gieb8688

More advances...
The hull is almost finished. Bulwarks and coys in place more or less about 280 coys.  The bowsprit also in place and the small boat is in the pit.
Enjoy!
 

Here is a look of the inside of the instructions book. The book is a mixture of building instructions and the actual cardboard for the build. I am also crossing out the letters/numbers of the pieces I have used as I go along so that I don't miss anything. If the letter isn't crossed out then I assume that I haven't used it.
 

 

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

Greetings everybody
Happy new year you to you all. Well at last I have finished all the yards on the fore mast, apart from fitting the two rings of parallel beads. So the next step will to fit them and the rigging to the yard which I shall start tomorrow, and this looks a nice little job. I may have a go at fitting some of that hammock netting which I have managed to find in town. One thing I have noticed is that at this stage builds such as Gil's and grants have more rigging on than I am instructed to fit.There is rigging fitted to reach the ends of the yards and I am not instructed to fit it yet. I think a little bit of impatience is creeping in as I want to fit it. Anyway I will go with the book as it seems to be working for me and is a lot simpler than I thought it was going to be. Anyway that's me for now, and I will post again when the rigging is fitted to finish off this mast. Thanks for viewing and your comments. Here's some photos. DAVID

Actual pics:

Hello Again.


It has happened again. As Randy advised me
I did bevel too much frame #28 so I have had to redo both. More scrap pieces to
the sack. But I am happy because I am at last building something rather than
being cutting and sanding day and day.


The JIG has been very helpfully so far… I
do not Know how I am going to get rid of it cause it won’t come out by itself.


I have glued already frames #28,#27,#25
& #23. And tomorrow I hope to complete the whole thing.  I´ll write some more explaining the process.


Here are some pics…


 

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

Happy new year everyone , I am taking a break from my Endeavour build to finally finish off my victory (as seen in gallery)
 
I have added jack staff and ensigns, and completed stand.i am working on quarter davits, fore and main ensigns,then finally ships launch. cheers Mike

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

Thankyou Marktime - delighted to hear you find it of interest and I am not talking to just myself after all.
 
After staining the hull I continued with completing the forecastle deck with no hiccups.   I used two different timbers to give the stripe effect that I have seen on another version of the Santa Maria.  Adds a bit more interest.
 
The walers (if that is the correct term – I haven’t had time to check) are from the same material as the 2nd planking.  Again wetted, set to the required curve and dried on a board before gluing in place.  Slow but worth the effort.
 
The walers were stained with coulour wedge.  It is a pain trying to draw lines on a curved hull when setting out the walers so I used pieces of masking tape to define the position of the waler before fixing into place.

The decorative arches at the stern supplied with the kit are a bit whimpy but I didn’t want to spend the time looking for alternatives.  I am keen to get the model finished asap.  Needless to say when first installed they didn’t cover the distance required – could have done with one more arch each side.  Corrected the situation by adding a 1mm sq bead between each arch.

Making toggles:
The metal one is provided in the kit.

Time for an update....installing the port shutters, as always the instructions are way too detailed about it 
 

 

 
those used to be made of etched brass so....thats where they where
 

 
as i side note, i figured out what are those small pieces with two holes in them....still trying to solve the enigma of the larger ones...remember they where made of brass once, any ideas?
 

 
not very easy to get the position of the port shutters
 

 
this is the result
 

 

 

 
Time for some ornaments
 

 

 
i guess they are of average quality found in kits, i did some adjustments to them, making them similar, the tools i use for such work in the second pic. I got a lot of experience with them building the San Felipe. The one at the stern needed a lot of bending of course, basic rule is to do it slowly and gradually.
 

The figurehead was way to thin to mount it on the keel, i did both widen it and shaved the keel, before gluing it i checked her high with the bowsprit that goes above her 
 

 
The last two pieces, that i don t know how are called, wheren t problematic, apart from the fact that they are very "raw". So the final results:
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
That s it for today...
 
Tomas
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Oh by the way, for myself, i've been looking ages for this:
 

Hallelujah!
 
I think I finally broke the etched brass spell that's been standing in the way of progress on the Saginaw! 
 
I've been kind of down and out of doing a lot of shipmodeling the past couple weeks due to a pinched nerve or something in my neck and shoulder. For a while, I wasn't getting much sleep due to pain and that's left me tired all day – too much so to feel like sitting down and getting any work done with neck and shoulder pain. It's gotten much better since then, and while it's not totally gone, I've been able to get some things done.
 
