I've been giving some thought to my next project (going to have to put the large scale BB/CA project on the back burner due to the fiberglass issue!) and I've settled on a wooden warship model. Now, I am still thinking large scale, probably 6 to 8 feet in length, but I'd like to know if there is anyone out there who has any experience in cannons for ships.

What I am looking to do is to have firing cannons on the boat, but where they can be fired more than once. Sort of like a repeating blank gun effect. I know this sounds odd, but I'd like to get it out on the water, and be able to fire the cannons via R/C.

Does anyone have any ideas at all? I'm rather stumped, unless someone knows of a crew of miniature people that I can put aboard to reload and fire the boat's guns.

Hope to start a good discussion on this topic. Surely someone has thought about it in the past.

Thanks!

Interesting, to say the least, mate...I'm sure that it could be done, but I think you're going to have to make friends with a gunsmith with machining experience, who may be able to fashion you some 22 cal. blank, repeater style, firing "cannons"...I would LOVE to have the opportunity to play around with this one, but I'm buried as it is!! Fascinating prospect though!
~Gunny

Interesting idea.

I think Caps (from Cap guns) may be a good option for the ammo but don’t know how well theyd work.
If you use blank .22 or 9MM rounds you may have to keep the recoil in mind. Considering its in the water and not solid if the ships light enough it may jerk the ship some.

I have no experience with adding guns to boats but if you can post a picture of the gun/turret I may be able to come up with something.

I think that's part of the problem, Jacob, the man's looking for the whole shooting match (pun intended!), guns, ammo, everything...definitely going to have to be engineered, custom built, and built correctly and safely, IMHO...very cool idea, for sure...
~Gunny

Lance,

Check out this site, these guys actually build models to shoot at each other.

http://www.nwlink.com/~pfleming/

Ther may links and other helpful information.

Thats another reason I think Caps would be the best type of ammo for it.
They still make the bang and usually a small flame but the don’t create the pressure you would get with a black shell. You eliminate the safety risk of the gun exploding and only have to worry about the small flame igniting something.
The main problem would be a system for reloading.

Of course if the blank shells are used I agree a machine shop and enginer would be the only way to get the needed precision to keep the chamber from exploding due to the pressure.

It may however be possible to hide a store bought blank firing device in a turret. Possibly even a sawed off blank gun (Now there’s a modification I never thought I’ld hear) if the turrets large enough.
It would just me more expensive.




Oh dang. Now I’m starting to think about making an RC tank and fitting the Saturday night special in the turret again.

Lance,

If you look for the Swampworks(?) website, they have the necessary items you need. These are the guys that make the rc kits that shoot BBs or pellets.

Kenny

Jacob, you are what we call scary.
A RC tank armed with a .38 being operated by a guy nicknamed Redneck.
Patton meets Deliverance.

Actually the one we have is a .25.

I do agree with the rest.
And I did recently add a modernized T-59 to the stash that I really don’t care for. Well there goes the rest of the ceiling.

Well, I see that I left out a very important piece of information, which caused the discussion to sidetrack to the less than intended realms... LOL

The ship I am planning is the CSS Virginia. No turrets, no sinking other ships, no gunpowder, or anything silly like that.

What I was looking for was a way to replicate the ten cannon firing, without having to buy ten little brass cannons and only have ten shots. I don't really want to make the firing mechanisms anything like real cannon, just create a way to make the bang and smoke from them.

So, hopefully, this will lead the discussion back in the right direction.

Sorry for the oversight. I don't know what I was thinking. (or not thinking!)

So nobody has any ideas how to replicate the smoke and bang from a 19th century naval gun?

I'm *shocked* ~!

Didn’t notice you reply sooner.

So wee need to create the smoke as well.

I know you can find caps that put off smoke aswell as the bang I just don’t know wether you can get them in the rolls or not. (Its been a long time sense I played with these things.)
Assuming you can and the guns large enough you could try feeding the roll in from under the gun. The “firing chamber” would be in the wooden part probably right under the gun barrel. All it needs is something that can smack the cap setting it off. A small pipe (tube, straw, something of that nature) could be used to allow the smoke to escape into the gun barrel and out the end of the gun.
The “spent” part of the roll could possibly be rolled behind the firing chamber and out the bottom of the gun.

This is of course a basic idea and depending on size, price range, and parts may need changes.


Now if you have the guns inside the hull whith most of the gun out of sight you may be able to do it easier with a cap firing device and smoke generator hidden within the hull. 1 big system instead of many little ones.

I'm not quite sure how you'd use this but perhaps this would work? The other day I was watching "Modern Marvels" on The History Channel. It was about hardware stores, what the Brits call DYI stores. One device was this power nailer that used gunpowder to power the nails into whatever was being nailed. It used a strip of caps that put out a pretty good loud bang. Maybe you could rig it up so the caps could be set off one at a time, along with some kind of powder to represent the smoke?

Pardon me for being off topic earlier.

The gun Rodger is refering to is a Hilti gun using a .22 cap to fire a fastner in to concrete. Hilti is a namebrand for the gun.

Kenny