Framing Gun Ports - USF Essex - Model Shipways

[RossR]

I am currently building the USF Essex.  I am a few steps away from framing the gun ports, but I have been looking ahead at the instructions and plans for the gun port framing.  I am 90% sure I know the correct answer, but I am a little puzzled by the instructions and plans as it relates to the gun ports.  This ship has a deck that slopes up as you approach the bow and the stern.  At midships the deck is flat at the sills and lintels of the gunports can be added 1/8 inch above the part of the bulk heads that will support the deck and the sides can be installed parrallel to the vertical portion of the bulk head and you end up with a rectangle shaped gun port.  See image from the plans below.

 

 

 

But as you approach the bow and stern, if the sill is placed along the line of the deck (as the instructions say) and the sides are installed straight up and down (as the instructions say), you will end up with a parrallelogram instead of a rectangle,  The plans seem to show the the gun ports as parralellograms as they approach the bow and stern.   See photo below.  The arrow points to the line that represents the run of the deck.

 

 

There are references in the instructions to building a plug to aid in the placement of the lintel and sides after the sill is installed.  This would only be useful if the shape was consistently a rectangle.  The kit also comes with laser cut parts to use for the gunport hatches and they are all rectangles.  

 

As I said at the beginning of this post I am 90% sure I know the right answer, which is to build the gun ports shapes as rectangles and not as they are shown on the plans, but I would love to hear if others agree with this approach.  I will attempt to place the sill so that the center of the gunport sill is the proper height above the deck with the midship side higher that the middle and the bow or stern side lower than the middle.  The gun port sill will be approximately parrallel to the water line.

 

Please share your thoughts if you agree or disagree with my planned approach.

 

Thanks.

 

 

 

[yankee clipper]

Ross,

I suffered through building the Model Shipways Essex, one of the original produced kits, and never would have finished if it were not for the build by Rafine of this website. I still have the build titled Frigate Essex by Rafine dated Aug 28 2013. If you have not open his thread, I highly recommend you look it up. He did a first class job and it saved me many hours on how to overcome extremely poor instructions and limited photo guidance. 

Just a recommendation,

Yankee Clipper