Pre-dreadnought test build

I knew I had to face a few problems building this beast. While less complicated than a sailing ship, there still are a few details that need a careful approach. 

Working with balsa wood is easy, the problem is when I cut against the grain of the wood, so a lot of careful sanding is required.
I don't have any fine grit sandpaper or stick, so this prototype is still relatively crude, something that will be credited to age/battle damage when the model is complete. For any further models I'm going to need a very fine sanding device.
The rest went well - I was smart enough to leave excess everywhere which then I could sand into shape. The various objects on deck - vents, smokestacks, boats - were done earlier and you can see them in the containers above. I had some hard plastic toy crossbow bolts that had the right diameter for the smokestacks, pine wood for carving out the boats and figure sprues for the vents which I bent and cut to shape.

The next thing is to add holes for the casemate guns and then comes the painting. The rest of the ships will be coated with PVA after assembly then sanded again.