HMS Victory by dafi - Heller - PLASTIC - To Victory and beyond ...

[tomganc]

Wow you are really going crazy with it

Some great details there, I wonder when is a point that you say enough? I've got the same thing with my build, once you start adding stuff you want to go back and change everything you've done previously... Ehhh I think it's a time to plan next build and utilise all the knowledge and skills accumulated during this build.

You are doing great job and I can't wait to see your rigging

 

All the best

Tom 

[dafi]

Thanx Tom, a man has to do what a man has to do 😉

 

XXXDAn

[clearway]

Havn't looked in for a while- she is certainly coming along nicely😀.

 

Keith

[dafi]

Due to the stress of the end of the year, I never found the time to record what has happened in the meantime ...

The last work with the deck beams was only the prelude, the overture, even the prelude to greater things! So read and be amazed, truly unexpected things were going to happen!

 

For the force was with me!

 

 

But first things first. In mid-November the stupid virus got me, but thanks to vaccination only a mild course. Thus "boosted", it was an easier decision for me to help the colleagues from the club at the booth during the games fair in Stuttgart. As those were public handicraft lessons, my small one with the yellow and black lines that make her look slim was supposed to look pretty. With all the battle damage removed, into the car with all my other children - "Are we there soon?" "I feel sick" "I'm hungry!" "I have to pee!" and so on - and otherwise uneventful drive to the fair to set up 🙂

 

 

The booth of the [i]Arbeitskereis historischer Schiffsbau[/i] ...

 

 

... and the corner with all my bits and pieces.

 

 

Because remember, fun is the fair life if:

 

- you can send the offsprings to the "Reeperbahn" ...

 

 

- and there is enough food for the fight 🙂

 

Edited January 11, 2022 by dafi

[dafi]

In the meantime, all the deck beams were in place and the stove could be provisionally adjusted.

 

 

The next stage was the area between the stove and the fore capstan.

First, the capstan was removed and the bottom plate from the 1788 plans was added. No one has yet been able to tell me its purpose ...

 

 

And then glue it in and press it ...

 

 

... and public waiting, oups, the life of a model maker can be sooooo exciting ...

 

 

And with that, something had happened that no one had ever dared to dream of, that no one had thought was humanly possible, something earth-shattering:

 

This was the last piece to be fixed on the lower gundeck.

Herewith I call this adventure finished 🙂

 

It was only 12 years since October 2009 for the lower gun deck 😉

 

Respectfully, with kind regards, Daniel Fischer

(out of town after dictation)

 

[Kevin]

wow but what a 12 years, and i still advise people to look at your upgrade kits, thank you for your contribution towards this hobby

[Kevin-the-lubber]

A fantastic achievement Daniel, so what's next?

[Gahm]

I can only agree! Your Victory lower deck presentation is amazing! And I am using your photo-etched parts all over the place, recently even in my M107 field howitzer model 😊

 

Thomas

[druxey]

Well done, Daniel, on surviving covid, a long drive with young children and a fair!

[mtaylor]

You have indeed been busy, Daniel.   Congratulations on all counts.    Are you now headed up the next deck level or a new project?

[dafi]

Thank you all for the kind comments! Very appreciated!

 

After finishing the lower deck project, there was a short breather - the exhibition stood still for about 0.035 seconds - I immediately took advantage of the nice momentum and continued:

 

New adventure: middle deck and beyond, projected construction time approx. 12 years (experience value) .

 

The coamings of this area off site ...

 

 

... and on site, first fitting samples ...

 

 

... and for retrofitting for the folds so that the gratings don't fall onto the lower deck....

 

 

And then glue was put underneath the coaming and another public wait for the glue to set. Model making is soooooo exciting 🙂

 

 

... and waiting ...

 

And then it came, as it had to come, the public open heart surgery ...

 

 

The stairs had to be lifted from below as for the fold of the coaming, the thread was to lift it up ...

 

 

... and the whole thing quickly-quickly ...

 

 

... without bumping into anything, because ...

 

 

... there was superglue at the bottom of the ladder.

