EJ_L

Welcome to MSW Marcus! Best of luck to you on your Victory build. I will keep my eye out for your log and look forward to following along.  

Thank you all for the comments and likes. Progress update on the planking, I now have the second row of wales and middle gun deck planking in place.
 
Next I will work on the beakhead, installing the bulkhead and deck planking as well as cutting out the curved hull where it slopes from the forecastle down to the beakhead. This will also include more work on the stem post.
 
Moving aft, I will complete the planking up to the cut outs for the cabins. I will frame out the gun ports in the forward two cabins on each side. I still need to finish the build out of the Admiral’s cabin which I am still working on the designs. 

Thanks Marc. The scarfs are hand made. I ran long strips of wood from the stem as far back as they would go, laid out the pattern and scribed the scarf joints in with a #11 blade. I went over the lines several times to give the joints depth. Where the strips stopped, I will splice on an additional piece to complete the wales to the stern. That joint will be the only actual scarf joint. 
 
The process is really quite simple and easy enough to repeat. I will likely have to go back and run the blade through the joints after I sand on the wales prior to finishing the wood to deepen and clean out sawdust. 

Just a quick update, ran the lower wales and first band of planks for the lower gun deck on the starboard side. Now I’ve moved up the he middle gun deck wales. 

If there has been one good thing to all of the rain we have been getting here, I’ve had a lot of time to work on the ship. This was taken a few days ago as I was pulling into work. Fortunately, it hadn’t submerged the road in though a lot of places around us were underwater. We are on a slight hill which helped. 

 
I finished he’s installing the rest of the gun port frames on the lower and middle decks. Both sides are now complete. With the frames installed and sanded to fit the contours of the hull, I was able to start the outer planking. 
 

First the three rows of lower wales. Once those were in place, I laid the first band of planks at the lower gun deck. I’m now repeating that process on the opposite side. Then it will be a matter of repeating the pattern of Wales and planks till I reach the upper deck. 
 

Lots of work still to go so thank you all for settling in and sticking around on these long builds! 😀

Welcome all!  That popcorn machine is more than welcome as I can never resit popcorn!
 
Michael, I will be glad to take any advice and ideas you have on the sail when I get to them. S.R. is still a ways out but, I'm am certain I will be doing a mix of set and furled sails on her. I will will be in much the same place you were with first time sail construction so that is a little intimidating.
 
Marc, to the scales between my ships, unfortunately no, they are not the same. La Couronne was 1:100, Soleil Royal is 1:77 and Royal Louis is 1:90. I wish they were all the same as I would have been very tempted to make them waterline models and placed them in a line ready for battle. As it is, the sizes of the models and then the cases for them, may end up becoming part of a dividing wall between rooms in my basement as they are so large and take up a lot of space! 
 
The cast decorations are indeed some of the better ones I have seen in a kit in some time. I would tell anyone, especially those who do not or cannot make their own to use them. For myself, I am planning on making my own. There may be some exceptions but, right now I am planning on carving my own. That is a skill that I want to keep developing and the only way to do it is to practice. Plus, it gives immense satisfaction in knowing I have carved them. Even if they don't look that great, they are still a point of pride.

Thank you all for the comments, likes and following along and a friendly welcome to those joining!
 
O.C. - I agree completely! Building the interiors has taught me a lot about the ships construction and interior functions that you don't really see from the outside. It is one area that I wish there was more readily available information on as it is hard to find documentation on sizes and layouts of interior rooms. I tend to piece things together from various images, guess work and common sense measurements. (Obviously, a 4 foot diameter table will not fit in a 5 foot room with space for chairs and people to sit.) To do this on most kit models, takes some thinking and modifying of the keel and bulkheads but, the effort is worth it in my opinion as you not only gain some interesting new details but, you also gain more knowledge on ship framing and construction. 
 
Lou - To set the blocks, I first test fit the cast piece with a canon in place to see where it would sit. Once i was happy with that location, I marked the back of the cast metal and used that mark as guide for the wood blocks. My thinking is that, that is now the furthest back the barrel would have been allowed to go had I used the cast piece. Once the hull is planked, I can always adjust the barrel to stick out further by adding shims at the base if I need it to stick out a little further. 
 
As to the frames, I'm not sure yet. I've always built them in the past but, using square tubing is tempting as I have so many of them to build on this one. We shall see...
 
The ports will follow the decks. I oversized the blocks in both width and height to help in fine tuning the alignment once I have the planking on.
 
As for what is coming up, I am currently planking the interior cabin walls that I framed up. I will detail them a little but will not add too much detail or any of the furniture yet. I need to establish the chases for the remaining LED lights to both this deck and the one above as well as the lights I intend to place in the forecastle areas. My plan is to have lighting in several places below decks. I have never done the forecastle interiors before so that will be new territory for me to explore and I think will add another fun detail that is often overlooked on models. Then I will begin planking!
 
