At work again! Additional details on the rear wall

So I have taken quite a break from this project, but I'm back at it. One big change I have made to the plan is to omit the front wall section from my project. There would have been an opening to see in the room with my original plan, but opening up the front of the project all the way will allow for a better display. I am attempting to finish my project by the Centennial of the Titanic disaster but I'm not sure if I'll make it. There are still quite a few details to finish before I can say I'm done.

The last week I have started adding more detail to the rear wall, including wainscotting and more work on the columns.

Here I am beginning wainscotting along the bottom of the wall section. These balsa pieces were cut to size and then carefully sanded on each edge to create a routed look. Every step of the way I check to ensure that the pieces are lined up correctly and that they are straight. I'm a little uneasy about using balsa wood on this model because of the challenges involved in painting such a soft porous wood, but it makes it so much easier when I need to shape wood like this. I went to a hobby shop a few weeks ago and talked with a guy in the model plane department, seeing as how many model planes are built from balsa. I asked about the task of painting a model containing balsa wood and he gave me a sander sealer and explained I will need to sand the model surfaces, then apply a coat of sealer. I will most likely need to repeat this at least a few times before the surface is paintable. NOT looking forward to that step, but seeing these walls fully detailed and with a nice bright white coat of paint on them will be well worth any effort spent.

Looking pretty good eh? Now I begin adding the tiny pieces of trim around the edges of the panels that are now glued in place. The trim is cut to length and glued into place, one piece at a time. This went pretty quickly...

HOWEVER, you never want to go TOO quickly as I quickly found out. My first safety incident during my project involved shoving a razor blade fitted exacto knife into the side of my fingertip. But the results on the wainscotting were beautiful. :)

Finally the wainscotting was done. All of it being unsafely completed in about an evening's time.