Tim Curtis

Tim I have found very little history. There was a little splurge in Wikipedia. MK never gives any color scheme on any of their models so I just do what I think the Ship may have looked like. 

Nothing interesting to report.... just ratlines...
 

 


Happy modelling..

Great kit...beautifully made.

99% done on upper wales. Decided to sand before moving on and adding wales. Pictures beforeu and after. Uite pleased, cant wait to put on the stain.

Slight update. First planks going in.
Somehow keel got bend in stern area. I guess i just have to live with it.....

Working with the whales. First a layer or walnut and now on to the boxwood for a nicer surface.

Here's what happens when you've kept the plans, have a pile of left-over timber and get bored.

 
 
Using the original plans, I re-modelled the deck layout, fitted heavier armament and jiggled a few other bits and pieces. 🙂 Must say I like the idea of the party ship! 
 
Rick 

Hello Tim
Many thanks, you comment is much appreciated.
 
Glenn

Finished this build. I like how it turned out and I learned a lot during the build.
 
I know it wasn't a step by step build log as I wasn't sure I was going to post it because my skills are a little lacking.

When I am not working on my Victory I am reading this great little book I picked up. Admiral Nelson’s Pocket Manual 1805. Not reading it so much for tips on building the model, even though there are a number of physical features of the ship included in the pocket manual, I am fascinated more about his reports of general daily life on board the Victory in 1805. Some of the interesting charts included in the book are the rations planned for each crewman, the pay scale by rank/position, the age of his crew, and most interesting is the discipline. Chart indicates by name offense a crewman committed and number of lashes he got for the crime. If a crime was committed that warranted the death penalty a crewman was hung from a yard and left there for an hour or more for others to witness as a deterrent. 

I finished planking and treenailing the vertical section (the bamboo skewers were thinned down to the third last position on the drawplate). After some sanding I applied tung oil:



I'll next plank the otherside of the same bulkhead, put in the door jambs, and fix a slight warping issue on the false deck..

After seeing your tests, I like tung oil the best also, and I'm glad you decided to use that.  It really brings out the grain in the wood.  The planked parts you've done look super nice!
 
When you get to a place that you think you want to use sealer or acrylic again, do another test comparing it with tung oil.  I think oil will be hard to beat and will still give you enough contrast with other wood.  I'm thinking I'd better get some and give it a try.
 

I'm still struggling with bulwarks plywood piece.  I think the problem is I don't have enough hands to hold it firmly against bow stem and bulkhead formers and do anything else, like mark where bulkheads are as shown in manual, clamp, tape, nail, or anything.  Tried several different methods, and every time the plywood piece would slip out of the slot in the bow stem.  So finally decided to start at the bow stem where the slot is, and glue that first.  Hopefully with that stabilized, I can then gradually work my way aft, drilling and nailing to each bulkhead former and hold it in place while glue dries.  So I'm going to go slow, letting glue dry at each step.  I think once I get the bow curvature secure around the first 4 to 5 formers, it will go much easier.
 
In the process of experimenting, I found wrapping ribbon-like velcro all the way around formers worked, but I couldn't hold everything in place and get it tight enough all at the same time.  I had the same problem using tape around the bulkheads.  So I tried the nails again.  I was able to use the nails to hold it, but the tiny nails are difficult to work with, and it came loose at the bow like all other attempts.  I don't have a nail pusher, and I think that would make putting nails in a lot easier than using pliers, but they were out of stock where I usually order small tools like that.
 
I'm assuming the nails are temporary, used just to hold the plywood piece while glue dries.  And then you remove them.  I think the nail heads would get in the way of planking.  I'm also guessing that this way of doing bulwarks is an extremely common method everyone else knows, and it's just my inexperience that's causing me problems.  I'm calling it a learning experience.
 
 

You've done a nice job working through your mistakes. She looks great! 

Testing..
I’ve made many mistakes with the bow.. made some arrangements and it looks better..

While I await a marking gauge so I can get the bulwarks the right width, I decided to tackle marking the gun ports, starting with the gundeck.
 
I definitely do not want to cut them out before finishing the bulwarks. It is much easier to shape them and send them when they are a single surface than when they are interrupted by holes (the ports) every ½" or so.
 
In theory, the gunports should be easy: they are all the same sizes (3/8" x 3/8") and are the exact same height above the gundeck at ¼".
 

 
In practice, it isn't quite that easy, since the gundeck itself curves upwards as you go from amidships to the bow or stern.
 
If I had the gundeck marked precisely on the outside of the hull, then it would be easier, but that just defers the problem of getting the gundeck marked properly. I may yet do that, but the technique and effort for marking the gundeck is the same as the gunports, so might as well do it once.
 