Some time during this I will likely take a break to work on some more carvings for Soleil Royal. Lots of fun to go!

A couple more days and a few more sticks of wood are installed. The interior spaces are taking shape. 
 
I could have done these in a much simpler fashion as a lot of the spaces on this deck will not be detailed but, I wanted to take the opportunity to experiment and practice on ways to frame up the bulkheads. 

Michael, good to have you with us for another one and yes they did that as well. I did order a few other things from them as well as the Admiral also likes some of their storage cabinets and shelves for her own crafting. That may have contributed to the ease in shipping and discounts and it definitely helped to fee up the good ship Visa for another voyage.
 
Another update on the build as the week has yielded some good work hours. Built some interior bulkheads in the lowest cabin. This space I am keeping fairly simple. I intend to put a few benches and maybe a table in here but that will be all. I did get the first LED installed so this will be visible when enclosed.
 

 

 
Then I went back to hidden work and installed the first 66 dummy canon blocks down both sides of the hull. The kit came with cast metal supports for the canon that actually would work well except for the frame edges. Many would not match the hull's contours and I also would end up have to install wood trim over them to close out gaps and make the frames look like wood. Therefore, I decided to use wood dummy blocks and will build frames for the gun ports.
 


Now I am back on top and laying out more interior framing. Most of these spaces will not have too much if any detail as they will not be seen but, the aft cabin will of course be furnished out and illuminated and the forward spaces may be as well. That is still undecided at this moment. I am thinking that the Captains cabin and the adjoining rooms on that deck may all be fully furnished and visible either by the windows and skylights, or I may leave some of the deck off to allow for viewing. I will know more when I reach that deck. 
 

 

Thank you all for joining the log! 
 
O.C., of course I’m building a fleet. You can’t control the seven seas with just one ship! Hahaha!!! 
 
Been a productive week if not very exciting. Most of it so far has been spent fairing frames and building the stern counter. The fun part started happening just recently as I started to build out the interior of the lowest cabin. 
 
I also received more LED lights to illuminate the interior in the mail today. Just in time for the weekend! 

It is finally time to start the new build! Royal Louis by Mamoli. This will be my third ship in my series of French warships. First being La Couronne, second Soleil Royal and now Royal Louis. My goal with these is to show an evolution of ship building and design throughout the 17th century and into the 18th. I am no expert on the topic, and this is really just for fun but, it has been a very learning and exciting ride so far.
 
Yes, Soleil Royal is still under construction and I have no intention of leaving her unfinished. Much like I did during L.C.'s build, I will be swapping back and forth periodically between the two builds. I have found that for myself on these large and very long builds, (Soleil Royal is quickly approaching the completion of her second trip around the sun with easily another to go) that being able to switch between projects helps to alleviate a lot of those monotonous places in the build that often times drives builders to quit. I just want to give fair warning that if the build goes silent for a long length of time, I'm most likely on the other and feel free to join me there!
 
Next up is the newest addition to my shipyard, the Professional Build Slip from Hobbyzone. I have been wanting to build or buy a build slip for some time and a while back I read through an excellent review and tutorial on assembling this one on MSW. Link here. I decided to give it a try. So far I am happy with it and it has already been a huge help in fixing some of my common issues of bulkhead alignment. I think this will be the start to a lot of years with a great new tool.
 


 
Now we come to the kit itself. Most of what is in it is fairly common kit pieces. Laser cut false keel, bulkheads and misc. framing pieces. Packages of the usual cast decorations (I will again be carving my own) canons, carriages, furniture etc. The rope looks decent. Not the best to be had but perfectly usable for anyone not wanting to upgrade and still have a nice model. The wood probably impressed me the most. Looking at the bundles, I see nice straight strips, uniform thicknesses and plenty of it. A nice change from the quality of my last two kits. How much of it will I use n this model is yet to be seen, though not from quality but, from color and species choices. Since I am trying to keep my three ships looking relatively the same, I will most likely be switching to mahogany and walnut for the outer hull. We shall see. The instructions are decent but, not for a beginner. Like most kits similar to this one, the drawings and "instructions" leave a a lot of detail out and makes assumptions that you know what you are doing in order to achieve what it shown. Plan on using a lot of outside resources for rigging, planking etc.. All part of the fun right?!
 



Probably the most annoying thing so far that I have seen, is how much stuff is cast metal. Ladders, railings, the ship's wheel and even the boats are all cast metal. I will not be using any of those items on this build. Like most of these kits there are no sails, only the flags so I will need to make my own, though that is a very long time from now. I'm looking forward to another fun and educational build!


