Updates
I have been working on the model for some time now and I finally have some more photos to upload of my progress. The process of fairing and skinning the hull was very tedious and took some time. I also had difficulty finding time to work on my project between the demands of my job and my wife and son. Putting the hull together can be very frustrating because it seems that in order to do X, you have to do Y and Z first but that requires a whole new series of projects. Right now I am at the point where I need to build the cannons, or at least the carriages so I can put them in place and skin the gunports. These will not be accessible after I put the decks in place. So I am left with a dilemna. To build all the carriages now and emplace the front and rear guns, or to simply build some kind of box around the inside of the gunport and glue a cannon inside of it after I finish the hull. It does not feel right to do the latter but I have a feeling that the detail on the carriage will be completely nonvisible once the deck is in place. So what to do? Anyway, I have attached some photos of my progress to this point.
Here is a view of the underside of the hull with the first layer of skin attached. Surprisingly it fit perfectly with almost no gaps. This has really increased my confidence in the quality of the kit.
Another view from the front of the ship.
This image is of a section of the deck. I never liked how the deck has a fake woodgrain pattern printed into it. And the color seemed wrong too although I have never been on a real frigate for comparison. I found some thin model aircraft plywood and have cut it into hundreds of planks to apply to the deck of the model. My thanks to Scorpio for the idea for the technique. I will post pictures of the deck too once it has been completed.
