Charter33

Coming on nicely Ron 👏

Back in the shipyard, and picking up from where I had got to on the Victory build.
The first step was to get the white metal components for the two entry ports painted. These later additions to the vessel didn't exist when the ship was launched, neither were they fitted at the battle of Trafalgar. The models castings appear a little different to those shown in my 'go to' reference sources so I relied heavily on internet images.

Tricky to achieve the result I had in mind, especially the line of rivets/studs under the front and side edges if the canopy. The colour of the sheathing on this first attempt was way out, so I had a go at mixing my own version of what I guess is lead from my small stock of enamels. These decorations were fixed in place with epoxy glue.

An unexpected task next, and totally self inflicted. Sorting out the various parts that form the steps up to, around and above the port I found that the two steps immediately below the ports had gone AWOL. I think they had become detached from their walnut sheet back when I was tackling the belfry. Classic mistake - I put them somewhere 'safe'..... and they disappeared into another dimension. Eventually solved by converting a scrap piece of stock to the required profile and then deducing their length from the remnants of the hole where they once resided when originally machined.

Masking tape helped align the steps and a couple of scaps of redundant planking made a simple 2 mm spacer for the gaps between them.
Finally the fenders and chesstrees were painted and added.

The three 'Victory' copper plates I mentioned back in posts #12 and #42 can be seen under each entry port.
Good to be back at the work bench.
Cheers.
Graham

Back in the shipyard, and picking up from where I had got to on the Victory build.
The first step was to get the white metal components for the two entry ports painted. These later additions to the vessel didn't exist when the ship was launched, neither were they fitted at the battle of Trafalgar. The models castings appear a little different to those shown in my 'go to' reference sources so I relied heavily on internet images.

Tricky to achieve the result I had in mind, especially the line of rivets/studs under the front and side edges if the canopy. The colour of the sheathing on this first attempt was way out, so I had a go at mixing my own version of what I guess is lead from my small stock of enamels. These decorations were fixed in place with epoxy glue.

An unexpected task next, and totally self inflicted. Sorting out the various parts that form the steps up to, around and above the port I found that the two steps immediately below the ports had gone AWOL. I think they had become detached from their walnut sheet back when I was tackling the belfry. Classic mistake - I put them somewhere 'safe'..... and they disappeared into another dimension. Eventually solved by converting a scrap piece of stock to the required profile and then deducing their length from the remnants of the hole where they once resided when originally machined.

Masking tape helped align the steps and a couple of scaps of redundant planking made a simple 2 mm spacer for the gaps between them.
Finally the fenders and chesstrees were painted and added.

The three 'Victory' copper plates I mentioned back in posts #12 and #42 can be seen under each entry port.
Good to be back at the work bench.
Cheers.
Graham

Back in the shipyard, and picking up from where I had got to on the Victory build.
The first step was to get the white metal components for the two entry ports painted. These later additions to the vessel didn't exist when the ship was launched, neither were they fitted at the battle of Trafalgar. The models castings appear a little different to those shown in my 'go to' reference sources so I relied heavily on internet images.

Tricky to achieve the result I had in mind, especially the line of rivets/studs under the front and side edges if the canopy. The colour of the sheathing on this first attempt was way out, so I had a go at mixing my own version of what I guess is lead from my small stock of enamels. These decorations were fixed in place with epoxy glue.

An unexpected task next, and totally self inflicted. Sorting out the various parts that form the steps up to, around and above the port I found that the two steps immediately below the ports had gone AWOL. I think they had become detached from their walnut sheet back when I was tackling the belfry. Classic mistake - I put them somewhere 'safe'..... and they disappeared into another dimension. Eventually solved by converting a scrap piece of stock to the required profile and then deducing their length from the remnants of the hole where they once resided when originally machined.

Masking tape helped align the steps and a couple of scaps of redundant planking made a simple 2 mm spacer for the gaps between them.
Finally the fenders and chesstrees were painted and added.

