Today I worked on the inner bulwark on the port side, forward, and added the starboard inner bulwark. I actually went quite a bit further than these photos show, but I had to stop and didn't get the chance to take more updated photos, but I promise more tomorrow.
I decided the bulwarks needed a bit more thickness than the kit provides, since the actual bulwarks are thicker than the two ply card stock of the kit. I added a little laminate on the inner part of the inner bulwark, and fitted it in place with the gun ports thankfully lining up fairly well. One thing the kit does not show is the original caprail that runs along and forms the top of the spar deck gunports. This is important to show as the US Navy in the 1929 restoration added a extension on top of this creating an extra bulwark above the gun stations on the spar deck. This is supposed to represent planked over hammock nettings, but for some unknown reason the Navy also put hammock irons and netting on top of that! The result is a historically incorrect bulwark height, that is if they were trying to replicate her appearance in 1812, which is what they were charged to do under the reconstruction mandate. But I digress.... :lol:
The net result of all of this is that as she is presently configured she not only has the original caprail along the tops of the gun ports, but another extra bulwark on top and the hammock irons and netting on top of that! This arrangement is in essence missing from the kit configuration, showing one, uninterrupted overheight bulwark over the guns, so I had to add some of this to my build for my own personal satisfaction.
The kit also portrays the bow area and bulwarks incorrectly. The kit provides what looks like a two step increase in height as you go forward along the bulwark from the catshead to the area above the bowsprit. You can see this in the last set of photos of the build. Well, the bulwarks on the actual ship in the bow area go up to the original caprail, and then just above the two bow gunports there is the extra bulwark on top of that. The second step on the bow bulwark that the kit shows is actually the fairleads in the bow, one on each side of the bowsprit. The kit shows this as a single extra step straight across the bow area. So, I decided to cut this back down to the single step-up and will add the fairleads as separate parts with the holes for the lines.
As I mentioned, the kit also portrays the fairleads as a single extra step, when in fact there is an opening, right above the bow pinrails and over the bowsprit, for access by the crew, I believe, to the head area. I worked in correcting this after the photos for today were taken, so the photos show the continuous upper bulwark, when in fact this has been changed. I will show a photo of that in the next installment.
I also did a little more work on the head rails. I found that it is not simply a matter of cutting out the holes, like I showed in the last installment, but they have a slightly different spacing which I have to account for. The three head rails end up in three different locations on the bow; the middle one goes to the hull and then up under the catshead, the top one to a spot forward of that and then up to the caprail, and the bottom one runs to the bottom edge of the gun stripe. In the kit, all three are shown as merely printed areas on the hull. So, I am trying to add some depth to the head rails, particularly the middle one which flows into the cathead supports.
Anyway, I didn't get too far on that today when I had to break for the night, but that will be covered further in a future post, I promise...then hopefully all this rambling monologue will make some sense.
Well, that's it for now, until I can get some more photos taken. Meanwhile, sorry there are only two shots, but I hope to make up for it next time. I promise! :lol:
Jim
