As many of you know, I am finishing a kit model for my buddy Harry of the Golden Hind.  As I have expressed many times I am unhappy with many of the details that came with the kit so have had to substitute and manufacture my own components.

Tonight’s lesson is about the mast tops.  These are platforms at the top of the main masts where the upper masts connect.  In fighting ships they are larger areas because in a battle marines with muskets would be positioned to fire down into a ship alongside.  In the models I usually make (the frigates and The Victory) these platforms or tops are flat and square but in the 16th century they were round.

The kit came with three round tops that were obviously turned on a lathe from maple (see pic 1).  Horrible examples of what the tops would be and I cannot imagine how a kit builder could use them.  So I made 3 in the proper shape using Cherry.  Never made them before so had to spend hours figuring out how to make them.  I had to manufacture jigs that could be pulled out for each layer.  Pretty happy with the way they turned out.  You can realize why they were called crow’s nests in old ships…

Damn am I good…………………….