HMS Victory by knotty74 - Billing Boats - Scale 1:75 - first ever ship build, wood or otherwise

[knotty74]

Fig 11: Decoration on beakhead fascia

 

Fig 10 was some of the detailed top-work on the stern gallery but that couldn't be done until the hull planking (Fig 9) had been done and so I skipped to Fig 11 for now and simply painted and added the yellow overlay onto the blue background. Lots of other work to come back to on Fig 11 but too delicate to do for now without the hull planking being done.  

Edited January 21, 2015 by knotty74

[knotty74]

Fig 12: Kitting out the poop deck

 

Lots of work to do here. Firstly, the ship's wheels needed putting together and placing in situ. As this was always going to be a more "representative" model, ie the best I could do it, with some extra bits bought over and above the basic kit without going too silly, rather than a 100% attention to every last detail kind of attempt, I decided to leave the wheels brass as I thought they looked too pretty to paint.

 

The skylight, signal flag storage, belaying pin bench and railings were all fairly straightforward constructions. One thing I will be adding having viewed some of the other build logs on here now is some miniature flags in the storage gaps and leaving it open.

Edited January 21, 2015 by knotty74

[knotty74]

A quick nod to some of the main reference books I have used:

 

1. Owners' Workshop Manual - HMS Victory (Haynes)
2. Building Plank-On-Frame Ship Models (Ron McCarthy)
3. The New Period Ship Handbook (Keith Julier)
4. The Wooden Fighting Ship in the Royal Navy AD860-1860 (EHH Archibald)

Aware I need to get the "anatomy" book at some point.

[CTDavies]

Looks like it's an incredible kit. Also, the instructions look amazing. Nice build, of course

--Chris

[Gundorph]

Ahh my mistake... sorry but still looks good for a first timer...

[knotty74]

Figure 13: Quarterdeck ladder and the main quarterdeck frame

 

Continued to put off the hull planking (probably wrongly but it was over-facing me as a prospect) and so set about some of the work to be done on and around the quarterdeck. Stairway assembled and placed and the aperture frame assembled and painted before slotting into the gap in the framed deck.

 

Just put one cross-member in for now for added strength, as need to leave room for access to put the guns in once the hull planking has been done and I've stopped turning her upside down.

Edited January 22, 2015 by knotty74

[knotty74]

Fig 16: Quarterdeck to poop stairs

 

Fig 14 is a lot of the building up of the beakhead framing and Fig 15 is more work on/around the foc'sle, so I skipped to Fig 16, seeing as I was working on/around the quarterdeck anyway at this point and put together the stairways up to the poop. A little harder to get these right due to the angling and fitting into situ required. Also added the black racks etc shown.

Edited January 22, 2015 by knotty74

[knotty74]

Boyd - having seen your build now, I'm torn as to what to do about the planked-over hatchways. Clearly, they're not "right" but they're more difficult to access (could still be done) but they really won't be seen much as I've bought some additional boats to go over the skid-beams. So I'm thinking it might be easier to leave the ones that will be almost totally hidden and just paint the planking that is in the hatches black so it just looks like the hole disappears below decks.

[clearway]

Looking good so far there- would seriously advise planking her before adding too much detail as you will be holding the hull at some crazy angles lol. You can check Boyd's and mine logs for planking references- i just single skinned my hull with the billings planking strips provided.

Keith

[knotty74]

Fig 15: Forecastle

 

The plans showed 3 gratings, 2 belaying pin benches and some more work on the beakhead railing. This was all painted, assembled and placed in situ.

 

The plans also showed (and provided) 2 'L'-shaped cannonball holders. So next purchase was some 3mm black steel balls to make them look more authentic.

Edited January 22, 2015 by knotty74

[knotty74]

Fig 9: Hull planking

 

Ok, so finally got to the point where I could no longer put it off. Never built a wooden ship model before so this was going to be my first attempt at hull planking. Faced with just long, and fairly thick, strips of planking materials, even just holding one of them up against the hull and seeing the level of both curve and twist required, I wondered how on earth I was going to get this to look at all acceptable!

 

This, so far, is the biggest bit that the instructions were unhelpful for. Clearly, having now had one attempt at doing this, hull planking is an art form that is difficult to do and there is certainly a knack to it. I have included the Fig 9 page that you get by way of "instruction"! 

 

I'd read that you can take some of the pain out of the job by essentially cutting the strips in half and just planking from amidships to the bow, then amidships to the stern. This generally then means that you only have to deal with one curve at a time. This will be a painted model and so as my filling, sanding and painting is good enough, then this join shouldn't be too obvious come the finish.

 

I stood the half-cut (had they been on the rum?!) planks into a tall vase of boiling water and let them soak for half an hour, I then simply used my thumb and forefinger to start to bend them into shape and then back into some fresh hot water to bend the bow sections and stern sections round to the required level of curve. This seemed to work fine and I didn't need to invest in plank nippers etc.

 

I'd sanded down the bulkheads where needed by dry fitting each hull plank and seeing where they barely touched due to the curvature, so once each plank was curved as required, I started laying them. I started at the waterline, effectively where the earlier, wider, hull planking strips finished and worked my way downwards and forwards. During dry-fitting, I realised that that approach wouldn't really work for the stern, due to the curving upwards, so started at the keel and went the opposite way, using stealers to fill in any remaining gaps.

