The main deck level assembly has now been glued to the rest of the bridge block, and the angled faces of the main deck level cut to fit and also glued. The joins have all been filled with Acryl red putty, although the larger hole just above the radiused forward corners is filled with auto body filler.

The bridge windows have had vertical strips of polystyrene sheet added to make the size of the window apertures even and the corners at 90 degrees. I use cyano glue to fix these small parts in place, then filed the surplus material away. Small gaps have been filled with Acryl red putty, which is also very handy for filling any surface scratches.

This overhead view shows the stepped deck for the CIWS platforms and the red filler used to form the slightly angled front face below the bridge windows. Once the glue has set fully, a small amount of filler will be used in the the window apertures to form radiused corners. Using the unfluted shaft of a small drill bit to form the filler before it sets hard will produce a neat, even appearance to these corners. This will be much easier to do than trying to drill or file the corners in a rigid material.

In this picture the revised rearward facing panels either side of the bridge can be seen, along with the beginnings of the internal details. With so many large windows there will have to be something built inside the bridge, otherwise it will look unrealistically empty. The deck forming the roof of the bridge is also shown with additional strips glued around its forward edges. These will fill the gaps created by widening and lengthening the rest of the bridge structure, as well as forming the overhanging canopy above the new side doors. Finally the forward mast structure has been glued together. It will require a number of improvements, some of the corners need shaping to a radius, and the mast itself needs the bevelled edges enlarging and sharpening.

Test assembly to make sure these parts fit together, but no glue used yet!

This picture shows the deckhouse assembly on the main deck, between the stack and the bridge. The original kit parts G5, G6 and G17 are shown behind. This illustrates the difference between the simple kit parts and the more accurate plastic card assembly built to replace them. Checking the assembly with the stack, bridge and hull showed a small adjustment in location of the stack was required, so the moulded ribs on the main deck were trimmed slightly. This allowed the stack assembly to slide aft by about 1.5 mm. Any holes in the deck that become exposed by this movement will be filled with plastic sheet.

Test assembly of the stack and bridge onto the hull. The auto filler block at the base of the stack has had the forward corners radiused, although the corners between the lower and upper boat decks should be sharp. However, it is easier to radius the whole corner, then add material to reform the sharp corners, than to try to partially radius it. The lower boat deck will act as a mask to prevent damage to the radiused corner below.

The lower boat deck ( part G22) has been trimmed to fit over the main bridge block ( widened by 3 mm previously) and a small filler strip added in front of the stack. This is shown here as a white bar. The deck house between the boat decks is shown her assembled, but it is too long as moulded. A new wall has been cut from 1 mm plastic sheet and glued into place, and the surplus portion marked for removal. The forward and aft location bars moulded on the lower boat deck will also have to be removed to allow the modified block to sit in the correct location.

In this picture, the ammended block is placed on the lower boat deck in its correct location.

The fore mast assembly needs a lot of cleaning up, the corners between the sides and roof, and front and roof all need radiused edges formed by scraping and filing the plastic. Also the bevelled corners of the mast tower need to be ‘sharpened up’ and enlarged; the kit mouldings are very soft in their depiction of these features. Try to get clean and even corners, which will look much more like the real ship. Have a look at some photo references to see how this mast tower is made. Filler has been applied where needed, and the location slots on the radiused corners filled with plastic sheet blocks. Once the glue has dried thoroughly the plastic is filed to match the rest of the part. All surplus surface detail, ladders, pipes etc. have also been removed as they will be replaced with finer etched and fabricated details.