saw a pic the other day that showed the Bismarck head on and the main guns had what we in the Army call muzzle plugs in them. Of course with a rifle it's a piece of cake to put in and remove. On a tank or artillery piece you just have to depress the gun a bit to deal with it.(uness you are in a Sheridan and then you can just blow it out with the bore evcuator :-) )

Of course here it comes. Given the difficulties of boring out the gun tubes (on the model) when and for how long would she have kept them on? How easy are they to remove and how do you get them off the top turrets?

They were called Tampons, and were in place when the guns were secured.

:-) :-) :-) :-) :-)

You Navy guys.....ROFLMAO...great technical term

ws it tampons or tampions (pronounced tamp-e-on) Thats what we called it when I did civil war re-inactment. What happens when you have to get them off in a hurry and they're 20 feet or so in the air....send them down range? (shoot them out)

From what I've seen, and no first hand experience, I understood they were only in place in port. For cermonial use, things like that. I know I've seen battleships in heavy seas where the guns were trained away from the seas, to protect them.

I've also seen them called tampions, though tampons would work just as well.

Brass tampions are used when on port, or at Cerimonial situations.
Canvas covers are used when in transit, so that the salt water doesn't compromise the barrel soul (inside of barrel - hmm really don't know the english word to it, so this is s Portuguese-English Skipper translation).

If it was needed action, this would be blown away, with no damage to the gun, or, obviously, to the projectil (part of the ammo that is fired)

Skipper

:-) tampions.... tampons... you say TOmaTO, I say toMAto..... :-) :-)
It's rifling .... the spirals down the barrel.....
Your English is still better than my Portuguese, along with my spelling...... :-) :-)

:-) :-)

Hi Dave
Thanks for the push on my English!
I still remember you trying to say my name :-) :-)

But what I want to say it's not the rifling (estrias in Portuguese) but the whole interior of the barrel...

But it's not that important, I think that Steve got the picture
Right?

Skipper

I did skipper, thanks to all of you. As I am depicting the Bismarck while she was in the Nowejian fjord prior to her final repaint, of course she would have had those little white bags on the ends of the tubes whcih means..... NO BORING OUT

And I still practice trying to say it....... but still doesn't come out right. ...... :-) :-) Perhaps barrel lining? Any way , slap the canvas covers over the ends, or slip in the tampions....
either way is good. Unless they are ready to fire on some target.
I think most modelers drill out the guns, because they think they look better that way. In 1/350 scale you should have no problem painting little designs on the ends of the barrels to represent the decorations on the tampions..... :-) :-)

You betcha......the full moon :-)

I think the general term for the inside of the barrel is the "bore". At least that is what I recall from my arty days, a long time ago in a galaxy far far away....