Poor man's 4.7 Naval Gun - Part 3

Last Sunday I prototyped my new shield design for my Crescent 5.5 gun conversion, today I have been finishing off my new wheel design. I wanted a 1900s style solid wheel design - a 'Percy Scott' style - similar to that on the classic Britains' 4.7 Naval Gun which I am modelling my conversion on.

I started off by making some plasticard discs and then added the additional bracing and hubs. I used a few spare metal washers to add some strength, and also because they happened to be the exact size I was after.

Then I cut out a couple of strips of plastic to form the rims of the wheels and glued them to the outside of the discs. I suppose this was one of the trickier bits as curling the plastic around the discs was a bit fiddly.

I am rubbish at maths - I am more the visual type of guy - so I worked out the diameters and spacing of everything by trial and error. Making a paper template which I could wrap around the wheel as a make-shift ruller for marking my wheel tred measurements...

The Britains' 4.7 didn't have any treds on it's solid wheels, but I liked this idea, I think it's evocative of the period. Besides, I don't want my '4.7' to be exactly the same as the Britain's one, just similar.

In the end I didn't bother faffing around with complicated methods of dropping the axle height (to match the Britain's gun) I just decided that this height was acceptable.

Next I will box in the tail supports and then figure out how to disassemble the Crescent gun ready to strip of the original paint prior to repainting the complete conversion.