Patrick Haw

Hello Kevin,
 
It's been a while since I've logged in here and here I find your amazing CAF Enterprise. What a fantastic job you are doing with her! 
 
My darling wife of 38 years passed away earlier this year and I've found that staying busy and focusing my mind on projects is the best way of dealing with my loss. My Caldercraft Victory is perhaps 80% complete and I've been working on her rigging and found that I hate doing it, so I'm setting it aside. I've been thinking about going over to the dark side, but don't have the skills or the tools to scratch build, so doing this POF Enterprise is very appealing...and there's no rigging to do! I have her in my cart at CAF and I'm ready to hit the button on it. I will follow your build very closely as I wade into the project!
 
Best wishes,
 
Patrick

Nothing posted lately, but I've been busy working on gun ports and finally have finished them all.  As always, there's touch up here and there to do, but I think I'm pretty much finished with the hull now and can move on. Started tapering the bowsprit today!

Well it's been about four years since I have touched Victory and she's been wrapped up safely in bubble wrap and plastic the whole time.  I suffered some medical setbacks requiring a few surgeries and afterwards just couldn't seem to get my Victory mo-jo going again and followed a few other pursuits.    For some reason, recently I've been glancing over at the bubble wrapped bundle on the shelf and the unused tools, paints and assorted parts still sitting in the box...and feeling the build desire well...build.
 
I took the wrappings off her today, and damn, I'm much further along than I remembered...and she's beautiful!  It will take me a while to get the shipyard back together the way I want it and then I can get back to work on her.  I'm jazzed but also a little intimidated by all the skills and lessons I have to re-learn.  Thank goodness I have my fellow Victory builders and their wonderful logs to fall back on!
 
More to follow!
 
Cheers
 
Patrick (I'm baaaaaack!)

Well that took forever!  The waterline rehabilitation and recoppering is complete.  A lot of time spent removing old glue and prepping the surface for re-coppering up to the new waterline.  Then I had to remove all the polyuethane coating I'd sprayed onto the original copper, polish the bottom to get a consistent finish, and then re-spray with polyurethane.  All wales are on now too.
 
Amazing to me that nowhere in the plan sheets is there anywhere that shows the positioning of the yellow/black bands.  All they give you is four crappy photos in the manual to work from.  Thanks to studying photos of the real ship and everybody else's build logs, I think I've got it pretty close.  More pics to come soon.
 
Patrick

Hi Glenn,
 
I don't think there's any advantage to starting to plank up from the keel at some point in your first planking.  You may want to consider doing it with your second planking depending on the effect you want to create, keeping in mind that it's all going to be covered with copper plates and paint anyway! If you'll pardon me posting a picture on your log, here's the effect I created with my second planking by planking down from the gunports to about the waterline and then up from the keel.  Not that it makes any difference, it's all copper and paint now!
 
Patrick

Gil,
 
Don't sell yourself short! Even though you completed your Victory so long ago, it's still the hallmark of how to build this model. I'm on the standing rigging of my Victory at the moment (yes, it's taken me forever!) and I have your build log open in my shipyard to guide me all the time.
 
Best wishes,
 
Patrick

Gil,
 
Don't sell yourself short! Even though you completed your Victory so long ago, it's still the hallmark of how to build this model. I'm on the standing rigging of my Victory at the moment (yes, it's taken me forever!) and I have your build log open in my shipyard to guide me all the time.
 
Best wishes,
 
Patrick

Hi
Such a great build. It will be my inspiration for some of the rigging details I couldn't get right from the books. It is always good to look at the example when it's done right.
You must be very proud of your build and you well should be. Fantastic craftmanship.
 
Regards
Tom

Tom, Thanks so much for your kind remarks.  I was surprised since it has been around nine years since I finished the model of HMS Victory.  At 88, my modelling days are over since we haven't the space for a dedicated room to work in, although I did a smaller scale of a Dragon class sail boat.  I've always felt the Dragon had the most beautiful lines.
What I enjoyed most with the Victory was researching the original rigging through numerous sources.  Perhaps you already have it but I found a reprint of "The Elements and Practice of Rigging and Seamanship"  by David Steel written in 1794, by Ecco printing.  It gave the details of nearly every line, splice and hitch aboard a ship of the line in the Royal Navy.  An example, the 27" circumference (about 9" diameter) of the Anchor rode.  I think I found it through Amazon.  Needless to say, the kit did not supply lines of proper scale. I became a regular at the fabric store sourcing thread to match the scale of the original.
Again, many thanks.  It's nice to know the model is of interest to others and may be of help to those who haven't been to sea.
Warm regards,  Gil Middleton

Nothing posted lately, but I've been busy working on gun ports and finally have finished them all.  As always, there's touch up here and there to do, but I think I'm pretty much finished with the hull now and can move on. Started tapering the bowsprit today!

