Dan Vadas

Thank you David, Ben and John .
 
This time I only had a six day stint at my van, so I thought I'd spend as much time as possible on this build. I managed six hours per day .
 
The kit instructions had me glue a stopper block under the Boom and Gaff and then glue them both to the mizzen mast - YUCKO . I made up two yokes from scrap ply :
 

 

 

 

 
Continued next post ......

...... continued.
 
Four days later and the Upper Shrouds are completed, including their Ratlines :
 

 

 
The futtock shroud ratlines took a couple of hours :
 

 
The Topmast Forestays were all fitted :
 

 
Finally I added two Bowsprit Shrouds. The kit instructions didn't show ANY   . I had to use four modified blocks, as there were only two deadeyes left and they were both damaged beyond repair :
 

 

 
More work will come in a week.
 
  Danny

..... continued.
 
The Lower Forestays were fitted in a day and a half, starting with the Mizzen Mast and working forward. This is back-to-front to the way I would normally do it, but the work environment dictated it to be the better way as I didn't have a great lot of space to turn the model on my bench :
 

 
The attachment around the mast top is a reasonable facsimile of the real thing, using a "mouse" made simply by tying a double knot around the stay :
 

 

 
I had to use Deadeyes for the lower ends of the stays, as no Heart Blocks were supplied in the kit :
 

 

 
Continued next Post .....
 
  Danny

Thanks for looking in, and the nice comments John, David, Bindy and Karl.
 
 
Don't follow me TOO closely Karl - I'm still trying to make a "Silk Purse from a Sow's Ear" and I'm rather limited by the work that had already been done and also the very poor fittings etc of this kit. It might be better to follow another build .
 
Hi all,
 
I've spent a good portion of the last eleven days working on this one again, while still managing to get a bit of "holiday stuff" in .
 
Below are some pics, taken several days apart, as work on the Standing Rigging progressed. The first was taken two days after the re-commencement of work and shows all the Lower Shrouds completed, :
 

 
Work starts on the most tedious part - the Ratlines. I faithfully (?) followed the Kit Instructions with the spacing of these, as they were at least twice as far apart as they should be (saved me about three days work ) :
 

 

 

 
Two and a half days later all the lower ratlines were completed and the Futtock Shrouds installed :
 

 

 

 
Continued next Post ........
 
  Danny

..... continued
 
Below are a couple of pics of the completed Standing Rigging :
 

 

 
The start of the Bowsprit rigging :
 

 
About now I realized my camera battery was running low, so not many progress pics were able to be taken. Here all the Yards have been attached and the Running Rigging is complete :
 

 

 
I'll take some more closeup pics of the rigging next trip. Bear in mind that I've done a VERY simplified rigging - virtually only the Lifts and Braces for each Yard. I might add the Sheets and Tacks for the lower yards - that area looks a bit bare.
 
Last pic is of the port anchor :
 

 
Apart from painting and fitting the ship's boats the build is now complete. The remaining work will take me a couple of hours, but that will be next week. Then I can deliver the ship to the owner .
 
  Danny

Thank you David, Ben and John .
 
This time I only had a six day stint at my van, so I thought I'd spend as much time as possible on this build. I managed six hours per day .
 
The kit instructions had me glue a stopper block under the Boom and Gaff and then glue them both to the mizzen mast - YUCKO . I made up two yokes from scrap ply :
 

 

 

 

 
Continued next post ......

...... continued.
 
Four days later and the Upper Shrouds are completed, including their Ratlines :
 

 

 
The futtock shroud ratlines took a couple of hours :
 

 
The Topmast Forestays were all fitted :
 

 
Finally I added two Bowsprit Shrouds. The kit instructions didn't show ANY   . I had to use four modified blocks, as there were only two deadeyes left and they were both damaged beyond repair :
 

 

 
More work will come in a week.
 
  Danny

..... continued.
 
The Lower Forestays were fitted in a day and a half, starting with the Mizzen Mast and working forward. This is back-to-front to the way I would normally do it, but the work environment dictated it to be the better way as I didn't have a great lot of space to turn the model on my bench :
 

 
The attachment around the mast top is a reasonable facsimile of the real thing, using a "mouse" made simply by tying a double knot around the stay :
 

 

 
I had to use Deadeyes for the lower ends of the stays, as no Heart Blocks were supplied in the kit :
 

 

 
Continued next Post .....
 
  Danny

Thanks for looking in, and the nice comments John, David, Bindy and Karl.
 
 
Don't follow me TOO closely Karl - I'm still trying to make a "Silk Purse from a Sow's Ear" and I'm rather limited by the work that had already been done and also the very poor fittings etc of this kit. It might be better to follow another build .
 
