As expected, another hull section. I have to admit, I am really glad this part of the build will be finished soon — tightening all those tiny Allen screws is not exactly the most enjoyable task.

This time I actually had one screw that I could not tighten at all, no matter what I tried. Fortunately, it is located in an area with plenty of other screws around it, so the hull section should still be held securely. Hopefully this can be fixed later.

40% of all parts have now been added to the model.

The next hull section has now been installed on the port side at the stern. I have to admit, I'll be glad when the hull assembly is finally complete, tightening the screws in these cramped spaces at the stern is quite a challenge. Fortunately, only two hull sections remain before this part of the build is finished.

The starboard hull is now finished. With the next upcoming hull section in place, the project should finally move on to the more exciting phases of the build.

With step 60, the hull is finally complete. All hull sections have now been assembled, and, hopefully, that was the last time I had to tighten screws in those hard-to-reach spaces.

Measuring around 130 cm in length, the fully metal hull now weighs an impressive 4.8 kg. With the hull finished, I'm looking forward to the next stages of the build, which should offer a bit more variety than assembling endless metal panels.

After assembling the major hull components, it's time to focus on some of the smallest details. The navigation lights are now installed. The LEDs that illuminate them were fitted inside the hull much earlier in the build, while fine optical fibers have now been added to carry the light precisely to each navigation light position.

In addition, the air wing has been expanded with its ninth Ju 87 Stuka.

It looks like the next few steps will focus on building the ship's display stand—an exciting milestone in the project.

Work has now begun on the first section of the stand. A cable and connector have been installed, which will later connect the stand to the electronics and motors inside the ship.

The second cable and connector were added to the stand section from last week. This appears to be the power cable, as it is slightly thicker than the other one, which I assume is the data cable.

The second stand, which does not have any cables, was also included in this week's parts. However, there was nothing to assemble on this one.

The biggest part so far is the base plate, which measures an impressive 55 cm in length. The two stands were attached to it, and the cables were routed into their correct positions.

Work on the stand will continue in the next steps, but the ship can already be placed on its stand.

The battery box is prepared in this step. A small circuit board is added, although it is not connected yet.

The ship can be powered either by six AA batteries or via a USB-C port. I think I'll probably use the USB-C option later, as that seems much more convenient.

In the next step, a small speaker is added to the battery box. So this is where the ship's sound effects will eventually come from.

All the cables are connected to the circuit board, including those coming from the ground plate. With all the connections in place, the complete battery box assembly is then screwed onto the ground plate.

There are quite a few cables now, but everything is starting to come together nicely.

The name plate simply has to be attached to its mounting piece and then fitted to the stand. Sounds easy enough.

Unfortunately, I managed to damage the name plate beyond repair during construction. Even worse, this particular part is no longer available as a spare part.

So now I have to figure out how to replace it. I'm currently looking into a few different options and hopefully I'll find a good solution.

In this step, the tenth Ju 87 model for the carrier was completed. I'm not sure how many more will follow, but I think most of the aircraft are already in place.

In addition, a motor was installed and successfully tested. It works as intended and will be used in the next construction steps, when the ship's propulsion system is added.

This time, the gearbox for the four propeller shafts is assembled and installed in the ship.

The electric motor from the previous step is fitted to the gearbox, which contains five cogwheels to transfer the power to the four shafts.

After giving the whole system a quick test, one thing is already certain: this is definitely going to be a loud ship... 

The four propellers and propeller shafts were installed and connected to the gearbox assembled in the previous step. Once everything was in place, I carried out a function test — and fortunately, everything worked perfectly.