Ships are living things that change over time. I am approaching a point where I’ll have to make some decisions about what specific point in time I’ll depict in my model. Here are two pictures of the Sultana. The top one is from the blog ship25bsa.smallsquareddesigns.com and was taken August 2003. The lower picture was taken by me in October 2018.
The most obvious change is the black stripe painted between the planksheer and caprail. The nameplate at the bow was changed to match. The painted figurehead in the older picture is a rare sight. Nearly every other picture I’ve found has the figurehead solid white, and I plan to keep it that way. There are other minor changes (like the pintles and gudgeons I have pointed out), as well as other minor details not visible in these pictures.
Here’s another comparison picture. Top is from the blog 829southdrive.blogspot.com November 2014 and the bottom is another of mine from October 2018.
It’s not obvious from the top picture, but the band between planksheer and caprail is painted black. However, the bow nameplate is still light. Note the light gammoning rope. The only other time I’ve seen it light is in pictures of the Sultana at launch. I’ll be using black gammoning in my model. The big difference in these pictures is the change in the style of anchor.
