Sir, (Big Jake)
Lacking the skills to carve a small, ornate object such as a Cat Head, I instead relied on method that involved a certain amount of "optical illusion".
Despite the fact that the scale of the ship is somewhat large, the end of the great timber that is used to brace the anchor on this model is quite small. Therefore I reasoned that I could simply use a printed image of the Cat's Head.
So I created a document in Word which contained a photograph I found online of the actual Cat Head that is found on this ship, arranged in such a way as to provide a variety of sized of images that I could print and subsequently print out in color. I then cut them out and fastened them to the end of the timber.
They were indeed very small. But the quality of reproduction when printed was suitable enough to clearly see the face of the great beast.
I was quite pleased with it's appearance. And it was very easy to accomplish.
Here is how it appears on the real ship.
And here it is as appears on my ship. (Forgive the blurry image. It is much crisper than it appears here. )
Here is the actual image I used.
I also found this cat head. But I preferred the other one.
And finally here is the document I created to accomplish this task.
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B9n6wZmBnI3oR3JNaFpjMFM3Z1E
To add a little depth, I glued the tiny picture to a sheet of styrene of suitable thickness and glued that to the end of the beam.
It may take some experimentation to get it right, but it is quite simple.
Also, I created a series of flags, pennants and signal flags to print as well.
You are welcome to use them.
Easily printed. Lot's of size options per page.
US Navy Commission Pennant - Print LAYOUT with different sizes
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B9n6wZmBnI3oRWt0Rlp3OXRFVFE
Commodore’s Pennant - Print LAYOUT with different sizes
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B9n6wZmBnI3odEYzNmUtUG5oeEU
US Flag 1840 (modified with smaller stars) - Print LAYOUT with different sizes
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B9n6wZmBnI3oLXVxRldLXzlCeHc
Navy Jack 13 stars - Print LAYOUT with different sizes
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B9n6wZmBnI3oZUE5S1pSRWd5Z3M
Signal Flags - "Prepare for action" - Print LAYOUT with different sizes
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B9n6wZmBnI3oWWJKQ0dVeXZNVHM
Commodore Pennant for a small ships boat - Print LAYOUT with different sizes
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B9n6wZmBnI3oNzdSNExCWVBjdk0
And here is a photostream of several others.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/27434996@N00/
Fare the well and God bless America.
- Captain Isaac Hull
https://www.facebook.com/isaac.hull.58