Smoke & Fire on Labor Day

[Terry C.]

Didn't have time to get this up yesterday.

In my usual holiday tradition, there was cannon fire after the meal yeterday. Sadly, there was not a single kid watching this time. Some have moved, the others are getting older and were doing other things. It's rare that I have no spectators, but it happens.

I mounted the 1/4-scale Napoleon tube on the marsilly carriage for this shoot.



The vidoes and stills are not up to my usual standards, but that's my fault. I had made some changes to the camera settings to shoot in low light. This was not good for action shots. I did this before I went into the hospital and forgot about it.

But here goes. Here are some smoke & fire stills, they are blurry because of the recoil and the slow shutter...







The breaching rope works really well now that I have the all of the eyes on the cheeks. This is an animated gun even with 500gr salute loads...





And finally the videos...

Video 1

Video 2

Video 3

[Double D]

That thing realy rocks.  Even with the breech rope that thing still moves the platform back hard!

Neat package.  I always associate the Napoleon as a field gun, but it looks good on the Marsilly carriage.  I wonder, were the Napoleon's used in garrison or shipboard applications?

[little seacoast]

Thanks for the neat videos. I've got to try the breaching ropes as mine (modeled after yours) tends to recoil all the way off the platform.
Looks like it's chasing me, might catch me too.

[Ex 49'er]

Terry,    Thankyou for sharing the nice pictures and videos. Good to see that you are keeping the tradition alive and getting out and shooting. Hard to believe that none of the neighborhood kids showed up this year. I'm sure they'll return, tho. They'll be missing out if they don't.

[Terry C.]

Double D: The reason I chose the Marsilly over the more familiar naval truck, is that the slick profile of the Napoleon looks more at home on it. Not as fat or bottle-shaped, but otherwise not too far different in shape from some of the flared-muzzle Dahlgrens seen in period photos.

I've never seen a period photo of a Napoleon on a Marsilly or naval truck, but given adequate desperation, stranger things have happened.

little seacoast: I knew that this gun was going bye-bye unless restrained. I would have liked for the platform to be little larger (and the next one will be), for more free roll. It does jerk the ropes pretty hard, I believe that another 6" or so of roll would have made for a more stable shooting platform. It's always been my experience that cannons lose momentum rapidly.

But this piece of plywood was what I had, and I needed something in a hurry.

Ex 49'er: The younger kids have all moved away, the ones still here are older (about 13 now) and are twin girls. They have of late acquired other interests (like boys).

[Cannoneer]

Terry,
The recoil of the piece in the vids seems realistic; like what you would get firing a full size 12-pounder on the gun deck of a ship.

[JeffG]

Sweet!  Good post, thanks!!

[gulfcoastblackpowder]

Good looking gun!  I agree that it fits nicely on that carriage.

[GGaskill]

Where did you get your Marsilly carriage plans?

[Terry C.]

Where did you get your Marsilly carriage plans?

Mostly from the seat of my pants! 


Seriously, it's based on whatever photos and drawings I could find, but deliberately not an exact replica. It has been 'stretched' lengthwise a little compared to the Marsilly carriages shown with the Dahlgrens mounted. This is to compensate for the longer, leaner tube of the Napoleon.


You can click these images for a larger version...

[Double D]

AOP has Marsilly carriages in there plan sets.

[seacoastartillery]

     Very interesting adaptation, Terry, and it looks a lot better than I would have imagined if you had described it verbally.  I think that lengthening the Marsilly carriage made it a lot better.  I think you may have a Calendar shot there, the one with the slow match silhouetted against the vent flame.  Cool clips!

Tracy and Mike

[Terry C.]

None of the stills are clear enough to be considered 'good' photos, even at this small size. Maybe next shoot they will be better.

This carriage was originally conceived mainly as a display piece and built on a very rushed schedule. I'm really pleased that it turned out to be a good shooter as well.

It wasn't completely finished when this series of photos was taken, I didn't receive all the hardware in time, and had to improvise in places. It was good enough for display, but not quite ready to shoot...

[GGaskill]

Mostly from the seat of my pants!

OK, where did you find the rings that the rope is threaded through?

[Rayfan87]

Mostly from the seat of my pants!

OK, where did you find the rings that the rope is threaded through?

They look like regular eye screws.

[GGaskill]

Nah, the rings are loose.

[Terry C.]

They're stainless steel threaded lifting eye nuts (1/4" NC), from an online marine supply company.

Link

These guys are slow to ship, but they have them for about half the cost (even with shipping) of buying them at the local marine supply.

Forged carbon steel eye nuts go for a lot less from hardware suppliers, if you are going to paint them.

[Terry C.]

Here is a before & after showing the temporary eyebolts/washers/hex nuts that were used in the Halloween photo, and the eye nuts/carriage bolts that are on there now.

The eyebolts weren't much more than finger tight, they were never intended to be functional (although they could've been).