I did the following:
Took an extra copy of the blueprints and cut out the spardeck and gundeck plans  Laid the gundeck plan on top of the hull, sure to align the (X) midship marking  For each gunport, measure from the bottom of the gunport to the waterline, which *is* marked on the outside of the hull Transfer that height to the hull, placing it roughly underneath the location of the gunport in the gundeck plan, which (from before), is sitting on top of the hull. Be extra careful as the waterline is straight, and the ports, while each one is straight, do angle slightly one from the other as you get further from the midship point Made another small copy of part of the hull profile, to get just a few gunports Measure them until I find one that is exactly the desired 3/8" x 3/8". The best one turned out to be just forward of the midship line Cut it out precisely Glue it onto a piece of scrap wood  Hold it onto the hull: bottom aligned with the marking from the height-from-waterline measurement, left and right (technically, aft and fore or reversed, depending on sides) aligned with the edges of the gunport in the template on the hull Trace the outline. You have a gunport! Repeat for all of the gunports on the gundeck  

 
In practice, I would do one thing differently if I had to do it again (and I may yet): trace the outline from the paper onto something stiffer, like Bristol board. It makes it much easier to trace the outlines.

Thank goodness for filler. Always a challenge getting things to fit.
 

 
 
Then a bit of paint
 

Great kit...beautifully made.

After much pondering I decided to leave the badly rigged starboard side shroud deadeyes. I have now added the lanyards to the starboard side backstay deadeyes. The final task was to add the shroud cleats to the first four leading shroud lines which was a little bit fiddly. Thankfully it did not take too long to complete the task. I found it best to tie the upper part of the cleat to the shroud first before tying the low part of the cleat to the shroud.
 

 
I am now currently working on the port side shrouds and expect to complete in the next day or two. My time has been limited recently due to my mother being taken in to hospital.
 
Once the port side shrouds has been completed I can move to to adding the ratlines. I discovered, when working on the Duchess of Kingston, I quite like the routine of adding the ratlines.

Update on this little project. 
Reminder that I am building this as a British Brig of late 18th century, not as a Russian ship. (The Master Korabel design is not based on a real Russian ship. There are no historical drawings of the Russian ship Phoenix to base a model on, as far as I am aware). So I feel free to improvise!!
I have completed the coppering of the hull.
I have finished the treenailing on exposed timber.
Beginning to install some moulded rails.
Using a neat little scraper I purchased from Falconet's website to give the rails a profile. Note I am not using the material provided in the kit for these rails. 
Poor quality pictures taken on my phone...but give some idea of progress.
 

 

 

 

 

I've been pondering for a while (analysis paralysis!) how to get the rubbing strake round the stern without it standing proud, and with enough contact for it to glue well... Planking the hull proved that trying to find any shortcuts here would cause pain down the road... so... here's my attempt.
 
It's 4x1.5mm walnut, and pretty sturdy, so I thought why not bend it to shape, then bend another plank to width to go inside round the stern, and then sand the taper caused by the counter into that double width so it ends up single-width by shaped... 
 
Something like this...
 

 
Clearly that cross-section would need to be tapered as it went round to the sides.
 
I was concerned that it would be hard to get that inner-taper right, so I used a plank with less height on the inside at the bottom, to make tapering easier. (1.5x1.5mm)
 
Some pictures follow...
 
1. Rough shaping the parts...
 

 
Painting before gluing in place...
 

 
3. Gluing in place with carpenter's glue... (and checking the gap is 18mm from the top of the main rail, to the top of the rubbing strake)
 

 

 

 
And checking that the decoration would fit at the bow... 
 

 
4. And a few photos of the result... 
 

 

 

 
Because the stern piece goes right round, the other side should be much easier by comparison.
 
Anyway - thanks for looking in, and happy building
 
Rob

Update on this little project. 
Reminder that I am building this as a British Brig of late 18th century, not as a Russian ship. (The Master Korabel design is not based on a real Russian ship. There are no historical drawings of the Russian ship Phoenix to base a model on, as far as I am aware). So I feel free to improvise!!
I have completed the coppering of the hull.
I have finished the treenailing on exposed timber.
Beginning to install some moulded rails.
Using a neat little scraper I purchased from Falconet's website to give the rails a profile. Note I am not using the material provided in the kit for these rails. 
Poor quality pictures taken on my phone...but give some idea of progress.
 

 

 

 

 

Greetings Tim,
You are more than welcome! Glad the info was of some use to you. I've used this style of block making for at least two modern boats. First is the Morris Linda 28 "Shearwater", which was inserted into a street light bulb in pieces and assembled inside, hence the loose rigging lines as they can only be tightened up when the model is completely reassembled. The second is a modern copy of a famous sandbagger that won many races on Lake Geneva in Wisconsin. There is a part of a dime visible in the Shearwater closeup for size comparison.
Anchor's A Weigh!
John Fox III

Last night I was browsing through my copy of Modeling Maritime History by Malcolm Darch, a highly skilled professional model maker in the U K.  The last chapter in the book is about building a 1:96 scale model of the 4 masted bark Moshulu.  This model required hundreds of small blocks.
 
Here is Darch’s System for producing them that I am NOT recommending.
 
He took a small diameter lead shot and cut a groove or grooves in it with a scalpel.  He laid the line or lines that would be passing through it in the cut grooves and squeezed it shut with pliers.   He drilled a small hole in the top and glued in a tiny eyebolt.  He painted the block white.
 
I would seem that even professionals sometimes resort to questionable techniques.
 
Roger