aliluke

Congratulations Brian. That'll be good fuel for your enthusiasm!

Nigel. That is amazing shaping. I'm sitting beside a well boiled clamped piece at the moment but nothing as complex as that! Your craft and patience is a science to behold.

Thanks Keith for your kind words. Funny to see my AVS log bubble up to the 1st page again.

I hope you enjoy seeing my chemistry experiment on Fly .

That's just the way it is and just way it's going to be. Welcome to our nightmare! Doing it all over again is part of the game and, strangely, part of the fun. Happy Halloween!

Those decorations look amazing. Wish I'd read this before I did mine.

Hi Brian

Getting those deck tree nails to disappear is the trick. Mine on the AVS were wood paste but, in hindsight were too prominent. My tree nails on Fly, so far, are better - you can't see them except at certain angles - and it is just simple old wood paste. On AVS I muddled around with bamboo and such but it was so hard and wood paste gave a much quicker and better outcome. For caulking I'm a fan of an HB pencil run along one edge of the plank.Very subtle but it works and I think is correct for scale. I used a charcoal pencil on the AVS but it made a big mess - still it worked out in the end. I never use any fillers on my decks - get it right and these are not required - no gaps! I know that you won't need any fillers.

That aside, your AVS is looking really good. Very sharp and clean. The waterways look spot on! You've nailed it!

Hi Mike

No I didn't shave anything. I also found that the hatch sizes in the kit were fine in respect to the FFM sizes (I don't know about the sizes in the NMM plans) . With the coamings set inside the deck - that is set on top of the plywood false deck with the real deck planks butted into the hatches - you just can't see the plywood of the false deck at all. The port/starboard pieces are a nice touch but weren't done to conceal the plywood - just to add a realistic detail. Hope that helps?

It'd be nice to see your pictures at a higher resolution. I reckon you can go up to 1900 pixels wide and still sit well below the site limit.

Edit: B.E slipped in before I sent my post. Forget the hatch linings and check out those perfect railings! Still I don't think you need the linings fore/aft, with the hatches inserted the false deck ply disappears. However a port/starboard rail inside of the ledges suited me for a level of detail add.

Hi Mike

I don't think this is a big issue at all. See post 520 in my log - you really can't see those edges and if that is a concern when all the other stuff is fitted then you are over concerned! I'll probably give a little wipe of black paint to the edges before fitting down those stair hatches and that will suffice. I do a little bit of framing port/starboard of the coaming for the ladders but nothing fore/aft.

Impeccable work Gil. So much information here for the builder of any ship. Thank you!

Hi Kevin

Just had a look through your log. I'm not a great follower of Victory builds so haven't really visited before but, wow, you are doing fantastic work on her. Superb!!!

Hey Brian

You are going to find these strips to be really good. I'm amazed by boxwood - strong, tight and finely grained. Holly is the same. You will enjoy! These timbers  both make walnut look like crap.

Looks great Augie - precision work.

My little eagle eye picks up one point. On your hatch coamings the box joints look good but the fore and aft ledges should sit on top of the port and starboard ledges. Your coamings flip flop with some fore and aft ledges on top and some port and starboard ledges on top. Picky for sure and I wouldn't change it but a note for the future and for others following. Then again I could be completely wrong! and you are following accurate plans for these parts.

I'm a late comer too. But, wow, what a fantastic model. So elegant and so very well made. I'll be following.

Hi Chuck - it is looking really good. I like the idea of the rabbet just to give some articulation to the port opening if nothing else. I did the same on Fly with sill  and jamb liners (but no head liner), all set back to create the rabbet for the lid where no lid will be shown on the open deck. Right or wrong it is a nice detail touch. Then I saw a contemporary model of Atalanta which has lids on the open deck.

A "buckler" is a new term for me and Google failed to clarify. Is it a temporary cover over the port but not hinged like a lid? I guess I'm a few dozen books and many more papers off your, druxeys and Mark's research background!

Magnificent Nigel. Except for the scale of the backgrounds I'd swear I was in a shipyard.

