That's pretty much it. I would do it (I haven't put the galleries or balconies on yet) but I'm more than a bit nervous about cutting into them. I'm not THAT good. But the windows have to be removed, and floors have to be added. Now for the galleries I've seen two approaches. One approach took the panels that were cut out of the galleries and put them on the hull of the ship, adding some pieces to fill in the gaps. This was very attractive. I've also seen where the panels were discarded, leaving the hull showing. Either way, Sheet styrene is then used to create a new "floor". Not an overly difficult job, but one that I'm not willing to undertake.
As for the paints, I'm pretty much a mixed bag. I only use acrylics. Primarily, I use Citadel and Games Workshop Acrylics, along with some of the Testor's Acryl. I like the Citadel and GW paints because they are very pigment heavy and there is an insane number of colors available in a variety of shades. I'm a big fan of "Vomit Brown" as a substitute for regular ole' tan. Much more vivid. But, I have also found that some of the paints that my wife uses for her woodcraft hobbies (yep, I'm talking about tole paint) are also very good. The entire hull of the Royale is painted with Royal Blue craft paint. It spreads very nicely and it comes real thick, allowing me to thin to my tastes. The color is also very striking. On the negative side with these paints is that you need to make sure you seal it as soon as possible. I use a spray acrylic satin sealer. For all the guilding, I am venturing away from acrylic, using gold liquid leaf. It covers in one coat, looks fantastic, and I can polish it before I seal it.
Overall I'm happy with the results. I start the guilding on the other gallery and the balconies tonight, work on the longboat tomorrow, and wrap up little things here and there this weekend. Hopefully I'll have the hull work done by mid-October. Working the hull is easy. The rigging will probably take me until next fall to finish. But, I won't be starting on the rigging until late December. I'll take a break when I get the hull done next month, and jump into my Heller La Reale.
I'll get more pics up as soon as I make a little more progress