Thanks for the very kind comments chaps!!
Mark the plastic cast replacements have made the fitting so much easier! the metal ones' were just so hard! and so brittle!!, but with the metal castings being so crisp they made really good molds. All the cast parts have been very good so far, I just hope the quality continues to the end of the series? If anyone is interested I have 18 plastic rings left up for grabs for whoever may want them??
Glad your still dropping in Voytek and thanks for the "K"!!. Eric thanks for the "K" and I appreciate the feedback.
Here is a bit more, this time I have added the rudder and chaser gun port lids.


Instead of adding the gun port lids piecemeal to the hull, I have made the 4 covers away from the build and glued them in p[lace once they were dried.




As can be seen in the photos above, the rudder has been fixed in place along with the lions head motif, the rest of the rings and eyes are now in place and the shields with their decals are now where they should be!!


More metal castings have been added to the build along with some wooden moldings formed from wood strips using the provided tool to shape the profile (a very useful tool), the wood was then primed and painted in a similar fashion to the metal parts.


The cast spearman has been glued into his alcove but for some unknown reason his spear doesn't quite fir inside the alcove, I have managed to fit some of these parts wrong somehow? I certainly wont be adjusting anything for the sake of a spear tip!!


In went the steps, these are not issue parts but ones from my own stock. The issue steps were awful, the steps wouldn't line up and as soon as a bit of wood stain touched the ply wood they went totally floppy as the wood stain was absorbed like a sponge, needless to say out they went!! I also deviated with the instructions given to form the foremost bulkhead! instead of gluing 2mmx2mm strips of basswood soldier fashion to the form the two front corners I instead cut two pieces of plywood and shaped them to fit instead.


As an be seen the plywood forms a nice seamless look to the finish?.


I felt compelled to make a change to the look of the cap rails? as the rails on the poop deck looked so much neater and tidier than all the others I decided to do something about it. Off came the little squares that were on top of the cap rails and on went a strip of basswood! this was then sanded to shape and stained the right colour.


The little squares that had been cut off were sanded smooth restained and reattached to the rail, a small finial was then added to the square bits to give the build a more personalised look.


All the caprails now have a more uniform look to them and I am much happier with the look
Cheers, Steve..