Jeff-E

Hello All,
The stern fascia was fitted next and planked.
       
       
The carronade deck blocks were also fitted along with the eyebolts for the gun tackle but only in the ports where the guns are not being fitted because the guns will be rigged off the ship and then fitted. The sides were painted yellow ochre and the holes drilled for the bowsprit and anchor cables.
      
       
The scuppers were also fitted according to the plans.
All comments welcome.
Thanks for looking and the likes.

Hello All, 
The coppering of the hull continues.
     
      
The plates that go along the keel were bent in half along their length and placed one either side so that the join line will be underneath the model and won't be seen.
      
      
       
The inner bulwarks were also painted and the coamings fitted for the gratings and the main hatch.
       
        
All comments welcome.
Thanks for looking and the likes.

Thank you everyone for all the likes and the comments!

All guns that require breech ropes, have them:

The first set of guns have their tackle (inhaul anyways, the outhaul wouldn’t fit).

Tonight I finished the last two sets of fore top gallant back stays, bot are those 2mm deadeyes damn small!!
Next I stepped the main mast and secured it with a temp set of back stays and clamps

Once the glue dried on the foot of the mast, it was time to rig the first of the shrouds.  I decided to try something new for the main mast shrouds, and inserted two standard Staples into a deadeye and bent over the legs

I then rigged the set of shrouds as previous and looped them carefully around the deadeyes and tied a simple knot and secured with a dot if glue.

Once the glue dried, I carefully clipped and removed the staples and rigged the deadeyes as normal.

At this point I rigged the main fore stay, kinda tricky in and around all the shrouds around the foot of the fore mast, and anchored this to the main top, locking the main mast in place.
Before I can continue to rig the main, I need to order more rigging line, ran through the small spools I bought already.
 
While I wait for the new order, I'm planning to start forming and setting up the yards, so they'll be ready once I finish the standing rigging.
 
Thanks for reading and offering advise and support.
 
Hoser
 

Thanks everyone, I'm quite proud of it.
 
Y.T. ---  Plastic kits are all plastic, no wood. Where my topmasts and topgallant masts etc. were unpainted wood, I painted the plastic with a suitable light base coat colour (suitable for a pine spar) then dry-brushed sparingly with Humbrol matt khaki, then applied a coat of Humbrol satin varnish. This is one of the things I learned on Pete's web site and I was amazed at how easy it is to make plastic look like wood. I used wood dowels or bicycle spokes on the inside to stiffen them when gluing halves together.
 
As for blocks, the Heller kit does indeed supply "blocks" but they bear little resemblance to blocks.  Most people building this kit discard them and buy after-market wooden blocks. I recommend the beautiful ones from https://www.syrenshipmodelcompany.com/
 
Speaking of discarding, the Heller kit has many shortcomings which I will just mention now to forewarn potential builders:
 
It comes with two odd colours of thread in a couple of sizes, and recommends dying in tea or coffee(!?).  I discarded it and bought Amati rigging thread in about seven different diameters and two colours.  I also learned about this thread on that website. 
 
Plastic deadeyes are hard to mold.  To have the three holes, the mold must pull apart from the two faces of the deadeye, but then it is not possible to mold a groove around the circumference to encourage the shroud to stay in place. Heller did their best, adding a single ring around the circumference which prevents the thread from slipping off in one direction only. I found this impossible to rig and followed the advice on the website i.e. discard the deadeyes and buy wooden ones. I wish Heller had simply molded the deadeyes in two halves which we could glue together and save some money.
 
The kit does not include the chains for the shrouds. They show a half-assed method involving loops of thread. The solution is to buy one of Daffy's brass etch sheets which provides beautiful chains and preventers as here:

The kit lacks any means of attaching the yards to the masts. In the case of the lower yards, this is sort of ok because they were restrained by rope truss pendants which you can rig but you need to know where to add eyebolts to the deck to rig properly. For the other yards you need to make parrals of some form; see previous photos for one of mine made with small seed beads and small pieces of wood.
 
