st george

I hope HMS Bellona is on your list!

Hello dear friends, 
I am honoured reading your comments and responses to my work. I do appreciate them a lot. Thank you all very much. 
Well, I would like to continue and finish this model in maximum historical accuracy,  but I am not sure if I manage it. The rigging is quite complicated and I was not succesful to find plenty of details in available books. Although I have commercial plan of this ship, there are a lot of mistakes and nonsense, which I cannot apply to my model in any case. I do not want to give up although it would be possible to leave the model without rigging and finish the build even at this stage.
Please, if you have any drawings or documents suitable for English ships from the second half of the 17th century, especially the rigging, please share them here. It can help not only me but also other people interested in realistic design of such ships. I will be very grateful for that.
 
 
Yesterday I added remaining ropes to gunport lids on the upper deck and quarterdeck; the ropes in the middle/open section of the upper deck will be tied later.
 

Hubac's Historian: Hello and thank you for the recommendation. I have these books at home, they are very helpful but in some ways I find it very difficult to understand technical English. Despite a lot of quality drawings it is a pity that some important things are only mentioned or described in text, but there are not illustrative drawings of them, expecially detailed daigrams of a whole rope from its beginning to the end. Therefore it is very difficul for me to understand where and how it should be tied.

Today I have finished rest pieces of decoration. I find inspiration mainly in museum models and Van de Velde drawings.
 

And finally I have added required ropes - the spans on gunports lids on lower and middle deck. The upper ones will be completed later.
 

 
 
 
 

Making gunport lids from card and foils + brass rings.....
 

Fully armed Royal Katherine is now carrying 88 cannons.
 

 
 

Eight remaining guns for quarterdeck - "sakers":

 
I made two kinds of wooden carriages based on Endsor's book - the Restoration warship HMS Lenox. I suppose these kinds of carriages were also used on the Royal Katherine - the ship from almost the same period.
 

 

And here they are all complete:

Cheers
 
I never thought of laser cutting the gratings until a few days ago, as I know I tried it before, years ago, and the laser machine 'nuked' them( they looked like debris from L'Orient after she blew up at the Nile), so I figured the same would happen again. Plus it was too expensive when having to sub-contract anyway (as was adding the treenail marks in the etched decks). However, all new developments that have gratings will be laser cut.
 
Regarding the laser etched decks, I do like the look, and think they suit the smaller vessels (and help out the more novice modeller, who only has the hull planking to contend with). The problem with plywood (my preferred choice) is that half of every batch I buy is not suitable due to natural imperfections. The scrap rate is unacceptably high (I can still use the ply for all other laser cut ply parts, but not for decks). Even then, if I have to cut the etched deck in an area that has the fewest marks, this may be slap bang in the middle of the plywood sheet, rendering the rest of it unusable for anything else. I know that limewood is a lot more reliable, surface-wise, and does look nice when matt varnished for decks (I have seen dozens of models with such planked decks). Tanganyika sheet would be OK (colour-wise), but it would be a lottery as to whether the grain is too heavy or not in certain batches, as I know this particular wood quality varies from good to darn awful.
 
I do advise that low tack masking tape is applied to the top surface of the deck until all hull and bulwark planking is done

I am sure I spend half of my entire development time trying to think of the most easy and painless way a customer would like to put the parts together. I sometimes stop one aspect of the design and end up thinking about it for days before trying a few variations..

It would be nice to have a high quality deck that I didn't have to pencil edges of holly cut to fit and fill, then and drill in little holes... A very nice touch.  I've replaced the kit decking material on all my models, I'll look forward to not doing that this time.

Thank you for your praise and all the "likes", dear friends. I am happy you enjoy the pics and the progress.

Paper brings a huge range of options; it is possible to create almost everything using only ordinary modeling tools and it costs next to nothing (except spent work and time of course...). With every other model I can find a new and better application of this material. Of course, I prefer to make ornaments and scupltures from Modurit (this is my favourite modeling clay available in Czech Republic) and there is still opportunity to improve details and realism. Now I have made tiny reliefs for cannons,  8 of them will come for smaller cannons - sakers on the quarterdeck - these cannons will be made later. At the same time, I created other ornaments and placed them on the hull.
 

 
I use mainly photos of museum models for inspiration.

Thank you! It is a learning curve for me, and I find myself plunged into the deep end of certain aspects of processes I have thus far not had to worry about. I am not really a true 'businessman', but a designer, so am pretty crap with migraine-inducing sales patter. I am just happiest when designing the stuff I like (and hopefully what others would like), and trying to design the parts in a way that people will enjoy putting together. Also learning a lot about box art, manual layouts etc. they will get better..
 
OK, today I have no work (main job..). So I managed to re-design the Alert and Speedy laser engraved decks and also design the PE gratings so they can be offered as laser cut pearwood parts. These came out a lot better than I thought they would and will be laser cutting gratings in all new developments. I did two sets of each, one with just laser cutting and the other set, which I think looks better, both laser cutting and engraving. They haven't been cleaned up in any way, that is how they looked when removed from the laser machine (I ordered a special air nozzle for the laser, which focuses a more direct air flow on the parts the laser cuts, so less burning) Is it worth offering these as an optional extra? I ask because I cannot really included them in future kits until I run out of the original PE parts, then I can remove them and replace with the laser cut pearwood versions.
 
