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Why the heck did this lovely build escape to me before? Wonderfully done, Daniel

Nice to see your little one back online! Regards, Daniel

Great and neat work!!! Love it, Daniel

Oh I forgot to tell you about the opened window :-) Did you already spot him? Who??? Sir Archibald of course, who would have made a mess with the air in the mess if his comrades would´t have asked him to enhace air quality inside the ship by opening the window :-) So into the cabin, putting the coat onto the hook and sit down and hang loose ... ... and there he is sitting on his lower end at the lower and of the ship and enjoys life and being - and especially the thought, that he does not have to sit on the seats of ease at the head :-) Him looking a little bit strained is due to the dignity and the sincerity of his task - and due to the fact that while being painted ... ... ouch, have a look and feel with him: Ok, we let him now concentrate onto his task, even though I have the feeling that he will be sitting there for a while ... Three cheers for Sir Archibald, sincerily yours, Daniel

Oh, I forgot: I also reworked the mariners walk. On the top gave it some structure around the gratings and some framing on the bottom suiting the original construction :-) This made the walk slightly thicker which improved the appearance. The passanges for the stays are not adapted yet. All the best, Daniel

Were/are they plain white or is this the same light mint-grey-petrol-tone used for the walls of the admirals day-cabin? I always thought them to by white (whitewash) but after looking at a lot of pictures I am not so shure any more. Lots of pictures show a slight greenish teint that I thought to come from the glazing. One more etape finished on the final lap of the year! The side galleries are fixed again!!! Looks immediately much more victorious. Had them fixed already before but operated them off to redo the glazing bars about a year ago. Even though some small touch-ups on the paint still to be done, they are now destined to stay on :-) The window of the side gallerie is opened, will tell you why afterwards :-) But opening that window prooved to be one of the toughest jobs so far, by cutting the bars out, I suddenly had three ... Refixing the parts and building a fitting frame was just what a young lad needs - patience ;-) Then I made some lanterns for that nobody - in the dark - ... ... does stupid things as sodomy was rewarded with a nice yardarm dance. The top floor lantern is fixed on the side pocket. And of course, while fixing the gap to the hull, some glue ran down on the inside of the gallerie, ruining the top window glazing ... OK, low voice cursing, taking down the gallerie again - by now already routine - taking off the old spoilt window, replacing the glazing, refixing the gallerie and being more lucky this time. Greetings, Daniel Does any body has a clue for my enlightment? Happy Christmas greetings, Daniel

The great find that the CA-glue does not leave fog on the transparent foil led to the glazing of the stern-windows. The glue holds very well, the lower row is already done, the middle is waiting to be glued, held in position by a clamp and spread by a toothpick for faster working. Next was the outside of sidepockets and drop, here to remember the original on my model in 2004: Perhaps one realised on some of the previous pictures that I already took off the lower part of the carvings ;-) The small lower end I turned from wood. The rest is sheet 0,5 mm. First task: The drop has completely different proportions and form than the original. So I had to adapt the design. Glueing the upper part with dichlormethan I realised how this glue softens the material :-) So I used this effect on both parts to make nice mouldings into the material on all parts ... ... put a little bit colour ... ... a little bit of ink ... ... and here we go :-) The overview much more close to the original size. Grüßle, Daniel

Hy dear victorian people, look what I just unearthed from my vaults and shiver with devotion ;-) This piece I got on my first visit in 1991 in the museums shop with certificate. Guess it is not 1765 but I still think where I could incorporate a part of it into my model :-) Huurrrrrrrrrraaaaaaaahhhhh!!!! Finally after several weeks on having to concentrat onto the job I found some time to work on my Vic :-) Here some before and after shots of the binnacle. Inbetween Mk1, a try that I did beeing tired after the job, witch turned out to be too big ... Here is Mk1´s frame from Ureol ... ... compasses and lamp, then the great surprise, that the superglue does not affect the overhead-foil used to cover the front!!! Great to know for the stern! The front cover is from 0,5 mils sheet. The chimney is 1 mm wire with the now famous copper foil around, the head is the foil pressed into a hole with suitable diameter. Here are the plans for rebuilts ;-) AND: As I used to be an art student the palette is - as it always was - the highlight of the working sessions :-) XXXDAn

Happy to see you back too, Kats! As always great to see your phenix once more rising out off her own ashes :-) XXXDAn

