Thanks, Mike, for those nice words!
Sorry, I know you asked to wait until your return for building it together.
But, as mentioned before, it is now my turn to go on vacation and even afterwards I will not have much time for my Victory, and when I saw the high quality of those parts I simply had to try...

Hi, shipmates!

This time, I want to tell you about my solution for the bow of the victory.
Here I made several modifications in comparison with the official build.

For example, I changed the stem reinforcements to give them smoother curvature



Later on, I decided to do a scratch build of the beakhead. I did not like the position of the beakhead rails. But when I tried to modify the frame parts I ran into desaster.



So, I created new frame parts from birch plywood. Here is the first one



Notice the slits on top of the frame. They help to position little boxwood strips



When the glue was dry I shortend the boxwood strips and used a thin strip of walnut to clean up the front





and another one for the backside:



Finally, I put new plancks on the bowdeck to create a level surface





BTW, the little boxwood strips are made from elements of a 30x30mm grating kit. I used these smaller gratings everywhere on my build, because they are more to scale than the ones provided.

Now I have finally obtained a flat bowdeck without steps, as in the original, for the little sailors to walk around comfortably.





That's all for today.

Danke Walter, thank you Steve!

Steve, my main motivation for using the gallery enhancement parts was to get rid of the yellow-green windows, which I didn't like. And although I am not a historical-correctness freak, the magazine's balusters just didn't look right to me. Having only limited time for hobby, I decided against a scratch build, and then MWG's gallery enhancement was the best way to go.

Greetings from Austria..
Bernd

Hi Bernd,
Just had a look at your build diary, it is fantastic.
I notice that you have used a metallic lead paint for the entry port roof and quarter gallery top panels, can you give details of this paint, and either manufactures colour/number as all I can find are many shades of grey.
Many thanks and enjoy your build.

Hi Bernd
You`re doing a very great job here,
Especialy al the modifications

I took the following picture of the beakhead when visiting the Victory in Portsmouth in 2011



I used this photo and frame parts of deAgo to plan my changes. Masking tape helped me to outline the position of the beakhead rails and to design the new shape of the framework parts accordingly



Here are the de Ago parts on the left side and the new ones on the right



Next I fitted the new beakhead frame parts in place and built the beakhead grating.



I used a grating kit with 1x1 mm holes instead of the one provided (where the holes are thrice as large and are likely to break the leg of a 2cm sailor)

This is the tool I use for engraving the lines into the beakhead rails. I do this free-handedly





My work was not as precise as I had hoped, I had to rework some of the slits in the frame parts





The boomkin supports are custom made to fit the curvature of the main beakhead rail. Notice that I changed the colors of the decoration (just to show that I am not going for a one-to-one copy of the original ship )

And this is where I am now. I have added bowsprit and some further details for the bow:











Here I had occasion to use the cathead crowns (also provided by Michael "MWG")









Greetings from Austria,
Bernd

Some absolute quality workmanship there Bernd. Well done. keep the pics coming.

Hi Bernd
Your Build is fantastic