hollowneck

oops, forgot this pic.
 
This photo shows (background) the scratched waterway with a couple scupper holes. You can also see the added pear lining piece on the base of one gunport. On the cannon, tompions will be affixed to most, with added release ropes threaded thru the gunports. These are made from toothpicks and tiny brass "eyelets." I'm certain the actual mechanisms were more complex than this...🤫 I have since removed the char on the carriage axles after someone noted this...(thanks, Chuck).
 
Important edit: You'll see the breeching rope is mounted to the cannon's cascabel BEFORE attempting to rig the eyebolt hardware into the corresponding holes alongside each gunport. This process makes mounting the cannon so much easier to accomplish. I don't do training tackle on my cannon (or trussing tackle, the upper eyebolts over the openings). There are modelers of this era who do add this embellishment and it can be impressive. For me, adding fiddly 2 mm blocks with .12 dia. proper rigging rope is beyond my patience level, especially for rigging 20 cannon (14 of which won't even be seen!)...
...that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.
 
Ron
Technical note: all my log photos thus far are taken with my old iPhone 6, for convenience (2016?). Not great resolution with any of them, but it does the job.

You are most welcome, Bob. Thanks. Some of this knowledge will be my particular deep dives into how I modify kits with various degrees of "scratching" to make them my unique vessels, re-badged, but actual and not "fake." For example, my LeTigre was a renamed "Alert" cutter kit (Vanguard). I my mind, I envisioned HMS Alert being captured and re-branded while she was sailing and raiding while in French hands. Which, as I understand, wasn't for very long.🤣
 
Ya'll will just have to put up with my humor though!
Ron

More photos, explanations as follows...I'll call this set "Drilling and sawing"...necessities.
 
The rigging pulleys ( I believe the braces)  along the bulwark sides (2 places, each side) do align nicely with the built-up woodwork, but I chose to run a drill through them so that there is free clearance when it comes to rigging. Getting the line through the pulley UNDER the shroud stool will be lots o' fun!
 
First. drilling the catheads. Although not detailed in the manual, I know that when rigging rears it's head, I'll want to have the anchors trussed-up nicely near the cathead weighing lines. Good idea to have rope passing through the cathead for this. The small, cleverly built-up pieces have photo-etched tiny holes that...uh, go nowhere. That is, until I took my #72 thumb drill (.61mm dia) and pierced all six holes (love these little buggers). Make sure to drill on a flat surface and hold your drill as perpendicular as you can since it's easy to miss and drill off center, which would not be good.*
 
*Ignore this commentary should you be building the Sphinx kit as an "admiralty-styled" model without rigging, which I suspect some will do as it is designed at least partially for this specific modeling approach.
 
By test fitting the catheads into the foc'sle surround you'll quickly see that the "openings" for mounting these to the deck are inadequate and rather than try to coax an opening to fit the cathead into the bulwarks through via a square hole with a file and X-acto knife, I decided to saw a tight-fitting slot from the top nearly all the way down to the deck surface. Some may already note that there are TWO (2) additional wrap-around pear wood pieces that must also be mounted to this bulwark arrangement (to basically thicken it). These will also need the "slice" in order to accommodate the cathead(s). Shown here: the starboard cathead is temporarily plugged into place (purposeful tight tolerance here) and the port side shows the opening I've made for each. Be careful to not saw down too far on the exterior of the prow. I did pop-out the corresponding S & P gunwales to check that the depth-of-mounting for the steeply-angled catheads would be adequate to sit below this finishing pattern provided as a single, long piece (both sides). I'll see very soon how the cathead's external supports mate-up and meet as they should. 
 
There is some tricky modifying here to both the PLYWOOD as well as pear patterns; I have no idea why one would try to fiddle this area by opening the square holes to allow the catheads to fall into place properly (through three separate stacked pieces, on each side). Perhaps I'm missing something here, but when holding the gunwales to their respective mounting positions, the fit of the cathead to the deck and below the gunwale looks fine to me: no gaps, weird, wrong angles, etc.
 

You are most welcome, Bob. Thanks. Some of this knowledge will be my particular deep dives into how I modify kits with various degrees of "scratching" to make them my unique vessels, re-badged, but actual and not "fake." For example, my LeTigre was a renamed "Alert" cutter kit (Vanguard). I my mind, I envisioned HMS Alert being captured and re-branded while she was sailing and raiding while in French hands. Which, as I understand, wasn't for very long.🤣
 
Ya'll will just have to put up with my humor though!
Ron

"Alexa"- play Irish sea shantys." For those who may have noticed her in my first image post here.
 