 
So let us get started. While waiting on the new slip to get here, (I had a month as it was coming overseas) I was able to get the keel glued together and test fit all the bulkheads and decks to check alignments and to see what modifications I will need to do to accommodate my personal changes. The main ones being the build out of the cabins along with lighting. I did this on S.R. and intend to do the same again. Now that the slip is in and assembled, I sett he keel in place and began to set the bulkheads and installed the first deck.
 









Off to a good start. Filler blocks, fairing the frames, extra supports and all those fun hours of sanding that go into the sub structure that make the model turn out nice is up next. I hope everyone enjoys the journey! 

I have just ordered my first wooden ship online, an old dusty H.M.S. Victory SM23 Corel kit that has been unopened sitting on a shelf for a few years and is finding a new home with me. So I'm cleaning out my rolltop desk, researching like mad and building up a collection of build blogs and images of the real ship.
 
I plan on tweaking the model with details to make it look more like the real thing and I thought I would try using coloured wood stains in yellow and black to bring out the wood grain on the hull around the cannon sections.
 
I also would like to try some wood carving to add some details and may even buy a mini lathe for wood turning. I think the Caldercraft decorations for this ship are awesome so will be adding their figurehead.
 
So if anyone wants to contribute any advice or comments to this build, you are more than welcome to do so and any input will be much appreciated.
 
Regards,
 
Marcus

Hi everyone,
 
I'm so excited to be here, I am purchasing an old dusty Corel SM23 HMS VICTORY unopened kit second hand from a chap in Australia.
 
This will be my first wooden ship build, and I am looking forward to refining and developing my skills as I undertake this epic challenge. A good friend of mine who is a semi-retired boat builder gave me the idea, he bought a HMS ENDEAVOUR a few years back and had never got around to building it. It was by chance he mentioned it one day and I was curious about wooden ship models so started to  check out the models online.
 
I fell immediately in love with the detailed pictures of various ship builds, and as luck would have it found a great deal on the HMS VICTORY.
 
So tommorrow I am laying down some cash to buy my first kit.
 
I have read two Corel HMS Victory builds thus far and am looking forward to reading some more as part of my research into this fine art. There are lots of great images of the HMS Victory in Portsmouth which I am looking at and am planning on tweaking the model a bit to be as close to the real thing as possible. I think I may try various colored stains to bring out the wood grain in various colors instead of painting the hull. Such as the yellow and black where the rows cannons are located. I'd also like to try wood carving some details as well as sourcing the amazing Caldercraft decorations you can find.
 
So keep an eye out for my build blog and feel free to chime in with any advice or comments.
 
Regards,
 
Marcus

Thank you all for the comments and likes. Progress update on the planking, I now have the second row of wales and middle gun deck planking in place.
 
Next I will work on the beakhead, installing the bulkhead and deck planking as well as cutting out the curved hull where it slopes from the forecastle down to the beakhead. This will also include more work on the stem post.
 
Moving aft, I will complete the planking up to the cut outs for the cabins. I will frame out the gun ports in the forward two cabins on each side. I still need to finish the build out of the Admiral’s cabin which I am still working on the designs. 

Thank you all for the comments and likes. Progress update on the planking, I now have the second row of wales and middle gun deck planking in place.
 
Next I will work on the beakhead, installing the bulkhead and deck planking as well as cutting out the curved hull where it slopes from the forecastle down to the beakhead. This will also include more work on the stem post.
 
Moving aft, I will complete the planking up to the cut outs for the cabins. I will frame out the gun ports in the forward two cabins on each side. I still need to finish the build out of the Admiral’s cabin which I am still working on the designs. 

Seems you have these boat skeletons all sorted in the death star now Mark?  Looking good!
 
cheers
 
Pat

My mind is blown every time I think about those tiny boats!

Sorry to hear about your stroke.  Get well soon.

Beautiful model Robin! This was a very fun build to follow along with. Take some time to savor the moment and admire what you have created. I'll be looking for the next build! 

Very nice solution! I never would have thought about leather sleeves for water tightness but not only does that make sense it gives you a great way to install the oars. Well done!

Sorry to hear of your bad health. I wish you the best for a speedy and complete recovery. 

As another one who survived a stroke (mild for me) I wish you a full recovery, Christian. 

As a visitor to a similar unit a few years ago, all the best for a speedy recovery, there are others on this site who have also been in this position and will join in wishing you a full\healthy and speedy recovery
Best regards
Paul
 

Sorry to hear of your bad health. I wish you the best for a speedy and complete recovery. 

Oh no!!!! Reasons why I am glad my Admiral stays out of my shipyard. We each have our own spaces that we do not mess with the stuff in there. At least this time you know how to make them so it is just the time required to build and not to design. 
 
As horrible as that is, the story did make me laugh a little. Forgive me though as I do feel your pain.