 

 

And then just let go of the line and done we are 🙂

 

 

Finally the coamings around the main hatch ...

 

 

... and some impressions of the finished area.

 

 

 

 

 

Well, now I have to cut some more deck planks ...

 

XXXDAn

Edited January 12, 2022 by dafi

[tomganc]

This build looks absolutely amazing. I admire the level of detail...

Already can't wait for an update.

 

Regards

Tom

[dafi]

Thanks Tom!

 

Small intermezzo, aka news from the shipyard: "Ouops, I did it again" ...

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CduA0TULnow

XXXDAn

[dafi]

There always needs to be hammer on cliché pictures of model ship builders.

 

Even when they're rigging.

 

They're not that far off.

 

Or to paraphrase Schiller, "What wilt thou with a hammer, speak!"

 

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kp1z8EzZ5Hs

 

XXXDAn

 

*** I think we had that here on the forum once: Old picture, grandpa building the rigging of a cutter, grandson watching. At the table supporting the rigging work: THE HAMMER!

[druxey]

Startling photos, to say the least! You are a messy worker, Daniel.

[dafi]

At least one thing that I am good with - the mess - says the best wife of all too 😉

 

XXXDAn

[Kevin]

is this another hull

Edited January 15, 2022 by Kevin

[dafi]

A short look back:

 

More than 5 years ago I started a 1910 Victory.

 

 

The starboard side was already prepared, the test piece was already made, but then a slow full stop: it didn't work the way I wanted ...

 

 

I wanted to glue the whole hull with 0.3 mm sheet plastic and engrave the plank edges.

 

But the thin sheet becomes so wavy because of the glue that it had to be taken off again. I also wanted to make the decorative strip out of brass, but that

didn't work either ...

 

When I was building the cutaway sections, I also noticed that it is elementary for the whole appearance that the windows are properly aligned and the crosses are neatly mounted, both of which could only be done with extreme effort at that time.

 

 

Aim was for that the rest should look as neat as this.

 

So go back to start ...

 

In good german tradition: Take a hammer, chisel and a rough file and start over again!

XXXDAn

[Kevin-the-lubber]

Coming from you, unsurprisingly beautiful Daniel. I'm guessing that since then you've taken to resin printing and some of the remaking will utilise that. Not that it doesn't come with it's own challenges. It really is time for someone to do a faithful CAD reproduction of the heller hull!

[dafi]

Thanks Kev, how the hell did you guess?

 

With the possibility of printed parts I finally saw the chance to mass-produce the window crosses in a neat ship shape fashion. To get the vertical alignment of the window panes, I had the idea to link opposite windows over a wooden rod. Therefore I constructed a window frame with an adapter behind it, so that you can pull out the stick trough one side and cover the hole with the square window pane in front.

 

 

Inside it looks like this ...

 

 

... and outside like that 🙂

 

 

Rods pulled out, gaps of the frame filled and trimmed, it looks good for now.

 

 

Instead of the polysterol sheet I used 300 gram paper cut in single planks. That could look like this.

 

 

You can also see that the window crosses are difficult to paint. The window panes are also still intransparent black.

 

But above all, the windows are difficult to align at an horizontal angle.

 

Therefore a new system. Window frame with cross on a "carriage" that stands on the deck and thus guarantees height and angle. The window pane can then be added from behind and be secured by a small frame.

 

 

Since these windows were square, and the decorative strip had to sit exactly at the top and bottom of the window, I put a piece of round rod in to align the decorative moulding.

 

 

And it looks very cute 🙂

 

 

 

XXXDAn

Edited January 18, 2022 by dafi

[Kevin-the-lubber]

13 minutes ago, dafi said:

how the hell did you guess

Oh, just sixth sense😊.

 

Clever. On my Mk2 hull I did something similar last year, using filament-printed inserts to simulate the thickening and lining. That was before I started  resin printing, which allows a much thinner minimum wall thickness and, when I go back to the Victory, I'll probably have another go using resin instead. Funnily enough, I was thinking the other day of using strips of photo-paper for planking but haven't got around to trying that out. As you may have noticed, my solution to difficult painting is to spend weeks and months making everything in separate parts.... it'd probably be easier if I just learned how to paint!