I nearly always have music in the background in my shop. If one could wear out CD's, the soundtrack to Master & Commander would be on its sixth reincarnation. Music helps me concentrate, but I realize others may find it distracting. I think it depends on whatcha like.
 
In addition to pretending I'm standing on the decks of my models as they're being built, I imagine a small consort playing Corelli in my drawing room. You know, late baroque (my favorite) welcoming my guests from London into my country house, just a few miles from Portsmouth...afterall, I do own the shipyard where she is being built!
 
Ron

More photos, explanations as follows...I'll call this set "Drilling and sawing"...necessities.
 
The rigging pulleys ( I believe the braces)  along the bulwark sides (2 places, each side) do align nicely with the built-up woodwork, but I chose to run a drill through them so that there is free clearance when it comes to rigging. Getting the line through the pulley UNDER the shroud stool will be lots o' fun!
 
First. drilling the catheads. Although not detailed in the manual, I know that when rigging rears it's head, I'll want to have the anchors trussed-up nicely near the cathead weighing lines. Good idea to have rope passing through the cathead for this. The small, cleverly built-up pieces have photo-etched tiny holes that...uh, go nowhere. That is, until I took my #72 thumb drill (.61mm dia) and pierced all six holes (love these little buggers). Make sure to drill on a flat surface and hold your drill as perpendicular as you can since it's easy to miss and drill off center, which would not be good.*
 
*Ignore this commentary should you be building the Sphinx kit as an "admiralty-styled" model without rigging, which I suspect some will do as it is designed at least partially for this specific modeling approach.
 
By test fitting the catheads into the foc'sle surround you'll quickly see that the "openings" for mounting these to the deck are inadequate and rather than try to coax an opening to fit the cathead into the bulwarks through via a square hole with a file and X-acto knife, I decided to saw a tight-fitting slot from the top nearly all the way down to the deck surface. Some may already note that there are TWO (2) additional wrap-around pear wood pieces that must also be mounted to this bulwark arrangement (to basically thicken it). These will also need the "slice" in order to accommodate the cathead(s). Shown here: the starboard cathead is temporarily plugged into place (purposeful tight tolerance here) and the port side shows the opening I've made for each. Be careful to not saw down too far on the exterior of the prow. I did pop-out the corresponding S & P gunwales to check that the depth-of-mounting for the steeply-angled catheads would be adequate to sit below this finishing pattern provided as a single, long piece (both sides). I'll see very soon how the cathead's external supports mate-up and meet as they should. 
 
There is some tricky modifying here to both the PLYWOOD as well as pear patterns; I have no idea why one would try to fiddle this area by opening the square holes to allow the catheads to fall into place properly (through three separate stacked pieces, on each side). Perhaps I'm missing something here, but when holding the gunwales to their respective mounting positions, the fit of the cathead to the deck and below the gunwale looks fine to me: no gaps, weird, wrong angles, etc.
 

Mike.
Fixed. Thanks, I knew that.🤫
 
Ron

Some background on HMS Camilla.
 
Note that the painting shown here is for HMS Camilla, in 1796 , by artist John Thomas Serres
 
"HMS Camilla was a Royal Navy 20-gun Sphinx-class post ship. Camilla was built in Chatham Dockyard to a design by John Williams and was launched in 1776. She served in the American Revolution, the French Revolutionary Wars, and the Napoleonic Wars, before being sold in 1831."
 
That's about 55 years! But who's counting? Extraordinary service by the standards of any nautical era I know about.
 
"Camilla was commissioned in May 1776 and sailed for North America in August. There she captured the privateer schooner Independence, John Gill, Master, of six carriage guns, eight swivels, and 50 men. She was on a cruise from Boston.Camilla also captured Admiral Montague, sailing from Hispaniola to Rhode Island with a cargo of molasses and coffee, a chance sailing to Georgia with coffee, and Polly, sailing to Surinam in ballast."
 
Loads of info on HMS Camilla here where the above has been researched : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Camilla_(1776) 

Everyone knows I meant 1775, right?🤣
 

Since I'm playing "catch-up" with my postings I'll mention that these first Build Log photos are NOT SEQUENTIAL. Obviously, I've spent a number of hours getting to point A (the first photo-😁)...and these photos I'll explain, but there may be random "backtracks" as I continue here.
 
