napoleonicfrigates

I needed to do a small bit of gluing before continuing with preparation of the hull for planking and thought it could be easily slipped in. The next 3 steps were to attach the mast alignment blocks, the stern counter frames and to glue the false deck on.

Views of starting place -

From Bow

Side view

Complete view

,The mast alignment frames look in the wrong place when they are positioned this is because the masts of square riggers were not actually upright and vertical to an exact degree. The main mast leaned backwards whilst the foremast leaned forwards. The kit makers made the bulkhead locations match so that you cannot fail but to put these in the correct location. They are not intended to take any weight but more to force the masts into the correct alignments when actually inserted.

The Stern counter frames provide extra support at the back for the stern (go figure) they are visible on the end model. Curiously these were remarkably badly cut and it took some filing and sanding work to actually get the frames to fit within their slots Once done another complication arose. The bevel of bulkhead 13 at the top had been done to make it level with what I thought was the lie of the deck. Once I had dry fitted the deck I rapidly noticed that the bulkheads do drop in height very slightly and that bulkhead 10 which I had thought was badly shaped as it stuck up ever so slightly was also that way deliberately. The reason being that no deck was actually flat. All decks were again angled to allow water to wash of towards the scuppers so it dropped at all angles.  This though meant I had to do a lot more sanding of bulkhead 13 before fitting the deck as I had bevelled it to be flat but now needed the edged to also be smoothed out to stop the deck doing strange things.

The frames and mast alignment blocks were easy enough to glue once they had been filed to shape but the deck was a complete bugger. The instructions want you to glue and pin the deck. The reason probably being that because the deck slopes if you just pushed it onto the glue it would naturally separate and hence leave a gap. The problem was that they provide lots of brass pins to assist in this but could I get the bloody things in! This also explained why the false deck itself was so flimsy. It needed to be to form the shape of the deck without having much of a will to fight the bond and snap back. This did not stop the initial difficulty. I got around the first problem by using some plastic headed pins I had bought for a different purpose. The second issue was that the the deck seemed happy enough (when helped by the pins) to form a very slight inverted U but seemed much less happy to bend backwards over the stern at the same time. Utilising 4 pegs to help change its mind I decided this step may require some superglue help should any of the pinning attempts fail over the next 24 hours gluing period.

As it stands now (one and a half hours after the gluing was first done) The starboard side looks okay with only bulkheads 10 and 8 possessing a small gap. On the port side bulkheads 4 and 3 are not as tight as I would like. The bow looks okay and the stern looks like one of the stern counter frames may require assistance in gluing later. So all things considered I am fairly happy that the glue is holding well and will require minimal additional work later.

Pinned View from Stern

Pinned View From Bow

Next up was to attach the gun port bulwarks. The Recommendation was to soak the bulwarks for around an hour and then glue and pin in place though not to use to much glue as the bulwarks above deck would later be removed. Presumably the planking when finished would hold the bulwarks in place when that occurred. I found the best way to approach this was to start at the bow holding the front end of the bulwark in place while I pinned the corner first, then moved backwards before finishing with the link to the bow. Also drilling whilst gluing was to much for me and I found that using a pair of pliers to push the nails in was easier and more effective at holding the bulwarks in. I also soaked the bulwarks for 2 hours and found that if you do not work fast they dry out fast. Other points of note are that I had to re-adjust one side twice as it is not easy to get the bulwarks to follow the line of the sloping deck. You also have to be careful that the two bulwarks do not have a height differential.

Completed from top

 

 Next up the stern facia frames were glued in. This section caused me a few issues. The plans had the stern facia in a rather straight ending that appeared to not have the bulwarks following the line of the deck but there was nothing there really to support the connection. When in doubt go to the originals and having looked at the original plans I noticed that the angle of where the bulwarks meets the stern counter was sharper and more angled. So I resolved to try and follow this. The decoration may be added later and if not would need extra work. Due to the lack of anything to really hold the rear end of the bulwark in place I used superglue to provide the strength and liberal use of strange clamp to provide the holding. When the stern facia goes in the guide states it needs trimming after gluing in place.

Next up Planking