Great work on your AVS Dave. It looks fantastic. Ha! I also named mine after my wife - Sharon J. It certainly made my time in the workshop more acceptable to her.

Hello Augie

Seems some logs just pass me by - no idea why. Just been through yours, every page; this is great stuff, superb model making and I'll follow from now on. Sorry to be a stranger!

Yep. Just dumb old commercial wood filler - the brand is Wattyl. As my deck was holly and very pale I went for the palest waterborne wood filler "Pine" and then diluted it with "Neutral" to make it even paler. The treenails completely disappear. What a lot of work for no outcome...but if you look closely you can see them, from above they can't be seen. I stuffed up the quarter deck though by mixing up my micro drill bits and making the holes too big. As it weathers, this difference won't be noticed at the end of the build (I hope).

Having enjoyed your SOS I'm looking forward  to this complex model unfold. Looking really good so far and it is in very safe hands!

Earlier you referred to Titebond glue - do you get it locally? I've never seen it in any Wellington hardware stores.

Nice work Bob.

I just used a wood paste for the tree nails and mixed it up so that it was about the same colour as the deck. It makes them almost disappear but was an easy exercise - smear it on and scrape/sand it off.

Hi Brian

I think you are right that the scuppers would be at deck level but it is a tiny detail in the context of things. The trick I reckon is not to try to take the scuppers all the way through the hull. Alignment is really, really hard. I've seen a few AVS's with over sized scuppers (to my eye) that go all the way through. I did my scuppers above the waterway and just blacked them out on the inside face. Did the same on the outside of the hull with an approximate alignment. On the outside they go through the black strake and it takes a keen eye even to see them but they are there.

Unless you've got brass balls (as we say here) cutting them all the way through can lead to a real mess and vastly over scaled scuppers. I certainly won't be trying it on HMS Fly.

Hi Ray

I look in on your model as I follow Jesselee's Scottish Maid. There is a lot of good advice therein. She's also looks like a very nice model to build.

I'd avoid solvent for surplus glue. I'd also avoid sanding. Use a scraper - a razor blade or the back edge of a box cutter knife and then gently scrape with the blade at about 45 degrees to the surface. Do not gouge. After that carefully finish with sandpaper.

I'm glad to hear you are planking the deck cabins. It seems you have fixed the backing blocks to the deck and then intend to plank them? That is your call but I reckon it is easier to make these parts off the model and then fix them down.

Going back to Jesse's Maid, your bowsprit is angled very high in comparison to his - see page 22 of his log. I don't know the model but, just to my eye, your sprit looks angled a bit too high for any ship. Hard to change that now but maybe for the future...

Wishing you well with your progress and I'll keep looking in.

All is looking great Brett.

The full cannon rig is tedious but I'm still happy I went the distance, that said, your rig amongst all the other details is, as you say, less busy and works just fine to my eye.

You really get a sense of the outrageous scale of the full rig when the sprit goes on. I put it on before the mast but switched to a much wider working space to avoid the moments when spinning the model around. I used an architects drawing table which you can lift and lower to suit. I pretty much went to standing up to do all my work from this point on - you can see the table in my log.

With the sprit and mast on she really comes alive.Such a dynamic little ship. Enjoy the rigging - I did!

Big improvement Joe. Ladders are tricky and a good ladder, as a wee part, gives a real lift to the overall picture. Love your model, she is going to be a beauty!

I don't know a thing about power tools - don't own any - but if that's a goody I'll believe you.

But I'd advise that you run that very first centre plank the full length of the deck. It is all too easy to get drift on the plank runs from a slightly off line centre plank and it'll start to hurt a few planks either side of it. It is easy to trim the centre plank back to the hatches later but much harder and more annoying to rip off all the drifting planks that come from a slightly off line start (I speak from experience ). With a short plank that alignment is much harder to judge. From the photo I reckon your first centre plank has a faint starboard drift. I could be wrong but it is certainly easier to align and centre with a full length plank. This applies to the upper decks as well.