Those are the major issues.  There are others, like the difficulty painting the stern moldings and figurehead shield due to uncrisp molding, the plastic hammock stanchions with no holes which are best replaced with Daffy's etch, the complete lack of guide pins when gluing things like cannon barrels and spars, horrendously awful rigging notes in the instructions (buy a book), and for the completely detail-oriented the erroneous deck plank shift pattern.
 
But for all that, it builds up into what is widely considered the finest and most accurate plastic ship model on the market.

Little progress:
1) allmost done with captains cabin windows. Painted and will remove tapes tomorrow. Probably some minor repairs with paint still to come. 
Used Revell email color here. First test was much more lighter but i like the shine-creates glass like look.
 
2) working on main mast. Changed Occre brown ropes to black ones-have some benefits as father has sewing machines company. Ropes look really nice dark black and isnt hairy as Occres. Also accoring to instruction its supposed to be black.
 
3) varnised some part of hull to see how its looking. Also sanded it with grit 800. Thats the reason why its little gray.
 
4) keel has brass glued. Apparently CA came loose few times. I think problem was that i didnt sand the surface. After installing keel(probably next time) i can move on to deck.

Hello All, 
The coppering of the hull continues.
     
      
The plates that go along the keel were bent in half along their length and placed one either side so that the join line will be underneath the model and won't be seen.
      
      
       
The inner bulwarks were also painted and the coamings fitted for the gratings and the main hatch.
       
        
All comments welcome.
Thanks for looking and the likes.

25 gun ports completed with 16 left on the starboard side then it's off to the port side.  These micro drill bits from  Harbor Freight worked out great so far.  $7.99 minus 20% coupon.  Will come in handy for the rest of this build.

I had a build log on the now apparently defunct "HMS Victory Modeller's Knowledge Repository..." by Pete Coleman, but all this is gone now. I thought I'd just show a handful of progress shots, and the completed project.  I never could have built her like she came out without that web site; it's a shame about it. For any readers contemplating a build, know that there are now available seven sheets of brass etch to enhance the kit. Everything from accurate shroud chains to nice stanchions to trigger locks for the cannon. They are superlative, although I only ordered two as this was my first model in decades and I had never seen brass etch to that point in time.
 
You can find the brass etch here:
http://www.dafinismus.de/plates_en#anker2
 
Never served thread before.  After reading about serving machines I made one out of my old meccano.  Here are the first served shrouds around the foremast head.  The deadeye strops are brass etch. I later changed the jeer block lashings to natural colour, just to make them jump.

 
My serving machine.
 

 
I bought this kit in the early 80's.  The decals crumbled to bits when I wet them, so I ordered adhesive vinyl lettering for the figurehead. I painted the false panels blue instead of black because I liked the look with all the other blue trim.

 
The brass etch binnacle, with (barely visible) lantern and compasses. Home-made post and rails at the poop deck ladders. Syren 2mm blocks on the cannon tackle. Larger brass rod belaying pins so my big clumsy hands could tie off to them. Notice the brass etch boarding pikes on the mainmast. Hammock netting from HobbyLobby, on brass etch stanchions. Added brass handrails down the main companionway ladder. Ready to proceed with rigging.

First look at masts plunked in dry assembled. Looking like a ship!

Lower shrouds complete.

Psychedelic mizzen ratline guide from cereal box.  Why not the blank side, you ask?  I have no idea now.

Home-made topsail yard parral.

The main top. A good look at the futtock shrouds, the mainyard sling, and the jeers timber hitched to the yard. Catharpins visible aft of the mast. Also seen are the foreyard braces and blocks. The mainstay and preventer mice were made by gluing beads to the stays then wrapping in thread. I did not attempt to actually stitch the cross threads on the mice. Note also the serving on both stays around the mast. The bullseye pairs lashing the ends of the topgallant shrouds are just inboard of the topmast shroud deadeyes. As I mentioned before the jeer block lashings are natural to enhance the aesthetic, at least in my eye. Amusing story - when I ordered the large wood blocks for the fore and main jeers, and the cat blocks, I ordered six from the supplier. Unfortunately I did not read closely enough and received six packs of multiple blocks which I am unlikely to ever need in the future. It wasn't worth the postage to send them back to the UK and pay their restock fee. 🙄

After-market stream anchor lashed to port sheet anchor. Anchor buoys, one of which is attached to the port bower anchor, lashed to shrouds. Brass etch chains replace Heller's ridiculous proposed scheme using thread and over-sized strops on the lower deadeyes. Note the evergreen lining inside the gunports to give the plastic hull a more realistic thickness. Each gunport lid received four brass etch eyes, one pair inside and one outside for the lanyards.
 

