Ken, I think you have found your Opus with this model. I have enjoyed your modelmaking over the last four years and appreciated the quality of your work (even though you often get all modest and question your own abilities ) in a variety of subjects, but this model is beautiful.
To have taken a basket case that some people would have binned as being a ''xxxxx'' and have got the results you have is astounding. You definitely need to get some more traditional model boat modelling done in the future as your detail work will enhance the hull building you have mastered. The rigging looks tight and tidy.
On a last note, we often jump around doing different bits of a model straying from the 'official build sequence'. I have read numerous occasions where a modeller thought a particular job should be done in a different sequence, and doing something out of sequence, say making the ship's boats before the ship is valid.
I think doing a bit of something different breaks up the monotony of a large job, though sometimes such a large job needs completing so that you don't get out of the habits and skills you honed over the work so far progressed, as going back, you have to remember all the little cheats and knacks.