Jonathan_219

Keith, I didn't know what it was but I think Gary and Henry have answered that for me. Their answer makes sense and fits with the position and size of it and also matches what I thought I saw in one of the videos. Thanks everyone for taking the time to assist.

Keith, Thanks, I found much the same pictures when I Googled but for some reason it seemed that the Victory steam trunk is a different type of steam trunk as it goes from the deck up to the bottom of the deck above much like a room but possibly serving the same storage purpose. I could be totally wrong but the difference in shape made me think it was something slightly different than these trunks. Since it goes up to the deck above it couldn't open like a typical steamer trunk but would need a door also making me think it's different. Considering the accuracy of the Caldercraft kit and no instructions on finishing it I'm still a bit unsure if it should be finished like a typical steam trunk or finished like the wall dividers in other parts of the ship.

I'm putting together the steam trunk on my Caldercraft Victory and I'd like to know what it looked like to give it the correct finish. I've Googled and Googled but can't find a picture of any period steam trunk, or any ship steam trunk for that matter. In one video I caught a glimpse of what might be the Victory Steam Trunk and it was off-white with some molding in rectangles on at least one side but I'm not sure it was the steam trunk. Since it's called the steam trunk I thought maybe it looked like a typical traveling trunk. Any thoughts or pictures would be greatly appreciate.

Thought I'd show what I came up with, used Victory yellow for the sideboards and stained the risers (walnut) with the lightest stain I had. I also added a 1x1mm strip on the front of each sideboard as I didn't like the look of the grooves for the risers showing.

Thanks Trevor, I'm running through some ideas and will make a decision soon and move forward.

Trying to determine what to do with the finish on the first companionway ladder I'm coming to in my Victory build. Google AI says a combination of the black and yellow, while in the pictures and videos from current Victory it looks more like a natural light brown, like varnished pine but I can't find anything with great lighting so I'm not sure. Going for the Trafalgar look and if anyone has thoughts I'd appreciate it. Also considering whether all the ladders are the same. Slightly side note, the current Victory companionways look a little different from the Caldercraft kit, I'm thinking that's for the safety of visitors but I would think the colors would still be right.

Thanks Trevor, I've been leaning to following the current retrofit but some confirmation of this thinking is nice. I really wish I could visit her but that's just not in the cards right now so I have to settle with pictures and videos. Thanks again.

Building the Caldercraft Victory and while the instructions say to paint the inside lips of the gunports the same color as the adjacent hull the pictures of current Victory have those lips painted the red/orange ochre same as the interior of the gunport. I'm going for a "best I can do" recreation of Trafalgar Victory and wonder what the current thinking is on those gunport lids. Both Caldercraft and the HMS Victory foundation seem to have done a lot of research so I'm not sure why they disagree, of course it could have been both of those ways at some time in it's history so I'd like to get as close as possible to Trafalgar. Appreciate any thoughts anyone has on the matter.

Follow Up: I got the Vallejo Gloss Medium (70.470) and I added 3 drops of it to a brand new bottle of Vallejo Black (70.950) and it gives me what I was looking for which is just the slightest bit of gloss on the, to my eyes, very matte Vallejo Black, it's still quite matte just not as much as before. For me this is a very simple way to getting some control on the amount of gloss on the paint I use. For some reason too little or too much gloss just doesn't look right to me so I'm happy that there are ways to adjust the gloss. I tried taking a picture of the normal and gloss-added black paint tests on some wood next to each other but I just can't get a picture that shows the admittedly subtle difference. Thanks for all the ideas and suggestions, I may end up coming back to them but for now I think adding the gloss medium gets me what I wanted.

Thanks for the info, I really like Vallejo paint too, I'd just like to be able to adjust the finish some and hoping that's possible. I have seen the black gloss Vallejo, I'm just thinking that it's going to be too glossy. If flat matte is 0 and full gloss is a 10 then I'm looking for a something around a 3 on that scale of glossiness.

I'm working on getting the colors and paints selected for my Caldercraft Victory. I like the Vallejo Black (70.950) but it's a little too matte for my taste. I found a Vallejo product that appears to add some gloss finish Vallejo Gloss and have ordered some but wondered if anyone has used this or a similar product and has any tips or suggestions. I'm hoping I can somehow measure how much I add so I can replicate the same finish if one bottle of paint doesn't finish the job. I have the Admiralty paint set for the Victory but the Dull Black provided is a little too glossy for me so I'm hoping there's a way to gloss up the Vallejo Black a little bit. If that doesn't work is there a way to find a black with the finish I like without having to buy a sample of a bunch of blacks and try them out. I also wondered about mixing some of the Vallejo and Admiralty blacks but I'm concerned that duplicating that mixture and getting the results the same could be difficult. So far I've just been testing on scrap wood to try and get the color/finish combination I want and the finish is almost harder to get right than the color. I think I've found a yellow I like and hopefully the gloss additive will work on it as well even though it's not Vallejo. If you're curious, here's the color I picked for Victory Yellow: Victory Yellow, The samples I've done have turned out a tiny bit darker than the sample on my monitor but I think it's going to work. Any thoughts or tips on adjusting the finish gloss/satin/matte on acrylic model paint would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, I've learned so much as I've been doing this ship. I wish I could go back and fix the mistakes.

Lower Stays and Shrouds: Finished the lower and futtock shrouds plus a few miscellaneous pieces of rigging to break things up some. Will do the upper shrouds next and will continue only serving the forward most shroud to protect it from sails rubbing. Will probably do the ratlines once all the shrouds are in place. Still trying not to tie off lines as long as possible to make any adjustments easier but I think I'll need to tie off the bowsprit rigging pretty soon just to tidy things up for rigging the foremast. Started reading "Rigging of Ships in the Days of the Spritsail Topmast" by R C Anderson and I probably should have started this book with the kit just to give myself time to digest all the information in it but I'll try to focus on the areas in the book that correspond to what I'm working on and try to rig as authentically as possible. There's still a lot of guesswork involved but can always fall back on the plans (for better or worse) if needed.

My Solution Well here is what I've come up with, not thrilled but it's ok. If the one cross piece didn't have the slight curl to it I'd be really happy but I think I will leave it. Thinking about this I had two factors that drove the construction, the first was that I needed to use rings to tie it to the futtock staves since I didn't feel there was enough space between the shrouds to add more fairly thick ropes and the second was I needed to construct as much of it as possible off the ship as working in that space is pretty tricky for me. The two main pieces are Syren .88mm dark brown, served and then seizing the rope around the ring, the inner length was 40mm end of ring to end of ring and the outer length was 45mm, longer because of the spread of the shrouds as they lay on top of each other coming off the mast. The two cross ropes were Syren .76mm dark brown, served and then seized over the first ropes. Each was 13mm. The four cross ropes were Syren .30mm and seized to the rings left quite long to aide in putting them in place once the main piece was attached to the futtock staves. Installing it was easier than I expected, I just pulled one corner up at a time and then put the four cross ropes in once it was in place. I expect the next one to be better but it will be a while before I get to them so I thought I'd post with the first one. Thanks again for all the great input.

Thanks for all the great information. I'm starting to understand why great reference books are so highly valued, I need to start adding more of those to my library. I have a lot to consider and the illustrations from Álbum del Marqués de la Victoria seem especially pertinent. It seems obvious that the complete lack of anything resembling catharpins in the plans is a serious error and I'll need to put something there and I'll probably try to do something that replicates this detail but I haven't worked out how I'll do that yet. I'll post a picture when I come up with and install a solution.