The three 'Victory' copper plates I mentioned back in posts #12 and #42 can be seen under each entry port.
Good to be back at the work bench.
Cheers.
Graham

Back in the shipyard, and picking up from where I had got to on the Victory build.
The first step was to get the white metal components for the two entry ports painted. These later additions to the vessel didn't exist when the ship was launched, neither were they fitted at the battle of Trafalgar. The models castings appear a little different to those shown in my 'go to' reference sources so I relied heavily on internet images.

Tricky to achieve the result I had in mind, especially the line of rivets/studs under the front and side edges if the canopy. The colour of the sheathing on this first attempt was way out, so I had a go at mixing my own version of what I guess is lead from my small stock of enamels. These decorations were fixed in place with epoxy glue.

An unexpected task next, and totally self inflicted. Sorting out the various parts that form the steps up to, around and above the port I found that the two steps immediately below the ports had gone AWOL. I think they had become detached from their walnut sheet back when I was tackling the belfry. Classic mistake - I put them somewhere 'safe'..... and they disappeared into another dimension. Eventually solved by converting a scrap piece of stock to the required profile and then deducing their length from the remnants of the hole where they once resided when originally machined.

Masking tape helped align the steps and a couple of scaps of redundant planking made a simple 2 mm spacer for the gaps between them.
Finally the fenders and chesstrees were painted and added.

The three 'Victory' copper plates I mentioned back in posts #12 and #42 can be seen under each entry port.
Good to be back at the work bench.
Cheers.
Graham

Additions for the last couple of days are the Main winch, Bowsprit bitts and  Main Mast bitts. I have been slowly assembling these over a few weeks now as other stages of the build needed to dry and so on.  These were all very straight forward to assemble and they fit together very well with only the char removal needed for sanding.  The minor changes I have made were to add a little details to simulate bolts, iron bands and referring to Petrejus, leaded bit cap and ends; though I think copper would have been more accurate?  Anyway my commander is poor, so he can't afford copper to cap his bitts!
 
The bolts were drilled with reference to the diagrams in Goodwin's AotS book "Alert" and filled simply with blacked stiff brush bristles.  Lead bitt ends were covered using the adhesive lead sheet I used for the hawse hole and scupper linings.
 
Iron bands were from the supplied black card.  The main winch drum is a resin part, so this took a little bit effort to make it look more like wood.  Various layer of browns and then some dry brush highlights and washes to pick out details.
 
These items aren't permanently fixed and have been put aside, as I think they will get in the way when adding the cannons.
 
Thanks you all for the continued support, likes and comments.

A little bit of progress after a break. Poop deck ladder etc, fire buckets, beakhead bulkhead. Carronades next.


 

Part 05
 
After another unexpectedly long stay in Florida, helping family, I’ve finally gotten back home and to finishing the Book Nook model.
 
The next step was to peel the protective covering off the mirror and install it. The mirror slides at an angle into the slots in the side pieces.
 

 
This shows how the mirror creates the second tram car, and extends the scene depth.
 

 

 
The wiring harness was pulled up and over the model side, before the mirror is installed, for access later in the construction.
 

 
This is a photo of the parts that make up the “Ceiling/Light Box” of the diorama. The clips hold the LED assemblies in place inside the box. Note that when assembled the slots in the sides will be facing forward to hold the sensor module.
 

 
Here the LED modules have been installed, with the staples glued in place. Here too, the care they put into the design shows with the detailed instructions for placing the modules. The placement is important as the two modules have slightly different illuminated color shades, as will be shown later.
 

 
The fit on the box parts was extremely tight, to the point that I had to use clamps to pull all the tabs fully into place, as shown in this blurry photo. A good idea for a hanging assembly. I also glued the tabs between the base (sky colored piece), and the sides.

 
As I mentioned earlier there is a motion type sensor board that fits at the front of the light box. It is shown installed here. The sky-colored front piece locks it in place. I did not glue the front piece in place, I left it removable, in case I need to work on the board (unlikely) in the future.
 

 
The lights are for interior illumination only, to properly view the diorama you need room lighting to see the front details.
 
This picture shows the ceiling lights, if you look closely, you can see that the foreground and background lights are slightly different shades.
 

 
This photo shows the model from a more normal viewing angle.
 

