I spent at least a week on the transom alone. I experimented with the spare part before taking on the model. Here is what I learned: At least 2 coats of flat white paint (I believe it was actually 3 coats) were needed. In addition I found that a single flat white undercoat brought out the colored portions of the transom better. (This did not include the gold color which was painted un-diluted directly to the black plastic. Again, at least 2 coats.) I tried doing the Revell stripes on the windows but like Andy really did not like the look and stayed with what I believe is more of a colonial look of simply flat white. The figures port and starboard are mermaids and I painted them as such: blue green mix for lower body, cream for torso, and hair color...whatever you like. I attempted to paint my wife's hair color on my ship's mermaids (although I don't think I have told her that yet). The central figurine is a military figure. I painted him with a colonial blue jacket with brass buttons (almost impossible to see), brass chevrons, and gray white hair (I left the paint roughly mixed for a mottled color look - again, I don't know if this is visible). Rope detail is red. The flutes are painted flat white first (2 coats here) and then the superior portion of each flute was attempted to be painted red. When dry, I had to scrape red over-paint off of the inferior portion of the flutes CAREFULLY (with a no. 11 blade) as to not dig back to the black plastic (that is why 2 to 3 coats of white are needed first - prevents gouging to the base plastic). Depending upon the viewing angle it looks pretty good (especially from the transom anle view shown below). It is not perfect but I will not go back over it again.I carefully scraped excess paint off of the black original plastic whenever there was overage on each portion of the transom. The 'CONSTITUTION' was painted with gold using a 'stamp' method. I dipped a pencil eraser into the gold paint on the inside cap of the gold bottle (not too heavily) and stamped the gold onto the ship's name LIGHTLY. The windows are microscope cover slips but I think the included Revell plastic would have been just as good. I just did not want time to dim or yellow the windows due to the included fiber optic lighting of the gallery seen above. Good luck. Let me know if you have any other questions. Andy also worked a lot of detail into his transom and may have some other pointers. The stripes on the transom were first taped with Frog tape and then painted 2 coats of flat white. Minor overage was again cleaned up with gentle scraping.
Looks like you're getting ready to glue the gallery to the rest of the stern. When I dry-fit mine, the alignment doesn't look good. I have quite a good gap where the bottom of the gallery fits to the two halves of the hull. Did you have a similar fit issue? I think I may just need to do some aggressive trimming, still it doesn't look like it will be easy, because its not obvious why it isn't fitting. I will take some photos later.
