Channels, Guns and Gunport Lids

I painted the channels while they were still on the spru. Black for the mizzen set and Middle Stone for the rest, to match the background. Flat black was painted on all the deadeyes. After scraping the paint from the contact surfaces I cemented them in place with liquid cement. After the cement cured, super glue was applied to the joints for extra strength. This is important since there will be tension from the rigging and joint failure would be a mess. After all the super glue cured I touched up the paint for a clean appearance.

Like the channels, the guns and gunport lids were painted while still on the spru. The inside of all the lids were painted flat red and the outside painted either Middle Stone or Flat Black depending on where they would eventually be installed. The bronze color of the cannon barrels can be reasonably duplicated by painting them dark brown and lightly dry brushing with Testors Copper. The Carriages were painted Middle Stone. After assembling the cannon barrels to the carriages with liquid cement they were super glued in place. For the rest of the cannons, the holes in the hull required opening up with a drill bit since paint had closed them up. I painted a drop of super glue accelerator on each hole and dipped the end of the cannon barrel in a puddle of thick super glue and installed. Gunport lids were installed the same way. This was a tedious process which took a couple of sessions to complete. The cannon muzzles were touched up with copper and a dab of flat black. This process was further complicated by the needlessly intricate numbering system of the cannons and gunport lids.