Moving on to the gun, I had played with using 8-way black connectors and grey rods as a cannon, but it was enormous. Like, naval gun enormous. I settled on using a mix of ladder connectors, 1-way connectors, and 2 sections of quad grey rods. This gives a good overall shape, and is about as good as I could get it to look without using non-K’nex pieces.
The front is held to a “point” by an elastic, the back of the first section is joined all 8 ways with 1-way connectors, and the end of the gun is the black 8-way connector spaced evenly. Inside the turret I used a pair of 3-way connectors to connect the gun to the front lugs at 45°. There is a yellow rod attached to the top of the cannon’s rear 8-way connector that is for the laying system.
The laying system consists of a normal crown for overall elevation, with a cam connection to the gun. It is adjusted with via a small fixed gear on a rod that comes out the rear of the turret. I wanted it to be very stable and simple, so I needed to add friction and proper limits to allow full adjustment.
- Used a ladder connector which slides on the yellow rod instead of a 1-way.
- Offset the crown gear slightly with spacers to provide greater friction on the adjustment rod.
- Connected laying gear support to top of turret with 45° rod, which stops the gun from excess declination.