Patrick Haw

Progress from the last couple of days. Port side middle gun deck port lids are all installed. I started out with the gun port lids building one at a time, then 3 at a time, now I'm juggling 8 at a time and it goes much quicker. As is always the case with the repetitive jobs on the build, you start of shaky and get better as you go along. When you finally get good at it, you've pretty much finished the job and don't need those skills any more!

Patrick

Hello Sjors,

So glad to find you're still here, and especially excited that you're tackling Caldercraft's Victory. As always, your work is fantastic...and fast! I just got back to my Victory after a couple of years hiatus and have started posting to my log again. Really looking forward to your progress!

Patrick

Welcome to the corps of Caldercraft Victory builders! Looks like you've made a great start...and a long way to go. There will be times when you will want to tear your hair out and wonder what you were thinking...but be patient and have fun, you'll get there with something to be very proud of in the end!

Patrick

Well, it has been a long, long time. My resolution to get back to Victory lapsed for a couple of years and it stayed wrapped in plastic.  In June this year I had a sort of epiphany moment following a life-threatening illness and surgery and I resolved to get back to the build...and to finish it!  I've been working on it almost every day since July and am closing in on finishing the hull and just need to to finish the gun port lids, then it'll be on to masts and rigging.  A few pictures of where it stands right now...and more to come soon!

Hello David,

So good to see you back in the shipyard.  You've long been one of my inspirations when it comes to model building, so I'm hoping that following your Diana build will inspire me to get back on my Victory which has been sitting in mothballs and carefully wrapped in plastic for a couple of years with most of the hull completed.

Cheers,

Patrick

Sjors my friend!   So glad to see you here!  I was away from my Victory for about four years but have just returned to it with a vengeance lately.  I've looked at your Aggie and she's fantastic!  Well done! Now looking at this latest build of yours.  Very, very good as always.  I've missed you and your constant encouragement!   Hope you feel better and will be back at the work bench soon!

Patrick

Away for the weekend and surgery on Monday, so she's back into mothballs again.  Hopefully not for too long and I promise it won't be 4 years this time!

Patrick

I got all the waist ladders in and rigged.  Pretty pleased, although some touch up and finishing to do.  I'm happy and feel like I'm closing in on finishing the quarter deck.  Poop ladder hand rails still to finish but I have the wooden hand rails already done so it's just a question of installation.

3 minutes ago, Shipyard sid said:

Four years on and still no dam dust !!!!!!!

 

Oh there's dust David!  We're just four years older and our eyesight isn't as good!  Just found your Diana log and will be following closely.

Best,

Patrick

Hi Mark,

I've got the canned air spray and it works.  Trouble is that after sitting in mothballs for a few years some of that dust takes some shifting!  I use a medium soft paint brush to stir up the ingrained dust and then blow it away!

Patrick

Hello David!

So glad I found your build log for HMS Diana.  I've been away so long and I've missed so much.  I've always had the idea in my head that I'd like to build Diana at some point (maybe after I finish my Victory in about 20 or 30 years!).  I'm looking forward to following your progress and expect that, as always, I will learn much from you.  As for taking a couple of years off...it's very much underrated but I'm glad that both of us are now back in the shipyard!

Cheers,

Patrick

Some progress today.  Got the forward waist ladders in place, along with waist stanchions and hand ropes.  The hand ropes will be tightened up once connected to the aft waist ladders.  Close up pictures really show the need for a good dusting and paint touch-up!!

Patrick

14 hours ago, Jerry said:

I guess you didn't like mine  LOL

Jerry

 

Not so at all Jerry!  Anyone who has completed this huge and complex build has my utmost respect and admiration!

Patrick

9 hours ago, Wallace said:

Duly noted Patrick. You did a fine job on it. That finish looks great, what did you treat the wood with (and, in case I missed the info earlier in the build, was that the wood supplied with the kit or did you scratch build it)?

Thanks Mark,

The wood, stairs, and balusters are supplied with the kit.  You have to build the stairs from the parts supplied.  The railings and hand rails are made from 1.5 mm x 1.5 mm walnut that you need to reduce to 1 mm x 1 mm. The balusters are (I think) 16mm that you need to reduce to 14.75 mm and square the rounded edges.  So basically you have to build the companionway yourself from the wood and balusters supplied in the kit.  I finished it with walnut stain and a coat of clear satin varnish.  A digital caliper is invaluable for measuring and cutting the railings.

My companionway is not the best I've seen but after several attempts at it I'm pleased with the result.

Patrick

Robert,

I just came across your build log now that I have finally returned to my own Caldercraft Victory after a 3-year+ hiatus.  Your work is very, very impressive and I will keep following your build with interest.  You are one of those builders who makes one wish to go back and start all over again!  Very well done!

