Big guns! Only the super firing turrets will have the AA buckets, personal choice as i prefer the turrets uncluttered look. I've had to dirty them up a bit seeing as how i rusted the hull so much, they looked out of place being as clean as they were. Starting to add the buckets and small cal AA on the deck as well. Lots of little paint repairs and touch ups needing to be done on various areas, the more i look, the more i see.
Two pics here, worked a bit more adding to the white on the bow waves and glued down the bridge and some superstructure. Front section of the deck has been slightly weathered to take away a bit of the rawness as it was really glaring and the bottom pic has some colours tweaked to try and pop out the weathering. The join in the middle and front pontos deck section bothered me so i sliced out a thin piece of left over deck and filled that gap further on in the build. Hopefully i will be able to pick up (another) railing set this week so i can finish that side of it off, also, i found some 1/350 RN sailors but they are a preorder item so will take a few weeks from Europe. I think it would look much better to have some life on the decks and give a sense of scale.
Rigging, had some issues. My rigging was slightly too tight when doing from the fore to aft masts so i had to use a dab of ca on the front mast and set it up overnight with a shoelace, to pull it back true. The front mast pulled straight and i had made an additional bracket out of sprue to keep it that way. The rear mast was under too much tension so i had to pull the aft mast out, straighten everything up and rerig. All of my original rigging was too tight and everything besides the vertical main mast was out of whack. This cost a full morning of frustration and many bad words. I really should have spent more time doing it right the first time.
The rerig and remast.
From here it was some touch ups, completing the rigging and adding small deck items like winches, rafts and deck covers. The rails will have to wait a few weeks owing to funds and the fact that i have to buy two rail kits to make one set or a complete PE kit that costs more than i have already spent on the complete model so far. Slightly annoying as it feels somewhat unfinished. Here are some shots as it stands atm which i will update when i add the rails and sailors. The build has been over four months long at this stage and the kit overall is very decent. Patience recommended all the way through and you will end up with a very satisfying looking rendition of a great ship.