Being mostly an armor builder, I somehow burnt myself out of doing armor for the time being even while I wasn't doing much of anything. I just lost the enthusiasm. In an attempt to rekindle that, I decided to tackle something a bit out of taste for but what I've been wanting to do for a while: detail Midship Models 1/700 USS Miami.
I have the Gold Medal Models USN Cruisers and Destroyers set, Tom's Modelworks Inclined Ladders, White Ensign Models Doors and Hatches and some sets from 3D Model Parts, specifically the 40mm quad and dual Bofors mounts, 20mm Oerlikons, the 5in/38 turrets and Mk37 and Mk51 directors. I have a set of Verlinden figures as well but I'm not sure if I will use them. I also had to buy another set of doors and hatches (meant for Japanese ships) because I almost ran out of usable doors from the USN set. Now onto the work so far...
So far I've spent about 22 hours (according to what I remember from the times I was up; 2 days I was up until 4) just attaching doors, hatches and ladders along with the research involved in finding the actual location of the items. More than half of the time spent was on research. Right now I have a few subassemblies made but none of the decks are glued to the hull or each other yet. Most of the doors that I could find in the pictures (I'm using NavSource as my main research tool) I replaced or added. Ladders between decks have been added/replaced as well. I've also added Ladders to the turrets where necessary and I also cut and placed those circular extrusions on the turret sides. I plan on eventually adding some 40mm and 20mm ammo bins as well. Enough of my talking... Time for pictures (do not take these pictures as the final product of the day(s), I've added more since they were taken). Also, I apologize for the quality of the pictures, they were taken at night and I don't have a true photography set up. The 7th picture is a hawsepipe I made from a piece of sprue. I tried forming it from copper wire and then dipping it in CA but it didn't work well. I'm going to try to cast a 2nd as I'm not confident I can cut another one similar.
A recent update from yesterday:
All I did was replace the putty fill with cut plastic sheet fill on the bottom of the 2 remaining unfinished main turrets. I then attached the 3 little circles to the sides and sanded down the others evenly on the finished turrets. I then sat around the desk for a bit wondering what to do until I decided to try one of the funnel grill caps from the GMM Cruisers and Destroyers set. Cut the first piece from it and was able to form it after a little fiddling and picture-looking-at-ing. I got one side glued down and I just need to wait for the glue to fully harden to safely bend down the other side without it twinging away to where no one has gone before. I also painted the inside of the funnel caps black as I figure it's going to be tough once everything is on and painted.
And from today: I did nothing but anneal the GMM PE set and the one funnel grill. I got it reattached and hopefully tomorrow I'll get it fully attached. I then started to detail one of the OS2U Kingfishers that came with the kit. I added float struts on the 2 wing floats and will be adding a small piece of plastic to add to the back of the main float. I'll see about finding PE canopy frames for it.
In progress:
CAD:
1/35 SINCGARS ICOM/ASIP; 1/35 Flat screen TVs; 1/35 tactical light that I shall reveal later 
Models:
1/35 DML M4A1 DV; AFV Club M18 Hellcat; DML StuG IV; DML Armored Jeep w/ .50 cal; Panda Cougar 4x4 MRAP; Academy M3A1 Stuart; 1/700 Midship Models USS Miami; 1/700 Skywave Rudderow Destroyer Escort