The National Science and Technology Museum of Catalonia (MNACTEC) has produced a 3D digitalisation of a total of 19 Catalan-manufactured firearms from its 17th, 18th and 19th-century collections, including pistols, blunderbusses and shotguns. The 3D models of the weapons, published on the Sketchfab platform, include descriptive texts highlighting the distinctive features of each item, with clickable points of interest to explain the key parts.
The digitalised weapons are: a navy flintlock (1640), two gunwale blunderbusses (1700 and 1834), 10 muzzle-loading flintlock pistols (between 1700 and 1800), a muzzle-loading ball pistol (1690), three muzzle-loading pistols (1690, 1700 and 1775), a muzzle-loading percussion cap pistol (1780) and a flintlock shotgun (1690).
In line with the educational aspect of the project, two of the digitalised pistols serve as models to explore the parts of a firearm and the parts of the firing mechanism.
This initiative forms part of the MNACTEC ARMCAT project to showcase Catalan-manufactured firearms through 3D digitalisation with photogrammetry and documentation of all the exhibits. The project aims to extend this 3D archive with Catalan weapons from other collections and institutions.
18 September 2023