Being a bit short of project motivation for a while, I decided to do a little technique research and worked a bit on just one aspect of photoetching brass, and just practiced prepping the metal and getting the artwork onto it. I did a bit of experimentation on exposure times under a lamp and took observations. Eventually, I worked my way back up to actually etching the brass and today I made the pieces that would form the basis for the circular skylights on the Saginaw.
 
 
 

Here's the exposed photoresist, all nice and cleanly adhered to the metal. This was the first major victory. I'd had problems with bubbled in the photoresist, what I thought was dirt and such. I found that keeping the metal and the photoresist very wet while sliding it into position made a big difference. Also, in the exposure process, the metal was getting hot and that was affecting the photoresist's adhesion and all. I found that getting the right sized lamp, getting the right distance and exposure time helped. Also, I found it best to let the project cool off after exposing one side, but before exposing the other side.
 
To improve evenness in the exposure, I also found a solar powered display turntable. I set the project on that under the lamp to expose the photoresist and the light powered turntable kept the whole thing slowly rotating and evening out the exposure across the work piece.
 
 

I made sure to warm up the etchant by placing the bottle in a bath of hot water. Even with the very chilly garage, this improves the efficiency of the etchant. I also made sure to start with a fresh bottle of etchant, and I'm very carefully making sure to mark the usage and track it very carefully. The resulting etch took less than 10 minutes. I made sure to remove the work piece at one point and rinse it, removing spent etchant with a brush, before returning it to the etchant bath to resume the process.
 
 

The pieces for the skylight were cut from the sheet and cleaned up. At this point, all the etching work has been done and now it's just a matter of using the parts to assemble them into something useful, and hoping I designed the part correctly.
 
 

In this case, the pieces are bent to shape and I cut off some thin rings from a 15/32" brass tube on my Sherline lathe. I glued these into place using a little thick CA in a couple spots to hold the pieces in alignment. I then glued each spoke to the ring using thin CA.
 
 

Finally, I trimmed off the excess lengths of spokes and filed them neatly. These will fit on top of the circular coamings I turned for them long ago.
 
Next step is to paint them and add the clear acetate windows. That will be a bit of a task, but after all the pain I've gone through relearning and redeveloping good technique for the brass etching, this should be a breeze!
 
I'm not sure if I'm going to try to put protective bars over the skylight windows or not. At this scale, they'd probably be around .005" and nearly invisible. If I put them on, I would mount them vertically and there would be maybe 3 per wedge-shaped window. I'm not sure what material I'd have that would be thin enough to work other than nylon fly tying thread.
 
Anyway, it's good to make progress on the Saginaw again. It's been neglected for far too long!
 
Clare

Greetings all
Well that's the finish of the standing rigging I think, and just some tidying up to do. Theres a small breakage at the stern on the starboard side to fix. There are also a few gunport lids to refit . It is almost impossible not to do some damage at this stage. I have had a look at the running rigging and as I said earlier I would like to start at the bowsprit, and was told that would be no problem by Grant , as that is what he did. Being honest there are are a few things I do not understand about fitting these yards, and I reckon this will be very very slow. Ok here's the last photos of the completed rigging on the stern area. Thanks for viewing and comments. Here we go. DAVID

Foremast... I'm building model using enlarge cardboard model  from 1/96 to 1/48.
 
Ok, time to show you carvings... made from pau marfin...
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
...parrot after wax mixture...
 

 
 

Well... I admit, I didn't quite stick to the plan as I had laid out earlier. I did get one section of the hull added on.... but....that large-ish hole in the fo'c'sle deck kept calling to me and I couldn't ignore it any longer. Starting yesterday I've been busy building a new forward house from sctatch. All styrene, of course. It's what you would call a "selectively compressed" version of the real thing. Taking the key elements, such as the shape and general arrangement, some compromise (reduce the number of portholes and doors), and you get something believeable, that anyone who knows the real ship, would recognize. Admitedly there should be a tad more curve in the front of the house, but I'm happy with what I've got.
 
There's still a lot more to do... like the sub-deck framing, the upper bulwark framing, doors and other odds and ends, and eventually the pilot house. The large square holes in the aft end are ladderways. I figured them out when I took a good look at the second prototype photo I posted. I noticed a jumble of railings just inside the aft corner that could only come from a ladderway.
 
You can see the difference when you compare the kit supplied version. There is fundamentally nothing wrong with it.... it's just not really proportionally correct for this build.
 
I'll be away for a couple days, I have to take a ship up the river and I fly to Montreal late tonight. I should be back late Monday, early Tuesday.
 
