12/5/2016: With the stern bulwrks installed, I began to putter. I made the chain tyes for the tops'l haliards, cut the hooks off the gin blocks I've had since 2009 and attached them to the chains with shackles, rigging everything up to make sure they were the right length.

That done, I was going to tackle the tops'l yard parrels again, but in gathering parts I came across a little stamped brass lion's face I've been saving for the catheads, and opted to make those next. I glued the face to a stick and pressed a block the size of the end of the cathead into some clay, then pressed the face into the center of that. Then I couldn't find my casting resin. I made a set using 5-minute epoxy, but that set-up more like rubber than plastic, so this is something I'll have to come back to.

Constellation's tops'l yard parrels are iron collars lined with wood staves, something like a barrel. They're hinged so they can be put of or off with unrigging the mast. This hinge feature is something I need mine to do as well, so I don't have to take half the rig apart to remove these things if need be. I made on a while back, and it's functional, but it's not big enough around or proportioned right, ie, I'm not happy with it. So after pondering this a while, I took a shot at a better version.

I cut a strip of heavy copper flashing that I've used for things like the tiller before, about 3/16" wide. Curled this into a circle the size I wanted for the main top mast, and cut it in half. I then soldered brass tubing on the ends using soldering paste and a torch. As if this wasn't aggravating enough, cutting the tubing to form the hinges was maddening. The tubing would break off, I'd resolder it, and when it was finally done, and I was cleaning up the edges and excess solder - it broke off again. I figured it wouldn't hold up under use if it broke this easily, so I decided to try something else. A shame really, as I was pretty happy with how it was turning out otherwise.

Both sets of forward bulwarks have been epoxied in place, and the forward portiob of the pivot gun slides have been altered to what they should have been, base on the plan for these guns on the side-wheel frigate Mississippi. I originally modified the slide to fit the idea that the gun sat on a single large deck circle, but I no longer think that was the case, which I'll get into more when I install the track on the deck.

Installed the support rods for all the bulwarks.