Here’s a few shots of the Guns of History Naval 32-pound Carronade kit. I thought I’d give it a shot as a “diversion-build” since I hadn’t worked in wood, or rigged anything with thread in a long time.
The kit is designed to build up as a carronade on a small sloop, etc., so the kit piece acting as the “ship’s” bulwarks was way too thin for what I wanted to do. I intended to make the model somewhat “Constitution-like” so I laminated strips of sheet styrene and added them to the bulwark piece. Yes, I know I’ve committed heresy by combining plastic and wood together in a single model. Or, at least it was heresy years ago among the wood model ship builders I knew
The kit contains a rammer, bucket, etc., for hanging inside the bulwarks and includes a port lid but I chose not to use them. The port lid wouldn’t be correct for Constitution and I didn’t want to glue them to the deck. That could have led to a mess requiring resanding the deck planks.
The gun was painted with Acryl aircraft instrument black and weathered with medium gray dry brushing. A gray wash was applied to the wooden deck planks. The outboard bulwark was painted with Acryl semi-gloss black. The outboard side looks very plain, but I couldn’t see trying to mock-up chains or shrouds leading to “nowhere.” That side will be against the wall anyway.
Of course aboard Constitution the main deck guns are closer together and wouldn’t have a much space to each side as the model shows. I added a couple of pin rails to fill the blank space.
Looking at the rigging now, I realize I should have waxed the thread. Not doing that was dumb and I knew better. The rigging was copied from photos taken of the 64 pound gun aboard HMS Victory. None of the Constitution’s carronades show all the rigging the model provided and leaving it as coils on the deck didn’t quite feel right after studying lots of deck photos.
It was a different, fun project.