Andy

Greetings all
Well I have made quite a bit of progress since my last post, with all the work being on the bowsprit. I only need to attach two single blocks to the spritsail yard and that should be all the work on it completed. I will however need to come back to it once the fore mast yards are connected. I found the plans pretty good, and with Gil's photos to hand you cannot go really wrong. Well here's a bunch of photos for you, and thanks a lot for viewing and all your comments. Here we go.DAVID

Cont'
 
 
 




For the head and foot, I used balsa block to shape them. I think there is certainly better wood for it, but balsa is the current wood material I have enough to build them. 
 


Now, the head on the stern gallery is added. Again, to ease my work I removed the club shape on the head, and made it smooth instead.
 


By using leftover wood from the stern filler, I added them at the bottom. That little curve might help designing my gallery
 


And again, plank them all using 0.2mm x 4mm walnut strips which left from my Pearl.
 


Up till now, it's already a week. 
When every piece is glue, it looks like this. Anyway, it's still not glued to the ship.
 

 
 
After painting...
 


Now it's time to add the white border line to the gallery. By using unused (due to modification) 2mm x 5mm walnut strip from the kit, I profiled a 'U' shape it like what we can see on the Trincomalee.
 


So, this is now the gallery looks like now.  

I'm running out of extra wood strips and couldn't continue already. Anyway, I've just placed an order from CMB and it might take around 2 weeks to reach Malaysia. I also included some cast metal of Amati, which at least looks better than the Corel kit ones in the website. Let's hope for the best!

Whilst waiting, I'll continue on the bulwark planking and other fittings first.

Thanks for viewing!

Here are better pictures of my ship.  Sorry, but I did not put up the cheap paper flags.  I think they are tacky.  I don't know what my next build will be yet.  What are the cross bars that you put the sails on called?  Anyway, I think I did the back one incorrectly.  I think it was supposed to be tilted.  It did seem weird the way they had the mast done in the middle for that bar.  They were not very clear on how to do it.  I had to be clever on where to tie the front sail off of.  The tiny picture did not really show where the bottom ropes were supposed to be tied to.  I have learned sometimes you have to come up with clever ways of doing certain things.  You know they really need people who don't know how to put these ships together to test their directions to see if the directions are clear enough for people to understand.
 

 

 

 

 

Hi Kim,
Any seam resulting from two pieces of plastic glued together.  In my experience with plastic models there is always a seam of some sort resulting from two halves being brought together.  By using the sprue technique you are using the same material the model is made from to fill and/or smooth out the glued seam.  Once it dries, you file, sand and the seam disappears.  I have been using this technique successfully for years.
Thanks,
Mark

Hi Kim,
Any seam resulting from two pieces of plastic glued together.  In my experience with plastic models there is always a seam of some sort resulting from two halves being brought together.  By using the sprue technique you are using the same material the model is made from to fill and/or smooth out the glued seam.  Once it dries, you file, sand and the seam disappears.  I have been using this technique successfully for years.
Thanks,
Mark

Hi Kim,
I have had good luck filling seams by cutting small pieces of sprue and placing them in a small glass jar.  Pour in liquid cement and either add more sprue pieces or more cement until you get a thick paste like consistency.  Place it on the seams as even as you can and finish up by filing and sanding.  Keeping it in a glass jar will preserve the mix and allow use on other models.  
Thanks,
Mark

New cherry stock, for new projects, must be American cherry some planks were 10’ X2’’ X 15’’. Next, a stick which is put between wood layers when the wood in the dryer, first time I saw this.
Planking on the first deck has begun. Planks will be glued later; I stopped to begin outside planking on 1 side.
When I began this build, I wanted to use only cherry, to obtain 1 wood color. After some thinking, I prefer more than 1 color because I do not like the one tone effect. Some dyes will be use and coppering will be the next stage. Although coppering is a big work, the look and the color surely make it worth to do it.

Hiya!
 
Got back from Italy last night - never get used to the drive, it's so long!
 
They loved Victory, and I shall be left alone to complete the drawings and instructions for the model, which is good. After Victory, I have  couple of different projects to start work on, as they have enough period ships in the pipeline for now. The frigate will have to wait a while longer..
 
Revenge is almost ready, this should be followed by the RC capable Scottish fishing boat. After this, I don't know.
 
Anyway, I took a couple of (bad) pictures of Victory next to Vanguard. It wasn't until I seen Vanguard again for the first time since starting Victory that I realised just how big it was - I always thought Vanguard was large, but is dwarfed by Victory! Oh yes - Victory now has her figurehead (exact scale - not as big as you see on other kits...) - and some flags...