Stock artillery

[Hummingbird Aerospace]

I am building a stock siege gun in KSP, except every time I test it the gun always blows up. I have the basics figured out like the breech, the magazine, and the engine and I’m even working on a recoil system. My problem is that the projectile always smashes into the barrel and blows up. Would anybody have any sort of experience in this field and be able to tell me how I guide my shell through the barrel without it hitting the edge, because 1.25m tubes and 0.625m shells don’t really fit very snugly. I haven’t tried I-beams or wheels through the whole barrel yet. Also, i’m not sure how I would make tubes smaller than 1.25m, because fairings and Making Histroy tubes don’t go in sizes smaller than 1.25m, and I don’t think that a 125cm gun would be very... realistic (for comparison, the largest artillery piece ever made was 46cm, and that was only used on the superbattleships Yamato and Mushashi, as well as some British monitor testbeds. And yes, I have already thought of making tubes with decouplers, but that would make a very high part count, and using wings isn’t really very feasible, although it’s probably the only way. Any support is helpful and appreciated.

[Ultimate Steve]

You could use fairings and make them smaller than 1.25m by shaping them manually. The only downside I can see is that you'd have an awkward conic barrel at either end, on the gun end it would end in the fairing and on the air end it would have to end going outwards into another hollow part, such as a decoupler or a structural fuselage.

[Blaarkies]

56 minutes ago, Hummingbird Aerospace said:

... realistic (for comparison, the largest artillery piece ever made was 46cm, and that was only ...

Ahem...

[Xd the great]

How about rocket artillery?

[Hummingbird Aerospace]

1 hour ago, Xd the great said:

How about rocket artillery?

a) Rocket artillery is, realistically, way more expensive than regular artillery, because that means that every single shell needs fuel, a rocket engine, and some sort of control system which raises the price dramatically

b) Regular artillery is cooler (in my opinion)

 

8 hours ago, Blaarkies said:

Ahem...

Oh, I thought the Gustav was only 40cms... oof on my part

 

8 hours ago, Ultimate Steve said:

You could use fairings and make them smaller than 1.25m by shaping them manually. The only downside I can see is that you'd have an awkward conic barrel at either end, on the gun end it would end in the fairing and on the air end it would have to end going outwards into another hollow part, such as a decoupler or a structural fuselage.

I was thinking about that a bit, if I used 2.5m or 1.875 Making History tubes I could use a 1.25m or1.875m fairing to shape the barrel so it would fit more smoothly. The only problem with using fairings for the barrel is that I can’t have a breech. I will try that, thanks.

[Ultimate Steve]

1 hour ago, Hummingbird Aerospace said:

I was thinking about that a bit, if I used 2.5m or 1.875 Making History tubes I could use a 1.25m or1.875m fairing to shape the barrel so it would fit more smoothly. The only problem with using fairings for the barrel is that I can’t have a breech. I will try that, thanks.

Ah, I forgot about the whole "loading" part. Is muzzle loading artillery a thing?

 

[Hummingbird Aerospace]

34 minutes ago, Ultimate Steve said:

Ah, I forgot about the whole "loading" part. Is muzzle loading artillery a thing?

 

Not really, you might have done it like in the napoleonic wars era. I’m guessing muzzle loading would put the shells somewhat closer and more open to enemy fire, since you would need the shells near the front of the barrel. Also you would have to wait for the shell to slide down the barrel, which isn’t that bad unless you wants some rapid fire . I can post a link here once I’m finished, maybe.

 

[Mr. Peabody]

You might try using an open-ended fairing to create a good looking barrel that is smaller than 1.25m.

[Hummingbird Aerospace]

2 hours ago, The Dunatian said:

You might try using an open-ended fairing to create a good looking barrel that is smaller than 1.25m.

Ultimate Steve already suggested this, there isn't any way to create a breech with a fairing, it would have to be muzzle-loaded. The shell always hits the barrel upon firing, can anybody help me with this? Thanks

P.S. I actually might try muzzle-loading it.

P.P.S. It didn't work 

[FleshJeb]

3 hours ago, Hummingbird Aerospace said:

there isn't any way to create a breech with a fairing

Can you use the extending MH docking ports to place your shells within the breech? If the shell is attached to the main craft via the port, you can make it phase right through the fairing or the base.