BANYAN

Thanks John. Hi Keith, the whole is made from wood. The hull was carved from a block then hollowed out to shape; then the lining simulating cork covered with canvas) added. I have still to add duckboards, lifting gear etc. We have omitted the tholes at the moment as they are so small art this scale - but I am tempted to do this when I add the pre-painted (vermillion) rubbing strakes and boat badges in the bow. I have yet to come to grips whether hanging loops would have been included with the rubbing strakes, for men to hang onto or assist their scrambling into the boat. The UK Life Saving boats were starting to show them, but not evident in the NMM model. cheers Pat

While I have been continuing to research the rigging outfit, another member has completed a remake of one of the lifeboat-cutters. The Victoria carried two, one of 27' the other 30' - the remake was to correct the length of the second one as we found that info a little later. I have still to add a vermillion painted rubbing strake, the falls hook on/slinging points and a few details, such as boat badges, masts, ropes, bailers, etc. These boats had cork, covered with canvas, floatation in the bow, stern and along the sides which is why they look so 'full/thick'. cheers Pat

Great news, good to see models being displayed at such important venues. The Bridge mini-diorama looks great. cheers Pat

Great to see the update and hear you are on the right track with your little beauty. cheers Pat

Great progress and some nice work there mate; looks good. cheers Pat

It still amazes me how those masts retained sufficient strength after having a sheave cut through them; your piccy illustrates just how little 'meat' was left to either side. You're making great progress Vlad, I am enjoying following along. cheers Pat

Love the bread-and-butter building technique you use for these miniatures Glen; a clever way to achieve the right look. cheers Pat

Very nice work Vladimir, coming on very nicely. cheers Pat

Those are some impressive results Greg; when it gets to sharp end, just like car concourse judging, they get very 'picky, too picky for my anti-rivet counting approach. cheers Pat

Hi all, those following my Victoria build will be familiar with my quest to make sense of some of the rigging (and item combinations) listed in the Rigging Warrant. By chance I came across a couple of articles which may be of interest to other members but offers a few clues for the rig used by the Victoria also. One of the primary concerns I had was the provision of vertical wirerope jackstays on a couple of her masts, which did not tie in with any of the contemporary literature from the likes of Burney, Nares, Luce, Kipping and Fincham. These articles, while a little after Victoria's building, show the emergence of rigs designed to be handled from the deck; for example, furl from the deck or lower top rather than sending men aloft. Rigs in this era were under continual development, therefore, I am reasonably comfortable that the designs offered by the two articles I have found are a sound basis for my assumptions. I have a way to go yet searching for more and earlier examples, but there is sufficient information to show that it is probable that Victoria used these jackstays to guide the upper masts down to the lower yard. The sails of the upper yards were bent/laced by their foot to the yard below rather than above, allowing the sails to be lowered to be furled. The upper yards were also rigged, using tricing tackles and the jackstays, to allow the top, topgallant and royal yards to lower to the lower yard. This makes some sense of the rigging listed but not entirely, so it is probable that an early version of this was employed - if only I could find..... For those interested, here are two proposed rigging designs (the latter definitely not used in Victoria😞). if anyone has access to copies of the Mitchell Maritime Register (now part of Lloyds records I think) I would appreciate knowing if there are earlier proposed designs included. The attached designs will have developed from earlier concepts and practices, so the use of jackstays to guide the lowering of yards without sending men aloft must have been emerging earlier than 1870. cheers Pat Edit: P.S. I have extracted the relevant (deleting blank pages) from the Google Books sourced book, and the later Newspaper article is from the Australian National Library Newspaper digitisation project through their TROVE portal. Many thanks for both for maintaining these as free services.) New Rig for Steamers_RB Forbes_1883.pdf A New Rig for Steamerships_TROVE_1871.pdf

Congrats Greg, great to see your efforts rewarded. Some pretty fancy trophies, the group must be well funded or sponsored. cheers Pat

Hope all went well mate, both the trip (all models arrived and returned safely), and the show? cheers Pat

Thanks for the response Vlad, the simplest pf solutions is often the best cheers Pat

