The major thing accomplished since then was to "correct" the bridge superstructure, mast, and starfish. If you remember I mentioned that the bridge was way too high and should sit down slightly lower than the stack (also see the boxart). There are three other issues - the mast must be adjusted to keep the starfish at the "right" height, the starfish is way too clunky, and the mast is not the proper size or configuration.
Now, before I go any further -- we all know that ships went through multiple refits which could make major changes; I wasn't there and am no expert; I'm working from some comments and a few photos; etc. Anyway, I have decided the kit needed some fixes to properly represent the bridge, mast, and starfish -- but I have done it all by eyeball, there isn't a supportable measurement anywhere in the project. It's my model …. If I had to defend myself, I'd say that the Airfix mast reflects a late or post-ww1 ship, my mast is more like 'as built' to early-WW1.
Anyway, here are the relevant Airfix & WEM instructions.
To shorten the bridge, I sanded a little off the bottoms of parts 49-50, 54-55, 61, and 62 -- say 1/32" or so. That brought the bridge down close to the top of the stack, but not below -- but I didn't want to take any more off as I figured to rest of it was simply in too thick platforms.
Next was the clunky starfish -- I trimmed the tub off part 85, glued the tub onto part 84 and tossed the rest of 85. Also, I used the WEM mast plan and so tossed out 86-88. Then I fit the kit supports, part 137 and the starfish and constructed a new mast, replacing part 65, to fit between them.
I still have a few details to add, but here's what it looks like …. It may be a bit tall and I have to decide if I want try to shorten it, not as easy as it might sound.
The other thing I did was get the guns on. I wish I had spent more time on these because the barrels are not in relative scale, with the 3in & 3pdr looking the same diameter as the 13.5in and the 6in in the barbettes being almost needle thin. The 13.5 came looking like Bofors barrels with a flare at the muzzle, which I sanded down. I didn't do anything with the smaller guns, but should have. I broke almost half the 6in getting the hull and deck together and am thinking I'll snip the rest off and put on a slightly thicker barrel, maybe even pointing out to the side which would be easier.
What I have left to do:
-- all the boats and davits
-- a few other details, including the admirals walk
-- railings
-- try to make a WW1-ish antenna
-- and of course a bunch of paint touch-up
Well at least I have more for spares now ....