I've not got round to updating the posts on this project for a bit. Here's how the cross looked after all the engraving was finished.
You can see here how the gilding metal tarnishes over time. The left-hand, alpha, section is the most recent and over time the metal turns more of a red-yellow colour, as with the centre and foreground sections. Since the end result is for the cross to look old this tarnishing is exactly what I want, so I won't lacquer the piece when finished.
Next stage is to show how the enamelling went!
NB. Here's the links to the earlier stages: