One of the things I love about hand sculpting our features is that we can do things that would be impossible with real materials. Our engineer required sturdy, structural steel brace supports under the hull of the ship. They measured 4” x 4” which left lots of room for creativity. We welded a steel pencil rod frame around them and then tied on the galvanized mesh. Matt then troweled on a thick coat of fibreglass reinforced concrete, waiting just enough time to allow it to harden a little and then sculpted in the woodgrain of the heavy beams. Although the underlying structure is perfectly straight, the ‘wooden’ beams appear to have warped a lot as they strain under the weight of the giant ship overhead. One has even ‘cracked’ all the way through, held in place only by a rusted steel bracket. This is pure fun!