 
I glued the light box to the sides of the case, carefully insuring alignment with the matching tabs on the sides. Right! When I went to install the top, one side broke loose. One out of two ain’t bad. What I should have done is place the glue further down on the sides, and temporarily installed the top, clamped it in place, and then continued. This is what I did to fix the one side.
 
This is the initial clamping attempt.
 

 
After that fubar, I let the glue dry, and placed the top on. Again, as with the front piece, the top was not glued, to allow me future access to the wiring. The top was another tight fit requiring clamps to fully seat the tabs. You will notice that the tab slots on the sides of the top piece, are double wide, as they hold both the light box and side panel tabs.
 

 
Here is the finished display, lighted and with room lighting.
 

 
My next one of these Book Nook type models will likely be the companion piece to this two-piece set. It shows the side of the tram at the back of a street scene. I will also need to come up with a front cover to keep the dust out.

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

Centreline Layout
Finally get to start building.
Scantlings 1:1
1:32
Keel (oak) 12.75” by 8”  in 2 No. pieces  Joined by 4’6” stopped scarf
F. Maple 9.7 mm by 6.35 mm
Keelson 10” by 10”   
F Maple 7.9mm by 7.9mm
Stem 19” by 8” tapering to 12” by 8”
15.1mm to 9.525mm by 6.35mm
Stern post (Oak) 8” sided, 15” moulded at heel, 10” at head
Holly 6.4mm sided, 12mm at heel, 8mm at head.
Horn Timbers 6” sided by 6”, trapezoid section below to follow planking. 16’ long.
Holly 4.7mm sided. Swelling at knuckle and shaped to match planking. 152mm long.
Deadwoods (elm) 8” sided. Stemson knee 6” sided.
Holly 6.4mm and 4.7mm sided.
 

Parts ‘exploded’ in CAD.
 

Keel, and keelson in maple, and the rest in holly.
It doesn’t come out well in a photograph, but this shows how the holly (wider piece) with the grey fungal stain can imitate oak better than the maple, which will take more staining work:


The stern deadwoods were original, and I had a rare opportunity to copy them accurately:

The knee upon which the mizzen mast-step resides may need a shallower angle, hence the optional piece.

 

Thanks to Ed T for the inspiration to build a proper jig. The stem support jig is an example of over-engineering due to being shop-happy after so many awful wet days here. After some fresh air I made a forked stick for the stern.
No excuse to put off framing now!
 
 

Hello All and belated Happy New Year and best wishes for 2024.
 
The festive period did not allow for much model building, but that is not a complaint as we did enjoy meeting up with family and friends and indulging in too much good food and drink. 
 
What I have got done on the Trial has been very enjoyable.  Not much building as such, just added the side mouldings and wales, but these have made the model suddenly look very different.
 
Most of my time was spent variously painting, varnishing and washing parts and using Danish oil to seal and bring out the wood of the deck and Bulwarks.
 
After painting, I gloss varnished all the parts of the model I wanted to add washes to and then used dark washes on the inner bulwarks and light washes on the wales, to bring out all Chris's lovely details.  I did briefly toy with painting the sides in yellow ochre but in the end was so pleased with how the wood looked after a few coats of Danish oil I am glad I didn't!  The addition of the black upper edge to the bulwarks in addition to the black wales looks like two "go faster" stripes! 😁
 
Hope everyone had a good holiday period and also got some modelling done.  Thanks for looking in.

And, done:





60 hours and $25 later.
 
This was a quick and fun build.
 
I embellished on the Amati plans a little bit.
 
I figured out my thicknesses finally for wood plans to card conversion.
 
The only real problem I ran into was trying to mark the waterline because this is a flat bottomed boat and it was so low.
 
But, I got creative and figured it out.
 
This is my third completed scratch build.
 
Thank you to all who dropped by.
 
Thank you all who either commented or hit the “like” button!
 
Happy New Year!

I have made a small start on the trabaccola by Maris Stella. Also known as a a trabakul, it is a coastal trading ship from the Adriatic - specifically Croatia. Maris Stella are based in Split, Croatia and I bought the kit directly from them. The support  from Zoran at Maris Stella has already been amazing.
 
