Bullshott has very kindly donated a plastic toy ship to the Dirka Dirka Industries R&D Department. Stamped on the underneath 'Spectra 1992 Made in China'. The ship is made of hard plastic with the exception of the yellow (soft plastic) insert at the bows. This will be removed and replaced.

The original ship

Taken apart - this was nice and easy, just removing the phillips screws from the hull

Precision engineering at its best - addition of a 15mm diameter copper tube to take the flight stand, secured in place with large amount of hot glue and a piece of balsa.

I've removed the moulded quarterdeck with a dremel so I can replace it with a lower one, giving the crew more protection and reducing the overall height of the model

Quaterdeck cleaned up and refitted to the hull with a block of balsa glued in place to support the new wooden deck. The new main deck is also in place - this is made of real wood planking that comes in 4" wide sheets from the local model boat shop.
More pics to follow as work progresses. Not sure if this should be in the workbench area, please feel free to move it if it should.