Edited January 23, 2015 by knotty74

[knotty74]

Hull planking continues

 

So overall, I know it probably looks very unconventional and not at all how it should have been done but she has now had one set of filling, sanding and priming and is, at least, no longer a skeletal-looking shell. I think I'll need at least 2 more runs of filling, sanding and priming to get to a finish that I'll be happy to paint.

 

In terms of progress on the actual ship, this is where I got up to and the point I will carry on from.

 

Took from July 2012 to March 2014 to get to this point.

Edited January 23, 2015 by knotty74

[shihawk]

Hi Chris , just wanted to let you know about a small mistake in the plans . Parts 42 A and 42 B seem to have swapped places . You may have figured it out already but as i just discovered it so thought i,d let you know . Any thoughts on painting the hull or buying copper plates/ tape ??

[knotty74]

Stern taffrail

 

I decided to have a break from the planking and so had a go at seeing if my small-scale painting was going to be any good. The taffrail that comes with the kit is a piece of naff ply and so I bought the cast one from CMB. Very pleased with how it came out.

Edited January 26, 2015 by knotty74

[knotty74]

Thanks, Boyd. I hadn't got to that bit so thanks for the heads-up on the numbering error.

 

Re the hull bottom, I think I'm just going to paint it. I've not got the skill for copper plates and I don't really like the shiny orange finish that it produces either (personal taste). Will also help to cover up some of my planking deficiencies (without creating something else to not be correctly aligned!)

[knotty74]

Some other miniature painting work: The crew

 

Decided ultimately I want to show her with some crew members onboard. Got quite a few gun crew, midshipman, powder monkeys to ultimately paint but for now, just had a go at some of the officers I have.

Edited January 26, 2015 by knotty74

[knotty74]

Guns

 

Had a go at putting together the basic guns and adding some breeching rope for the lower deck (where you can't see it join the hull wall, so don't need to overcomplicate it at the front of the gun).

 

Need to still add some eyebolts on the side (bought some black wire to do so with) and some more rigging at the back etc but thought I'd upload them anyway for no given this is where I have got to.

Edited January 26, 2015 by knotty74

[knotty74]

Final couple of atmospheric shots of the lower deck with some of the extra details (shot round the hatches etc) on the gun deck.

 

This is now up to date with where I am now!

Edited January 26, 2015 by knotty74

[Gundorph]

Great pictures...

[knotty74]

Slightly indulgent digression from my build log but thought you lads might like to see my new house name plate (moved in end of Oct 14):

Edited January 27, 2015 by knotty74

[knotty74]

Saw an idea for adding signal flags to the storage on the poop. I'd read about wrapping kitchen roll round brass wire and daubing it in glue and then paint. Like the idea of having flags in principle but came up with the idea of using coloured ribbon instead, as this would be more like the correct texture. I've cut along the seam of the ribbon to stop it fraying too much and then folded it over and using tweezers, dipped each tiny piece in PVA then slotted them into the apertures. One side done, the other to do. Shows the difference. 

Edited February 3, 2015 by knotty74

[knotty74]

Both sides done now and ruler shows how small it is.

Edited February 5, 2015 by knotty74

[shihawk]

I can,t remember , it,s so long since i looked at the instructions but are you building in the sequence they recommend ,or as i do ,whatever i feel like ???

BTW  Flag stores look great !

[knotty74]

Thanks, Boyd. At least you know exactly the size of the "holes" I'm dealing with!

 

I'm building roughly in line with the instructions. I deviated a bit once I got to the planking and got a bit bored. However I've got to the point where I need to do a lot more of the deck furniture, cement in the lower deck guns and build up the beakhead etc and so I don't want to do/can't do that until I've finished the rest of the hull, or I'll end up causing damage.

 

So next steps are the re-sanding and filling (x2) of the entire hull but I also need to finish planking over and round the gunports. I can then paint in the stripes and the copper bottom.

[Shipyard sid]

Greetings Chris

Just found your log, and all seems to be coming along fine. So we have another Victory build going on. One thing you will never be short of is advice from all of the Victory builders and other members on this cracking site. I myself look forward to watching your build progress, and my own advice is what other members will advise is take your time. Yep it's going well. DAVID

[knotty74]

Thanks, David. Yes, given it's a first build (even for a marine engineering grad - albeit that was 20 years ago now) I've definitely been taking my time. 2.5 years of it so far! Back on it now, having had a house-move induced sabbatical.

[pompey2]

Hi Chris

 

Nice to see another Pompey lad on the site.

And as well as that in common I am also modelling the Victory, and have been for some time!!

Obviously it had to be done at some time.

I have been looking through your log, it looks like a great job, especially if this is a first, you should be proud.

I will have to keep up to date with your progress,

 

Anyway, time to get down to the Still and West

 

Nick

Edited February 6, 2015 by pompey2

[knotty74]

Hi Nick, good to see Tubbsy off the mark on Saturday. Indeed, as Pompey lads, "Vicky" was a must at some point! Thank you for your kind words about my progress so far. This is definitely my first one!

[knotty74]

Binnacle

 

Few hours spare this week so did a couple of smaller jobs. First one was building the binnacle. The manual just showed the wood provided, so I've added brass eyelets and some rope 'stays' for added authenticity. Eyelets already added to secure it to the deck once the hull planking has been done.

Edited February 9, 2015 by knotty74

[knotty74]

Ladders

 

4 x ladders from the quarterdeck down to the upper gundeck. Again manual just shows the wood in the kit, so I've added some brass handrails myself.

Edited February 9, 2015 by knotty74