A good look at the brass etch futtock hooks. I cheated on the futtocks/catharpins by forming each set from one continuous thread running from hook to hook. Tying the true-to-life knots was just beyond necessary, for me.

The stern. What a pain to paint the not-very-precisely-defined decorative elements especially the ballusters (and those lanterns) !

Decided to use evergreen strips to enhance the ships boats, whose hulls are rather bare as supplied. For example the launch. Speaking of which, Heller supplies fewer boats than she had, mostly at wrong lengths. I shortened one of the supplied hulls and augmented the set with others from my parts shoebox.

The set. The pinnace and Admiral's barge are painted according to the whims of the officers and the Admiral respectively. Other "working" boats are all the same colours. The blue pinnace was fun to do with its additional trim at bow and stern.

 
Nearly there!  Decided to rig bowlines too, hitched to yards.

Copied Blue Ensign's idea to make little Lord Nelson and Captain Hardy figures. Faces aren't very good but ok to naked eye. Nelson's legs were broken and a slice removed at the knees since he was a relatively short man whereas Hardy was tall. Hats fashioned from Evergreen. The donor figures, again out of the old shoebox, were left over from the Revell Constitution I made in the 70's.

Had a cast acrylic case made for her, atop a cherry cabinet I made for the purpose.  Sat three of the boats on the shelf to allow viewer to see down to the upper deck through the skid beams, but really you cannot see even the cannon rigging on quarterdeck.  At least my eyes cannot.  Print hung above is Geoff Hunt's "England Expects", depicting "Victory" among the British fleet approaching the combined fleet, at walking pace on a near windless day, on the morning of Trafalgar.

yes you are right,but the journey is important not the destination,so to make that, is my hobby even will cover from the second deck...i will know that i make it all...

Hello All, 
The coppering of the hull continues.
     
      
The plates that go along the keel were bent in half along their length and placed one either side so that the join line will be underneath the model and won't be seen.
      
      
       
The inner bulwarks were also painted and the coamings fitted for the gratings and the main hatch.
       
        
All comments welcome.
Thanks for looking and the likes.

Thank you Mugje, this kit is pretty good built straight out of the box but a few simple enhancements make it that little bit better.

Hello All, 
The coppering of the hull continues.
     
      
The plates that go along the keel were bent in half along their length and placed one either side so that the join line will be underneath the model and won't be seen.
      
      
       
The inner bulwarks were also painted and the coamings fitted for the gratings and the main hatch.
       
        
All comments welcome.
Thanks for looking and the likes.

Lining of gun port on lower gun deck on port side is done. Lining is done from a balsa tube (shown by other builders here at MSW) made from 1 mm balsa. It is a fast and simple method of lining the gun ports and ensures that each gun port gets the same size and correct rectangular shape.


Regards
 
Henrik

I have finish the first deck. I glue it in place and this is the result. I have apply two layers of mat transparent varnish for protection. Now the next step is the planking of the second deck, and that will cover the most part of the first. To be continued.....

All guns are now installed:

Hey There Jason ..  Ermmm  I may have slightly oversold my knowledge re Main Booms,  just slightly !  LOL (I would deffo recognise one though 😄 )
 
...  Here are a few photos.. Yup! Actual Photos Woo Hoo.
 
They are of The End of the Main Boom, a Sample Mast Hoop and The Boom support on the Mast with Mast Hoop for scale..
 
The photo of the Mast Hoop by itself is of the Hoop in its 'raw' state, made from wood shavings wrapped around a suitable sized dowel, in this case a round profile pencil, then glued..  Once the glue has set I put the whole assembly into a mini wood lathe and holding (carefully at both ends!) a craft knife I gently lowered the blade to the revolving pencil till the rings were separated..  It is un-sanded and pretty much straight from manufacture, I lightly cleaned it up and sanded it gently on the other photo, it still needs further sanding cleaning and staining.  I made approx 15 with this method in very short time, I will use the best 8 or so (further research needed here lol)
Any Questions please ask away.. Particularly about Ballahoo Schooner Booms circa 1805 😉  Spoiler Alert.. They are Wooden !
 
