I’m sick of breaking them lol

Break them off. At that point, you can't break them off anymore!

(Replace them with metal paper clips, or the little watch pins, then paint. (Here's some nice ones - https://www.nntmodell.com/en/Etched-Upgrade-parts/8inch-Brit-Gun-Barrels-x8.html?force_sid=a4unmsk3hppqar5g5941q6uva3))

Hope this helps!

-DD

1 hour ago, Mackaywarrior said:

I’m sick of breaking them lol

You could replace them with blunted needles from a syringe which is kind of dangerous or micro tubing from Albion Alloys. Both take a steady hand, a pin vise and really small drills.

17 minutes ago, Stoneface said:

You could replace them with blunted needles from a syringe which is kind of dangerous or micro tubing from Albion Alloys. Both take a steady hand, a pin vise and really small drills.

That sounds like a bad plan. I think the paperclip idea is significantly safer and easier to obtain.

EDIT: And if you insist on needles, you might as well use safety or fabric pins from a craft or hobby store instead of the hollow one from a syringe.

1 hour ago, Yakostovian said:

That sounds like a bad plan. I think the paperclip idea is significantly safer and easier to obtain.

EDIT: And if you insist on needles, you might as well use safety or fabric pins from a craft or hobby store instead of the hollow one from a syringe.

Not really a bad idea for the micro tubing. The fabric pins are a better idea though. Easier to cut with nippers because they're not hardened like syringe needles. Paper clips are just too big to be good replacements for some of the guns and too soft to boot.

The micro tubing from Albion is very useful, relatively easy to cut and available in the U.S. and U.K. It can be cut with an Xacto blade by rolling it on a hard surface. I haven't seen a tubing cutter small enough to be effective.

18 minutes ago, Stoneface said:

Not really a bad idea for the micro tubing. The fabric pins are a better idea though. Easier to cut with nippers because they're not hardened like syringe needles. Paper clips are just too big to be good replacements for some of the guns and too soft to boot.

The micro tubing from Albion is very useful, relatively easy to cut and available in the U.S. and U.K. It can be cut with an Xacto blade by rolling it on a hard surface. I haven't seen a tubing cutter small enough to be effective.

I can't speak to the quality of micro-tubing; I don't know if I have ever encountered it before. But because paperclips vary in size so much, I don't see this as too much of an issue if you get the smallest ones available.

5 hours ago, Yakostovian said:

I can't speak to the quality of micro-tubing; I don't know if I have ever encountered it before. But because paperclips vary in size so much, I don't see this as too much of an issue if you get the smallest ones available.

Albion tubing is available on Amazon in several different materials. They sell a slip-fit package of 4 tubes in 0.3, 0.5, 0.7 and 0.9 mm. The smaller tube will telescope into the next larger one. The smallest is about 0.012" O.D. Not sure how that compares to a paperclip. That's about the thickness of 4 sheets of notebook paper.

"Invest" in Sir Willi's tuck boxes. http://sirwillibald.com/

I say "invest" because really you're just printing a box at home (or work?) that you cut out and glue together. You're chiefly investing your time more than anything.

Buy a ream of 110 lb card stock and a glue stick. They are easy to put together and protect your ships from damage. I haven't had one break yet.

If your ship's cannons are breaking outside your storage solution, it's most likely due to falls from the game table, for which I don't have any reasonable suggestions.

Hope this helps you or someone else out there.

Yes! I made their damage card holding box, but completely forgot about them until now.

If you make and glue these correctly, nothing will get damaged, and everyone will envy them (taken from experience). Definitely worth the "investment", as Force calls it.

-DD