Curses, foiled again! Back to the drawing board.