Author Topic: DOLPHIN PHOTOS NEEDED now I started with my dolphin, FINISHED (Read 2149 times)

dan610324 · « **on:** March 15, 2008, 12:11:45 AM »

anyone who have high resolution closeup photos of lifting dolphins

?

I need inspiration for the dolphins to the cannon I'm building to my son

Cat Whisperer · « **Reply #1 on:** March 15, 2008, 06:54:13 AM »

OK. We'll be on the lookout with cameras locked and loaded.

GGaskill · « **Reply #2 on:** March 15, 2008, 10:34:36 AM »

Here is a place to look for photos of traditional dolphin-shaped lifting handles.

Museum of Artillery, Engineer and Signal Troops, St Petersburg, Russia

dan610324 · « **Reply #3 on:** March 17, 2008, 02:36:48 PM »

there it was a lot of handles , now I know where I will spend my next Holiday

GGaskill · « **Reply #4 on:** March 17, 2008, 03:38:48 PM »

And that's not all that far away for you.

dan610324 · « **Reply #5 on:** March 17, 2008, 04:30:24 PM »

just a few hours by boat

GGaskill · « **Reply #6 on:** March 17, 2008, 05:06:08 PM »

Do you need a passport?

cannonmn · « **Reply #7 on:** March 18, 2008, 02:55:06 AM »

You should decide which country's dolphins you want to do, they were all different. The Russians used unicorns after Gen. Shuvalov took over, since there were unicorns in his family's coat of arms. The Dutch used a certain fishy-looking dolphin. A certain 16th C. German cannon cannons designer used naked ladies with very prominent breasts, and a great engraving of these is shown in a famous book he published. Some countries put them on reversed from what we usually see. The best book for good close-up dolphin pix of Blackmore's ARMOURIES OF THE TOWER OF LONDON, published by HMSO 1976. It doesn't have the erotic dolphins though.

dan610324 · « **Reply #8 on:** March 18, 2008, 03:05:59 AM »

yes of course , its still Russia

but today there is no problem with visa

we got a few in the army museum in Stockholm also

see attached photo , and thats only a few of them that are on the outside .

sorry , it wasnt possible to load an bmp file

dan610324 · « **Reply #9 on:** March 18, 2008, 03:52:33 AM »

yes I know there are a lot of different dolphin styles , but as this cannon is just an free fantasy style in 1600 - 1650 appearance I feel free to use whatever model of dolphins . its not an specific copy of any existing gun . my main problem now is to find an nice design that are easy to scale down , its no problem to create an nice dolphin when its 8-10 inch long . but when the total length of the dolphin only is 1 inch it will be problems to find an suitable model who dont will loose its details when scaled down that much . and it still must be reasonable easy to produce .

GGaskill · « **Reply #10 on:** March 18, 2008, 09:37:45 PM »

...and it still must be reasonably easy to produce.

I don't know what is available but you might look at plastic toy dolphins as patterns. They could be investment cast in bronze and welded to the barrel.

dan610324 · « **Reply #11 on:** March 19, 2008, 03:46:29 AM »

NO NO NO NO

dan610324 · « **Reply #12 on:** March 19, 2008, 04:38:27 AM »

no welding here
first must the cannon be created in wax , then cast in bronze .

but I have never seen an original cannon with an real dolphin on it ,
they look more like "seamonsters" you find on maps from 1400 to 1600.

its very difficult to find anything that are so tiny, shouldnt be more then 1 inch long .

GGaskill · « **Reply #13 on:** March 19, 2008, 11:37:01 AM »

Then I think you need to find yourself a sculptor and have them carved of wax.

seacoastartillery · « **Reply #14 on:** March 19, 2008, 12:47:02 PM »

I talked to a sculptor friend of ours just yesterday about your quest for a small, but visually noticeable set of Dolphins. He liked these shown in the photo below and said any sculptor of average or better skill could simplify these a bit and carve two very nice copies in the hard wax that they use for investment casting in about three hours and from this information you could estimate the cost quite accurately.

WE hope your quest is successful.

