Knightheads and timberheads. These were a bit painstaking to make. I used my trusty X-acto knife to cut a grove all the way around the wooden blocks, then slowly chiseled the sides down at an angle to the grove.

Next I screwed in some eyebolts into the sides of the four timberheads so they can do double duty by securing the bow chasers' gun tackle. In order to have enough space for my swivel gun positions I also omitted one timberhead per side.

These were all pinned and epoxied onto the fiberglass lip while also wood-gluing them to the inside of the forecastle rail. This should provide some additional structural support for the forecastle (that I'm sure will eventually crash into something).

Forecastle deck. The deck piece was made from 1/8 inch birch plywood and planked with 10mm basswood strips. I painted the edges of the planks black to try to get a little more highlight before gluing. The removable deck will sit flush with the lip and be secured by some yet-to-be-finalized screw with removable clasp.

I'm debating making either a stack of cannon balls or a square shot rack to sit between the two bow chasers. Btw, who knows the controversy over the phrase "freezing the balls off a brass monkey"?

Week 17