Good luck Rob, I wish you every success in your efforts. cheers Pat

Like the shackle you have made Vladimir, how did you do that? I have been able to do the main body but replicating a forelocked pin has eluded me cheers Pat

Looks like a good plan Glen, good luck. cheers Pat

Great process Rob, I have been mucking around trying to form my 'boots' and having a lot of problems due to the severe rake of Victoria's masts. I also have to make some boom rests/shoulders on the mast with the same angle/orientation - I will give sculpting them a go I think. Nice work on your boots etc Vladimir, you offer an alternate method to consider but I think with 15 degrees of rake on the mizen, the moulding may be the better option to try first. Your build is coming on very nicely. cheers Pat

What a wonderful ride this build has been. Congrats on a first-class build Keith; it has been a joy to see your progress and high-quality work. She looks wonderful and so accuratly reflects the actual yacht. cheers Pat

Great to see you start on this little beauty Tony; look forward to seeing her progress with much interest. Your efforts of lofting should produce a nicely faired hull. As John says, a pity to see she has 'gone'. cheers Pat

Thanks Dave, very effective technique - had me fooled More nice work on that hatch. cheers Pat

Eberhard, after a little more searching I have found a website that provides some guidance even if for steel short-link chain to Australian standards (Haosail Website) - iron links were probably a little larger? After applying the rules-of-thumb from Fincham, and using the table details for link width based on 8mm which is close to 5/16" chain listed in the Rigging Warrant for the TG tye), I arrived at the following. The overall dimensions for the Tye sheave slot were 6¼” long, 1 13/16” wide. As the topgallant section of the combined mast is 5 5/16” where the slot is cut, the width would not have left much ‘meat’ on the spar (about 1¼” either side) - noting they were also copper lined. I think this would seriously weaken the mast which still had the pole (Royal) extension above it. Even though the Rigging Warrant does not list any blocks associated with the TG Tye, I think I will use a gin block as that is what is used with the Topyard Tye. I would appreciate any further thoughts or suggestions? cheers Pat

😁Thanks Rob. Actually, I am not too concerned with the model as I have also used smallest chain I can find. Simply trying to establish whether a sheath will have been cut into that part of the mast (TG stop) or a Gin/Other block used - but nothing listed against the chain Tye for TG in the Rigging Warrant. If a slot, there was not much meat left in the cheeks as a chain sheave was wider than for rope. I am leaning towards a block, even if not listed. cheers Pat

Thanks Eberhard, appreciate your time looking. Pity there isn't as much info available in contemporary literature. As you say, it should have been somewhat standardised by 1855. Thhe tid-bit on short-link chain on rollers is useful. The reason I ask, is that Victoria used chain for the tye (among other rigging that ran through blocks). For the topmast, gin blocks were specified for the chain tye in the Rigging Warrant, but no blocks are listed against chain for the topgallant tye. This infers a tye sheave cut into the mast at the topgallant stop. BUT as chain needs a wider sheave, and the mast diameter at this point is only 5.3" diameter, that would seriously weaken the mast. The chain is specified at 9/16" wire diameter but I would really like to find a rule of thumb for the chain width and for the slot. Fincham provides a rule of thumb for slot length (1 and 1/6) sheave diameter but I can find nothing on width for rope or for chain except for a comment by Fincham that the sheave for chain is shallower in the groove, bigger in the mouth and overall wider than for a rope sheave pully. cheers Pat

Hi Rob, sorry out of action for a couple of days helping one of my sons with yard work. 'Victoria' used the Rapson son which is under the grating you see. It used a short axel wheel on an inverted/back to front 'V' frame (opposite to normal) to cater for her short counter and leave room for the after pivot-gun. This put the legs of the support frame forward of the wheel and the wheel could then be mounted almost directly over the transverse/thwartship slide. In Victoria's set-up the tiller was abaft the helmsman, you can just make it out in the photo. That the reason for the grating over the system. cheers Pat

Ditto Rich's encouragement Vladimir, as a matter of fact your drive to redo rather than accept shows that you are going in the right direction (you wouldn't want to seem my redo bin ). cheers Pat