Shiver me timbers

I have six Sails of Glory models. It seemed like a good idea at the time and they certainly do fill a need.

What I don't really understand is why they are so fragile...

 Both the foremast and the mizzen have broken at their respective bases.

When this happened to the Imperial, it was a clean break and I drilled out the deck, placed a hollow metal tube in the hole and reshaped the remaining mast and plugged it in (see this post).  I expected to do the same with this frigate.  I even noticed I had had a go at gluing/strengthen the mast before.

But the breaks weren't clean - as in the mast still had a little "connection" with the deck.  So I thought I would try gluing once more.  This time I first applied a dab of super glue and applied pressure to straighten and close the crack in the mast.

I'm not sure what I expected but it seemed to work.  Then I set to doing about half a dozen coats of PVA glue over the same number of days in a do-it-yourself decoupage, not décolletage, strengthening exercise although the latter term has merits.  I regularly use PVA glue in this way to strengthen bayonets, spears etc on my miniatures and believe it can be an excellent varnish (although it is cglossy and must be applied sparingly).

Repaired with the masts now standing proud and dare I say, perky.