Pneumatic breech-loaded cannon

[Sear]

Shells are brazed.

Enola Gaye grenades are solid grenades indeed, but this principle is unsafe for "high velocity" cannons I'm afraid. Maybe lobbing them in high arc could work, but my gun shoots around 10° elevation in practice and someone could get hit along the flight path. That's why my projectiles visibly mark a target hit with colored powder, but do not really mark any surrounding players (that's why I call them "armor piercing"). I believe that safe simulated HE paintball ammo with the range above that of paintball marker is extremely difficult to make.

[jackssmirkingrevenge]

I believe that safe simulated HE paintball ammo with the range above that of paintball marker is extremely difficult to make.

It's possible with tiny pyrotechnic charges, the Airsoft Pyrotechnics products seem to have achieved this with both their impact fuzed and delay fuzed munitions:

[youtube][/youtube]

When you depend on a chemical reaction, it's the lightest and most compact way to store energy (as opposed to pressurized gas for example) which makes it safe enough to hit someone directly without causing harm. Unfortunately for many locations pyrotechnics are difficult to obtain and even then not allowed for most games.

[Sear]

I dived into their products a year ago to see whether they aren't up to something. They may be, but to something a bit different. Their hand grenades (and likewise Enola Gaye constructions) may have decent paint spread, but they are too heavy and stiff and dangerous to be launched.

Then they have grenade launcher ammunition with either delayed or impact-triggered pyrotechnic sound effect and marking ammo (with basically no paint spread, similarly to my A.P. rounds). But this is not HE simulated ammo the way the player is hit with the paint or BBs. This problem (HE, long distance arty) may have a solution, but incredibly costly one in order to have 100% safety.

Of course you may play the style that proximity impact of the shot (basically any shot, even nerf rocket) eliminates surrounding players within certain radius and without the need of any hit or paint splash. It may work for some folks. I'm just personally not the fan of this approach.

[Cthulhu]

I've made shells similar to the enola Gaye grenades.
I made a positive out of wood on a lathe and a negative out of plaster Paris, then by placing several layers of paper soaked in a glue-water mix (essentially paper maché) in the mold and keeping it squeezed tight over night, I was able to make rigid and durable shells.
Then simply fill with your paint of choice (I actually stuffed mine with "hippie paint" [dyed cornstarch])and shove in a firecracker. Making the fuse is as simple as poking a hole in the tip and planning a toy cap inside.

You get the idea, it works decently well if you take your time and experiment!

[Sear]

That is an interesting experience. Thanks for sharing it! I've tried Enola Gaye grenade years ago, I believe it was their first attempt at that time. It didn't work too well for me. But I don't doubt that with enough skill and mostly dedication you are getting usable results using this tech (as they are getting nowadays). As a hand grenade, it may work very well.
The problem I'm having with this tech is that the mass/velocity ratio of such ammo is too high for long-distance cannon fire. You would need to reliably detonate such shot before it impacts (or before it transfers its energy after impact) and here come the difficulties

[Cthulhu]

You would need to reliably detonate such shot before it impacts (or before it transfers its energy after impact) and here come the difficulties

That's a good point, possibly a timed fuse as in real artillery? But that is also mechanically complicated.

[Sear]

Not only that. Flight time is not constant and you don't usually need it to detonate mid-flight. And what if the pyro fuse fails? You cannot afford it hitting the ground as solid shot. What if the projectile gets damaged during the launch, loses stabilization and hits the ground much sooner? And these concerns do not exactly decline with smaller calibers; you still need them to have enough fill to make usable coverage and 50 grams of paint will not do it.

Therefore paintball arty is usually limited to either nerf usage with the rule that the proximity impact eliminates players, or to canister shots with paintballs or the smallest water balloons available, reducing the effective range to that of paintball markers. At least that has been my understanding so far. I suppose you plan to use canister ammo with paintballs primarily?

[Cthulhu]

I suppose you plan to use canister ammo with paintballs primarily?

From my experience we just used those powder shells I described, but we never particularly aimed for players but to arc our shot into or over a bunker. To get out players in the field, canister was the most effective, but it had issues with popping in the cannon barrel and spreading too much in flight.

How do you produce your foam marking shots?

[Sear]

I'm not ready to disclose details about the ammo construction, apologies.
But yesterday I got a nice idea of how extend the range of canister shots by 50 meters easily, that I'm willing to share This solution should be 98% safe, 100% safe in case an extra advanced tech is utilized.
Imagine a lightweight tube, could be even paper tube, with solid bottom and paintballs held by soft wad inside. I saw a 75 mm paper tube for rocket modellers, that should fit rather nicely into 3" barrel. The sabot needs to be stabilized, as it will fly those ~50 meters as solid shot. The trick is that the sabot will be connected with the gun or shell casing by thin yet strong fishing line or something similar. It needs to be able to stop the sabot mid-flight. What will then happen is that paintballs will push the wad out and continue to fly onwards. Sabot then falls down harmlessly with no energy left.

Prerequisite is that such shots are fired in 20° to 25° angle. It would not work for mortars, paintballs would deplete all their usable energy before they hit the ground. And of course one would need to technologically overcome the fact that after firing, most of the 200+ paintballs in the paper tube will be smashed by default.

[Cthulhu]

That's an interesting concept that I'll have to try out, my only fear is that when the sabot reaches the end of the string it will be yanked, causing the paintballs to spill in the direction of said yank.

[Sear]

Small update on "Portee" mount. Nissan pickup is available, 3D model with customized gun shield and pedestal is ready. Production and mounting will take 2-3 weeks. There won't be time to make adjustments before the game, so I hope it works at least usably well the first time.

[jackssmirkingrevenge]

Heck, why not just put it in a turret

[Sear]

Finally I've got some short video for you to show! This one is from the training in the beginning of September.

The bunker is 100 meters away. We were able to hit it with the third shot without any previous aim calibration. After the calibration, it is even more precise. Maximal effective range of the gun is ~120 meters in order to be safe when someone is accidentally hit from blank range in the mask or body. Practical firing distances are 50-120 meters.

The ROF you can observe (~12 rmp) is sustainable, enabling comfortable aim adjustments in-between shots. Funny thing is that this gun can burn through $72 per minute

To view the video clip just click on the link below:
http://www.spudfiles.com/files/anti_tank_cannon.mp4

[jackssmirkingrevenge]

Really really great job, the performance is clearly there and the sight and sound of that shell ejection is superb!

[Sear]

We have just finished live game with our improvised "37mm gun portee". The build and installation and car repair has been finished just before the game with zero chance to test it out beforehand. And all worked! The gun fit on the pickup and the concept proved very promising
Paintball games in open terrain are the most entertaining; when you drive without restrain across fields and woods and villages in such vehicle, it is rewarding even without entering the actual combat