Thank you for all your comments and support, it was not for nothing, I buckled down today and got quite a bit done on this and have it almost finished. I finished the weathering, the navigation lights, drybrushed the wooden deck section, and gave it a bit of a general cleanup to sharpen up the weathering and in a couple of instances I removed some of the weathering effects and am happy with where it is at. I also cut the brass mounting rods and marked out the position for them on the base and drilled the base for the rods.
The model is just set in place on the base, it still needs dull coat and some other details attended to, but it is now very close. I am excited to see this finished now and so I can get on to the next project!