Before and after:
I wanted to make my cadges blacker so I left them in longer. The varnish came off the brass in flakes and caused the brig cadges to look splotchy and rusty. The perfect look for the Black Pearl! Who knew? The Admiral keeps calling it the Dark Crystal and my kids break out laughing when they hear it. 
Cages
Guns ‘n 
barrels. Better than Guns ‘n Roses
barrels. Better than Guns ‘n Roses
Lots of variety in staining. Reaching the bottom of my red mahogany stain. If I want it darker, just touch the brush on the bottom of the can. Lighter? Just touch brush at top of stain. 
So...do the guns, skeleton, and baskets of food look out of proportion to each other?
Depends on what you imagine is in the baskets. If it's large potatoes on the right and cotton candy on the left it looks about right 
Though it looks like the baskets were weaved from tree branches. 
Though it looks like the baskets were weaved from tree branches.
Bigger than a bread basket?
Gold dust in the cracks between the wicker weaves. Guess what might be inside!
Didn’t show in this image very well.
Finished (for now) with the accessories. It took a couple of days. 
And time. I h ad to experiment a lot with colors. I’ll leave the pirate figures for my daughter to paint. She’s much better at the small stuff than I am.
This is my first experience with ZHL. The tabs are easy to cut. 
Construction begins. 
The skeleton of a ship which has a skeleton crew. Note: one side left open for viewing interior. 
Everything fits together like a jigsaw puzzle. The four supports on the sides of the keel forces the ribs to be lined up perfectly. It was a little difficult to figure it out from the instructions, but it can only go on one way. 
What I said about everything fitting...never mind. Broke the lower deck at the bow off. Super glued it back on. Probably won’t show. 
I didn’t have weights like they showed in directions or like MystRacing had so I used whatever I had available. I used clamps to keep ship somewhat level. 
Decisions, decisions. Paint phosphorescent, bright gold, gold with darker wash?
Tried soldering Arm and wing. No go. Super glue didn’t seem t hold either.
Tried soldering Arm and wing. No go. Super glue didn’t seem t hold either.