The Gratings and the companionway close-up: the purpose here is highlighting the little black beads that simulate cannonballs which are a nice scale-accurate (or close to it) inclusion in the kit's "fittings" box. The little balls were too shiny for me; my 5 yo granddaughter  asked me: "Gampy, where did you get those cute little beads?"...uh... Good question, out of the mouth of babes. So I went back painted all of them FLAT BLACK MATTE. Just a tiny touch to each with a small brush. They now look like iron balls and not something random one finds in the beading aisle at Joanne's Fabrics. Not a big deal, but we collectively agonize over minor stuff like this; it's sort of what this hobby is all about- sort of. You don't need to look too close to see the ordnance as they appear in shiny bead black. 
 
Next photo, a close-up of deck goodies showing: A. a breech-rigged cannon; B. how I've finished my upper interior bulwarks (with the kit's included spirketting and laser cut deck clamp pieces); C. the hanging knees behind the quarterdeck beams; and D. the pump's iron fittings (also in flat black matte paint to show proper - non rusted - iron) and mid-deck bitts and a partial companionway (with the little "beads").
 
I am often asked how I get the nice warm look to most of my period models. Nothing unusual here: four shades of Minwax, available at Lowe's. Natural, (my favorite for most quality hardwoods I use and the extensive amount of pear that's included in this kit; Golden Oak for areas that I want to appear darker than the warm pink hue of pear and simulate a more accurate color for oak; Weathered Oak whose name speaks for itself. I used this on this kit's maple, one-piece deck patterns ("patterns" is a general name Vanguard gives to many pre-cut, precision lasered items in this kit). I've applied this stain to the gun deck. I may apply a "second coat" before I button-up everything amidships. A can not shown ( I misplaced it, somewhere...), Chestnut stain. This color I use on my deadeyes and most rigging blocks. I understand chestnut was used extensively by the British navy for this purpose - along with lignum vitae pulleys, both purpose-suited because of their inherent hardness. I'll stain my deadeyes soon, before they get mounted in their iron chains.
 
It should be noted that I paint and stain all my modeling components as I build. I am constantly opening and closing various jars and cans as I build. Simply stated, I make "aesthetic decisions" as I work; these are typically about color of individual component finishes - like cannon balls! I also depart quite often from proscribed building steps for a host of reasons which should become apparent as I develop this log. I need to mention that the build manual and the extensive plans that come with this kit are excellent and generally-speaking, the construction steps are sequenced in a manner that most will appreciate, especially intermediate level modelers.
 
Lastly, the tools I use to remove "char" from all the laser-cut wood in the kit. I've probably spent 60 hours alone (so far) removing "Char."🤯
My tools for this boring, but essential task: lots of emery/nail sanding files I buy at beauty supply stores. They last forever. But I buy new ones often as I frequently wash them and they soften and go limp after a while. Everyone knows there's not a lot you can do with a limp file.
When I'm de-charing, I often slap the file on my jeans (don't tell my wife) to unpack the fine sanding dust. Works. But they do eventually need to be taken to the sink. Moving on, two from my set of diamond-encrusted mini-files shown here. The tapered round one is especially useful. Worth the money. My soft, sable hair brush. The brush I continually use on all the various surfaces of the model for clean-up as I build. It is helpful to dust the char off tiny pieces like the miniscule hanging knees shown here. The curved stem piece appears to cast a shadow; actually that's the very dark "char" that needs to be diligently removed. Goodbye Char!
 
And, yes. I did leave it on all my cannon carriage wheels. Good idea, Jim! The manual says this is an option. I obviously agree.
 
More to come....
 
 

I am starting this Build Log midway in this very interesting and fun project. I'll start with a photo of my overall progress and then there will be the normal, very specific photos about build details I'd like to share with the reader's of this thread.
 
The first thing that I should note is that I am building this model as a sister ship to the Sphinx, HMS Camilla - same era. I have posted an earlier Kit Review of this Vanguard model that covered my early impressions which I can now amplify as well as offer additional insights as I've moved along on my build. I hope the followers of this thread will think it helpful; that is certainly my intention!
 
Here we go...

You are most welcome, Bob. Thanks. Some of this knowledge will be my particular deep dives into how I modify kits with various degrees of "scratching" to make them my unique vessels, re-badged, but actual and not "fake." For example, my LeTigre was a renamed "Alert" cutter kit (Vanguard). I my mind, I envisioned HMS Alert being captured and re-branded while she was sailing and raiding while in French hands. Which, as I understand, wasn't for very long.🤣
 
Ya'll will just have to put up with my humor though!
Ron

"Alexa"- play Irish sea shantys." For those who may have noticed her in my first image post here.
 
