I am at the stage where the main deck is complete and I must add the guns with rigging before I can proceed with the upper decks.  I spent the last few weeks turning the guns and building the carriages for both the gun deck and the upper decks.  The model will have a total of 34 guns (I may yet add carronades)  What you see in the picture is just a few of the guns.  The one in front is a 6 pounder that fires an iron ball about the size of a baseball.  The other guns are 18 pounders that fire a ball the size of a softball.  Do not look that different but the 18 pounders weigh at least twice the smaller guns, so they go on the lower main deck and the smaller guns go on the upper deck.  This gives stability to the ship.

Obviously when they were building a frigate the guns would go in last but as I do not have 1 inch high workers to mount and rig the guns later, I have to do it at this stage.

Many years ago I used to buy turned brass guns from a model part supplier but these cost about $4 each.  You can imagine my reluctance when I was building the Victory which had 104 guns.  Plus the purchased guns were not always correct to scale.  So I started turning out my own guns from Holly accurate to the scale as you saw in my previous blog.   As all guns were blackened you really cannot tell the difference.

Lots of rigging and lines to go but making progress.  With the weather getting better I will have less time to spend in the shop.