BANYAN

Brian, I have thoroughly enjoyed following your build and I am now a little disappointed that it is finally complete, and I won't have something new to see what you have achieved. What a splendid display of skills in building this, and the effort is well rewarded with the magnificent model you have to show for it. cheers Pat

What a terrific achievement Glen, she looks great in her 'glass' home. This has been another fascinating build to follow, and you have set your 'benchmark' very high for the follow-on build cheers Pat

Looking good Vladimir, nice, neat work. cheers Pat

The assembled vessel looks great Glen, very nicely thought through and executed. cheers Pat

When you trailblaze you have to expect such dilemmas Glen; it is how you overcome that matters and you have done a great job. cheers Pat

Nice work Wonko, a lovely example of miniature working engineering. Look forward to seeing more. cheers Pat

Working for me also Shipman and Kevin. Many thanks Kevin some great detail photos there that will be useful for my research also. cheers Pat

Rob, what a great artifact to have, and very nicely presented after your efforts with the shadow box. cheers Pat

Love those pumps Vladimir; very nicely done - they look greatg. cheers Pat

Great addition to your collection Rob. cheers Pat

Love the time and effort you are putting into the oarsmen and their bench seats etc Richard; it will make for very realistic detail on the model. cheers Pat

Looks good Glen, she'll be afloat before you know it cheers Pat

Stunning detail Keith, she looks very sharp. cheers Pat

Nice work mate; looks good. I like the yard trusses; very well made. cheers Pat

Very nice work indeed Brian; a very nicely bui;lt and presented model. cheers Pat

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