Cleaning!
I think I've just about finished the cleaning step (apart from the inevitable bits I'll spot or be dissatisfied with as I go along) and have made two old linen tea-towels and uncounted numbers of Q-tips extremely filthy in the process. But I can now see colours I couldn't before!
I've also dismantled the ship further in the process in order to make the cleaning easier and more thorough- I'm ever so glad I took so many photographs before I started- and removed and cleaned not only the guns, gunports and chains but also some loose or ill-fitting pieces of woodwork. I've stored the bits and pieces in jam-jars by type, so I don't think anything will get lost along the way.
In the photos you can see that I've also made a new main rail of the head (thank you for the name, druxey!). For the materials for this, I took my first steps into my local modelling shop, Antics in Bristol. The assistants there were very friendly and showed me to everything I needed. I asked a question that'd been puzzling me: S.Coleman suggested using diluted PVA for the rigging, but I wasn't sure why the rigging needed to be glued. It was explained to me that not only would it help secure knots but would also protect the rigging materials over time- which sounds good. I'll do that, then.
I've now- as advised- got some good aliphatic glue for the woodwork, some modelling ply for the missing parts I need to make, a razor saw (my existing saws are either too large-guage or too blunt) and some dead-eyes and brass wire to experiment with- you can see some of these results in the photos. It took me quite a few tries to get the knack of securing the wire around the dead-eyes without it snapping; now I just have to work on linking them neatly to the existing chains. And deciding whether I definitely want to go to the trouble of using them to secure the shrouds. Probably yes!
Next up: more woodwork, putting everything I took off back on, and painting.
Next topics I'd be grateful for help with: type and method of applying paint, and whether to paint the masts and yards (my grandfather left then unpainted, but I believe all the illustrations and models I've seen of ships of this type have painted ones).