The Ship Model Forum

The printed guns for L'Orenoque arrived safely at their destination
[attachment=1]LO guns 7 aft.jpg[/attachment]
See how that other, taller carriage wouldn't have fit?
[attachment=0]LO guns.jpg[/attachment]

After completing the gun for [b]l'Orenoque[/b], I went back to complete the taller carriage based on LaFay's plate #7
[attachment=2]LaFay_pl07sm.png[/attachment]
[attachment=1]french_22cm_shell-gun_b_carriage.png[/attachment]
[attachment=0]french_22cm_shell-guns.png[/attachment]

Both models are available on Thingiverse

[size=125]Someone building a 1:100 model of the French steam-frigate [b]L'Orenoque[/b] was looking for guns to replace the kit's white-metal "things."
Technically, this gun was produced in 1842 and falls out of the range of this thread, but it was [i]in-use[/i] through the 1850's, so I'm posting it here.

The tube was easy enough as I found scale drawings of it that all agreed, and I used what was in the book [i]Arming the Fleet[/i] since I have it to scan.
The carriage I originally started making was based on a portion of the model's plans I was sent.
[attachment=5]canon-obusier80pd36.png[/attachment]
[attachment=4]canon-obusier80.png[/attachment]
I didn't care for the carriage, it was too tall, so I scaled it down to match my 32# and 8 inch shell-guns carriages, and it still felt wrong.
[attachment=3]french80pdr_shell-gun.png[/attachment]

Someone pointed me to a French reference, that had another lower carriage for this gun, that was lower, and seemed more stable.
[url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k9737980n/f7.item.r=lafay%20artillerie][i]Aide-m�moire d'artillerie navale : imprim� avec autorisation du ministre de la Marine et des colonies[/i][/url]
[attachment=2]Lafay_Jules-Joseph_pl17.png[/attachment]

I was happy with the carriage, but LaFay didn't show how elevation was handled. The model plan had a coin on a block, also not shown in the LaFay drawing of that carriage (plate 7). LaFay did have a drawing of a coin, separate from any gun plate, so I put that on a block as in the model drawing.
[attachment=1]french_22cm_shell-gun.png[/attachment]

I loaded the gun into the slicer and scaled it from 1:36 to 1:100 and printed 7 of them. It took three tries, but using fatter supports on the last try did the trick.
[attachment=0]20250713_031838.jpg[/attachment]
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[size=150]The other gun-deck pivot on Constellation in the 1870s was a 100# Parrot Rifle on a wooden pivot carriage[/size]
[attachment=1]20250526_205549.jpg[/attachment]
[attachment=0]20250526_205533.jpg[/attachment]

I did something like this in 2D for my laser-cutter and then build the sculpting with white glue and acrylic paint.

You could do it also in 2D as thinnish element for the printer and then build up the volume in the 'traditional' way - that is, if you want to duck the challenge with Blender.

If you're doing a ship with some 28ish IX inch Dahlgrens on Marsilly carriages; that would be a project all by itself.

I just wish I could wrap my brain around Blender so I could model the filigree carvings on the ship's bow. I have an eye for that stuff, good enough to see how awful my hand is at it.
[attachment=0]headcarving.png[/attachment]

Having built something like that from scratch using traditional methods (if photoetching and laser-cutting can be already considered 'traditional'), this 3D-printed example seems to provide a considerable gain in time (and perhaps quality), particularly when one needs more than one specimen.

[size=100]I finally got around to printing my own copy of the XI inch Dahlgren on the iron pivot carriage which I need for my collection of Guns Constellation Carried
Part of the elevation screw didn't print, otherwise it came out pretty well
[attachment=1]20250524_214606.jpg[/attachment]
I was a little surprised at the size difference between the IX and the XI
[attachment=0]20250524_222200.jpg[/attachment]
[/size]

I finished updating the IX on a wrought-iron carriage to the latest data and posted it on Thingiverse.
[attachment=4]iron_marsilly_slicer.png[/attachment]

Then I dabbled on the XV inch Dahlgren until it was done and posted as well. I'm not making a mount for this gun, but leaving it to whomever downloads it to fill that need. I did model a hole for the elevation screw, a touch-hole, and a slotted hammer lobe on the breech (I need to look up some of the nomenclature again).
[attachment=3]XV_Dahlgren_tube.png[/attachment]

Finally, I "finished" the XI Dahlgren on the wrought-iron pivot carriage and slide. I may have to comer back to this one, but it's got all I can give it for now.
As it's one of the guns in my [i]Guns of [b]Constellation[/b][/i] project, it's the one I actually need to print, though my first try at this failed because of a hole in the FEP and resin leakage to clean up.
[attachment=2]xi_iron_pivot02.png[/attachment]
[attachment=1]XI_iron_pivo.png[/attachment]

Here's the best shot of the real thing I can find to compare to...
[attachment=0]xi_iron_pivotsm.png[/attachment]

[size=150]Mention Dahlgren in a search and you'll get this image, or another of the series
[attachment=2]s-l1600.jpg[/attachment]

It's fits the time frame (1864ish), and I found a drawing from the Archives in [i]Arming the Fleet[/i], so I made it...
[attachment=0]50pdr_rifle_plan.png[/attachment]
[attachment=1]50pdr_rifle_wip.png[/attachment]

It would be "finished" except I'm trying to figure out the extra material in the back of the carriage causing the aft eyebolt to be mounted higher in the photo, compared to what's in the drawing.[/size]

The XI gun on the iron pivot is getting close to done
[attachment=3]XI_iron_pivot_wip20250317.png[/attachment]

Page 327 of the 1875 manual is a drawing of the wrought iron carriage for, it says, the 8 inch Dahlgren, which is a 9 inch smoothbore sleeved and rifled.
[attachment=2]ordnance1875pg327.png[/attachment]

