colour of channels

[hamilton]

Hello all:

 

I'm working on a modified HMS Greyhound (Corel) and am wondering (in advance) how the channels would have been finished. Corel supplies these as laser cut in Walnut ply - I am tempted to paint them black, which I think will fit better with the scheme of the vessel as I've been building it.

 

I'm assuming this is one of those "up to you" kind of things, but I thought I'd ask the membership just in case. Thanks in advance!

hamilton

[druxey]

Contemporary models' channels (18th century, English) are either in natural wood or matt black.

[JerseyCity Frankie]

Black would hide the tar that would certainly be dripping down the shrouds in hot latitudes.

[augie]

Contemporary models' channels (18th century, English) are either in natural wood or matt black.

I'd normally go with druxey on this.  Natural if the model was done all in natural, otherwise black.  I'm thinking you want to match the caprail/uppermost planking somehow.  Thing is, I have a nagging feeling I've actually seen some (in real life) in some other color that complements the ship.  So I'm not so sure.

 

I'll keep watching, half expecting one of our most experienced to boom in something like 'According to Admiralty Rule # XXYY.........

Edited June 21, 2013 by Augie

[hamilton]

Hello Druxey, Brian, Frankie and Augie:

 

Thanks for the clarification - black it is!

hamilton

[uss frolick]

But Wait!

 

Color and BW photos of the perfectly preserved wrecks of the Sloops USS Hamilton and the USS Scourge, sunk in 300 feet of water on Lake Ontario in a squall in 1813, show the channels left in natural wood. It is very hard to tell exactly because of the silt sitting on the tops of the channels, but the sides of the channels are natural oiled wood, like most of the hull. They would have had to blacken just the tops, but not the sides, to have been so colored on these two wrecks. Black and blue paint can still be seen on the hull, so there was no universal fading of color. One sloop was British, built before the war, the other American.

 

Perhaps there was no need to blacken ... because of the lack of salt ... ? [Grasping at straws here?]

 

See: "Ghost Ships: Hamilton and Scourge: Historical Treasures of from the War of 1812 " by Emily Cain, 1984, Fountain Press, pp. 93, 105.

[S.Coleman]

Black will go as the norm. It highlights out the sleek lines of the hull I reckon. But at the end of the day, it's your build, it's up to you!