Ian_Grant

Yes; if you ever build a Heller Victory there is much extra prep work before starting the rigging. For example, Heller's instructions have no means of holding the yards to the masts; in the case of the lower yards you need to add blocks at the feet of the masts for truss pendants. As you say this is much easier before the masts are even stepped. The Heller Victory instructions are diabolically bad.

Beautiful model, especiallt at the scale!

It's easier to rig such lines "in reverse" i.e tie them off at deck level at the start of rigging, then coil them neatly while doing other lines, then pass them up and tie off aloft.

Beautiful, beautiful work Keith. Fourteen coats does seem a little compulsive 😉. I mopped on seven coats of finish when I sanded and refinished my floors which I think gave a much better sheen than the three coats a pro put on my friend's floor. Modern water-based finishes definitely take more coats to "build" than the old stinky stuff.

She's a beauty, Bill! As Marc said, your shrouds and ratlines are outstanding! Great work! I doff my hat to you the master..........

Hi Bryan, When seizing blocks it is helpful to use a mini smooth-jawed alligator clip to clamp the thread right up against the block, then wrap the seizing thread around (it will slip down into the tight gap between block and alli clip) and make a first knot to hold it. I actually tie a hitch, then wrap the thread around and tie another on the opposite side (cheating but hey!). Than remove the clip and make some seizing turns. Something like this: https://www.amazon.ca/Micro-Toothless-Alligator-Smooth-Microscopic/dp/B07T53QWND

Well after procrastinating for weeks I finally did the ballast test. I built the test tank using the wood side rails from my wife's grandmother's old bed (Yes, I know, I know!!) with some plywood ends clamped into place between them, lined with some heavy sheet plastic I had lying around. Even with the big gel cell, I need considerable weight at bow and stern to get her to waterline. I think I will play around more with ballast placement; with such weight at bow and stern she might be a little "dead" in rippling water. |And one shot with the old superstructures in place, just for fun. Looks like she's going through a lock.

Hi Kevin, No, it's not enclosed, and I don't want to get into toxic ABS with a parrot in the house. If it died from fumes my vet wife would throw me out. And she could do the autopsy to find the cause of death (of the bird) too! 😏 I think when painted the prints will look fine.

Not a one .....

No, it would be about 3" too long even on a diagonal with the tub filled to the brim (overflow blocked temporarily)|.

Making slow progress. The canal has frozen over well for the first time in three years so it's been wonderful skating - about 35km today! So that's been a distraction along with x-country skiing. Learning about the 3D printer "Bambu Studio". See again the winch I printed above; I tried clicking on "layer height" but it wouldn't let me change from 0.2mm. Subsequently I discovered that if you click on "Process" you can select from among processes with finer layers and other variables. Bambu sets all the defaults for whichever Process you select so you don't need to fiddle with variables you don't understand. If you are an advanced user, you can change things around to your heart's content. Anyway, I selected a process with 0.08mm layers. Here are three revisions of the winch, that I printed. First was one I showed above, 0.2mm layers. Second is a design modification again in 0.2mm layers. Third is same design in 0.08mm layers. You can see how much cleaner the concave parts of the windlass are. Next I started working on the forward superstructure. The secondary battery is housed in casemates below the shelter deck. I thought of printing the recesses and gun cylinders in one piece but they're all unique so I went with the fiddly process shown in the next photos. The hole is for the A/B turret servo's body projecting into the shelter deck space. Additional holes in the main deck below the shelter deck are to allow air flow into the hull for the smoke unit, and allow sound to get out of the hull if/when I have some Arduino-controlled audio clips and a speaker. Here we see the shelter deck with printed casemates for the upper secondary guns, the flag deck above, and the conning tower (much improved with 0.08mm layers) with captain's walk on each side. Flag deck is not glued in now; some touching up and details still required. I also have the lower foremast inserted without glue as yet. It would be quite quick to build up the rest, it's just a few shaped blocks of wood and little decks between. The snags are railings and painting. I think I need to paint each level and do the railings before moving to the next deck up. No idea yet how to add stanchions to 1/32" thick decks, or for that matter do bent railings with kapok anti-splinter mats. I also tried printing the many boiler room ventilation hatches around the main stack. With 0.08mm layers they turned out pretty well. I will be printing the weather deck hatches and skylights, doors, and also the kedge anchors since after market anchors are pricey with shipping. Wondering about printing all the ship's boats too, if I can find a 3D hull to scale to different lengths and beams. Looks pretty grim by camera but naked eye can't really see the surface marks. Oh, and my smoke unit arrived. Haven't tried it out yet. Next steps: Now that I have all the parts I'm thinking of getting the Q and Y turret rotating mechanisms installed; it will be cool to see all four turrets moving in unison. Then I really really need to do a ballast test, add ballast and finally glue on the fore and after decks. But I don't want to spend money on lumber to make a low tank for water. Need to look through my off-cuts. Thanks for following!

Congratulations Glen! Not many of us can state they won a ribbon at a ship model show. Well done! Ian

Yes, usually on the starboard side.

