Matt D

I made the build board and test fit the frame assembly in it. The right angle brackets are made from scraps and held together with epoxy. I used factory corners from my plywood to ensure that they are accurately 90 degrees. The one in the picture below is the best one of the bunch.

Thanks, Chuck. Your picture and direction help a lot.

I have cut out all of the bulkheads and dry fitted them to the false keel. It’s very gratifying to see this frame set coming together. Bow section parts bow section assembled Mid ship section assembly Mid-ship parts Here is the bow and midsection just loose fit together This is the aft section parts This is the aft section assembly. next, I’ll built the build board. I’ve made the right angle stands and cut out the board. I just need to assemble the pieces.

Hi Alec. I don't know if you can do anything about it, but if you look at post #80 in my Virginia build log, you'll see that the foremast is pitched too far back. It's on page 3 of the log and you can link to it from my signature below. That caused me to have to shorten the gaff on that mast. I think some other builders have had the same problem, which leads me to believe it's an error in the false keel. You might want to push your masts in and lay the model on the plan as I show in my picture to see where you are there. You can still get to the false keel if you need to file a little away and fill it in on the other side. It might be easier to fix now than it would be down the road.

Yes. I have some large scraps of 3/4" birch plywood hanging around my basement that I will use to build the base. I'm going to use scraps from the 1/4" Baltic birch plywood to make right angle brackets to hold it square. The base will be 12x36. This model is gigantic! I held it up next to my Virginia 1819. The hull will be twice as long and almost twice as wide. I knew that going in, but it's different when it's sitting on the bench. Of course, you have to feel the same way about your HMS Victory.

I’ve started working on frames. I won’t get much more done until the weekend, but I really wanted to get the false keel and one bulkhead cut out and fit together.

I am happy to announce that I have purchased the plans and am starting my build log for the HMS Winchelsea. I've been interested in this since the first time I saw the project on the Syren Ship Models website. I'm very excited to start a group project early on in its inception. It will be fun to work on this with so many other modelers. Thank you, Chuck, for putting this together and sharing your hard work and passion with us. I will download the plans and get started on cutting frames this week.

Thank you Mark and Paul. It meant a lot to me to have all the help and support from people like you on this site. This community makes modelling a lot more fun and has really helped me grow my abilities. I have too many ideas for my next build. I bought Model Shipways Fair American a few months ago and have been looking forward to building it. I really like the transom windows, stern framing, painted wales, and the gun port framing to name a few of the features that drew me to that kit. But I've also discovered the group projects portion of Model Ship World. I bought the Triton plans in hopes of building the cross section model of that ship, but there are very few active logs of it right now and the cutting precision is very demanding. I've actually tried building the frames with marginal success to see if I should proceed. I think it will have to wait until I get a little better at building from scratch. However, the newest project, HMS Winchelsea, has just started and looks like a really nice model. I've been lurking over there for a few weeks and I think I'm going to buy the plans and start cutting plywood this week. There are about 20 new build logs and a lot of discussion going on in that forum and I think I would like to be a part of that.

Here is my completed model. I made a ton of mistakes on it, but I’m very pleased with how it turned out. I feel like this was an excellent choice for a first ship model and I looking forward to starting another one. There’s no doubt that I’m hooked!

I’ve done a poor job of updating this log through the rest of the rigging. Here are some photos of the work of installing the sails and running rigging. I attached the mail sail to its gaff before mounting the gaff. It was tricky getting the tension right on each line. The most interesting part to me was seeing how the running lines and pulleys actually work to pull the gaffs into place and set the sails. I struggled the most with making the rope coils look decent. I decided to make loose coils because it seemed much harder to make really tight pinwheel style coils. Its tight quarters working on the ropes with the rest of the lines in the way. My long tweezers and hemostats were indispensable for that work. My next post will show the finished model.

Hi Alec. I used Testors enamel on the canon and the gaff cheeks with just a little trouble: CA stripped a little bit of paint off of the gaff cheeks. In the end, it was so little that I didn’t bother touching it up for fear of making a bigger mess.

Hi Alec. I used Testors enamel on the canon and the gaff cheeks with just a little trouble: CA stripped a little bit of paint off of the gaff cheeks. In the end, it was so little that I didn’t bother touching it up for fear of making a bigger mess.

