Log #3 - The Stern Framing
In order to compress these summary log entries down to a manageable size, I am grouping things together by theme and so not all of this is in chronological order. I am also skipping over much of the mistakes, false starts and corrections that I had to make along the way.
So in this log entry I am going to talk about the stern framing. This began with adding the stern frames which were made of pear to give them strength and also to give me the option of not painting the frames around the lights if I chose.
Space pieces were added between them to mark the location of the upper transom. These will ultimately be completely covered and so were made out of basswood.
The outer frames have a curve at the lower counter. To since none of this will be seen, I simulated this in a similar manner to the Winchelsea practicum by adding a filler piece on the outside which I then sanded down to size.
There was little to know primary records I could find on the size of the stern ports, so I just estimated their size based on models and the marshall painting. You can see them in the below picture before being sanded back to the line of the lower counter.
The quarter gallery doors gave me a bit of trouble as the various plans were not in agreement as to their size. I had to go with a reasonable compromise in the end which I think will best reconcile the differences. The spacing was accomplished using a spacer block much as I did for the gun ports.
The sills for the lights gave me a bit of trouble as getting a good bond with end grain and positioning them in the exact right place and angle was tricky. In the end I settled for getting the piece glued in place and then adding small reinforcing support pieces below them. Again since this area will be fully covered by the planking, the key is to make it structurally sound, not to look pretty.
The upper sills were put in place using spacers I cut. Note that from this angle it appears that they are not lined up correctly. The reason for this is that the problem is actually with the original transom spacers. To make the upper sills more secure I filled in the space between them and the upper transom spacers and the uneven nature of the upper spacers means that some of the upper sills are thicker than others.
And here you can see the stern with the framing complete.
It will probably take two more posts to bring us up to the present date. Once we get caught up, I am planning on doing a post on a survey gun port and gun port lid related mentions in primary sources I have been conducting over the past few weeks along with the modelling implications.