Hi all,
 
I've spent a good portion of the last eleven days working on this one again, while still managing to get a bit of "holiday stuff" in .
 
Below are some pics, taken several days apart, as work on the Standing Rigging progressed. The first was taken two days after the re-commencement of work and shows all the Lower Shrouds completed, :
 

 
Work starts on the most tedious part - the Ratlines. I faithfully (?) followed the Kit Instructions with the spacing of these, as they were at least twice as far apart as they should be (saved me about three days work ) :
 

 

 

 
Two and a half days later all the lower ratlines were completed and the Futtock Shrouds installed :
 

 

 

 
Continued next Post ........
 
  Danny

Thank you dragzz .
 
I finally feel well enough to make a return to my van and therefore this Build .
 
In three days I managed to fit the rest of the deadeyes and chains, and made a start on the Shrouds. The lower Foremast ones and half the lower Mainmast ones are now fitted. I'm not totally happy about the varying heights of the upper deadeyes, but they look in keeping with the rest of the ship   .
 

 

 

 

 
More work will be done in the coming couple of weeks, as I'll be returning to the van over Easter and the Anzac Day long weekend.
 
  Danny

Last pics for now are of the Rudder I'd previously rebuilt and fitted and forgot to take pics of a couple of weeks ago :
 

 

 

 
  Danny

I rebuilt and stepped the Masts - this took nearly a full day, as the holes on each deck and the bulkheads below them didn't come close to lining up :
 

 

 

 

 
I've also fitted about half the lower deadeyes and their chains - again, not historically accurate but that's what the kit supplied. The kit deadeyes aren't too bad actually - they are cast in Resin and the holes are better than most kits with wooden ones. The chains were already fitted to the deadeyes - I don't know if they came like this in the kit, but I suspect they did. It saved me a lot of work anyway :
 

 

 
The loose chains will tighten up when I fit the Shrouds. There are also a couple of Gunport Lids that will need re-fitting - I managed to loosen a few while fitting the Chains .... I'll fit ALL the Chains before doing this, as no doubt I'll disturb a couple more yet.
 
Continued in next Post .....

Thanks for the comments Bug, Craig, Daniel, Ollie, Grant, Craig and Blademaster .
 
 
Not really Ollie. I estimate about 45 hours so far.
 
I managed some more work on the model over the (looong - mine started on Wednesday ) Australia Day weekend.
 
The old guy had "built" the Masts, but they were so rough and out of shape that my easiest option was to scrap virtually everything and start over. I kept the Mast Tops, as I didn't have anything on hand to replace them with. I soaked them overnight in Acetone to soften the glue and paint, then cleaned them up.
 
Below are a couple of pics of the Tops and a Mast Coat from BEFORE :
 

 

 
And some pics AFTER :
 

 

 

 

 
I realize that the Tops are nowhere near accurate, but don't forget I'm attempting to build this model the way the old guy would have liked it to come out   .
 
Continued in next Post ......

The last BEFORE pic :
 

 
This is almost where I am up to (a couple of pics still to come on my next visit to my van). All the hull is finished except for the Stanchion rigging and Gratings, and the next job will be the masts (a total re-make).
 
Not having any stock of sufficient thickness, I laminated some pieces together to make the Cathead Knees :
 

 

 

 

 
This concludes my Update for now.
 
  Danny

I made all new Timberheads. I used 0.5mm brass wire to ensure a good bond. Yeah, I KNOW they aren't accurate :
 

 

 

 
Continued in next Post .....

First, a pic from BEFORE :
 

 
Some progress pics of the hatch coamings and deck furniture. I re-made all the coamings from new stock. I'll fit some aftermarket wooden Gratings to several of the hatches later on (naturally, the local Hobby Shop doesn't carry them - they mostly do all R/C stuff) :
 

 

 

 

 

 
Continued in next Post

The re-built and mostly finished off Headworks :
 

 
I also re-made the Rudder, but unfortunately forgot to take a pic of the finished result. My attempt turned out fairly rough historically speaking, but it was a bit better than what I had to start with :
 

 
I'll post pics of the rudder on my next visit to my caravan in two weeks. The model has been left there so I'm not tempted to work on it at home instead of on Vulture - a huge temptation I'm sure you will agree   .
 
Continued in next Post

I made and fitted a new Companion to the lower deck. Old mate must have attempted to make one in-situ (I wish I'd taken a pic of it). The treads were roughly VERTICAL   and as rough as guts :
 

 

 
Note the planking on the lower deck - I couldn't really do anything about it without ripping up the entire forecastle deck/gangways. This was another result of confusing kit instructions . Most of the lower deck will be hidden anyway when I fit a couple of Longboats to the beams.
 