Hello Marc and Greg, my pleasure, thank you :-) The nameplate is not a Heller bug, it represents the nameplate as it was on display while the model was made :-0 The new nameplate was designed on the computer and then cut out in a shop that does the foils for car branding or window displays. Best to have 3 to try out first on an old model. Regards, Daniel

Hello B.E., it is a mystery to me too, why even the best 1805 models are showing the feathers of wales, thet came just about 1823 from the HMS Prince of Wales when she was demolished ... Even though the Livesay drawing is undefined in this area, one of the common items on this place is the crown. So it was a natural choice to me, as the side entrance port shows the same motive. As the photographs of 1900 show a completely different stern, my personal conjecture is, that in the 1930 reconstruction, the Livesay drawings were used as guide. Cheers, Daniel

Hy-ho-Victory-go :-) Took some time while the last substancial entry. In the meantime I was fixing some sink marks ... ... and get the right material for the nettings, thanks Maurice!: (in the background you can see the old flynet) And then inally this weekend ... ... back to the end of the ship :-) Got the balusters and decoration primed properly and had to think about replacing the feathers. As there is nothing to disdinguished at the Livesays drawing I draw the conclusion, that usually in the middle of the coat of arms should be a crown. This can also be seen at the side entrance. Bingo. So I had an idea what to build :-) Then started the acentuation of the balusters of the stern: See the difference it makes as the not yet done part in the bottom left looks really flat. Looks a little bit chaotic in this immense close-up, but at original size this gives a great effect of depth. The coat of armes with the new made crown ... (the white bits is to cover the original holes for the lamps which I realised a little bit too late) ... and of course the whole in one go :-) Amicalement, Daniel

I managed to use sone free time to put some things onto the road this weekend. Lately some new and interesting version on replacing the aft nameplate popped up here. I already had prepared yet another version using plottcutted car adhesive foil Prepared the size on the computer, and send it to the manufacturer, got it back ready to use and putted on place. The colour applied in thin dry layers ... ... and a couragous pull ... ... and it already looks great :-) First toches of paint ont the frames, a set of eight boltrings ... ... and finishing the paint, the pillars and the decoration will still take a little bit. I did some more trials on the nets, using mosquito nets. Good base to continue the research. The garlic nets proofed to be to unstable. Now we have garlic for the rest of the year ... And a small detail I was looking foreward already for a long time: the holes for the elmtree pumps - could not resist putting them :-) Gruß, Daniel

... and on to the extreme front: The decoration in place (the net was just a trial)... ... lettering is still missing, perhaps the photoetched, let´s see. The beakhead bulkhead (one of my favourite technical terms) got a beam on decklevel the is need for keeping the construction stable. Doors will come at a later stage as everything is only snaped in place. The posts got small holes for the for the rigging ... ... and the outer most post was recreated as it is needed for the rail. The tree-slotted cathead was shown already, has its crown and now the cleat is much thinner, thanks for the detail Pete! :-) Also finished port sides channels, halftime, hourray! Liebe Grüße, Daniel

In the meantime I took the modelmaking to the extrems: The extrem front, the extreme button and the extrem aft ;-) Lets start with the extreme button: I finally finished the coppering. Also the false keel is placed. Then I continued on the extrem aft: The heller sternpost is flat and the rudder is far off. Does not have to be ;-) So cutting off the old hinges and glueing a strip of Ureol onto the sternpost ... ... file it triangular ... ... and copper it. See the false keel. The horizontal cuts were opened for new hinges. Made out of 1mm sheet. Just a look into my small workshop: Small parts always in line on self adhesive tape, using a old blade to keep even distance to the top ... ... carefully drilled and cut still being placed on the tape ... ... and putting the whole into the slots of the sternpost. The rudder was reshaped, got new bolts and fittings ... ... a little bit of colour and some more coppering ... ... and being put in place. Still missing some cuts on the rudders copper to show dimensions of the copper plates. ...