Regards,

Mike and Tracy

These Dolphins are on a 1700s Spanish cannon Mike and I found at Ft. Ticonderoga in upstate New York, USA These are the nicest we have ever seen in our travels. They are only 10 cm long as this is a small cannon.

dan610324 · « **Reply #15 on:** March 19, 2008, 03:14:17 PM »

ooooohhh , those are among the most beautiful dolphins I ever seen

thank you very much for the picture

if you got it in an higher resolution please email it to me , dan610324@hotmail.com

THIS IS THE MODEL i WILL USE .

seacoastartillery · « **Reply #16 on:** March 19, 2008, 04:53:53 PM »

Dan, We are glad that you like them; we do too. We just sent an email with this image attached. It is 2592 X 1944 at 2.13 MB. This should give your sculptor plenty of details with which to work. It was strange finding Spanish artillery at Ft. Ticonderoga. In the 1750s through the 1780s it was held by the French (they built it as Fort Carillon), the British, (they re-built it as Ft. Ticonderoga) and the Colonial Rebels(Americans who captured it in 1775 when Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain boys, a Vermont militia, 130 strong, took over the fort from the British garrison without firing a shot!) At Ft. Ticonderoga you can find cannon left there by the French, huge mortars, and the British, a large howitzer and some coehorn mortars and grenade launchers and the American field artillery and a few siege guns on naval trucks. There must be more than 100 pieces of artillery there including a large collection of Spanish artillery, mortars, howitzers and guns.
This is one place that the student of artillery history should not miss, an absolutely fascinating place.

Regards,

Tracy and Mike

lendi · « **Reply #17 on:** March 20, 2008, 03:02:40 AM »

These dolphins are on a barrel appox. the same size as the one that you are building. They are 1.625X1. the barrel is 17"
long and has a date of 1670 on it. It is one of a pair Just another thought.
lendi

KABAR2 · « **Reply #18 on:** March 20, 2008, 03:28:34 PM »

Quote from: seacoastartillery on March 19, 2008, 12:47:02 PM

I talked to a sculptor friend of ours just yesterday about your quest for a small, but visually noticeable set of Dolphins. He liked these shown in the photo below and said any sculptor of average or better skill could simplify these a bit and carve two very nice copies in the hard wax that they use for investment casting in about three hours and from this information you could estimate the cost quite accurately.

WE hope your quest is successful.

Regards,

Mike and Tracy

These Dolphins are on a 1700s Spanish cannon Mike and I found at Ft. Ticonderoga in upstate New York, USA These are the nicest we have ever seen in our travels. They are only 10 cm long as this is a small cannon.

That is a nice little gun I believe

Quote from: seacoastartillery on March 19, 2008, 04:53:53 PM

Dan, We are glad that you like them; we do too. We just sent an email with this image attached. It is 2592 X 1944 at 2.13 MB. This should give your sculptor plenty of details with which to work. It was strange finding Spanish artillery at Ft. Ticonderoga. In the 1750s through the 1780s it was held by the French (they built it as Fort Carillon), the British, (they re-built it as Ft. Ticonderoga) and the Colonial Rebels(Americans who captured it in 1775 when Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain boys, a Vermont militia, 130 strong, took over the fort from the British garrison without firing a shot!) At Ft. Ticonderoga you can find cannon left there by the French, huge mortars, and the British, a large howitzer and some coehorn mortars and grenade launchers and the American field artillery and a few siege guns on naval trucks. There must be more than 100 pieces of artillery there including a large collection of Spanish artillery, mortars, howitzers and guns.
This is one place that the student of artillery history should not miss, an absolutely fascinating place.

Regards,

Tracy and Mike

When Ticonderoga was reconstructed from the 30's through the 50's I believe most of the cannon were bought and brought up from south America and the islands,
which is the reason for such a large mix of nations artillery wise, I haven't been up there since 1985 but if memory serves me,
the little cannon is the one they use for demonstrations, and was mounted on a Galloper carriage, it is an interesting cannon,
The crowns on the Dolphins might give a clue to it's country of origin.

Allen <><

dan610324 · « **Reply #19 on:** April 13, 2008, 11:06:02 AM »

I have no wood carving experience , but I casted an piece of tin and took my scalpels and tried .

this is the beginning of what should be "my" dolphin

KABAR2 · « **Reply #20 on:** April 13, 2008, 04:04:24 PM »

Quote from: dan610324 on April 13, 2008, 11:06:02 AM

I have no wood carving experience , but I casted an piece of tin and took my scalpels and tried .

this is the beginning of what should be "my" dolphin

Your off to a great start with that! remember to make them a little larger than the finished cast product allowing for metal shrinkage.

lance · « **Reply #21 on:** April 13, 2008, 04:30:56 PM »

