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It has been quite some time since my last post, but as you can see some progress has been made!  Clearly some cleaning is in order!! 

Adding a few recent pictures of progress.  Holy cow are the shrouds time consuming!  Then again, maybe working smarter instead of harder would have helped! 
Thanks for looking,
Mark

Hello,
Happy New Year to everyone!  I found some time to work on rigging over the holidays and here are the results.  After looking at some of the other build logs and my plans, I realized the placement of the forestay was not correct on the bowsprit.  Decided to go ahead and move them to the appropriate location before getting too far down the road.
Thanks,
Mark

David - Thanks for the encouragement!  Since this is a restoration I am sort of making it up as I go,  HMS Victory purists would be able to point out a million different things"not quite right", but I absolutely love this old ship and the character it has!  I am adding a couple of other pictures that may help you with the bowsprit.
 
Craig - Hello!  I am trying to blend the new parts with the old by experimenting with different stains, number of coats, etc.  So far it has come pretty close to matching the rest of the hull.  You can see where the parts are different, but overall I am very happy with how the new parts blend in.  The ship in the background is the USS Perry.  This will be another restoration once I get the HMS Victory back in shape. 

Finally finished the shrouds on the foremast along with some misc. standing rigging.  Moving on to the mainmast next.

Just a couple new pics for today.  Three quarter view of the model, plus starting on the shrouds. 

Hello,
Here are a couple of pictures of recent activity.  Not much progress, but at least there is some progress!  Work has slowed down a little, but I am hoping to move to the shrouds next. 
Thanks,
Mark

Hello,
Looks like it is finally time to start diving into the rigging!  Completed the gammoning but had a little struggle due to not cutting enough space in the saddle area.  I have a little overlap on some of the strands, but I think at this point I am going to leave well enough alone.  The gammoning turned out pretty good on the bottom, so no changes.  I have learned that trying to fix things sometimes just makes it worse!!
 
I also noticed that I have the blocks inverted under the bowsprit.  The holes should be up toward the knot.  Overall I am pretty happy with how things are turning out.  I also need to remind myself that there are a whole lot more lines and "bits" going on, so don't get too excited about the little things right now. 
 
Thanks,
Mark

Hello,
Finally feel like I am making progress!!  The original fittings for the bowsprit looked to me to be oversized, so I went back and installed slightly smaller fittings to get better proportions.  I thought it would be much better to try and make adjustments now rather than attempt to make them later.  Some smaller bits need to be installed, but I think the general layout is close.  Thanks to Gil Middleton and his pictures for helping me make sense of the configuration!  This is not a historically accurate model, but at least now the configuration and layout of the hardware is closer to what it should be. 
Thanks,
Mark

Hello,
Not a whole lot of activity lately, however I have been able to complete work on the mast tops, stained the bowsprit and started the process of adding hardware to the bowsprit prior to installation.
Thanks,
Mark

Updated progress pictures.  Tried to match the existing color through walnut stain and it came out a little darker than I had anticipated.  It blends with some sections of the bow, but not others.  I might refer back to my plastic modeling days and attempt dry brush to blend more consistently. 

Hello,
This is a restoration effort on the Sergal 1/78 scale HMS Victory originally constructed in the mid-1980's.  My Uncle originally constructed the ship and it has been in the family ever since.  As age caught up with my Uncle and dimentia started to take hold, he decided to do an "after the battle scene" and with a propane torch reduced the ship to what you see in some of the photos.
 
When I found the kit, my Aunt was getting ready to throw it in the trash.  Seeing that the hull was in pretty good shape, I knew I could not let the ship get thrown away.  After obtaining the original plans, extra parts and books I have begun the restoration. 
 
I have been a modeler for many years, but this is my first opportunity to work with wood ship kits.  Having read through some of the build logs on here before the crash, I know there is a lot of experience and knowledge here.  Feel free to let me know if you have any advice or direction. 
 
Thanks for following my restoration/build log!
Mark

Robert, Wallace, Boyd and Kevin!
 
I am touched, deeply moved and honored by your great compliments. Thank you so much !!!
@Wallace: I've learned so much from this forum myself that I'm happy and proud when others can learn something from my post.
@Boyd: You're right. I will now proceed stubbornly according to plan and look at every detail first, what I find in my books and - not least - in the forum with the other model makers to do so.
@ Kevin: I hope that I can fascinate you with my work even longer :-)))
 
But as you can see here: Sometimes I had some help with building my model. But mostly they were busy with themselves 🙂

Time for a new update. In the meantime, my Victory has turned 6 years old. No idea when she finally grew up.
 
I started with the foremast now. As always, I only  use my own walnut wood. It's very nice, but hard to work with, because it's very hard. This makes it very tedious and exhausting. In addition, I do not suggest the metal bands around the mast with an adhesive strip and paint, but they made of wood. That also means a lot of filing and sanding.
 
As you can see, I already started with the Mastheat. For the small wooden slats I needed new wood, which I had to wait a few days for.
 
