Thread: 1/6 scale 155 long tom cannon

Great to see you found the toy making "jartzh" and again "welcome "down under".....
I can't offer any ideas on timber selection as I just use what I can get for free, mainly old/recycled timbers.
We have a very good toymaker/modeller in our midst from Texas along with a few others from the your side of the Pacific you may know of local timbers [lumber].
All the local blokes & the world wide community will assist as and when they can; we have a great mob of blokes & ladies in this part of the forum.
Looking forward to seeing your progress & photos.
Cheers crowie

Jartzh what part of Texas do you live in? I am in the Central Texas area 30 miles north of Austin. I use Fine Plywood and Lumber for my hardwoods. I currently am using Walnut, Maple, Cherry, and Mahogany for most of my builds. Walnut and Maple would probably good choices for your cannon. Are you going to turn the barrel on a lathe or carve it?

Bret

Hi and welcome to the mad house Jartzh. Look forward to the cannon build

There are several directions I could take on this project.
a: beautiful hardwood carved cannon - with as much detail as I can get carved on.
b: wooden cannon with plywood and such
c: scale model that looks like the metal of the real thing

I have decided on C for this one for the museum.
I dont want it to look like wood at all.
If this works out I might make another one for myself and I would want A in my house.

I am thinking of a turned hardwood barrel for this one.
When finished I will paint the entire piece army green.

If you are going to paint your model then you should be able to use most any hardwood. As you stated that is for a museum, since it won't be handled even a softwood could suffice. Just make sure you use seasoned wood so it won't warp and use a sanding sealer (or multiple paint layers) to hide the grain. I look forward to watching your model progress and hope that you provide many photos. I might want to make my own in 1/8th scale for my live steam trains. (So far they only exist on paper; the first car, a caboose, is about 3/4 of the way finished.)

once its starts looking like a cannon then I will post some pics. now it just looks like a couple of 2x4s with some things glued on.

2 questions.
what kind of sealer can I cover it with to hide the grain and then sand to smooth out? I tried waterbased kiltz but it wont sand.

how am I going to find 7" diameter tires with wheels? I need 10 of them. They are the old military tractor type.

I dont have a lathe some the barrel and wheels are going to be a challenge.

Have you got a router if so that will sove the wheel and barrel problems

Yes I have a hell of a router. No router table (but that could be taken care of).
I can envision using the router on a table to round off disc from a bandsaw to make a tire. but I can't see how it will help make a barrel.

Originally Posted by jartzh

I can envision using the router on a table to round off disc from a bandsaw to make a tire. but I can't see how it will help make a barrel.

Sort out a table to mount the router in use a ovolo cutter and run a square piece of wood through starting in from the end and ending before the end so as to leave a square section each end for support, turn the piece 1/4 turn each time and repeat for all 4 sides if you pick the correct size bit you should end up with a round piece with square bits at the end which will need cutting off. This will need to be done for all the different sections of the barrel.
Hope this makes sense.
For the wheels I was thinking of making a circle cutter to fit to the router

canon base (1).jpgcanon base (2).jpghere are some pixs of the base. the coke can in the middle shows the scale.

This cannon is huge....wow....155 is inches in your measurements in the USA.

I finally got it all together . now it needs the hundred of detail pieces. coke can shows scale.
its about 6 feet long.

Well done "jartzh"!
I was correct, it is huge.
I'm still watching for the details, keep the photos coming.
Cheers, crowie

I need 2" diameter hand wheels. (used to raise the barrel and transverse the gun). 6 spoke.
Got any sources or ideas on how make them?