I chose this ship for its likeable and unusual shape and for being, well, different. Plus being a freighter there are no cannons - yay! It is also a ship type rather than a specific vessel so I can paint it whatever colour I like and they came in many colours. There are existing trabakul, so plenty of photos online. The kit set looks beautifully made and comes with pre-sewn sails - whether I install these remains to be seen. Its not a common subject here with one log for the kit by Don Robinson, who did an amazing job, and one scratch build by Mfelinger (Matija from Croatia). There are lots of photos of the real thing on Matija's log. At 1/32 it is a large scale and a big model at 876mm long. It has plenty of challenges including a fully lined interior and single planking for a very bluff, rounded bow and stern. Nothing is as normal...
 
To start, I examined the need for building the ships boat from a balsa wood plug which you have to carve. I was not really up for that, so I bought a Quay Craft resin 1/32 boat through Cornwall Models. It is almost exactly the same size as the kit version but with a slightly different seat configuration. It is also clinker built which I like. The Quay Craft kit comes with a huge number of parts i.e. four - one hull and three seats. The casting is a bit rough but cleaned up okay. You detect more roughness when you paint and it is hard to get a really good finish and even lines. I added oars, a rudder and bolts. I'll also add an anchor and rope at some point. I like to start with a smaller kit part to get my head around the scale and this is really big! It also gives me a chance to play with my basic colour scheme which will deviate from the box lid. In my case a pale blue grey with very dark blue trims but mostly natural timber (the boat seats and floor is just painted resin made to look like timber).
 
I haven't given up on HMS Fly - I just got bored with it for the time being.
 
 
The box - big!

Inside the box - there are plenty of descriptions of content on the Maris Stella website.

Inside the box 

The plug for the boat - no thanks...

The Quay Craft alternative - more or less completed.



Size comparison with the Vanguard Models launch and pinnace at 1/64.

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.

good evening everyone, thank you for comments and likes, and interesting to see new followers to my ever continuing process of purchasing good kits and making them badly lol
day 3
 
ensuring the ends are flat to enable fitting into the chassis

wheels being made up

brass banding around the boiler, was a pain, trying to avoid marking the paint work

running gear

another test fit after chassis paint has dried

here she is for the another day tomorrow, nothing is fitted yet

 

Day 2
the boiler colour was to light and now i have gone too dark, but will stay this way now, after all would not be a Kevin build if i kept to the correct colours
 
chassis, made up of wood, MDF, castings and PE

 
Tender
wheels need the most cleaning up, from the tabs

just a test fit of the wheels, these are still to be made up, boiler in her new colour, and matt black 

 

Part 04
 
The power lines were the next thing to install, then the last cherry branch. I built them in place, so as to avoid breaking them, though I managed to break one of the supports anyway. I made the mistake of pressing on the vertical part of the hanger. A few minutes holding the joint in place while the glue set, fixed it.
 

 
The righthand support has the line attached only on one side, the other is printed with an insulator graphic. This side faces the front.
 


The next step is to assemble one side of the box, the spine and the back book cover. The picture below shows the other half of the base is in place to help- with aligning the two upright sections. Both sides of the base have an upper (printed) plate and a lower un-printed plate. In the picture all four are in place.

 
I glued just the book back to the spine corner first, and then after it set, I glued the base to both. This let me play with the alignment to get that corner right for a little longer.
 
I then glued the front and back edges of the two right hand base pieces. I clamped all the joints I could and let it sit overnight. The width of the two base pieces is slightly different, I assume to help align the two sides later. The lower base piece is a little wider than the top one, so I stuck a piece of the scrap from the MDF between the underside of the track and the lower base piece. This allowed me to clamp the base to the side, without damaging the track.
 
Notice the slot at the front corners of the bases, after the case is assembled, there is a two prong MDF staple that will lock the two base sections together here at the front.
 

 
Here is a closeup off the scrap piece I used to extend the edge of the upper base piece, for clamping. It has a blue lower edge.
 

