The figurehead (a lion) was modelled on the knee of the head using Magic Sculp. I was not pleased with the first result, but the second attempt was even worse. Therefore I used the first. I attached the knee of the head with the figurehead to the hull and added also the gratings (using 0,25 mm polystyrole plate) to stabilise the knee of the head.
The next steps will be head rails and head timbers. I am still thinking how to produce them...
The upper head rails are made of Evergreen 0,3 x 0,3 mm plastic stripes. But those are to thick, therefore I used stretched sprue. The disadvantage is that these are round, but there are much more to scale.
Looking good. And it's nice to have the '700 scratchbuiling squad working again. I'll see if I can add something later in the week, I'm currently 200km south of the workbench.
Extremely impressive painting work on the stern gallery and hull! I'm thinking of attempting a plank-on-bulkhead wood scratchbuild of a similar ship in 1/96 or 1/64 scale (probably the schooner HMS Pickle as the plans + instructions for the Caldercraft kit are freely downloadable from their site) but couldn't begin to imagine scratchbuilding something this small and fine.
One question, is the stern + quarter gallery detail entirely painted, or did you mould the detail in 3D? It seems like this sort of thing would be a good application for custom-designed PE.