Thanks Bill, I actually enjoyed the process although I was happy when it was completed.
Thanks Jeff, I appreciate it.
Thank you....and Merry Christmas to you and your family.
Well guys, I have another small update. I built all the cannons and then started putting in gunports, etc. I went a little beyond the plans and decided to show my gunports opened and being held in place with 2 ropes in each gunport. Very tedious work, but I think it adds to the model a little. I also started placeing the cannons and again, I added to the plans by adding a couple of pulleys and tying down each cannon....not sure that are absoletely historically accurate, but I think I found a balance of adding detail but not too much in clutter. Let me know what you think about deck cannons.
thanks Alan, they are the cannons included in the Occre kit. I used blueing to turn them black and then put a clear sealer on them.
Got it. 
I understand the costs for the kit makers to include various cannon patterns, but those are really far out of date so makes no sense for them to include them for a ship launched in 1794. Below is a 15th/16th century pattern barrel that looks more like the kit cannon. These were field carriages so not appropriate, but the barrels show what I mean. These were used more than 200 years before Montane was built. Something maybe to consider for the future......as mentioned here at SoS in the past you can get appropriate pattern English and Spanish guns here in the US in any scale for about $1 each including shipping for most British patterns and many Spanish cannon.
Rigging cannon in the late 18th century - ignore the gun pattern as it is a British Blomefield. I believe the complexity is the reason contemporary models rarely show complete rigging for the guns. From Congreve:
I understand the costs for the kit makers to include various cannon patterns, but those are really far out of date so makes no sense for them to include them for a ship launched in 1794. Below is a 15th/16th century pattern barrel that looks more like the kit cannon. These were field carriages so not appropriate, but the barrels show what I mean. These were used more than 200 years before Montane was built. Something maybe to consider for the future......as mentioned here at SoS in the past you can get appropriate pattern English and Spanish guns here in the US in any scale for about $1 each including shipping for most British patterns and many Spanish cannon.Rigging cannon in the late 18th century - ignore the gun pattern as it is a British Blomefield. I believe the complexity is the reason contemporary models rarely show complete rigging for the guns.
From Congreve:
Completed one of my least favorite items....lifeboats. For some reason, I have always struggled making lifeboats....but I have to say I am pleased at how this one came out and the way it fits with the overall look of the ship. This version of the Montanes only comes with 1 lifeboat which I'm not sure is accurate, but I was pleased that it was only one.
There are a lot of contemporary contracts and drawings of ship's boats on the RMG Collections website. The drawings are in low resolution but many of them are on the WikiCommons site in high resolution that you can use to compare with your ship's boat which looks similar to a launch. The problem is these drawings and contracts are for British ships and your model is a Spanish 74 so there may be differences in what types, sizes and designs were used. British 74s typically carried a launch, two pinnaces, and three cutters in varying lengths according to W.E. May in The Boats of Men of War, page 57. I would guess Spanish ships carried a similar array of craft. There is a thread here at SoS on making ships' boats that you may find helpful. They make for fun stand alone projects.
Allan
Building a Ship's Boat
Having seen dozens, or perhaps hundreds, of pictures of ship’s boats models I am convinced there are few if any accurate kits available to us in any scale. I am also convinced most modelers can make an accurate model at our most common scales to replace a kit supplied boat or for a stand alone...
shipsofscale.com
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