Here is the Marines construction - using the cannons from Sovereign (and now Victory - as when under sail they are usually behind the doors - and the only visable guns are those that are those supplied with carriages and therefore will have crew
) I constructed the marines in exactly the same way even for Nelson and the other officers and minions, that the gun (parts 201-240) and first cut some 3/64" styrene rod or thereabouts, one at 4.5mm long (usually the right leg, and one 7-8mm long (usually the left leg), why longer, so that the extra bit can be fitted into the hole in the deck (may be cut off later if being used where he is not fitted that way), it also allows the item to be inserted as seen earlier into a piece of card to stand them upright (two small slices in a cross formation into a cereal box thick card strip the poked through with a cocktail stick).
They are they glued together either as in the marines right next to each other or separated so to simulate walking, I have bent them in the past for a figure scrubbing the deck on his hands and knees
. though with styrene I will need to cut them and glue them in situe. so now we have the legs.
then once dry we glue the body to the top of the legs, either vertical or various angles to simulate a slight bent over, or so they look vertical when walking or in this crew, cutting the lower part to simulate a better looking bending or climbing
.
The arms are done in exactly the same way as the legs from a thinner gauge rod, though bending them is more difficult as it tends to break with this old stuff I have, they are cut into 4mm each, if the gun is being done I didn't see the point in making a separate arm to sit behind the gun, but on reflection should have, I might still do so, prior to them boarding ship but it will be time consuming.
The hat for the marines is just a 1mm long piece of 3/64" rod placed front to back and central - well almost, and for the officer a longer piece to go over the dia of the cannon face with a small piece of arm sat on top of that to try and recreate the cornered hat, for the officers hat the same is done but turned shoulder to shoulder 90°, the sword and the sheath are lengths of the thinner rod, as is the telescope, the buckets carried by the little uns, is actually the bottom cut off part of the bodies, since they have short bodies than the crew, these simple pieces of rod don't half make the vessel look alive.
Paint, red 19 for tunics, 85 black for hair, hats, boots and guns, silver for the sword flesh 31 for faces, hands, arms, legs and bodies, white 22 for the sailors clothes and the wigs, and with extreme difficulty the cross banding on the marines tunics. Paint brush - cocktail sticks, act as a stirrer as well as the brush