Bellerophon -11 planking the bulwarks

by John

Still Bellerophon, at least for the time being.

With the upper gundeck installed, and with 2 coats of matt polyurethane, I proceeded to installing the planking of the upper gundeck bulwarks.

I knew that these would be tricky because the tumblehome hull profile slopes the bulwarks inwards, making access not easy.

I chose to use walnut strips 5mm x 1.6mm because I had some left over from my Constitution build. And they will be barely visible.

The lowermost of these planks joins the gundeck at an acute angle. Bulldog fold back clips would not fit into the angle so I used a combination of bulldog clips with a slot cut into the body, and pieces of the walnut strips cut to length to spring against the planks on the bulkheads. And using CA glue so I could proceed to the next plank with minimal glue setting time.
For the next run of planks there was more available space, so I used spring loaded tweezers/clamps. I could have used those for the first plank run. They did speed up the installation of the upper plank rows.
The top row had to be cut to shape and was rather fiddly, with multiple test fittings. But the end result was pretty good. Dilute PVA glue was painted onto the outer surface of the planks to minimise chipping and splitting when the gunports are drilled and filed later. And also to introduce some glue between the plank edges. Some sanding of the surface facing the deck was required. Later I will paint that surface dark red. Note the unfinished capstans and galley stove sitting in position. The galley stove will have a thin brass exterior painted black eventually.