[dafi]

6 minutes ago, Kevin-the-lubber said:

it'd probably be easier if I just learned how to paint!

😂 😂 😂

[druxey]

Ingenious!

[dafi]

Thank you druxey!

 

Pictures from 1900 show exactly that all the whales had been removed. 

 

 

The middle middle whales of the kit can be easily filled up, only the lower ones stick out. So out the coarse file 🙂

 

 

The black sharpie line above and below the whale is for height control. The copper plates are protected with duct tape.

 

 

Then make a notch with the edge of the file to the required depth, i.e. to the black. If the notch is nice and even, then you have a nice depth control. And then the next notch next to it. And then blacken the notches and sand away the ridges between the notches and ...

 

 

... smooth as a child's bottom 😉

 

After filling in the spaces in between the whales, I did another installation test. Gluing in parts from the inside ...

 

 

... then trimm with a little excess. You need fast and sharp cutting disc, because the resin is quite brittle.

 

The excess material makes it easy to fill in and doesn't mess up the inside.

 

 

Cleaned up with the sanding tool and primed, it's already close to what I want.

 

 

And to make the whole thing easier to paint, now printed in white resin 😉

 

 

The matching frames for the window pane holders are also included and you can see the "gun carriage" well 🙂

 

XXXDAn

[dafi]

And then, once again, came catastrophies, confusion and bewilderment.

 

In some places the filling of the whales had come loose, so large-scale surgery.

 

 

But it got even more irritating when I only wanted to check if the front and back port windows were parallelogramming like the corresponding old gun ports. Only to find that the windows are not square at all ...

 

... mot de Cambronne ...

 

... and that they did not even sit on the top and bottom of the moulding as I believed before.

 

So I measured the different windows again and checked different ratios, as a model maker has to have reasonably reproducible measurements for the planks later. This attempt was too flat ...

 

 

... after another attempt, the size for the lower deck was finally better defined.

[dafi]

And then finally I was able to start. Open the gun port ...

 

 

... check from the outside that the width of the frame fits ...

 

 

... from the inside, that the height at the top is correct ...

 

 

... and finally clear the lower edge. The frame should touch the hull only on one side, the other side and top and bottom must have a minimum of

clearance, otherwise the frame body will bend quickly.

 

 

When glueing in the frames, you could also see nicely on the inside of the hull if the long "carriages" are properly aligned.

 

 

Then the whole appearence looks even.

 

 

Then cut the outside to the right length with a bit of excess ...

 

 

... fill ...

 

 

... neaten ...

 

 

... and that's how I had imagined it 🙂

 

 

Now just find the right window pane.

 

XXXDAn

[Hubac's Historian]

Astonishing - all of it!

[amateur]

Hi Daniel,

 

Are you going to remove the plastic parts on the inside, or is it just outside accuracy you are concerned with?

 

Jan

[dafi]

Thanks Marc and JAn.

 

No it will be an 'exterior only' model.

 

So far I have too little - or better almost none -  information about the inside. If someone has sources about that, you are more than welcome.

 

The outside is very well documented, there I have basically all I need, the quarterdeck too. Still missing good sources with details about the small booth on the poop deck and the forecastle with its new "top-forecastle".

 

I most possibly will reduce the carriages still for that the 45° parts of the sides won´t be visible. But all according to the order: "with safety to the masts windows"

 

XXXDAn

Edited January 19, 2022 by dafi

[Kevin-the-lubber]

I've never been terribly satisfied with my earlier methods of thickening and framing the gunports and, once or twice, thought about doing something similar to this. For me it's mostly been that it's difficult to get really crisp edges and corners when filing out the moulded holes and to get the port liners just right all the way along. Printed inserts partly solved it but not entirely. I hadn't thought about using a method like this for aligning and like it a lot - I think I'm now persuaded.

 

Whenever I've looked at the real Victory, including photos, the gunports all look dead square from the side or a tangent off the bow, but it's hard to be certain. The model has them becoming a bit 'parallelogram-ish' towards the bow and stern. Which is right?