Hey, it's been a while! Anyhow, I have two ant-farm cannons mounted on my newly-refitted HMS Invincible, and I got in 3 sorties today. Apart from firing in testing (they had 5 magazines full of BBs shot through them (2 thru one, 3 in the other), they have now had 5 more magazines fired through them (3 combat sorties and 2 for tweaking). No trouble at all with the guns. Totally rare for me. The nice part is for reloading, I open the cap and upend my loader over the hole, and the BBs file down into the magazine, it's like using a speedloader to refill M16 mags. Less than 2 seconds to refill a magazine (After the cap is off!). Totally pleased, and well done to the estimable Mr. Jenks who designed the ant farms (even though he disclaims any intent to use them for cannon magazines because that would be foolhardy.
The ant farm cannons have done well, and were really the only part of the ship with zero trouble during the maiden battle weekend. More battle testing will go on, and I will likely install a few more in the loaner cruiser for more testing.
I really liked the compact design. It would certainly make doing a rotate a lot easier. I would like to see somebody try making a version for multiple cannons (duals, triples or even quads).
