in a former post I mentioned already the differences of the knees - comparing the kit with the Boudriot drawingsToday I want to show the cross section detail with the hanging knees etc.
Knees: In the kit only wooden knees are foreseen, although the Bonhomme Richard had wooden knees only in the hold, on the other decks she had iron knees.
During her use by the french (Originally a French East-Indiaman Duc de Duras), the ship was a gunned merchantman and she had only one deck gunned, the other decks were reserved for transport and stowing.
Armed for protection against pirates in far eastern waters She carried her guns on one deck, twenty-eight 12-pounders, with six lighter pieces, six-pounders, on the poop-deck and forecastle.
Ports were cut in the gun room on the deck below where [John Paul Jones] mounted six 18-pounder guns.
On the left the kit drawing - on the right side Boudriot
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Great build Uwe. I'm a little bit confused - cross section you marked shows 3 gun ports. Where does the 4th one come from? Gun ports with closed lids look great on models and you have fewer guns to rig. Unless you are a big fan of gun rigging, I'd go with A.Also interesting is also the given information about the adaptations made with the gunports
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Close-up of the timbering of the hull, showing clearly the original gunports, and those enlarged for 18-pdrs. (during adaptations for the Bonhomme Richard)
Now important and I would need and would like to get your advice and opinions:
These excerpts from the Boudriot drawings of the Bonhomme Richard I posted already in a former post
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"Only the ports shown in black were armed"
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This would mean also that the lowest gunport of the section model would be shown with a closed gunport-lid !
In the kit are all together 8 guns available, means enough gunnery material for all existing gunports.
I am in moment thinking about, if I should equip every gunport with a gun or if I should equip only the second gundeck with the two guns and the other decks not. This would be historical correct for the Bonhomme Richard.
This decision is now or in short time necessary, so I can rig the gun before i finalize the next deck beams......
I am open for comments and opinions:
A) Historical correct with only one deck gunned? (maybe to use the spare guns as decoration close to the section)
or
B) Historical incorrect with all gunports gunned?
So A) or B) ?
Many Thanks for your comment and opinion.....Great build Uwe. I'm a little bit confused - cross section you marked shows 3 gun ports. Where does the 4th one come from? Gun ports with closed lids look great on models and you have fewer guns to rig. Unless you are a big fan of gun rigging, I'd go with A.
Oopsie! Missed the fourth one on the quarter deck. In this case, maybe omit the one on the lower deck, and rig 3 on main and quarter deck?Many Thanks for your comment and opinion.....
Here is the sketch where you can see the marked gun-ports
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Only the ports with blue arrows were gunned at the Bonhomme Richard. The green and yellow were not gunned
Hello Uwe, Great build and no surprises here, you always strive for clean and historically accurate work. Here is what i think: How much close do you want to build to ANCRE plans? Will you incorporate the metal knees or use provided with kit? Personally, I would close the lid and show the gun with all the tools next to it (building from scratch?) as a model itself. Method 'A' for my taste, but decision is always yours, thought
Correct - see the information out of the monograph from Jean BoudriotExcellent work Uwe
As a side note,the French switched to Iron Knees as a result of running out of suitably shaped Oak trees to cut knees from,keeping the grain running around the corner.
Kind Regards
Nigel
Might I ask as a novice why the partial walls on the store room? those with staggered lengths on side? What was reason to have full wall on one end and not the other.The installed second store room
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A little bit closer look on each side
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and the view from the other side
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some nice closer views - a little bit like from seamen eyes
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Unfortunately with these close-up photos you can see every grain of dust
afterwards I dry-fitted the next elements of the deck with some fine-tuning that everything fits well for the next gluing session
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Many Thanks for the interest ..... to be continued ......