Have started modding my kit. Thoughts: correcting the decking at the salon door area - you have to remove the base the rounded wall fits onto - is very easy. Soft plastic, sand and scrape it flat, scribe in plank lines. Paint should cover all sins. Making the new bulkhead is easiest to my mind by using the existing one and cutting out the "bulge". I've cut a thin veneer of styrene to act as a new wall, with windows and door under construction. Obviously one needs to cut out and remove most of the curved section first.
I cut off the railing too mainly because the supports for it are so crap, but also because they should sit on a raised base timber which follows the curve of the poop deck. I'll make my own. If you modify the kit bulkhead then you need to leave the top part of the curved wall in situ - about 6mm or so (equal to two of the scribed planks).
I'm not going to move the mizzenmast. I probably should; I think the whole poop deck is too short by about 4mm or so, and that's one reason the deck furniture seems to be compressed. But I will move the wheel aft slightly and make it smaller and that should give enough space to build a map cabinet forward of the wheel.
Speaking of the wheel, the drum and wheel itself are fine but the supports need to go - they're not remotely accurate to the 2/3 version. It needs that grating for a base, with two large transverse timbers holding it all to the deck. The uprights are identical fore and aft - a thick upright with two thinner angled braces.
The fife rail behind the mizzen mast needs two large gussets running forwards from its ends, on either side of the mast. The three gussets that brace the stern wall with the Tritons need to be trimmed down; they are not straight triangles.
I've modified the poop deck railing stanchions. There should be four, not five. I've also removed redundant supports for the railing scrolls and repositioned the upper scrolls very slightly (the upper scrolls do
not rise above the level of the railing).
I've modified the focsle railings too. Again, there should be four, not five, stanchions along the side railings, and a smaller scroll at the step down to the main deck. Removing them is easy, just slice em out, but I chose to reglue them in the right positions bit by bit so as not to leave the railing too unsupported. Just respaced them to the correct spacings for four stanchions by rack of eye, this is quite easy. Lovely soft plastic Zvezda uses.
On the rear focsle railing there should be seven stanchions, not six, so if you reposition the side railing stanchions don't throw the extras away. It also does double duty as the main fife rail, with three belaying pins per section, times six sections, equals 18 pins. This means that the port and starboard focsle fife rail parts are redundant parts - they're not in the films and can be thrown away. Not really looking forward to working out the rigging in that area!
The belfry for the ship's bell has four posts and a cross-shaped vaulted roof in CotBP. In DMC and AWE it has a simpler 2-post design with a single straight vault. It's very easy to modify the kit roof part to the movie 2/3 design: just cut off two opposite edges and glue them together, et voila! You suddenly have a straight roof with just one hump. Then mount it on two of the posts.
I would like to knock off these mods this week so I can start actually, you know, building the ship!
So far they're proving quite easy and quick, though.