napoleonicfrigates

 

The Capping Rail was  a shock. If I was re-doing the model I would cut this out early and use it to help me shape the bulwarks when first fitting. Fortunately it fitted fairly well, though I would have liked a more even edge distribution. When fitting use a drill and flat headed pins plus take the time to tape the rail to the outside of the hull. It certainly seems like the ship takes better form with everything you do from this point on.

One other thing I would do before gluing the capping rail is to paint it black before fitting. This saves the need for a steady hand once glued... You should really have decided at this point what amount of paint you are actually going to use. A lot of modellers leave the ship unpainted to show off the neatness and quality of their planking. In my case my planking was less than neat so I decided to paint every spare inch of wood I could. Fortunately history is on my side here as so were most ships of the period.

My scheme was going to have a yellow ochre band following the gun ports with the rest black. Fairly standard I think though I am still undecided on how to treat the rather blank stern at this point.

Anyhow back to the model. The rail (left well overnight) and using the strongest glue (the aliphatic resin) stuck well and the next job was to shape the eight short timberheads and two long timberheads. These will later take some rigging (I think) so a tight fit is required. Also at this point you should dry fit the bowsprit through the lead hole and widen if necessary. This stops unnecessary damage later once the bow is built up in a little more detail.

Next addition to this section was to add the eyelets either side of the gun ports. I hit a snag here the plans appeared to show a line and I was not certain which part the eyelets were. It turns out they are the metal parts resembling shepherds crooks.  I would recommend sticking some masking tape at each point horizontally and then marking the vertical line on the paper. Drill the hole but not too deep. Next use a chisel to cut the eyelets to a much smaller size, grasp with tweezers (or similar) add super glue to the end then push in. Do not try to fit first or try to make the length of the metal match the size of the hole.

Next up Painting and the Bow Details