I built a 16ft cedar strip canoe years ago, on plywood bulkheads mounted on a T-bar of two 2"x10" boards. After fiberglassing the outside, it was time to lift the hull off to sand the inside. Don't recall the glue I used, but the glue runs on the inside WERE as bad, and as concrete-like, as I expected. There's no joy like sanding a large concave cedar wood surface......🙄 And Siggi, your ship looks outstanding!

Hi Bill. Good question and I don't know definitively, but my take is that the purpose of the crowsfeet is to prevent the foot of the sail from being blown under the edge of the top and possibly damaged or abraded by the tarred stay or wood of the top, when taken aback say if heaving to. I doubt tarred rope would be easy to rig through the sharp turns at the euphroe block or the holes in the top. Of course one could tar it afterward, but softer natural rope would be easier on the sail canvas and would not dirty it up with tar. That's my two cents anyway. Perhaps others will comment....... ps I'm not stalking you.....seeing your comment within a half hour HaHa. Just got up and logged on. Keep up the great work! What wood model is next on your list?

Fantastic job, Bill! You're rigging is superb; experience is making a big difference, as Marc said. Regards, Ian

You Dr PR you're right. This is a worry for me especially in an outdoor model which will be exposed to UV. Are you more worried about resin than PETG filament? PETG plastic bottles take a very long time to break down. From what I've read paint will protect the plastic from UV. I'd like to print in ABS which is very durable as demonstrated by all the relatively ancient plastic model kits still around, but it emits toxic gas when printed and we have a parrot in the house; they are sensitive to air pollution as are we all. I'd like to think my ships will be around long after I'm gone, but my kids will have the final say. My daughter says she will keep my Heller Victory in my memory...........🥲

Just as my dad's generation of toolmakers thought CNC machines were the devil's own.

To me it's a tool, no more and no less, similar to the laser cutter which cuts accurate openings without me having to use an xacto knife. The teenaged me sliced up some dowel and drilled holes for the guns; this time around the print can include the viewing ports for the gunners which would have been difficult by hand. Besides, I enjoy the challenge of drawing with TinkerCAD's limited number of shape "primitives".

Getting to love my 3D printer. I drew the secondary battery casemate gun mount parts (what I'm calling the vertical cylinders from which the barrels project) in TinkerCAD and printed three revisions of a set of four in a single hour including CAD time. Had I gone to the library with Rev1, the printer would have been far slower and I would not have had time in the booking to do two more revisions, perhaps not even one. Here I just send the slicer output file to the Bambu over WiFi, and if the filament is already loaded in it just goes ahead and prints without me even having to go upstairs (when it starts a print a window opens on my laptop with the printer's status screen). Looking forward to doing more and getting this model finished. Sixteen Rev 3 gun mounts being printed: The back of the parts is flat to lie on the print bed; the fronts (at top) are slowly being rounded out as layers are added. These took 50 layers. I also drew and printed the main capstan and associated rollers, for the foredeck. This has 40 layers. Here it is with a quick splash of some matt paint applied so details are visible. Camera is certainly unforgiving; the naked eye hardly sees the striations. They should be better with more paint layered on.

Finally got my laptop to bind to the 3D printer via our wifi (simple once you know how but a bit obscure in Bambu's "instructions", ok let's be honest and say non-existent) and tried a test print in PLA for the portion of the conning tower above the flag deck. Here I highlighted the viewing slits with a bit of paint. Sorry for poor focus; the hole to mount the range finder is nearly invisible. I will print the "real" part in PETG. You can see the conning tower behind "B" turret in this 3D render, except the conning tower is shown as round, as is the main funnel, which is not in agreement with my Norman Ough drawings.

Hi Jeff; Hope your medical issues are solved!! Those lines are the mainsail jeer and clew garnet lines, and the main topsail sheets; a total of six lines. These pass through the quarterdeck and belay to parts 89, as you say. I'm not sure where you saw four lines and eight lines on Bill's model. Longridge notes these lines passing through the deck on pg 267 Plan #11 (see top right). Mainsail jeer lines are mentioned on pg 251; mostly they are the same as the foreyard jeer lines detailed on pg 241 except that they pass through the deck. See the drawing "Plan No. 8" for beautifully detailed illustration of jeers and many other things at the fore yard. Main clew garnets are mentioned on pg 252 but as above refer to the fore clew garnets described on pg 243 bottom. Main topsail sheet lines are described top of pg254. See also Longridge photo of the bitts, Plate 46 at pg 196, with descriptive caption.

Kevin, say it ain't so!!! When you and I started our Heller builds, the refit was supposed to be twenty years so I hoped to visit a complete ship in my early mid 70's. Now you say all the newly painted planking is off again? What's the new timeline? (Sorry Dan for sidetracking your log!) Ian

Looks nice. What are you using for sail material?

Few things that I have built did not contain a drop of my blood. I've had clients offer me band-aids during renovations. Now the boat is truly yours Chris.