Next Project?

by John

I made a 1:10 model of this Ottoman bombard a few years ago. This one was made in 1465, and is thought to be a copy of the bombards which brought down the walls of Constantinople in 1453. This one resides in the Royal Armories Museum at Portsmouth, UK, and I photographed and measured it in 2019. It has a bore of over 600mm, and fired stone balls of over 350kg.

Last used in anger against the Brits in 1807, where it and others like it, were instrumental in preventing a British fleet from invading Istanbul (renamed from Constantinople). How many weapons have an active life of ~350 years?

…and the model turned out well. 550mm long, but, it is made of wood.

So I am contemplating making a model at the same 1:10 scale, like the original, in BRONZE. It will have the same shape and size, but will look like and feel like BRONZE.

I still have my original measurements and drawings of the model. So my plan is to print the cannon parts in PLA, taking into account my extra information from the 2019 visit, then to cast it in BRONZE.

I had planned to stop this blog after finishing the Armstrong RML, but maybe , if there is enough interest, I will keep it going for the next project. You will need to let me know if this project will be of interest. Because lately, comments and likes are few, and numbers have been discouraging. And the renewal date for WordPress is approaching. I get it that people prefer videos, but that is not my style. If this written plus photographs style is not wanted then I will not persist.