Alright, update time! After the parade today I will probably finish it. So far, I have painted most things, including the hull, port windows, gun barrels, main turrets, helicopter and other small boats, helicopter crane, and the radar dish. Because I suck at painting (until I improve) I ignored the instructions for camouflage and found a reference image of what the ship looked like fresh off the line: red hull, black stripe halfway up, gray for the other half, almost all gray on the superstructures. I painted the main turrets silver to make them stand out, and I'm going to do the same for the 5 inch guns and the shields on the 20MM auxiliary guns.
I still have to paint the bases another coat on one and two on the other (they're not glued in yet, so I don't have to worry about getting paint on the hull). I need to paint a few things gold:
Some black:
And some silver:
I also need to tie the rigging and hang the flag. I'm going to use the ceremonial arrangement for signal flags, with all of them hung in a specific order, detailed here, minus the numbers and repeaters:
Edit: I also have to do all the stickers, most of which are tiny. Oh boy. They're actually not too bad, and I've had practice from Cub Scout pinewood derby cars, which I got design awards for, so they must've been alright. Just need my modeling tweezers!