I nearly always have music in the background in my shop. If one could wear out CD's, the soundtrack to Master & Commander would be on its sixth reincarnation. Music helps me concentrate, but I realize others may find it distracting. I think it depends on whatcha like.
 
In addition to pretending I'm standing on the decks of my models as they're being built, I imagine a small consort playing Corelli in my drawing room. You know, late baroque (my favorite) welcoming my guests from London into my country house, just a few miles from Portsmouth...afterall, I do own the shipyard where she is being built!
 
Ron

More photos, explanations as follows...I'll call this set "Drilling and sawing"...necessities.
 
The rigging pulleys ( I believe the braces)  along the bulwark sides (2 places, each side) do align nicely with the built-up woodwork, but I chose to run a drill through them so that there is free clearance when it comes to rigging. Getting the line through the pulley UNDER the shroud stool will be lots o' fun!
 
First. drilling the catheads. Although not detailed in the manual, I know that when rigging rears it's head, I'll want to have the anchors trussed-up nicely near the cathead weighing lines. Good idea to have rope passing through the cathead for this. The small, cleverly built-up pieces have photo-etched tiny holes that...uh, go nowhere. That is, until I took my #72 thumb drill (.61mm dia) and pierced all six holes (love these little buggers). Make sure to drill on a flat surface and hold your drill as perpendicular as you can since it's easy to miss and drill off center, which would not be good.*
 
*Ignore this commentary should you be building the Sphinx kit as an "admiralty-styled" model without rigging, which I suspect some will do as it is designed at least partially for this specific modeling approach.
 
By test fitting the catheads into the foc'sle surround you'll quickly see that the "openings" for mounting these to the deck are inadequate and rather than try to coax an opening to fit the cathead into the bulwarks through via a square hole with a file and X-acto knife, I decided to saw a tight-fitting slot from the top nearly all the way down to the deck surface. Some may already note that there are TWO (2) additional wrap-around pear wood pieces that must also be mounted to this bulwark arrangement (to basically thicken it). These will also need the "slice" in order to accommodate the cathead(s). Shown here: the starboard cathead is temporarily plugged into place (purposeful tight tolerance here) and the port side shows the opening I've made for each. Be careful to not saw down too far on the exterior of the prow. I did pop-out the corresponding S & P gunwales to check that the depth-of-mounting for the steeply-angled catheads would be adequate to sit below this finishing pattern provided as a single, long piece (both sides). I'll see very soon how the cathead's external supports mate-up and meet as they should. 
 
There is some tricky modifying here to both the PLYWOOD as well as pear patterns; I have no idea why one would try to fiddle this area by opening the square holes to allow the catheads to fall into place properly (through three separate stacked pieces, on each side). Perhaps I'm missing something here, but when holding the gunwales to their respective mounting positions, the fit of the cathead to the deck and below the gunwale looks fine to me: no gaps, weird, wrong angles, etc.
 

Mike.
Fixed. Thanks, I knew that.🤫
 
Ron

Some background on HMS Camilla.
 
Note that the painting shown here is for HMS Camilla, in 1796 , by artist John Thomas Serres
 
"HMS Camilla was a Royal Navy 20-gun Sphinx-class post ship. Camilla was built in Chatham Dockyard to a design by John Williams and was launched in 1776. She served in the American Revolution, the French Revolutionary Wars, and the Napoleonic Wars, before being sold in 1831."
 
That's about 55 years! But who's counting? Extraordinary service by the standards of any nautical era I know about.
 
"Camilla was commissioned in May 1776 and sailed for North America in August. There she captured the privateer schooner Independence, John Gill, Master, of six carriage guns, eight swivels, and 50 men. She was on a cruise from Boston.Camilla also captured Admiral Montague, sailing from Hispaniola to Rhode Island with a cargo of molasses and coffee, a chance sailing to Georgia with coffee, and Polly, sailing to Surinam in ballast."
 
Loads of info on HMS Camilla here where the above has been researched : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Camilla_(1776) 

Everyone knows I meant 1775, right?🤣
 

Thanks, Thukydides.
 
