I elected to paint the cannon barrels in polished steel
as for some reason too much brass didn't look right and
blacking them would have made it all a bit too dark for my liking.

The sponge bucket and wadding barrels were planked up affairs.
The water and powder barrels were turned wood items.
I just used a craft knife blade to mark vertical lines in the barrels,
stained them and painted the bands with good ole polished steel again.