Well, we're moving along now with gun port lids. I now have 15 of them under various stages of assembly/painting. Once these are finished and installed I only have seven more to build...whoopee! As each lid is custom-built and fitted to its respective gun port (to allow for building up wales and slight variations in size) I number them and then place them on sticky side up masking tape so they don't fly away or get mixed up once they're painted inside and out. I use the sticky side up masking tape on the painting bench too so the lids don't get blown away by air pressure from the air brush!
 
Patrick

We grow...in more ways than one.  Just for laughs here's a picture of my entire workshop/workbench when I started this project so long ago, followed by a couple of more pics of what it looks like today. I need a bigger garage!  Mind you, when I see some other builders' custom-built workshops I salivate...and then I think of Gil Middleton who built his amazing Victory on a table top in a condominium!
 
Patrick

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

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!
 
 

Also, there was a question about the size of the large guns. I just started putting one together for fun: 
 

 
Multiple PE parts are also provided to finish the gun.
 
Yves

Yves,
 
Fantastic work! You are the one who is basically writing the manual for this model. It looks like the manual from CAF is comprised entirely of CAD drawings, so your log here with pictures, tips, and hints will be invaluable for future builders.  Well done!
 
Patrick

Just discovered your great built, Patrick. Beautifully detailed.
 

Nothing posted lately, but I've been busy working on gun ports and finally have finished them all.  As always, there's touch up here and there to do, but I think I'm pretty much finished with the hull now and can move on. Started tapering the bowsprit today!

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

SESSION #1 is OVER !!!!!!!!
 
So, Session #1 is officially over and Session #2 has been started as indicated by the following excerpts of the IKEA style instructions: 
 

 
A few views to show you the overall beast! Impressive and massive: 
 

 

 

 

 

 
 As a conclusion for Session #1, I would say the following: 
 
CAF should provide the parts that allow you to verify the correct spacing between the top of the futtocks. These parts are only available with Session 3 and 4 and this is way too late in the hull construction process. Other manufacturers like ZHL or Model Shipways provides bulkeads or futtocks with a removable middle sections. Once assembled and glued, you cut the top and voila.... On such a kit, this lack of help is not acceptable (even the spacing between futtocks is not indicated on the plan, in a clear way). When building a Framed model (POF), a full jig is provided allowing you to assemble the hull without major mistakes. Here, it feels at times like flying a plane in the dark without IFR instrumentation. The Stern should not be assembled until you have Session #2 in your possession. I suppose this is a trick to force you into purchasing the additional sessions. Wood is of very good quality and a pleasure to work with. The cuts are very precise, well done and parts are very easy to detach from the sheets. I wish the stand (to hold the hull) would be offered in Session #1 and not in Session #4..... Instructions need a lot of improvements...... a lot!!!!  
Overall I am very pleased with this kit and would recommend it even to beginners (like me). It does not require any special tools besides sandpaper, files and X-Acto tools.
 
So, let's move on with Session #2..... the planking and the Gun deck !!!
 
Yves

Nothing posted lately, but I've been busy working on gun ports and finally have finished them all.  As always, there's touch up here and there to do, but I think I'm pretty much finished with the hull now and can move on. Started tapering the bowsprit today!

Nothing posted lately, but I've been busy working on gun ports and finally have finished them all.  As always, there's touch up here and there to do, but I think I'm pretty much finished with the hull now and can move on. Started tapering the bowsprit today!

Nothing posted lately, but I've been busy working on gun ports and finally have finished them all.  As always, there's touch up here and there to do, but I think I'm pretty much finished with the hull now and can move on. Started tapering the bowsprit today!

Yves,
 
Fantastic work! You are the one who is basically writing the manual for this model. It looks like the manual from CAF is comprised entirely of CAD drawings, so your log here with pictures, tips, and hints will be invaluable for future builders.  Well done!
 
Patrick

The Coppering Diaries (cont)
 
I'm 6 days and about 16-18 hours of actual work time on the coppering.  As I mentioned previously, I got a little too enthusiatic with pushing the rows of copper closest to the waterline too far forward so had to remove between 30-40 plates and then keep coppering up from toe gore line toward bow and stern. 
 
I have never coppered a model before and was a bit intimidated, but here are some observations on coppering so far:
 
1. It's not as hard as you think it's going to be!  I went down 15 rows from the waterline at about midships to establish the gore line.  Once I got that figured out and drawn onto the hull, laying the plates got pretty easy.
 
2. I'm using contact cement (Weldwood from Lowes here in the USA).  It gves you plenty of time to move and position the plates.
 
3. When using contact cement a good respirator is essential.  By using one you save yourself from headaches, dizziness, and random acts of stupidity!
 
4.  The copper plates tend to stick together in the bag and it's easy to put two plates on instead of one, which is usually ok, beacuse the top plate falls off when you clean up leaving the glued bottom plate intact.
 
5. It's tedious and boring!  Put on some music, relax...it'll get done.  I go out to the workshop with the intent of putting on, say, two rows of plates.  I do them and then do another row for good measure.
 
6. Doing this tedious and repetitive task is a good time for reflection...usually along the lines of "What the hell was I thinking!"
 
 Here's the latest update pics:
 
Patrick