Continued in next Post

Before I could fit any of the poorly cast (why was that no surprise?) fittings they all needed a thorough soaking in Acetone, followed by half a day's worth of scrubbing with a toothbrush to remove all the glue and paint. This was a REAL mission :

 

 

 

 
Then I spent the rest of the day cleaning up casting flash and filing.
 
Continued in next Post

The hull was painted (I remembered why I do all my models in lacquered raw wood - I HATE painting ). I used Tamiya Acrylic in Satin Black and a Yellow that was somewhere near Ochre but had a bit too much green in it - it was all I could get from the local Hobby Shop but it looks a lot better than the Gloss Yellow of the original. Tamiya Masking Tape was my friend here - excellent sharp lines and it didn't pull up any paint when removed. It was my first experience using this tape and I can highly recommend it :
 
Guns were fitted to the poorly mounted cast ports by re-drilling the holes for the pins. I taped a couple of strips underneath the barrels to support them in approximately the right position while the slow-setting Epoxy dried :
 

 

 
I opted to leave the Port side guns in the closed position - I'd already spent too long fitting the Starboard (better) side, and most of the ports on the Port side were too far out of position to make a half-way decent job of them. Some of the worst ones on the Starboard side are also in the closed position for the same reason :
 

 
BTW - compare the above pic with the one taken from the same angle in the BEFORE pics .
 
To be Continued in next Post .....

The first part of the model I tore out and replaced were the Decks - the hull actually came after when I saw that I'd done TOO good a job on them . Here are a couple of pics from BEFORE :
 

 

 
The decks were ripped out using a flat chisel-point Xacto. I removed the whole quarterdeck as it was badly out of position :
 

 

 

 
Some pics of the decks after sanding smooth, filling and re-planking :
 

 

 

 
To be Continued in next Post

The hull after painting with Hammertone Copper. The particular paint I used didn't come out as a real hammertone, more like a very light ripple :
 

 

 
Wales and other strakes were made from new stock and re-fitted :
 

 

 
Some more particularly bad work around the Quarters. The kit instructions were to blame for a large part of this - no mention made of Fairing the frames at all   :
 

 

 
Wood Filler was used below the waterline. I laid new planking forward of the quarters themselves, and later fitted a roof over them (also not mentioned in the instructions).
 
To be Continued in next Post .....

Thanks for the comments Philo, demonborger, Michael, Ed, Nigel and Bug .
 
Now that I'm back home again I'll post all the progress pics I took (a couple might be repeats, but they are there for a reason).
 
From the start, and a couple of real nasty ones :
 

 

 

 

 
Work in progress on the Hull. Guns, Port Lids and Wales etc have been removed :
 

 

 
Wood Filler has been applied and sanded. The Ports are later trimmed to shape :
 

 

 

 
Note that I changed my mind several times in the early parts of this Reconstruction as to how far I was going to go with it.
 
To be Continued in next Post .....

I won't be finished for a while yet , but here's a couple of pics of the "current state of play". I'll do a full set of progress pics when I get home next week - it's too hard to do with the laptop I'm using at the moment.
 

 

 

 
Craigb - sure, the old guy had a go to the best of his abilities on a very poor kit. The more I read the "destructions" the more I realise why he did it the way he did - they even confuse ME .
 
If he'd have been on MSW from the start we'd have helped him through and I'd have had a much easier task now. Or we'd have talked him out of attempting the kit in the first place and gone with something a lot easier which he probably would have finished before he passed away.
 
  Danny

About six months ago a friend of my girlfriend's asked me if I could finish off a model ship which her father was building before he passed away. Being the sucker I am, I said yes before I'd even laid eyes on it, or even before I knew which ship it was - MISTAKE.
 
It turned out to be one of the worst constructed models of HMS Victory I've ever seen - only the one I'd previously restored for a friend (similar circumstances) was worse, but at least he didn't want me to spend too much time on that one. As I'd already promised both my girlfriend and her friend that I'd do the job I was stuck with it  .
 
This was the old guy's first ever attempt at building a wooden ship, and he couldn't have picked a worse kit for his debut - a Victory, and a Del Prado part-work kit to boot. I doubt I've seen another kit with worse materials and instructions, at least the timber on my AL HMS Suppy wasn't too bad for an experienced builder to make something of it even though the rest of the kit was rubbish. A novice attempting this Victory kit was never going to get far (bloody thing should have been banned on it's release   .
 
Here are a few of pics of what I faced when I first saw it :
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
I have spent the last 18 days stripping and re-planking the decks, ripping out and replacing a lot of hull planks, bogging the entire hull and replacing wales and deck furniture. I am currently re-painting the hull.
 
I will update this log when I get home from my holidays in a week or two - the internet connection I am using at the moment is as slow as a wet week and it takes me forever to try to send anything.
 
  Danny