Lubricant mate:)
Beeswax, y can get it in a tin or asyou see with Mike here you can get them in small bars/blocks.
When you start rigging be it cannons or the full masts the cotton use can sometimes be fluffy/furry, by running that throught the beeswax block it reduces that furry'ness (is that a word?)

I have also found that with the 3mm small blocks the hole for the rigging thread is very small. At first I was doing my head in trying to use the thin rigging thread supplied by Constructo.

By accident rather than design I discovered that if you run the thread through a groove in the beeswax block the strands stick together and threading the hole becomes easy. I also bought a pair of sharp rigging snips from Cornwall Boats (although you can get them slightly cheaper from elsewhere on the web), these cut a much cleaner end than the household scissors I had been using.

Mike T

thin rigging thread diped in thin super glue about 12 mm then cut tip at angle acts like a needle for threading cut off when finnish tip from another kits instructions

here is a pic of mantuas victory 1/90 scale dummy cannons note their are two sizes

Lets not forget that the navy was great at recycling hundreds of years ago before it was thought to be a new idea.
Cannons would be taken from captured ships, damaged or scraped ship as well as captured ports. If the guns were better than what you had you would use them on your ships wouldn't you?.


So yes the cannons are not all the same size, type or made in the same place, the cost of building a ship was high! so saving money was the norm.
I hope that when we get all the cannons there are same differences if not I'll modify mine to take that into account. Its easy to lose small pieces over a long time and two years is a long time to hope people (KIDS) KEEP OFF!. Young boys love same guns and you could regret making them before you have built the ship to put the guns on. Wait until you need them and don't loose them Please!..