Is the Alert/Rattlesnake deck with laser engraved planking and treenails OK? I will most probably develop Alert's sister at some point (not for a long while though), and will use that deck. The Speedy deck has all hatch bordering removed, which was done quite a while ago, so should be filtering into the latest kits. I was hoping to cut these on my new 150mm limewood sheet, which should have arrived today, but didn't. So these are cut in 1mm ply.
 
Finally, a pic of my very latest, the second of my little 'beginner' kits. These are very first to be cut, to check basic overall fit. I am hoping these two little kits will have optional pre-made sail sets in the exact same quality as the Master-Korabel sail sets.
 
Right, back to checking these little Zulu parts...

Cheers guys
 
I am currently working on 2 beginner kits in concert, am hoping these won't take that long.
 
I have also designed a laser engraved deck for Alert/Rattlesnake, which I plan to cut a sample of later.

Thank you for your advice, dear friends, I greatly appreciate your help.
 
Johann:  Oh yes, I also have this picture available and it will certainly help me to make halyards.
Dave: That's exactly the thing I was looking for. In the books there is a good description, but the pictures are not complete - that confused me a little, but this is a right solution I will make on my model.
 
I am continuing with the demi-culverin cannons for the upper deck. They will be created will all details.
 

 


 
 
 
We also had to reinforce the shelf supports on which the model will be displayed. It already weighs more than 8 kg.
 

 
 

I haven't thought about that. Not sure I would feel comfortable asking for money. In fact, I know I wouldn't feel comfortable.
 
The big 3-decker's take 18-24 months to develop from conception to box art, and that's working full time on the development, so it's something that I wouldn't do yet anyway, especially when I am spending over 40 hours per week at my other job. I am hoping to get 5 or 6 kits out, and if they are selling OK, I would then quite my day job, take a leap of faith, and develop my new kits full time.

The one that is missing is the 1:64 version and if Amati delivers as promised i dont really see the point with another Victory considering that almost every manufacturer has one. 
 
There are so many other larger ship that are not available in 1:64 which would be great to see!

I have been very much involved in the development of two large Victory kits, I have to be honest and say that I do not want to be involved in another. I have done that one to death. I would very much like to develop a 64th scale model of Royal George of 1756 at some point though. But no more 1805 Victory models.

Slow going this week, a full time job really is a hindrance!
 
This week, I finalised the open and closed heart blocks and have now laser cut a few sets of each and are now available to buy:
 
https://vanguardmodels.co.uk/product-category/fittings
 
They range in size from 6-11mm, 6 sizes for each open and closed heart block and all cut in 1mm pear wood, 4 blocks per set.
 
After I did those, I carried on honing the designs for the little beginners kit, and have now started to build and take pics of the prototype model. Am hoping to get this finished pretty quickly but, again, my day job is still a huge barrier to progress..
 
ETA - Forget to add, the new Speedy and Alert are now fully updated and all options to buy with the kits available. All new kit laser cutting is now done in-house.

Did some more work on the heart blocks, and feel they are almost there, just a little more tweaking.
Also, I have been thinking about doing a couple of small beginners kits, but easy to build and using quality materials, like pearwood laser cut parts and planking, and laser etched deck. I made a little start on one..
 
And finally, yesterday I was seeing what I could do with engraving options, and I did a few coasters!

Thank you very much, guys, that’s a great idea. They really could be lifts for the ship’s boats. I would like to place them on my model as well. I assumed that these ropes should be easily detachable in order to use the capstan. 
 
I have just finished other 14 pieces of demi-culverin for upper deck. The last 18 pices (10x demi-culverin for upper deck and 8x saker for quarterdeck will be made with all details).
 

Hello dear friends,
I am really honoured reading your praise and kind words, I do appreciate your comments and likes a lot. Thank you very much for your support. 
Well, there are always various things or details I would like to improve in my work. Nobody is perfect, but it is a good motivation - trying to do things better.... This card model could by one of the most successful I have ever created, and also the most challenging. Hope I will finish the Royal Katherine this year, but there are plenty of problems to solve - especially some parts of rigging.  
 
Hello Jan,
You are right - these cannons are different - here are some documents according to which I made cannons for the Royal Katherine;

in the aft section on lower deck there are the longest cannons (Culverin) with lower caliber - in this picture are in a red frame:
 

 
 
And now I am continuing with other 14 cannons ( demi-culverin) for upper deck:
 

 
Have a great time and enjoy the pics. 

Thank you for your kind words and all the "likes", dear friends. 
The cannons are finally placed inside the model; all are movable and able to adjust in height. Now the Royal Katherine looks much more like a warship.
 


Have a Happy New Year 2020 and plenty of health, love and joy.
 

Hello Jan, 
yes, there is visible only front part of these cannons so I have decided not to make unnecessary details on their aft side. Some of them I even had to shorten because there are reinforcement and stiffeners inside the hull.
On the other hand, the cannons on upper decks will be made in great detail, because everything will be well visible.