Here I’m making the Gun Port Hatches. There are 6 of them around the level of the Upper Rubbing Strakes.
Bokapi Wood looks very similar to Mahogany to me… 🤔🙄
I am gluing the Bokapi to a strip of flat basswood I had to glue together to come out to 12mm. I’m just using White Glue and finger pressing them tight until all the glue squeezes out and I wipe it off with a damp paper towel.
The Instructions tell you to use Contact Cement but White Glue is just as effective and way less messy! Also you get a few seconds to make adjustments before it grabs too hard to move.
Drill 2 Holes above Gun Port where the Wire that simulates Rope goes through…
Then, I sand the Gun Port Door so it it the same width as the Gun Port Hole.
I cut a strip of wood… 1mmx1.5mm to act as a “Hinge”… Then I apply Dap Weldwood Contact Cement to both sides.
In the meantime, also put some on the Gold Wire that will simulate a Hinge.
Make sure the Gun is in there first. I use Aleene’s Rapid Dry. Apply to both sides and wait around 2 minutes.
Starting work on the Bulwark which will continue down from the Quarterdeck and ending at the 1st set of Gun Ports Port and Starboard.
The instructions say for them to be 9mm wide.
It begins with these Strips of 3mm x 1mm Walnut Strips that line the bottom of this section.
Ok… I’m not even sure that this is the way it’s supposed to go… But I’m just doing it like this because I think it’s cool looking.
I was half considering doing a different alignment for the Gunports on the Port side, but then I decided to keep the same alignment as the Starboard side.
I was just thinking to myself about this alignment on my Gunports. Apparently they’re supposed to be equal distance apart across the entire side of the Gun Deck.
Well I didn’t make them exactly equal distance apart but I’m not going to worry about it because it still looks pretty good. And I was looking at other Frigates of the time and not all of them have gun ports that are equal distance apart.
I’m not going to stress too much about these gun ports now that I have them put in because they will get a lot more reinforced as I put the Planks around them and glue them in.
After they’re nice and reinforce and I’m going to sand them down to where they’re flush and the gunport doors will theoretically shut down on them.
Of course it’s not really going to be that crucial that these shut exactly on the Gunport holes. Because they’ll all be in the Up position.
I’ve been using these 5mm x 5mm square stock for the Braces for the Gunports.
I’m not too worried about running out because I found a few more rods of them.
Anyway, the reason I like these 5mm x 5mm is because it gives me enough room to sand them down to match the sloping pattern of the Bulkheads.