Sails I expect will happen around late December/January since I anticipate masting and rigging will commence sometime late this month. Diorama in mid-February/March, if I'm lucky. I'm planning for the diorama now, but I'll explain preliminary thinking for the presentation "case" reasonably soon as I think about how the sails will be deployed, the bearing of the ship and how it will appear in the water (degree of list and roll - pitch and yaw to pilots - which partially determines the dimensions of the base). I even have thought about the weather that this ship diorama will present. How's that for a little bit of Crazy, huh?
Ron

Since I'm playing "catch-up" with my postings I'll mention that these first Build Log photos are NOT SEQUENTIAL. Obviously, I've spent a number of hours getting to point A (the first photo-😁)...and these photos I'll explain, but there may be random "backtracks" as I continue here.
 
The Gratings and the companionway close-up: the purpose here is highlighting the little black beads that simulate cannonballs which are a nice scale-accurate (or close to it) inclusion in the kit's "fittings" box. The little balls were too shiny for me; my 5 yo granddaughter  asked me: "Gampy, where did you get those cute little beads?"...uh... Good question, out of the mouth of babes. So I went back painted all of them FLAT BLACK MATTE. Just a tiny touch to each with a small brush. They now look like iron balls and not something random one finds in the beading aisle at Joanne's Fabrics. Not a big deal, but we collectively agonize over minor stuff like this; it's sort of what this hobby is all about- sort of. You don't need to look too close to see the ordnance as they appear in shiny bead black. 
 
Next photo, a close-up of deck goodies showing: A. a breech-rigged cannon; B. how I've finished my upper interior bulwarks (with the kit's included spirketting and laser cut deck clamp pieces); C. the hanging knees behind the quarterdeck beams; and D. the pump's iron fittings (also in flat black matte paint to show proper - non rusted - iron) and mid-deck bitts and a partial companionway (with the little "beads").
 
I am often asked how I get the nice warm look to most of my period models. Nothing unusual here: four shades of Minwax, available at Lowe's. Natural, (my favorite for most quality hardwoods I use and the extensive amount of pear that's included in this kit; Golden Oak for areas that I want to appear darker than the warm pink hue of pear and simulate a more accurate color for oak; Weathered Oak whose name speaks for itself. I used this on this kit's maple, one-piece deck patterns ("patterns" is a general name Vanguard gives to many pre-cut, precision lasered items in this kit). I've applied this stain to the gun deck. I may apply a "second coat" before I button-up everything amidships. A can not shown ( I misplaced it, somewhere...), Chestnut stain. This color I use on my deadeyes and most rigging blocks. I understand chestnut was used extensively by the British navy for this purpose - along with lignum vitae pulleys, both purpose-suited because of their inherent hardness. I'll stain my deadeyes soon, before they get mounted in their iron chains.
 
It should be noted that I paint and stain all my modeling components as I build. I am constantly opening and closing various jars and cans as I build. Simply stated, I make "aesthetic decisions" as I work; these are typically about color of individual component finishes - like cannon balls! I also depart quite often from proscribed building steps for a host of reasons which should become apparent as I develop this log. I need to mention that the build manual and the extensive plans that come with this kit are excellent and generally-speaking, the construction steps are sequenced in a manner that most will appreciate, especially intermediate level modelers.
 
Lastly, the tools I use to remove "char" from all the laser-cut wood in the kit. I've probably spent 60 hours alone (so far) removing "Char."🤯
My tools for this boring, but essential task: lots of emery/nail sanding files I buy at beauty supply stores. They last forever. But I buy new ones often as I frequently wash them and they soften and go limp after a while. Everyone knows there's not a lot you can do with a limp file.
When I'm de-charing, I often slap the file on my jeans (don't tell my wife) to unpack the fine sanding dust. Works. But they do eventually need to be taken to the sink. Moving on, two from my set of diamond-encrusted mini-files shown here. The tapered round one is especially useful. Worth the money. My soft, sable hair brush. The brush I continually use on all the various surfaces of the model for clean-up as I build. It is helpful to dust the char off tiny pieces like the miniscule hanging knees shown here. The curved stem piece appears to cast a shadow; actually that's the very dark "char" that needs to be diligently removed. Goodbye Char!
 
And, yes. I did leave it on all my cannon carriage wheels. Good idea, Jim! The manual says this is an option. I obviously agree.
 
More to come....
 
 

You are most welcome, Bob. Thanks. Some of this knowledge will be my particular deep dives into how I modify kits with various degrees of "scratching" to make them my unique vessels, re-badged, but actual and not "fake." For example, my LeTigre was a renamed "Alert" cutter kit (Vanguard). I my mind, I envisioned HMS Alert being captured and re-branded while she was sailing and raiding while in French hands. Which, as I understand, wasn't for very long.🤣
 
Ya'll will just have to put up with my humor though!
Ron

I am starting this Build Log midway in this very interesting and fun project. I'll start with a photo of my overall progress and then there will be the normal, very specific photos about build details I'd like to share with the reader's of this thread.
 