 
 Next, I installed the tram. The instructions have you do this now. I should have done this before attaching the base to the side, as I had a hard time locating the tabs in the pedestals with the ones in the base. The tram completely blocked viewing this connection. I ended up having to sand the tabs down and add a little extra glue in the sockets, to get this in place.
 

 
I initially clamped the tram to the base, but noticed that it was causing the tram to lean to one side. I removed the clamp, and set the assembly upright on the workbench. I let gravity do its’ thing, overnight.
 
Now it is time to work on the other side of the model. The instructions have you attach the base to the side now. As I am gluing the joints, I will wait until everything is ready to go together to do that. The fitment of the base sections to the side on this assembly is not as tight as the other section, and the “wall” will not stay in place. Glue will be required, so waiting is best for now.
 
I attached the two passengers to the sidewalk block next. You are to glue the sidewalk to the base, at this point, but once again I’m going to wait and glue it in after the case is assembled.
 

 
Here is a picture of the sidewalk/passengers just set in place for now.  At the front bottom edge of the sidewalk, you can just see the scribe mark for locating this assembly.
 

 
Next some scenery elements are installed behind the sidewalk area: a train sign, some grass cutouts, and a couple of white rabbits.
 

 
This is a picture of the MDF staple used to hold the front of the base halves together (Part F13). In the shot you can also see one of the other features of the kit, there are extra copies of many of the smaller parts, in case any fall into the black hole that such so typically disappear into.
 

 
Here is the staple being inserted, and after it was forced flush.

 
I next assembled the book cover side to the base and spine, the top was left unglued, as the overhead light assembly still has to be made. I also glued the sidewalk assembly in at this point.
 

 
I temporarily inserted the top, to hold everything in place. You can see the gaps between the top and the upper edges where the light assembly will go.
 


 
The rest of this build will continue in January, after all the family holiday activities are done.

Part 01
I decided to start on one of a new type of kits I’ve seen. They are book shaped and sized dioramas, with color printed, and laser cut wood parts. Some of the more complex kits have printed paper sheets that you have to cut out the parts from. The idea is to slip the diorama between some real books, on a shelf. They include battery packs for the LEDs, but I will be building a dedicated power supply to power the several kits I have. They are basically the wooden equivalent of the Plastic “Snap Tite” models. They are designed for 14 years and up, so most are not too difficult, but make an interesting, different type of build. All my finished models will be displayed in an enclosed display to keep the dust off them. While they are called “Book End’ kits, they are too light to serve as such, though if you attached them to a horizontal piece that the real books sit on (like a regular book end) they could be used, as such. They would definitely have to have, at least, the shell pieces glued, in this case.
 
This one is one of the less difficult ones. All the model parts are printed on laser cut MDF pieces. Some of the others in my queue involved cutting out and assembling parts printed on paper sheets. Two of these are, a library and a book store, where you have to “assemble” the books by gluing covers on blocks, and building and fabric covering the chairs. None should take over a week. This kit would be a weekend project, maybe one day, if worked on for the whole day. Mine will take a month or so, as I only get a couple of hours at a time, and the Christmas holiday, family time is coming up. As far as I can tell, this kit is out of production, though an, if possible, less detailed and more expensive one is still made.
 
This kit is a train/tram coming out of a cherry tree lined area, with a couple waiting to board at a stop. It is set during the Cherry Blossom Festival time frame. I have a companion kit showing the tram going across a town street. Two interesting notes: Both Japan and China have this type of festival, and the type of cherry tree the festival celebrates produce non-edible fruit!
 
This kit is printed plywood, a battery box for the LEDs, and a mirror at the back to deepen the scene. There is only one tram car, but the placement of the mirror makes it look like there are two cars. Most of the parts are printed on both sides, except where the one side will be hidden.
 
Below are photos of the kit contents. Part 2 will start the construction. I plan to leave the laser cut edges as they come, this is not supposed to be a highly detailed model, just an unusual one.
 
The only complaint I have with the kit, is that all the pictorial instructions are rather crudely printed on one side of two regular size pieces of paper, with small pictures. I scanned them and blew up the graphics, but the blocky graphics are still hard to read sometimes. At least the part numbers are clearly marked on the wood sheets.
 