It seems the drawing I originally worked from was off a bit in dimensions and shape, so I reworked my model to match the manual.
The carriage shown in the manual is a later modified version with one of the holes in the side plates filled, and a different elevation set-up. I'm making the original version, but I'll probably do the modified version as well.
[attachment=1]iron_marsilly20250317.png[/attachment]

During the 1870's, [b]Constellation[/b] was a training ship and fitted with two pivot guns at enlarged ports on her gun-deck; an XI inch Dahlgren on an iron pivot carriage, and a 100 pd Parrot rifle on a wooden pivot carriage.
She also carried 8 IX inch guns, which I assumed were on Marsilly carriages. I'm still digging to find if maybe they were iron carriages?
[attachment=0]constellations_gundeck_pivots.png[/attachment]

I contacted the people that manage HMS Warrior about possibly getting drawings or plans of the main deck gun carriages (they had to replicate them from something, right?) They got back to me saying that department was closed down for a while because their systems were hacked. :(

I found a rough PDF of the 1875 Navy Ordnance & Gunnery Manual, and a little more looking turned up a much better scan which contained this bit of info on the XI Dahlgren on the wrought iron pivot mount.
[attachment=6]ordnance1875pg336.png[/attachment]
[attachment=5]ordnance1875pg337.png[/attachment]

I had been working from a very nice drawing I found on Deviant Art, but it turns out at wasn't a real gun, but a movie-prop used in the 1960's 40,000 Leagues Under the Sea (I was wondering how that compressor was supposed to function...
[attachment=4]Abe_Lincoln_gun.png[/attachment]
[attachment=3]movie_prop.png[/attachment]

I rearranged, replaced, and rebuilt my 3D model of the XI pivot based on the 1875 manual and some photos. I'm working toward an early version of this gun mount. They got a lot of modifications going into the 1880s, dampers, gears, the gun's trunnions got cut off so they wouldn't poke out past the cap squares, etc.
[attachment=2]xi_iron_pivot01.jpg[/attachment]
[attachment=1]xi_iron_pivot03.jpg[/attachment]

There was also a drawing of a later version of the "Iron Marsilly" There's some shape problems with my model I need to fix with this new data. I may also make one with the later elevation screw shown in the drawing.
The drawing says it's an 8 inch Dahlgren rifle, which is a 9" smoothbore sleeved and rifled.
[attachment=0]ordnance1875pg327.png[/attachment]

Nope. They added a caster sort of thing to train the gun, and a different style of elevation mechanism. I think there may have been a wooden bolster, or bumper, forward for when the gun was run up, but the only evidence I have for that is a rotting bit of wood on the front of one of these sitting in a park.
These are definitely NOT "display carriages." BTW: If you look closely at photos of extant carriages, those skids appear to be bronze. as do the trunnion fittings.
[attachment=0]476430188_122139216902492931_1284021387063216650_n.jpg[/attachment]

This is basically the same concept of carriage used on the early iron carriage XI inch pivots, of which, here's a survivor
[attachment=2]20241105_130124.jpg[/attachment]

And here's one in-service
[attachment=1]d08e0a4ae9e121dc9feb1300e166b4a8.jpg[/attachment]

Shouldn't there be a wooden (sacrificial) bolster under the rear end? All French carriages from that time I have seen seem to have it and it looks logical, as you don't want to have the angle-irons scraping along the deck.

Somehow, however, this looks to me more like a modern display carriage. Just two sheets of iron don't seem to be stiff enough to take the force of recoil. Normally there would have been an iron frame that is covered on both sides with sheet-iron for cross-stiffening. At least that was the way French and German gun-carriages of the time were constructed.

While searching for more data on [b]Warrior's[/b] gun carriages I kept tripping over pictures of IX inch Dahlgrens on iron Marsilly style carriages, a typical broadside piece on American vessels after the Civil War and through the 1870s.
[attachment=3]iron_marsilly3.jpg[/attachment]

I couldn't find any useful drawings for this carriage, (I already had the gun made). One drawing I found was of a something out of someone's head, or maybe a stage prop? The best I could manage was from a fellow that built a fire-able model. I scaled that image to the trunnions of my tube and used the photos of the real gun to eyeball the rest.
[attachment=2]iron_marsily3.png[/attachment]

So here's what I came up with;
[attachment=1]iron_marsilly.png[/attachment]
[attachment=0]iron_marsilly_slicer.png[/attachment]

So, this one's done, and posted on Thingiverse
[attachment=5]Arm40_slicer.png[/attachment]

It didn't print great, I had to beef up some things, as well as fix some details I left out...the pic above is after those fixes...
[attachment=4]20250211_140237.jpg[/attachment]

I guess I'm gonna have to do the other guns in [b]Warrior's[/b] armament; a 68# smoothbore and a 2-truck carriage for the 110#
[attachment=3]warrior7.jpg[/attachment]
[attachment=2]armstrong_warrior2.jpg[/attachment]

The barrel for the 68# gun's made, but the carriage I'm having to eyeball
[attachment=1]68pd_wire.png[/attachment]
[attachment=0]68pounder_gun250218.png[/attachment]

It's looking like I'll need to do the rest of [b]Warrior's[/b] armament, I guess
...but I'm not building a model of the ship, no sir.

And....now I have my next 3D printing project....LOL

Thank-you!

NS

[size=150]Cabin fever has me doing crazy things; like another Armstrong gun[/size]

[attachment=1]arm40wip20250209a.png[/attachment]
[attachment=0]Arm40pdrWarrior.png[/attachment]

Thanks for the video. I didn't know that one. And, I didn't realise that the ball-lever is not connected to the breech-screw, but can rotate separately to tighten it with its inertia.