She’s looking great! What variety of Home Depot plywood are you using? I was thinking about starting this project and doing the same thing, but I am not sure which 1/4 inch plywood would work well versus the more expensive Baltic birch 5-ply stuff that I’ve seen at the craft stores. I don’t mind spending $70 on plywood, unless I can get away with spending $30.

It looks like you’re off to a good start. I’m nearing completion on the same kit. I recommend reviewing the other build logs to see examples of how others have built this model. I have learned a lot from reading and interacting on this site. I hope you have a great experience building and logging it as I have.

Your pieces look fantastic, Matthias! I think making the false keel in one piece instead of three was a good idea.

I have only found their Spanish website, www.constructo.es. They make an updated version of the same kit today. Model Expo now carries it, too. I have the same kit you have sitting on a shelf waiting to be built. So I will follow your progress with great interest.

Dan, In case you haven’t been thanked for this lately, I wanted to tell you how much I appreciate your work on these log files. They are a great help and I use them all the time. I’m sure you put a lot of effort into keeping them updated. Thank you!

I made my sails this evening. I had the material - a fine linen remnant - from a few months ago when I first started thinking about making my own sails. I used masking tape to mark the seam lines the same way that Sardonicmeow did it. I picked thread that I thought would show up, but it blends in pretty well with the fabric. Here are my sails with the factory sails. The seams show up pretty well with any amount of backlighting. Here is the rake issue I described earlier. I think this is an error in the kit, but it's pretty minor. I will shorten the gaff to avoid interference with the main mast. As Peter recommended, I have moved the double-block to above the shroud lines Peter, Paul, and Mark: Thank you very much for your feedback today.

Peter, you're the best! I will move that block up when I get a few minutes to work on it tonight. It should be easy to cut and pull the wire off. I noticed that the foresail gaff is too long, too. Along with using your photos, I've been using the large photos that came with the kit. They're as close as can be to 1:1. Last night, I was trying to gauge the length of the beckets that hang from the gaffs with floating blocks (I don't know the correct term for that line). To do that, I laid the model on the sheet and could see right away why the gaff is too long: The foremast is raked further back on my model then in the photo. It's installed in the factory hole with the rake set by the false keel cut-out, and I know it's perfectly straight. So this is an error in the kit. But it looks like there's room to shorten the gaff without any problems. I'll post a picture later to show what I mean. I'm not sure I want to talk about this, but I'm thinking about making my own sails for this model. The main rub for me is the giant ugly hems on the factory sails. I was looking at the photos in the kit and they have nice narrow hems like yours. I have the right fabric and I bought a light tan thread to use that will give just a bit of contrast. One thing that has held me back is the line that runs around the outside of each of the factory sails. I wasn't sure I could attach them to the ship correctly without the built-in lines. I see that you've made it work without that line and I can now see how your sails are attached. So I'm inching closer to breaking out the old Singer. It's probably one evening of sewing and I'm afraid I'll regret it if I don't. One more question, Peter: How did you make the loops on the gaff with space to thread the line later? Every time I try, I either get a loop that's too loose to get nicely in place or so tight that I won't be able to attach the line later. Yours look very nice, but It think you used a magic trick to make them.

Thanks, Wallace. Peter’s is definitely my main reference for figuring out the rigging. I’ve found that I can zoom in on his pictures with my iPad to 1:1 to get the block locations correct.

It has been hard to find time for model building with summer activities. But I’ve got all but one line of standing rigging done and I’m starting to get the blocks ready for the running rigging. I have poured over the drawings and found the best instructions are in other build logs. Here are a few pictures.

Peter, I definitely like the older anchor better than the one in the 2018 photo. But I also like the additional contrast that the dark band creates. It’s really neat that you have all of this info on the ship to get the details right. I don’t think you can go wrong either way.

Thanks, Mark. I appreciate you taking the time to check it out. I am starting to work on the standing rigging and will post some pictures over the weekend.

I tried to modify the rudder and ended up with it too short to reach the helm. So I built a new one using the leftover lime from the keel. It is cut to curve around the bottom corner of the transom I’ve also started installing the deck furnishings and preparing the masts. My next step will be to install the anchors and bitts.