USS Constitution Model. Beauty or Accuracy?

Today I had a decision to make. My Mamoli Constitution model is a 1:93 scale model. So, a 2’8″diameter mast is 8mm diameter in the model. (OK, not exactly, but that is what Mamoli specifies).

Constitution’s lowermost section of the mainmast was about 32″ diameter, and was made from 4 oak tree trunks which were shaped and bound together with iron bands. Also, there were thick oak planks bound to the outside of the mast with strong rope in a process named “wolding”.

The center of the oak tree is substantially stronger than closer to the bark. So the centers of 4 live oak trees were shaped to fit each other, and bound with iron hoops, and reinforced with rope woldings. (from Magoun “The Frigate Constitution”)
And these are drawings of the mainmast lower section from Marquandt “USS Constitution”. The thick black sections are the rope wolding, and the in between lines are the iron hoops (no dimensions given).

So, how to represent these features in my 1:93 scale model?

Mamoli leaves out the iron hoops altogether, and I can understand why, given the difficulty of modelling them.

This was my solution…. It will not be to everyone’s satisfaction. But I wanted to have something on the model which represented both the rope wolding, and the iron hoops. Something which was believable, but would not ruin the scale of the items, and would not ruin the appearance.

If the model was a larger scale model, say 1:48, I would have used a different solution, but it is 1:93.

So here it is.

The model Constitution with rope wolding on the mainmast and foremast. (home made rope). But it does not show the iron hoops….
So I added these later. Copper adhesive tape, to simulate the iron hoops.

YEAH YEAH, I know. Wrong metal. Stuck on not actually binding the mast sections together. But IMO it does look interesting, pretty even. I could not find adhesive tape which used iron. I could have coloured the copper black, but I don’t mind a bit of bling. And note the over shiny cannon balls in the rack. Same philosophy applies.

And not my best varnishing job. It looks like there is dust in the varnish. (I applied varnish over the wolding to help keep it in place.)

Let me know if I have sinned. Beyond the pale.