Do not worry B.E. ... I´ve got good sources :-) XXXDAn

Hy-ho you victorian people, as requested it is my honour to present my little zoo: As I needed a little rest from the chainplates (some more 60% of work to be done) I started to enjoy myself on the figurehead. It turned out in the details much more like an old chewing gum, as dear Derek did put it in one of his posts. The only usable items were the blue lion, the horse and the harpe. The other ones would not turn out successfully by just painting them. So I started to scratch off the old lionblobs - you still can see some on the upper fields ... ... I carved some new tree lions for the now empty lower left field (seen the heraldic way) and still five smaller one for the other places ... ... the bigger red one allowed even more details ... ... still adding the crown of Charlmagne and the dukes hat (Hanover wasn´t a kingdome yet) ... ... the Cherubs got their arms freed from the bodytrap as they were molded in one go ... ... and it looks a little bit more worthy, doesn´t it? The crown I use is the original Heller-one - or at least more original than most of the parts I build in ;-) I did cut off the top arms, hollowed the inside of the base and thinned out the arms of the top. Like this I got an appearance that I can easily live with. As I don´t have too much footage of the top of the crown due to the angle most pictures are taken, I also do not know what to change without basing it on pure guessing. To cite Derek once more "Looks like Nelsons navy also gave up with the detailed rivet counting on the 1 to 1 with the Crown of Charlegmagne." I tried to capture that special feeling and stay in the traditions by ommiting the red hearts around the blue lion - after all we still have a martial ship and not "Hello Kitty" :-) But perhaps these hearts were the reason that at Trafalgar the french first lost their "contenance" and then the battle ;-) Who knows ?!? Beste Grüße, Daniel

And now something completelydifferent: the larch ... It took me ages to develop the way of doing the chain plates as I did not find any documentation on the internet by the time that I was trying to find out how to do it. Tried lot of work arounds as I did not know how to mass produce in a satisfactory way and tried to avoid soldering which I never really did before. On the other hand I did not want any photo eched parts because they always look "flat" to me. But in the end I realised, the only way that worked for me was to produce it the same way the originals work - just a lil´bit smaller :-) First some 0,5 mm brass wire around the deadeyes ... ... putting it in a template with tree steel pins ... ... cut into lenght and the top part is ready for soldering. The ring underneath is done out of a couple of rounds around two steel pins ... ... cut in one go - the gap underneath helps to access the lower rounds ... ... first a little bit soggy ... ... and straightend up - The real straightening up will be done just after soldering. Here comes the lower part for the fore- and main-channels ... ... bent around two steel pins and squeezed in the middle. For the bolts I use sewing pins. I grind the diameter on a file by putting the pins into my Dremel and afterwards still reduced the hight. The needed lengh will be around 4 mm. On the left the original needle. And now the soldering - what a hell to learn :-) First the lower ring, then sliding it into the loop of the deadeye, putting it into the third hand for soldering ... ... and ready. Looks sooooo easy ;-) The black is not burnt but just some paint :-) Here the ensemble is already in place, the part that is ment to go into the hole of the hull is lenghend in its place and bent ... ... putten into the hole and the needle forced in with it. Take a thread and check direction and angle. Secure it with a drop of superglue. A package of tree with different lengths. That is when I realized that the used Krick-deadeyes were drilled too unevenly for my taste ... As I did not want to discard my painfully soldered parts and get better deadeyes, I startet closing the holes with toothpicks and filed them even. Just then I realized that because of the size and curved surface the planned drilling templates did not work :-( At least I know by now why they those bastards are drilled the way that they are ... OK, good old solid handwork, putting each part into the vise and mark the central line for the two middle holes ... ... and with patience, a template and a good eye drill the preliminary holes with 0,5 mm, set the third hole with a fresh eye ... ... and finish the drilling with 0,8 mm. I usually drill small holes by hand with the drill fixed on a round material as it gives far more control as any machine! . Now came the tricky part of straightening everything up, worked best upon a cutterblade, even the smallest loops :-) And finally I had a complete set of deadeyes and preventer plates for the main-mast channel on my adhesive tape. :-) Hourray ... and finally came the montage :-) First à la nature ... ... then with a little bit of colour ... ... and it looks like it was all simple! ;-) I also added the missing fitht support bracket to the channel and also the missing small deadeye n# 8 which unfortunately is too tight and bends the channel. It will be replaced upon a later occasion. I see by now, that the channels would have had needed the thickness to be increased by 0,5 mm or more. ****, but thats too late by now, even for me ;-) Liebe Grüße, Daniel

Originally ... ... I just wanted to do fix the preventer chainplates and the deadeyes from the main channels. Everything was already prepared, I closed the uneven holes of the Krick deadeyes and sanded them, when I realised - as it is called in newspeach - two challanges: due to the size and the convex shape of the deadeyes all the drilling helps that I planned did not work. Now I know why they are drilled the way they are :-( Secondly - as Maurice always warns - I realised, that I wouldn´t be able to clean up any more the portholes behind the deadeyes after fixing the doubling of the wall of the quarter deck. Ok, let the deadeyes drop dead and do something completely different as intermezzo: Red is the template to fix the new moulding symmetrically ... ... fixing bits and pieces. One knighthead from the deck is also fixed on the wall ... ... and everything in place :-). Ok, so I can go back and play with my deadeyes ... Greetings, Daniel

