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Adding the inner face of the bulwarks was the next challenge. This is a thin piece of printed paper that has a lot of small openings that have to be cut out for the gun ports, sweep ports, as well as the scuppers. The gun ports and the scuppers were easy enough, but cutting the complicated shape of the sweep ports was more of a challenge. It's basically a slot with a round opening in the center.
After a couple attempts at this, I found that the best way was to cut the slot portion of the sweep port, then afterwards cut the round part in the middle of the ports. A tapered dowel helped to make that opening more round. The results weren't perfect, but the ports themselves, with a little touch up paint that I applied from behind, seem okay.
I tried to stiffen the openings up a bit by the application of thin CA glue, again from behind. However, the glue soaked in VERY quickly, and you can see how it kind of stained or darkened the area around the sweep ports. I will probably try to carefully give the bulwarks a wash of thinned paint in an attempt to even out the color of the bulwarks.
One of the things about the inner bulwarks pieces is they didn't quite fit at the aft end where they meet the rise in the deck and the stern cabin. For my model, it was necessary to use the gun ports to determine the exact alignment of the bulwarks piece, then carefully trim the aft edges, little by little, until I had a proper fit.
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