First are a couple of pictures of the boxed kit, and a finished model.
 

 

 Next are both sides of the plywood sheets. So far in the construction, all the tabs have been keyed so that the parts can’t be assembled incorrectly, and all the tabs and slots have been a tight secure fit, though not so tight as to make assembly overly difficult.
 
Here are both sides of the front and back “covers” of the “book”. I scanned the picture on the front cover, so that I can glue one to the back side, later, if I find I want to.
 

 



 
These are both sides of the other sheets
 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 
Forgot to take a picture of the back side of these sheets, unfortunately.
 

 
This is a picture of the tray with the LED and battery box, mirror, screw driver, and a few parts that fell out of the sheets, while I was handling them. There is a protective plastic sheet cover on the mirror.
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Construction of the anchors was well within the scope of the reduced 'building facilities' with my usual 'shipyard' temporarily little more than an A3 wooden drawing board on the dining room table illuminated by a clip-on flexible LED lamp.
After cleaning up the castings and adding the anchor palms I made stops from some of the left-over photo-etched frame from the stern decorations, in this case from one of the thicker sheets. Once bent to shape they were soft soldered, cleaned up with a needle file and glued in place.



Anchor stocks glued together and carved/sanded to achieve the tapers ......

...... and after a light chamfer to the edges the iron bands were fitted, this time utilizing the fine brass strips recycled from the thinnest PE sheet frames.


The rings were fabricated .....

and the anchors painted.

After fitting the rings, darkened using 'brass black' solution, I looked on-line for advice on how to do the puddening. The search engine brought me straight back to MSW. Lesson learned - forget Google and just use this site's search tool! 

Cheers,
Graham

Catharpins are short lengths of rope, with an eye spliced on both ends. Rope and eyes are served using 0.1mm rope. The main challenge is to make them of the right length. Although they slightly increase in length from fore to aft, this is hardly noticeable. 
 
Catharpins in position, attached to the 4th, 5th, 7th and 9th shroud.
 
 
 
 
 

Thank you all very much for the encouragement and likes.  Update today just on the seemingly never ending rounds of filling, sanding , primer, paint, repeat!  Nearly there I think, just the odd remaining blemish to sort before the final base coat, prior to pre-shading the planking for a more interesting final appearance (I'm not after a uniform monotone white finish.)
Thought I would share some pictures of the stages I've been going through.  I just used a rattle can DIY grey primer initially, followed by an initial rub down with medium sandpaper to see what a layer of paint showed up - nothing like a layer of paint to point out your lack of woodworking skills!  I have then being using water-based plastic putty that can be thinned down to get into all the little imperfections, flat down, rub and repeat!  As the surface gets better I then start to use fine wire wool; this doesn't tend to "ball-up" paint layers as easily, then some old blu-roll paper towel to really bring out a shine to go hunting for flaws again holding the hull up to a light source.
Work is going to get in the way this week, so might not be much more progress until the weekend.
 
Thanks again for following along. 

I find myself more and more often considering stopping posting on Model Ship World.  A few weeks ago I encourage a member to continue despite some pretty negative comments by another user.  The offending post has been removed, but not after I think it was actually "liked" by one of the moderators.  Yesterday I think less that constructive language was used to describe the Occre HMS Victory model kit.  This kit isn't for everyone, it is fair to point out historically inaccuracies, or to challenge whether it is truly a plank on frame model or some thing else.  As we have recently heard from Chuck, a true plank on frame kit can be very expensive.  If this is a something that gives someone a "taste" of plank on frame at a lower cost than full on plank on frame, maybe that is ok and maybe someone will be inspired to do a full plank on frame model after building this kit.   And if some of us are not able or interested in investing the time and sometimes money to do extensive research on a particular ship, that should be OK.  Please keep helping those that what more information about the ships they are building, but no need to mock those that are simply building a kit to impress their friends and neighbors.
 
45,000 members, but how many have a build log in the last year or two.  I am not sure I would give the same advice I gave a few weeks ago about continuing to post on the site if I was giving the advice today.
 
 
 
 
 
 

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.

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! 🤣