Thanks, Bill and Barry! I'm very glad you're enjoying the write-up and photos. Just let me know if I ramble on too much, would you? :lol:
I was able to spend a few hours again today to finish up some of the things I started yesterday, and to venture forth into new areas.
I finished working on the quarterdeck inner bulwarks, installing both the port and starboard sides. I used an emery board to even up the upper edge and then installed the caprail. I found it a great idea to add the strip that represents the original cap rail and to then add and paint the extra bulwark on top of that while the piece was still on the sheet. I also pre-painted the strip black and found it was a lot easier to then touch-up the green bulwarks before cutting the piece out of the sheet. I'm sure this is not such a great revelation, but in doing the quarter bulwarks this was the first time I tried it and it went very well. I also cut out the gunports on the inner bulwarks before the piece was cut from the sheet.
Just like in the bow area, the gun ports were cut through once the inner bulwark were in place and the glue had dried. I also "painted" the inner edges of the gunports with diluted white glue as I found it was easier to sand them and create a tidier gun port opening this way. I then fitted the cap rails on both sides, again pre-painting them. This ensured the under surfaces of the rail were black, which I found very difficult to do in the bow area after the cap rail was glued in place. :? I then painted the inner sills of the gunports black and painted over the outter hull areas around the gunports.
While a few of these things were drying, I worked on the crew heads, scratch building them since the kit doesn't include them. I also finished up the opening above the bow knee I installed yesterday and painted it. Finally, I experimented with a way to make the bulls eyes that will be used in rigging the main stays. It's a lot easier to do it now before any of the other deck furniture is added which would block access to this area of the bow. I ended up punching 1.5 mm discs out of chip board, and then glued two together in a sandwich. I found it was easier to wrap the 34 guage wire around the dried sandwich and just twist it tight enough to hold the piece, waiting for the final twists until later. I then soaked the discs while in the wire with CA to keep it from moving around and to harden the cardboard sandwich to make drilling the holes easier. These are VERY small pieces and my first attempts resulted in the chip board delaminating and making a mess of it. After the CA dried, I then twisted the wires again to make a tight cinch. The CA soak worked like a charm and allowed me to drill the holes without everything falling apart like during the first few attempts. After the hole was drilled I then painted the bulls eyes with diluted black paint in a few applications until it was sufficiently coated yet leaving the details of the wire stropping in the process. I then installed the bulls eyes in the wire strop below the bow knees by making a pilot hole with a fine needle and then drilled a hole through the bulwark using a 77 sized drill mini drill. The wire strop was then trimmed and the bulls eyes were glued in place. All in all I was happy with the results and will probably use a similar proceedure for the other bulls eyes and deadeyes later on.
Well, it was time to at least start the transom pieces. I had previously cut out the two pieces which make up the outter and inner transom, but I was not happy with the way they came out. I must have rushed it, because on taking a second look the port holes just didn't look right, and I wasn't happy with the fit to the now finished quarterdeck bulwarks. So, back to the drawing board! :lol:
I decided, flush with the happy results in keeping the quarterdeck bulwarks on the sheet while I worked on them, to do the same with the transom. You can see in the later photos I also decided to add a bit of relief to give the decorations some 3d effects, and hopefully make them more interesting than the flat printed sheet. I cut small bits to add some relief to the pedestals on each side of the windows, and then put a small piece to represent the cap moulding. I did the same for the lower mouldings and finally added the two rope mouldings over the windows/lights. This took a little time, but I was happy with the end result and it seems to look better than the plan printed sheet, at least to me. My wife came in while I was in the midst of doing all of this and has declared me official nuts to go through all of this and play around with such small pieces. :shock: She does love me anyway, I think. :lol:
I also decided to try a trick using thick acrylic paint to add relief to the eagle and stars, as it would, indeed, be insane to try and cut them out and add them for the relief look...actually, I did try that :shock: but I could not cut those little guys out precisely enough, so on to plan B, the paint. :lol: Using a very fine brush I added some relief to the eagle and the stars by dabbing little bits of paint onto the printed areas, and built up the surface in this fashion. I then cut out the itsy bitsy shield from another copy of the transom piece and glued it on top of the finished eagle. Okay, it's REAL hard to tell by looking at the photos, but it does have a nice 3D effect in the end, trust me.
Well, that's about it for this evening. I was happy to get so much done, but there is still a whole lot more to do! :shock: I was just looking over pictures of the carronades and bow chasers I took a few years ago at Charlestown and making those guns is going to be fun to tackle! They're pretty small and I want to include the tackle and breech ropes, so I have to do a bit of brainstorming on how to do them. I also decided I need to add more detail to the gun deck gun ports, to include the sills and lights, maybe try and add the hinges, but I first need to finish the transom and add the details they need and the kit doesn't provide, such as the lids and the little ports below the transom, and start to work on the quarter galleries, but I will hopefully at least get the transom done next time....
Cheers!
Jim
