LA19 MEDIUM HEAVY 18PDR

Assembling the 18 and 24-pdr gun kits

Both the 24-pdr and 18-pdr gun kits come with two sets of tools for the guns, which when travelling would be carried on both sides of the gun carriage. They simply glue into place as shown in the 18-pdr photo two below this. However when the guns are in action, one set of tools is obviously going to be in use, so, unless you are vignetting a travelling gun under tow, we recommend that you glue only one set of tools in place. There are two trunnion mounting positions on the siege gun carriage, one at the front and the other - the travelling mount - further back. Again, unless you are vignetting a gun on the move, we recommend for everyday gaming use that you glue the trunnions into the forward (firing) mount. The travelling mount was only used over long distances anyway. In the photos you can see a tool box on the ground. These are positioned at the bottom of the bracket trail for travelling, but would not be in that position for firing. So again we recommend that you do not glue the tool box into place, but rather leave it as a loose ancillary.  The only slightly fiddly part of assembling the gun kits comes when mounting the barrel - first pop the elevating screw through the small drillhole in the carriage and glue it in place. Now we need to locate the wooden wedge, which is going to support the heavy end of the barrel in the horizontal or near horizontal plane. In the photos you can see the thick end of the wedge protruding from under the barrel, near the cascabel at the back of the gun. Be sure to have a dry run before gluing anything. Rest the thin end of the wedge on the front cross strut of the carriage and the thick end of the wedge centrally on top of the elevating screw. The idea is that the wedge should provide a broadly horizontal platform to which you will be able to glue the heavy end of the barrel. When you're happy you've got it, glue the thin end of the wedge to the carriage and pop a spot of glue on top of the elevating screw. Now drop the thick end of the wedge onto the sticky elevating screw and quickly adjust for position - have a modelling knife or a cocktail stick to hand for the purpose of pushing the wedge into the right position. When you're happy drop a spot of glue into both the forward trunnion mounts and  another spot onto the top surface at the thick end of the wedge. Now apply the barrel to the three aforementioned points of contact  and quickly adjust for the final position.  When the barrel is securely glued in place you can glue  the tops of the trunnion mounts into position. This is quite fiddly. Be sure to take care in removing the mounts from the sprue, so as not to break them. It's best to have that knife or cocktail stick handy again to push the trunnion mounts around and fine tune their placing on top of a spot of glue.