Charter33

Coming on nicely Ron 👏

Just like you and Andrew, I too suffer from 'safe place' syndrome, but with one unmentioned addition.... once the work is done and lost item has been replaced, the missing part turns up! 🤣

Allen is correct, Caldercraft is inaccurate. I couldn't find any definitive information in John McKay's 'Anatomy of the ship' book, Longbridge's 'The Anatomy of Nelson's ships' or any of the other published works I have in my library, so the following is based on personal observation so can only be regarded as a guide for consideration..... It also assumes that your HMS Vanguard's rudder and that of another vessel of the same scale are reasonably comparable. Longridge, plate 35, is a good photo of Victory's rudder and the chain in question. Using the thickness of the rudder as an appropriate datum it appears that this is equal to 10 chain links. Comparing my Victory's rudder to the chain the kit provides shows the model's rudder is equal to 5 links. To be closer to scale accuracy a chain of around 40 links per inch is possibly closer to what it should be. Graham.

Hi Ian, The chain provided by Caldercraft for my HMS Victory, which is also 1/72nd scale, has 19 links per inch/25 mm, with each link 2mm long (as close as my old eyes can tell!) Hope this helps. Graham.

Thanks Canute. The ali sheet has been stored for a few years and needed something to hide all the dings and scratches. I used to use valve grinding paste and a piece of wooden dowel for this, but this time lashed up a tool using a dremel mandril, a 22 mm dia. disc of 4 mm thick softwood with the central hole recessed for the screw head, double sided tape and circles of abrasive Scotch Bright pad. The porthole faces north west and this finish catches the setting sun nicely on a good day. Cheers, Graham

The roof shingles are now all sealed. This is my neighbour's view of the build, a better one then I have! The aluminium porthole lining panels have been cut to size, 'engine turned' and rolled to profile. These panels have had a preliminary fixing and my next job is to remove them and then re-fit with additional sealant. The barge board/ fascia board has also been completed on this gable end using the spare length of wall cladding I had left over. Once the front gable end has been finished I can start working on the interior beginning with the floor. Progress! Cheers, Graham.

Bitumen shingles in place. The sun was setting as the top ridge was fitted so sealing with a heat gun and finishing edges with felt adhesive will have to wait until tomorrow... Top ridge was completed using offcuts of shingles and 'detail strip' minimizing waste. The roof has stood up to some exceptionally wet weather this week without any leaks which is encouraging. I'm going to neaten up the gable ends with facia boards, and apart from adding some guttering, and the porthole lining, the outside is pretty much finished. Cheers, Graham.

That's the plan! 😄 Storm 'Babet' has halted work on the roof shingles for a few days but I'm aiming to complete the last couple of rows and the top ridge tomorrow. In the meantime I'm working on the recess surrounding the porthole. Card template made, After adjusting the amount it projects out of the wall the template was cut to suit the available material, an offcut of aluminium sheet. I'll add more pictures once these have been cut out and shaped.... Cheers, Graham

Hi Robert, and welcome to MSW from another Thames Valley based member. You've come to the right place for advice and plenty of others will chip in with their thoughts. You can use the search function on here to research this model too. You'll find an excellent kit review by esteemed member James H. Good luck with your project. Starting a build log is a great way to get advice, feedback and support! Cheers, Graham

Having achieved a water-tight roof covering it's time to start cutting holes through it! Took the best part of the day, but the six roof lights are now in place.... Here are a couple of 'before' pictures..... The camera has compensated in the second image and lightened it. In reality it was as dark as the previous picture. And 'after'..... All units are double glazed with the right-hand middle one opening for additional ventilation. Time now to complete the roof by adding the bitumen shingles. Progress 🙂

......contacting the kit's manufacturer is another option of course..... Cheers, Graham

Hi, Not sure where you're based but in the UK there's a company called accu.co.uk who list this size screw in a variety of finishes and head types. A quick search online could be a good place to start. Good luck!

An absolute masterclass Robert...... Congratulations on completing your truly inspirational model.

At last the weather has changed and the forcast is for a several consecutive dry days. I can finally remove the tarpaulin and polythene sheets, which have often appeared more like sagging water balloons recently, and work on making the roof waterproof. I reversed my original plan and worked on the more straightforward sections first before attempting the more challenging one adjacent to the garage wall. A bit of advanced planning to find the optimum way to cut the six 8' x 4' 18mm to minimize waste resulted in less than half a square metre of ofcuts. Not pretty but it does the job. Now for the fun part.... Relying heavily on the three 'Ls', leverage, lateral thinking and luck, the the final panel was constructed on the roof and dropped into place. I took steps to ensure the whole assembly couldn't fall down the narrow gap between garage and workshop wall. At about 16' long and a couple of feet wide it was quite weighty! After marking the end profiles it was pulled back out and trimmed ready for covering. First a layer of breathable membrane, then one of bitumen felt underlay. Next the detail trim was tacked into place followed by one course of bitumen shingles. I could have added a second but found that they would be accessible for nailing when the section was in place so dropped the idea as the already weighty panel was even heavier now. With much care and trepidation the section was eased across to its balance point and then nudged over while being supported by a loop of rope. The plan worked! Next I had the Admiral maning a 4' length of 2" x 4" on the inside to lever the panel up to fine tune the fit while I screwed it to the top of the roof frames. Membrane and underlay sheets that had been left unattached were now fixed down. Job done. The plan for tomorrow is to complete these two layers across the whole roof making it watertight. The shingles won't be added until the six roof lights are in place. These will be the next challenge 😉 Cheers, Graham.