Of course, everything is just plugged together and not yet glued. I hope I do not overlook important steps. I look regularly in my books and here in the forum. Thanks to Gil and Kevin and the others for the many great pictures, where I can orient myself!
 
All in all I am not as far as I would like to be. Everything takes a long time. And in addition I have rebuilt something in my cellar. I got a large wooden table (2 x 1 meter) and cleared out the old workbenches and kitchen cabinets. That stole me a weekend :-).
 
I wish a nice Sunday!
-Heinz-

It is almost 1 year ago that I posted something new about my victory. Time for an update!
The foremast is now finished. I had already set the shrouds when I came across a dealer on the Internet that offers self-twisted ropes. I immediately decided to buy it and make the rigging on my model anew. Several hours of work for the garbage can ... but it was worth it, wasn't it?

and now the pictures with the new ropes.
 
Hopefully you like it as much as I do 🙂.
 
Best wishes for the new year!!!
 
-Heinz-

Thank you, Richard!  Thank you all very much for the likes!
 
I’m making progress:

The foremast bitts are done and installed:

The stern bitts are painted and the mainmast bitts are installed, but the fife rail still needs finished.  Due to the variance between Mantua’s kit and the AOTS plans, I needed them in place to measure off the location of the belaying pins (made from sewing pins).

Bitts with a fife rail:

Thank you very much!  Thank you all for all the likes!
 
Everything made last night is now painted:

The mast coats for the fore and main mast are made, painted and installed:

The stern bitts are made and installed, but not yet painted:

The forward foremast bitts and fife rail is made.  The pieces of sewing pins are my belaying pins.  Even at 1/72 scale, they are close enough to being in scale that they look like belaying pins.  At 1/98 scale, they look perfect (to me at least).

Thank you all!  I’ve been having a lot of fun with this build.  It has definitely been a good challenge.
 
I made some more progress last night.

I finished the rail, except for the hammock cranes.  The hammock cranes and netting will be one of the last deck fittings that I make.

I fixed a minor issue with the hatch going to the upper gun deck by the main mast.

I did not like the tops of the quarter galleries, so I made filler pieces that I did like.

All eight of the upper stanchions are made and installed:

The upper rail is made and ready to install:

It will be installed after the stanchions are painted and touch ups to the lower rail are done (probably tomorrow).
 

Thank you both very much!  Thank you to all who have hit the “Like” button!
 
The silver lining of the current situation is that it has greatly freed up my schedule.  Bearing in mind that I am the one who has previously taken vacation days from work to work on my model.
 
I am still working on the upper stanchions.  They are right on the borderline of what I am currently able to carve, due to their small size (which is why all subsequent builds will most likely be at 1/72 scale).
 
 

Afternoon!
 
Ok, this one is going to take me a little longer than the prototypes of VM's Fifie and Zulu! I'll try to keep this updated as often as I can if there's some real interest. Flirt is based on the previous Speedy kit, but with some notable differences. The model itself won't have a launch as standard, and there are differences to the rig too, plus the deadeyes are replaced with pear wood heart blocks. She also won't be coppered below the waterline, instead being painted white. Before I kick off with the hull, I built the temporary cradle. This is only temporary as there's a clear acrylic one for the finished model, and I don't want to use that until I really need to. Onwards with the prototype! Again, these are photos that will eventually be in the instruction manual, and not regular bench build images.
 

 
 
The regular kit will have 3mm MDF for the main hull components. I quite like this material. It's easy to sand and takes the nails and glue real well. There will be a Master Shipwright version where the MDF will be replaced with birch ply, but that will be very limited edition! There is actually a little birch ply in the standard kit, replacing the MDF stern frames. 


 
 
As you'd expect, everything just drops together, and those that are building the Speedy I'm sure would testify to. The bulkheads, minus the bevelled ones, are now glued in place. There are also two parts which support the lower deck ends. These are also now glued into place.


 
 
One difference to Speedy is the replacement of the lower MDF deck with an engraved ply deck. This, as before, fits in four sections.




 
 
With the deck in place, glue is brushed un the undersides. That'll give more strength, and some rigidity to the outer portions of the deck edges.

 
That's it for the moment. I've been so busy that I've barely noticed I've been in isolation for over a month. It's one way to make the time fly! More soon.
 
 
 

Hi Keith 
We are heading home through a mass of tornadoes-Florida can be a crazy place, Southeast US is not any better, perhaps worse.
I am going through your build and studying each picture.
At any rate I was wondering how you remove the brass pins and what are the dimensions of the pins?

Thanks for looking in all- bit more progress- got the main yard truss pendants rigged and the stop cleats in place on the main topyard (will trim the bamboo treenails flush when glue dried).
Thinking 200 moves ahead i didn't actually glue the rail in front of the mainmast in permanently yet as i knew i would need access there. Sometimes pays to just sit infront of the model you are building and mentally skip to future possible headaches!


As an aside for you steam buffs out there the family went to the Keighley and worth valley railway spring gala on march 7th which was our last day out before the lockdown-
 

take care all 
 
Keith