"A Little Help Here? 17th century Spanish guns" Topic

As I am nearing completion of my Spanish starfort in 28mm I am wondering if anyone has solid references as to the type of gun carriages the Spanish used for their fortress guns circa 1690-1710. I am going to be buying/casting over 60+ 28mm cannon so I want to be sure I'm getting this right.

You may find these books helpful -

Osprey Fortress #94 Spanish Colonial Fortifications
Osprey Fortress #49 The Spanish Main

Both cover the period you are interested in.

One source may be Thor Borrensen, Report on Spanish Guns and Carriages, 1686-1800, 47 pp. typed. This was a report prepared for the National Park Service in 1938. A review of the paper in a 1938 NPS publication states that the "study is accompanied by photographs of a number of cannon and mortars of the period treated and by detailed scale drawings of some of the pieces themselves, or of others of the same type, and of carriages on which they were mounted… Although Mr. Borresen states that the greatest handicap encountered in research on Spanish guns and carriages is the lack of descriptive material about them, he has given a great deal of satisfying information concerning the guns, and particularly the carriages…"

You could start by contacting someone at the Castillo de San Marcos in St. Augustine, Florida. They have several reproduction carriages on display and should be able to give you some information.

Use the Borrensen report as a "name-dropper" to show that you have done some research.

Below are two cannon at the fort.

Those are naval carriages – quite appropriate for a fortress though. I'd guess post Napoleonic in date.

I found the reference to the Borrensen report on the Pirate King site. link

On the site is an illustration of a 18th Century Spanish garrison gun and carriage.

The illustration appears to be similar to the San Marcos guns.

Just did a quick check to determine difference between a garrison carriage and a naval carriage and it appears the primary difference is that a garrison carriage had metal wheels (which might have only been a band of metal around an otherwise wooden wheel). Which, if true, means any period gun on a naval carriage can easily became a garrison carriage by simply painting on a metal band around the wheels.

Thanks for the help guys!

I picked up both of the Osprey books one of which shows both types of gun carriage as does the link to the Pirate website. I believe that I am going to go with the standard naval style carriage. I have sent emails to the NPS Castillo de San Marcos staff to see if they can clarify the matter.

Still loving that fort! :-)

BigRedBat,
Thanks, the little details are killing me and slowing things down; 90 window frames, two dozen doors, they just are tedious. Next is cutting the dozens of embrasures in the rampart for the cannon. I am tempted to take one section and push it through to completion just so I know what I'm working toward.

Well, all I can offer is to take yourself out back, give yourself a good smacking around for undertaking such a massive project, and then get on with it!

Just think of the hours of sitting back and enjoying the accolades and just gazing on the finished project and being able to say to yourself, "I did that." And, "no one else has one just like mine". That's always a cool moment in the life of a project such as yours.

Now stop reading TMP and get back to work!!!!!!!!!!