Well done on this epic build Mort. The 'cut ways' and the addition of crew make for a model I'm sure you must be rightly proud of. Your attention to the extra level of detail is inspiring! Cheers, Graham

Congratulations on a fine build David. I've enjoyed following your work. Impressive result for sure!

Hi John, Not sure if this will meet your needs as it's not card, but Sarikhobbies in the UK produce 00 scale sailing barge kit. It's the only model of this type of craft that I have found that's not 1:48 or 1:67 scale. They also have several plan sets for sailing barges that you might be able to use. The Thames Sailing Barge Trust is another source for scale drawings. Here is a link (hopefully!) to Sariks .... https://www.sarikhobbies.com/product/thames-sailing-barge-oo-gauge/ They do sell through their ebay shop I believe, but I've always gone through their .com site. I too have spent some time researching this topic, sailing barges being a favourite of mine. I was hoping to find something scaled at 1.64 but have had to resort to draughting my own. Cheers, Graham

Know that feeling!🤣 She's coming along nicely Ron...

Three phrases that bring stress onto your life: 'When you've got a minute...' 'While you're out there...' 'Could you just...' 🤣🤣🤣

Slightly less, Javlin, the internal floor area is around 136 sq/ft, close to the size of your room. This is significantly bigger than my current modelling space.🙂 As for the eternal battle for exclusive ownership with the Admiral I know where you're coming from and share the pain. Work on my Victory build has been severely affected by the current shipyard in the smallest bedroom in the house having been seconded since last October as the storage area for decorating supplies for the Boss's interior design aspirations. This includes the redecorating of the whole of the top floor of the house including the bathroom. Victory has been stored safely under dust sheets while surrounded by paint tins, shower unit, screen and base etc. ceramic floor and wall tiles, adhesives, grout, new window blinds..... the list is endless..... All these projects, that had apparently been saved up for my retirement, are now happily completed and the only items causing loss of space are the six roof lights for the new workshop roof. When I move into the new model making area, she will take over the vacated space for her hobbies. She is also a very keen gardener so I've built her a store in the garden for horticultural tools and consumables to keep these out of 'my' space. I've been polite but firm, the ground rules have been set and agreed..... there is no negotiation..... which is why the unfinished workshop is currently home to this... ...a life size deer, woven from willow by the Admiral on a recent weekend course. The soaked sticks need to dry out thoroughly before the scuplture can be weatherproofed. But then.... it's off to adorn the garden, never to return....honest!

Thank you for your comments Egilman and Javlin, and for all those 'likes'... I must admit that I'm pleased with the way the roof framing came out. I'm planning to have as much of the 'ribs' as visible as the insulation and ceiling boarding permit. The next challenge will be the lower section of the roof on the left hand side. As can be seen in the last photo of my previous post, it's very close to my neighbor's garage wall making it difficult to add the covering to the ply once in postion. My current plan is to cut the ply for this section to size, partially cover it with vapour barrier, felt underlay and the first couple of rows of bitumen shingles, and then slide it down into position. I'll get this section sorted first and then, hopefully, the rest of the roof should be straight forward. Should be fun...😉

All coming together very nicely, David. Great work!

As impressive as ever Robert! Looking forward to seeing it mounted on that unique display base of yours.....

Well.... I could say that everything went as planned ..... but I'd be lying... The widths of each frame were spot on, but a couple of them needed a bit of tweeking, trimming or packing to to get them aligned to an acceptable standard. Took a full day to get them set up and to cut and install the top ridge. Today the side ridge spacers were slotted into place and finally the knees were fitted to brace frames and secure them to the side walls. All is now nice and rigid. Bit like making the tackles for every middle deck gun, the knees will all be hidden eventually, but we know they're there.... Next task will be to add the ply sheets. In the mean time the plastic sheeting and tarpaulin are back in place in anticipation of the heavy rain and thunder storms that have been forecast. Cheers, Graham.

New blade arrived and I also took the opportunity to carry out some maintenance on the blade guides, the thrust bearing behind the blade in particular had seen better days. Spent the afternoon making the knees that will help fix the roof frames in place using some of the pine boards that were previously shuttering for the concrete base. Big day tomorrow ... weather promises to be dry, frames all sanded, other commitments cleared, so it's finally time to erect the roof structure ..... fingers crossed!