Patrick

Hello Bob,

I just came across this build.  Very nice work and your attention to detail is impressive.  I will look forward to seeing your progress.  Best of luck!

Patrick

I certainly did, my friend!  Gil's, Shipyard Sid's, and yours are my go-to logs when I need answers!  (There are some others too!)

Patrick

Well I did it!  I finally vanquished the dragon and am now the proud owner of a completed (and sturdy) main companionway.  Put it together, took it apart, put it together again a few times until I'm finally happy with it!  Will try to get the waist ladders and stanchions in before surgery!

For those yet to build the main companionway I'd strongly advise you to build the entire thing off the ship and then install it as a unit as others have done...it'd be a whole lot easier!

On 5/6/2019 at 3:05 AM, Kevin said:

 

 

Congratulations Kevin!  It's been a pleasure to have been alongside you as you've worked on this wonderful build.  I feel like I've gone through several home renovations with you too!  Just today I was looking for something quite specific on the build and browsed through your entire log again looking for it.  Didn't get any work done on my Victory, but enjoyed a lovely couple of hours looking at yours!

Patrick

14 hours ago, Wallace said:

Good luck with that surgery sir. That will hold you up for a while I would imagine. Hope all goes well. 

Thank you.  I had the same surgery on the same shoulder a year ago, so I know what lies ahead!  Maybe I can do some off-ship stuff that doesn't need me to move my shoulder too much.  Maybe ship's boats?

Patrick

Not a whole lot of progress, but a little.  I'm scheduled for rotator cuff surgery in a couple of weeks so thrying to get as much outdoor stuff done as I can...before I can't!

I finished the last two quarterdeck canons and started playing around with gun port lids.  I didn't mount the forward-most canon in the cabin, so that one is closed.  So we have a closed one, a half door one, and an open one!

So much to do, but finally my supplies arrived from CMBSo I'm ready to get a move on with the finishing the quarterdeck.  First up is the main companionway which anyone who's gone through my build log will know has been my nemesis!.  Lost ladders, broken pillars, etc.  Hope to have it done in a couple of days!

Patrick

13 hours ago, Kevin said:

the actual foot print is not so large as i thought

Wow Kevin!  Great overhead shot of the dock and Victory.  Making the dock should be a piece of cake for someone with your skills.  On second thought, go ahead and build the cafe next door so I can sit and watch the dock take shape!

Patrick

Not a huge amount of progress to report.  I've spent some time getting the shipyard back into some sort of shape and am waiting on a shipment from Cornwall Model Boats so I can get on with and complete the quarterdeck...I think CMB must have shipped the stuff in some slab-sided, Dutch-built lugger as it's taking forever!  Someone should invent a flying machine you could put parcels in and send them across the seas!

Spent a lot of time on clean up/repairs of work already done.  It's amazing how stuff un-glues itself sitting in bubble wrap for 3 years!  I did get the stern and quarter galleries done with the panels between the windows and I got the rudder chains installed...so it's some progress!

Patrick

59 minutes ago, Kevin said:

well that certainly narrows it down to NOW then 

 

thank you for that very informative answer, and LOL now means to copy a section of number 2 dock in Portsmouth

Come to think of it, displaying your Victory as she is today in Number 2 Dock in Portsmouth, would be fantastic and a very unique way of showing her...The oldest commissioned ship in the Royal Navy!  (Just leave off the tourist gangways and the cafe next door selling overpriced sandwiches!!)

On 4/8/2019 at 3:01 PM, Kevin said:

plan is to put her into a dry dock, not specifically Portsmouth  as there is not a actual time line you could date her by

 

so i am open to suggestions on how this could be done

Hi Kevin.  The only references I can find for when Victory would have been in dry dock would be during her re-build from 1800-1803.  In 1796 she was found to have significant weaknesses in her stern timbers and was declared unfit for active service and scheduled to be converted to a hospital ship.  However in 1799, with the loss of HMS Impregnable (98-guns) the navy found itself short of a first-rate and ordered an extensive re-build of Victory,  I believe the re-build took place at Chatham and Victory was re-launched in April, 1803.

As for displaying your Victory in a dry dock setting you should consider that when a ship went into dry dock for a rebuild or major maintenance her upper masts and rigging would be removed along with all armaments, boats, etc., and the ship would essentially be just the hull...and with large amounts of planking, etc. removed for the builders to get at the timbers that needed replacing.  In short, the ship would be unrecognizable. All that to say that a fully-rigged and armed ship in dry dock would be technically inaccurate.  However, displaying her in a dry dock would be a unique and interesting setting...and it's your ship!  However you decide to finally display her you have done an amazing job on your Victory.  Well done!

Patrick