The first thing that I should note is that I am building this model as a sister ship to the Sphinx, HMS Camilla - same era. I have posted an earlier Kit Review of this Vanguard model that covered my early impressions which I can now amplify as well as offer additional insights as I've moved along on my build. I hope the followers of this thread will think it helpful; that is certainly my intention!
 
Here we go...

You are most welcome, Bob. Thanks. Some of this knowledge will be my particular deep dives into how I modify kits with various degrees of "scratching" to make them my unique vessels, re-badged, but actual and not "fake." For example, my LeTigre was a renamed "Alert" cutter kit (Vanguard). I my mind, I envisioned HMS Alert being captured and re-branded while she was sailing and raiding while in French hands. Which, as I understand, wasn't for very long.🤣
 
Ya'll will just have to put up with my humor though!
Ron

You are most welcome, Bob. Thanks. Some of this knowledge will be my particular deep dives into how I modify kits with various degrees of "scratching" to make them my unique vessels, re-badged, but actual and not "fake." For example, my LeTigre was a renamed "Alert" cutter kit (Vanguard). I my mind, I envisioned HMS Alert being captured and re-branded while she was sailing and raiding while in French hands. Which, as I understand, wasn't for very long.🤣
 
Ya'll will just have to put up with my humor though!
Ron

"Alexa"- play Irish sea shantys." For those who may have noticed her in my first image post here.
 
I nearly always have music in the background in my shop. If one could wear out CD's, the soundtrack to Master & Commander would be on its sixth reincarnation. Music helps me concentrate, but I realize others may find it distracting. I think it depends on whatcha like.
 
In addition to pretending I'm standing on the decks of my models as they're being built, I imagine a small consort playing Corelli in my drawing room. You know, late baroque (my favorite) welcoming my guests from London into my country house, just a few miles from Portsmouth...afterall, I do own the shipyard where she is being built!
 
Ron

More photos, explanations as follows...I'll call this set "Drilling and sawing"...necessities.
 
The rigging pulleys ( I believe the braces)  along the bulwark sides (2 places, each side) do align nicely with the built-up woodwork, but I chose to run a drill through them so that there is free clearance when it comes to rigging. Getting the line through the pulley UNDER the shroud stool will be lots o' fun!
 
First. drilling the catheads. Although not detailed in the manual, I know that when rigging rears it's head, I'll want to have the anchors trussed-up nicely near the cathead weighing lines. Good idea to have rope passing through the cathead for this. The small, cleverly built-up pieces have photo-etched tiny holes that...uh, go nowhere. That is, until I took my #72 thumb drill (.61mm dia) and pierced all six holes (love these little buggers). Make sure to drill on a flat surface and hold your drill as perpendicular as you can since it's easy to miss and drill off center, which would not be good.*
 
*Ignore this commentary should you be building the Sphinx kit as an "admiralty-styled" model without rigging, which I suspect some will do as it is designed at least partially for this specific modeling approach.
 
By test fitting the catheads into the foc'sle surround you'll quickly see that the "openings" for mounting these to the deck are inadequate and rather than try to coax an opening to fit the cathead into the bulwarks through via a square hole with a file and X-acto knife, I decided to saw a tight-fitting slot from the top nearly all the way down to the deck surface. Some may already note that there are TWO (2) additional wrap-around pear wood pieces that must also be mounted to this bulwark arrangement (to basically thicken it). These will also need the "slice" in order to accommodate the cathead(s). Shown here: the starboard cathead is temporarily plugged into place (purposeful tight tolerance here) and the port side shows the opening I've made for each. Be careful to not saw down too far on the exterior of the prow. I did pop-out the corresponding S & P gunwales to check that the depth-of-mounting for the steeply-angled catheads would be adequate to sit below this finishing pattern provided as a single, long piece (both sides). I'll see very soon how the cathead's external supports mate-up and meet as they should. 
 
There is some tricky modifying here to both the PLYWOOD as well as pear patterns; I have no idea why one would try to fiddle this area by opening the square holes to allow the catheads to fall into place properly (through three separate stacked pieces, on each side). Perhaps I'm missing something here, but when holding the gunwales to their respective mounting positions, the fit of the cathead to the deck and below the gunwale looks fine to me: no gaps, weird, wrong angles, etc.