Thank you Blue Ensign for making me aware of the wrong position of the ancer shoes! To see how much it affects the rigging of the ancer I just had a test to see if a change is nescessairy. Therefore I fixed a second shoe on the appropriate position. The first rigging shows clearly how much the ancer is hanging to the front The new position makes much more sense This means amputation :-) - and I just finished painting this area! And the fixing of a new shoe. Question: Most of the literature shows the shoe with a slot for the ancer. Since the last restauration this one disappeared. Does any body has a hint about this? I also fixed the slots on the cathead. Greetings, Daniel

I actually fixed the first rows of copper on this weekend. Here are some impressions: It is nice to see the difference between the new material and the old paint. It was good to have the paint underneath, as to make minimal gaps not too visible :-) I use masking tape to protekt the black paint from the glue, otherwise it will take out good chunks - just guess how I found out :-( BTW: The glory for bringing this ingenious material to my attention belongs to a chap in a german forum, who presented this technik on a wooden Santissima Trinidad. the copper is rather cheap Look in the internet for suppliers of Tiffany lamp builders, you need two rolls of 4 mm, self adhesive. The first supplier to pop up in google is this one: http://www.nickates.com/cart/catalog/Foil-84-1.html And there are plenty more! Check the prices and delivery charges. The tape belongs to this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead_came_ ... _glasswork I use colors from Citadel that usually is used for World of Warcraft. Chaos Black 61-51 Skull White 61-54 Enchanted blue 61-34 Scorched Brown 61-12 (dark brown) Foundation: Iyanden Darksun 68-04 (Yellow) Mechrite Red 68-01 (Red Earth) (oh I love the other names like "Red Gore", "Vomit Brown", "Rotting Flesh" und "Graveyard Earth") http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catal ... ints-tools These colours are great and they don´t smell. I have to build in the living room and so my family does not moan any more! Jep, you got me, for the lower gundeck I used balsa: easy to work with, a razor blade and some sanding paper is all the tools you need. The poor quality of the surface is no problem in the dark dungeons of this deck For the wooden deck this will be very time consuming and needs also skills on wood working. So be careful! Anyway, first always go for the basic work and don´t get lost in the details! First the hull has to be ready, befor one should think of the details! I learned my lesson too, how to focus onto the next step. Not that you have just lovely details, but the ship is missing Greetings Daniel

My pleasure Sirs :-) It is fun to go back in time and to see the classical attempt in the start. Some details to be supered, but still good old oob. When I startet my first build log in the german Wettringer forum in February 2010, I already named it ... and beyond, but never would have guessed to where this journey would lead me ... ... and I still do not know yet ;-) So enjoy, Daniel

It was a funny last months working and it was surprising. Here are the results of all the work: So close to each other the normal peoples eyes and yet far beyond! To see and feel the differences I did some small montages. Just try to find out by yourselves, what is the old and what is the new: And here the story was really beginning to take off, to speak in the words of Buzz Lightyear: To HMS Victory and beyond! Greetings Daniel

I retook the entry ports and reworked the steps: The crew went happy as they got redefined toilet seats :-) No one to fall through the too big holes any more ;-) The beakhaed grating got its supporting structure following the frames plan and the small slides are implemented to save the gammoning from the sailors shi..... ;-) The stem got the splitlines of the single parts that it was composed from. Impossible with the once horizontal woodstructure ;-) And the entry ports got some facimilie paneling painting And finally I was able to redo the painting. Hallelulja! And finally the overview that looks on the first look so much like 6 month ago!

One feature on my list of major changes are the decks: That I am not a fan any more of the wood structures I mentioned already, didn´t I ? ;-) Consequentely this applied for the deck planking too - off course! The idea is to replace the visible decks by real wood: Painted wood in plastic, visible woob in real wood. Tests were carried out to find the suitable technic and hre are the results: So I can easily show the 3- and 4-but-shift system for the planking including the waterway, whitch will be a great addition to the detailing :-) I think, the two materials work great together and give a nice feeling to the ensemble :-) Looking already forewards for the first visible deck. This addition of materials would also apply to the masts and spars, whitch by the way will replace the too flexible plastic parts of the top rigging Be warned: There are a lot of questions upon the deck planking coming up :-)