All The Very Best Folks And Thanks For Dropping By And Giving A Like..
 
Eamonn
 

The Victory has been moved again, and is in her new home.

Have been focusing on fittings last couple of nights and also started masts.
plannis to prepare them as much as possible and then install them all to get that wow effect to myself.
 
As seen on photos i have some mistakes:
1) hole in the deck at front of the ship. No idea how to repair it. Thought maybe front mast will hide it a bit and put some barrels there or ropes.
2) Back of the ship some part got black and also no idea what to do. Only solution seems to paint it. Or then just leave it as worn out?

Pained part of deck black where hatch will be-seemed like a good idea.
 
Progress is slow but im most afraid of the rigging. Have recived few books on that so lets hope for the best.

I see that quality for first build isnt the best. Trying to do my best but i accepted it as learning progress. Next ship will be Caldercraft HMS Cruiser of Master Korabel Polotsk.

Thank you Mugje, this kit is pretty good built straight out of the box but a few simple enhancements make it that little bit better.

Hello All,
The deck planking was completed and an imitation of trunnels was added, they were made by drilling a 0.3mm hole and colouring it with a lead pencil. Trunnels were only added across the lines where there were butt joints, as I thought adding them in between as well would look to cluttered. I am quite happy with the result.
      
       
        
As you can see in the last photo the inner bulwark planks have also been fitted and the first two gun ports opened up. The first plank was painted red before it was fitted to avoid paint getting on the deck when painting them.
        
And some more coppering was also done.
       
        
All comments welcome
Thanks for looking and the likes.

Hello All, 
The coppering of the hull was also started. This is only my second attempt at coppering and the first attempt on a full hull.
    
    
     
And some more of the deck planking was done.
     
     
You may also notice how the deck planks are joggled into the margin plank at the bow and the stern.
Comments always welcome.
Thanks for looking and the likes.
 

Hello All,
Very good advice Spyglass, I have a box for offcuts and left over parts, timber strips ect from previous builds.
 
The margin planks were fitted and covered the gaps between the deck and the bulwarks nicely.
    
     
     
The deck planking was then started. I decided to go with the three butt shift plan as suggested in the instructions as I believe it is the best fit for this deck. The two centre planks were laid full length, one either side of the centre line, and the deck openings were cut out and the planking patten was started on the outside of each of these planks.
     
      
The remaining planks will be joggled into the margin planks as required at the bow and the stern.
All comments welcome.
Thanks for looking and the likes.
 

Hello All,
I fitted the false deck next so I could alternate between coppering the hull and planking the deck. I was a bit nervous about cutting and breaking the horns off the top of the bulkheads, especially the ones in the bow area, as I did not want to cause any damage to the gunport patterns they were glued to. In the end I need not have worried by cutting 3/4s of the way through the horn with a flexible razor saw and then gently twisting them with a pair of pliers, as suggested in the manual, they came away quite cleanly leaving only a few small bumps to clean up with a needle file.
A centre line was then marked on the deck as were the positions of the bulkheads and it was then glued and pinned into place.
    
     
The deck fitted in well with no issues bar a few small gaps in some places which will be covered easily. I wanted to fit margin planks to the deck and while I was mulling over what timber to use and how best to shape it I was browsing some of the completed builds of this model on this site and came across Blue-Ensign's excellent build and he had the brilliant idea of using the outside of the sheet used to hold the false deck as it already had the shape of the deck and no bending would be required. Thank you Blue Ensign.
So I cut the 'margin' planks out of he deck surround and stained them with baltic pine. Unfortunately the end of one side broke off as I was cutting it but it will be OK as I squared the edges up and hopefully it won't be noticed when it is fitted.
    
All comments welcome.
Thanks for looking and the likes.
                   
 
 

Thank you Mugje, this kit is pretty good built straight out of the box but a few simple enhancements make it that little bit better.