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We wanted to show what the main dangers of naval combat were around 1815 . Here we propose a 1/15th scale diorama depicting a night action aboard a British frigate. These guns fired an 18-pound iron ball and weighed three tons. They all behaved erratically when fired, and this one is actually leaping in the air. The right gun has just been run out for firing, but as the gun captain prepares to aim, shot from the other ship is shattering the bulkhead, expelling a cloud of lethal oak splinters which is actually lifting the first man off his feet.
The diorama would use fiber optics for the muzzle blast, with a bundle coming from the back of the enclosure and pointing directly at the viewer (for maximum brightness) through a piece of fogged acrylic. The slow matches would also be fiber optic strands. The main smoke would be cotton, with additional atmospheric effects from fogged screens dropped down behind the beams. The splinters would be attached to each other and the bulkhead, to appear airborne. The left gun would be supported on I-beams.
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