Lormarck

Hi all, I watched the pictures and your various ingenious ways of getting the gunports carriages and guns properly installed. I notice that the Mamoli HMS Surprise kit is identical to the Mamoli French frigate La Gloire (MV34) in the Mamoli catalogue. Now what I did is saw of about one inch and a half ofh the back of th upper deck (the joint will be hidden anyway under the poop deck superstructure with the 3 metal hatches. This allowed me to glue the transom and side windows (metal parts). The 1 millimeter slit you have to be careful to leave between the transom and the 4 finishing wood blocks under the transom is to allow you to insert the ends of the planks of the 2d planking. With transom attached, metal gunports aligned (tedious job, I agree!) and glued with strong 2 component epoxy glue, I planked the inside gunwales around the gunports, finished the second planking outside, overlapping the edges of the metal gunports and sanded everything smooth. I then painted the inside of the gunwales and guncarriages red and glued them, guns installed, with epoxy glue in place against the gunports. When all was done, I glued the upper deck in place and planked it. I have now nearly finished the hull. Just the channels need to be attached, and then on to the masts. I wish you best of luck with HMS Suprise, Mark Sadly, Mamoli Model is out of business due to a fire on the company premises. They are not likely to start up again, so our Mamoli Kits may well be our last!