Dan, your Dolphins look great! now get that cannon done, and keep us updated with progress pictures while you are doing it.

gulfcoastblackpowder · « **Reply #22 on:** April 13, 2008, 06:46:29 PM »

How do you plan to attach them? 1 piece mold? Weld? Looks great so far!

dan610324 · « **Reply #23 on:** April 13, 2008, 11:13:40 PM »

the shrink is just 1,6% so I dont think its necessary ,
the dolphin is just a little over 1 inch long .

from the tin master I will produce an silicone mould to reproduce it in wax , then glue 2 dolpgins to the wax cannon and making an investment mould from that wax original . steam out the wax and then heat the mould to 800 celsius before casting , it should be 650 celsius at the casting moment . and the liquid bronze should be 1125 celsius .

first I need to finish the dolphin master and the cannon master , then I will continue to produce the silicone moulds .

so it will still take a while until this cannon is finished , but of course I will keep you informed

dan610324 · « **Reply #24 on:** April 23, 2008, 07:45:58 AM »

NOW ITS FINISHED

I attach a few photos here , the dolphin is standing on an twenty dollar gold coin,
its just over 1 1/4" long .

but one thing is sure , no human being can afford to have me do that again .

please dont ask how many hours , I dont know .
over 2 weeks every day .

now I need 1 week off from the cannon manufacturing

or maybe a month

dan610324 · « **Reply #25 on:** April 23, 2008, 07:47:55 AM »

sorry files to large , got to do it this way .

seacoastartillery · « **Reply #26 on:** April 23, 2008, 10:23:03 AM »

Wow, Dan.....You certainly have lots of skill as a sculptor. Those Dolphins look really, really great! If such small features on your son's cannon have such wonderful detail, we are expecting an absolutely beautiful final result on the whole cannon. Let's not hear any more words about taking any time off. Everyone knows the happiest people are those who stay busy, busy, busy! We want you to be very happy, (in your work) so Mike and I have a little cast cannon project which requires a little sculpting that we need to talk to you about. A drawing of it is below:

Well, what do you think? How long will it take you to prepare a wax positive of this one?

Isn't it great?

Regards,

Mike and Tracy

dan610324 · « **Reply #27 on:** April 23, 2008, 11:22:20 AM »

EEEEEHHH OOOOHH WOW WOW

ok give me 2 days , but thats of course for an pair

where did you find that thing ?? thats an beauty for sure .
do you got any technical info on it ??
aha , of course you got the original gun

when you are tired to look at that cannon I will buy it .

do you agree to 500 dollars , hong kong dollars of course

Terry C. · « **Reply #28 on:** April 23, 2008, 02:26:08 PM »

dan610324, excellent dolphin!

M&T, more info on that seven-shooter please! I cant make out all of the text, actual gun or concept?

I'm assuming the dimensions are in millimeters, that would make the bores roughly .75 each. I especially like the sliding vent covers, to prevent multiple discharges.

But what's with the squirrels?

seacoastartillery · « **Reply #29 on:** April 23, 2008, 04:52:49 PM »

Unfortunately, we do not have the original gun, Dan, but we have a pretty nice book which disappeared about 8 months ago and was found yesterday. It's called The Visser collection, by Rudolf Roth who examined the entire collection and made drawings of most of the cannon in it, and excellent ones, they are. This cannon is toward the end of the book in the foreign or unknown foundry section. Most of the cannon featured are Dutch, lots of VOC guns. The details are few in number, but the author is quite sure that this cannon is not a model, but rather, an actual piece of ordnance. The casting date unknown, but it was added to the Visser collection in the late 80s or early 90s and came from the Spanish Royal Collection according to Roth.
Terry is correct; each of the seven bores are 19 MM or .748" diameter. The over-all length is 643 MM or 25.315" and the breech dia. is 120 MM and the trunnion ends separated by 189 MM and the muzzle dia. at the muzzle face is 102 MM. The sliding bronze dovetailed covers for the various vents are intriguing and the hinged outer vent field cover with the sculpted, opposed, babies is very ornate. Terry, we also thought they were squirrels at first, but after studying the end view and top views, we can see that the Dolphins rise up into alignment with the baby's backsides and look like tails in the end view, (cascable end view). The sculpting required to duplicate this piece is way beyond our abilities, which is why we offered up the challenge to Dan! He has the skill, but Whoa! How long would all those details really take to produce?

Regards,

Mike and Tracy