The Tabletop Space Cannon Project Part 2

It has been a few months since Mike and I had any time to work on our Space Cannon Project, but before last Saturday's Age of Heroes AD&D Game we had a few hours to continue our plans! We had left off deciding which way the barrel would face on the base, how we were going to mount it on the base, etc, etc.

So, we made some new decisions and Mike figured how to mount and support the cannon on the base.

Original Rough Concept

The original idea was for the Cannon to sit as shown above. However from the very start, Mike thought it would look better if the cannon was facing the other way. He also envisioned a dug out structure between the tines of the lower platform. After looking at what we had created, he finally convinced me.

Second Concept 

So this is roughly what the cannon's profile will look like when finished. The next challenge was how to mount the cannon on an angle onto the base. While I prepared the arches to cover the side (Which are no where near done but you can see above) Mike began creating the framework that would support the cannon.

It is a little hard to see in this image, however the cannon will be supported by a series of increasingly long rectangular plates with a semi-circle cut out of the top of each to support the cannon. There will be three to four of these risers and that will form a base for the cannon to rest in.

Since that probably didn't make a lot of sense, the below image should give some clarity.

So these risers are made out of plasti-card, and we had a hell of a time getting the cannon to rest on them properly. But after some patience and diligence with a glue gun we finally got them in place, and that cannon was able to stand for the first time. Well, at least for a moment.

The next issue was that plasticard, styrofoam and glue gun glue doesn't weigh very much, And our Nerf gun barrel was too heavy, which caused the whole structure to tip. To offset this issue I glued these two bolts to the bottom. They are actually the original Canvas Eagles bases that Elijah and I made all the way back in 2011 before JADE was a group, but that is a another story!

So we have a a lot more work to do before the cannon model is together, let alone painted and ready for the tabletop! We will keep you posted with more updates to come as we slowly move towards finishing this thing.


Written by: Andrew Gregory