Model Forum / General / Models / July 2009

Hmm. I've got that re-pop kit but it's sitting in my stash.
However, having the Vicksburg Nat'l Military Park in my hometown here,
all of the cannons on display there are painted, but, AFAIK, nothing
on them is made of wood, it's all cast iron or something. I would
think the originals would be as likely painted as left unpainted,
especially if done as CSA toward the latter days of the War (of
Northern Aggression) as we were getting in pretty poor shape. IIRC,
the cannons in the VNMP are painted black & dark green & I don't know
that it's different for whose they were.

Take a look at some of the images here:

http://www.wildhorsebooks.com/civil_war_artillery.htm

They seem to confirm the "natural wood" look.  I'd expect the
"display" articles to be painted simply to preserve the wood.  not
sure they would have gone to the trouble / cost for a piece in the
field, tho.

some other information you might find of interest:

http://www.cwartillery.org/aguns.html

Only to the extent of "never drill into a cannonball that seems unsually
light".

As for the lumber, I wouldn't go too much by what you see today. What
factors drive a private collector or museum in their preservation and
restoration efforts are not neccesarily the same set of driving factors that
existed at the time an item was in military use. Today, we place a premium
on accurately preserving and restoring things to an extreme that in the past
was not always appreciated and practiced even less. More often than not, you
just never really can be sure what you're looking at, where it's been, who
touched it and why they did what they did. I think we know less about the
past than we think we do or as some experts like to let on. Otherwise we
wouldn't be enthralled every so often by the latest theory that challenges
conventional and often long held beliefs.

My well worn solution in the absence of concrete facts is to use my
imagination. On the one hand it isn't hard to imagine CW era manufacturers
churning out dispendable war material with little or no concern to
appearance or longevity. Pictures exist of depots overflowing with
manufactured goods stacked as high as any seen in WWI or WWII. Bare wood
would seem logical under harried wartime conditions. On the other hand you
might imagine that any cannon operating in a coastal artillery battery or
anywhere near salt water would be a good candidate to have received a
protective finish. Or not.

As for the gun itself, I can't imagine how you could really go wrong with a
blackened cast gun.

WmB

I just did a Google Images search for 'vicksburg national
military park cannon' & got a bunch of pics. It indeed shows these
being what looks like OD, black & the barrels look like green-
weathered bronze/brass/copper color, whether they're painted or not, I
dunno. You might do some more Googling in Images to see what you can
find about Civil War cannons.

First off the Lindberg kits are terrible - I wouldn't touch them.  I
discovered 1/16 scale Civil War guns, limbers and caissons that are
really remarkable.  The wood is painted OD in the instructions and the
ones I have seen at Antietam were green.