Sophie's Revenge - Getting it back together - Goals

Its been a while since I have even looked at the Sophie's Revenge, in fact I actually put everything back in the box to get it out of the way. Its so large it just takes up a lot of modeling room. There was an off hand comment that a ordinance entry could never win a Sophie Trophy at Reaper Con. For what ever reason I took that as a challenge, albeit an inadvertent challenge. Nonetheless my main goal will now to be win at least a bronze Sophie with this kit.

Before I even get started on what I want to accomplish let's look at what its going to take to even get into the running for a Sophie. While the MSP Competition at Reaper Con is an "Open" competition the running for the Sophie's is standard trophy style competition that only Reaper Miniatures are eligible for. There are three categories for Sophies; Painter, Open and Diorama. The Painter category is for straight up stock models with perhaps minor conversions, the Open category is for scratch sculpts or heavy conversions (those entering scratch sculpts and are eligible for the Sophie are going to be sculptors) and  Diorama is all about a scene and is judged heavily on the story (in this case the primary miniatures would have to be Reaper Miniatures although supporting cast could be from other manufacturers). There is no ordinance category for Sophies anymore, Reaper just doesn't make enough miniatures to really justify its own category. Based on what I intend to do with this ship its going to end up in Open category, it potentially could be in Painter if the Judges decide that's where they want it.

Getting at least Bronze Sophie is going to be tough, its going to add an additional level of precision that I really need to stay aware of through the whole process.

This is what I want to achieve:

1) Disassemble the entire model (Woohoo! Check this one off the list!

2) Keep the gundeck accessible while keeping the cannons lashed appropriately in place.

3) Add details to the gundeck, including bringing the masts all the way down and through into the cargo deck (which is not modeled). This would include removing cast in details that could be improved with scratch built details.

4) Correctly lash all the cannons into place and add details to the gun ports. I may decide to have the guns run out on one side.

5) Main deck is removable without disturbing details on the gun deck.

6) Main deck will be treated much the same as the gundeck, add details and because of the aft cabin there will be additional work around the mizzen mast which is coming up through part of the aft deck. Cannon will be lashed to the deck appropriately.

7) Aft deck and cabin. There is going to be a lot of work here. I need to figure out how to pull off the two back decks and detail the cabin. I would love to have added a map room under the poop deck but its not quite tall enough especially because of Reaper's heroic scale proportions. It would add a lot of interest and would avoid an incredibly tall captains' cabin. Not to mention changing the location of steering from the poop deck to the main deck.

8) Rigging, I really want to add at least some rigging to this. At a minimum it needs ratlines after that anything I can add that won't make things to difficult keeping in mind that the main deck is going to be removable which means any rigging needs to come away with the main deck. I have thought about extending the masts to "full" height but I think I'm going to avoid that and just extend them up high enough to make any rigging that is done look somewhat reasonable.

9) Everything I haven't thought of. A little vague but it covers everything else!

Gundeck, the lowest accessible deck on the Sophie's Revenge. First thing to do here will be to remove the grating and stairs and replace them with a new components.

I had removed the very flexible sides. These will need to be glued to the gundeck itself and then cross pieces run from side to side and the cannons put into place, I'll need to figure out where the masts come down from the main deck as well.

A little closer look. The deck is closer to regular styrene plastic the 

Quarterdeck and poop deck. There are three main pieces here. The sides for the cabins and two sets of stairs.

And to make things a bit more difficult it crosses two of the three sections of the main deck.

The quarterdeck in place. Will have to add a (or more) cabins plus a cannon on either side. The mizzen mast comes through this section as well. I may have to split the quarterdeck into two pieces one on either side of the mast so I can still remove them.

And then there is the poop deck. It looks like there would be room for the map room but its a bit short. I may work out how to raise it up a 1/4" or so and make that room. Otherwise it will become the ceiling of the Captain's cabin.

All I can say at this point is that I have really set quite the task for myself. I expect this project to really stretch out. It would be nice if it was ready for Reaper Con next year (2023) but I'm not going to push for that date unless everything is really coming together.