Charter33

Hello all been tidying up on board ive fitted all pieces now that I had prepared and im calling the transom area of the ship complete ,I will at a later date add the word BOUNTY but need to buy a new printer as I will go with the decal paper suggested by EJ and kindly demonstrated by Derek ,ive dropped the height of the lanterns a tad and made a start on the anchors I will show the anchors in my next post.
This evening I spent a few relaxing hours making rope coils I enjoy task like this where not much thought is required I can just loss a few hours lost in my work,this is the reason im looking forward to the rigging believe it or not  I love to sit and tie rat line after rat line and just get lost in it then next thing four hours have disappeared below is how I make my rope coils
 

 
 
 

Hi Steve,
 
Among her many talents the Boss (Admiral) is an accomplished stained glass worker.  In my role of 'Chief Sharpener of  tools' I've had to renew the cutting edge of a similar knife ....... 
 
Cheers,
 
Graham

Bowsprit construction and fitted I am almost ready for masts but have some tidying to do on deck first like adding rope coils to the canons and various other small things that I know if I don't do first may never get done and it would be a shame to leave the small finish details out so I will create a snag list of all the small things to do before progressing to the masts.

Thanks for looking in again Eddie and Bug .
 
While there are relatively few of the major components fitted to the body I thought it might be a good idea to add the Decals. The Kit came with the usual American ones - "Wells Fargo", "Butterfield Overland Stage", "U.S. Mail" etc. I modified these a bit to give my coach the Aussie flavour by cutting out individual letters and re-arranging them. Fortunately I was only short by two "B"s which I made from a couple of spare "D"s. The decals will get a coat of Minwax when they are properly set :
 


 
One of the most famous towns in Australia is Gundagai, which was immortalised in Banjo Patterson's poem "The Dog on the Tucker Box" and the song "On the Road to Gundagai". What more fitting town for a destination?
 

 
I did a bit of research and found an article about early Gundagai, just to make sure that Cobb & Co actually had a route to the town. They sure did :
 
Here's an old pic of the Hotel mentioned in the article, with a Cobb & Co coach in the foreground :
 

 
  Danny

Your Victory is coming along just great!
enjoying the comments and your process!
 
JJacobi
 
 

Hi,
 
A quick up-date.
 
Having completed the planking and varnishing of the upper gun deck the mast coats have been made, shaped and added to deck. Sounds easy but those rings are so fragile and great care was needed, especially when adjusting the internal hole on the main mast coat to allow for the angle.
 

 
Lining the ‘gun ports without lids’ was fairly straight forward. To cut the lining back level with the hull I used the saber saw, the Kugihiki flush saw I used for the entry ports being; a bit too big to get into some of the more awkward internal areas, and it’s currently locked up in a secure cabinet at school awaiting my return to work, hopefully in a couple of months’ time. The saber saw blade needed to have the kerf removed from either side to prevent damaging the areas surrounding the cut, and this was quickly achieved with an oil stone.
 

 
Supporting the back edge of each lining element was essential to prevent splitting or tearing the wood. I achieved this with a length of ply inserted and wedged inside the gun port for the top piece, and double wedges inserted to tackle the sides. I’m a bit of a hoarder fortunately. These MDF wedges were originally used to build ‘washout’ into the wings of an electric powered glider and came close to being binned!
 

 
Masking tape around the external side of the gun ports had two purposes – firstly to further protect the surfaces from damage from the saw, and secondly to ensure the edges were sawn just proud of the hull allowing these edges to be finished flush with glass paper.
 

 
After a light sanding of the inside surfaces a coat of red ocher has been applied and the next task is to plank the inside bulwark patterns. Here I hope to attempt to emulate the additional details of beam shelves, stringers and waterways as shown on ‘Maestro’ Gil Middleton’s superb build log. I’ll need to stock up on some additional walnut strip but an excuse to get out of the house and drive over to the model shop in Windsor is always welcome!
 
Cheers,
 
Graham.

Hi Folks,
 
To continue the story with the miss-aligned inner gun ports …….
 
The first step was to work out how much needed to be removed from each port. To do this a length of square bar was threaded through a pair of gun ports.
 

 
The gap between the bottom of the bar and the bottom of the outer gun port was then measured. It ranged from 0.5mm to 3mm, averaging around 2mm for the majority.
 

 
This measurement was then marked onto the pattern and the ply sliced with a scalpel.
 

 
A ‘sabre’ saw with a reverse toothed blade (cutting on the pull stroke) was used to cut the ends.
 

 
The final step was to cut and glue a strip of scrap ply into place. Not pretty, but job done and work can now progress with the lining.
 

 
Cheers,
 
Graham.
 
 
 
 

Hi folks,
 
I set myself two short term goals a couple of weeks ago;  to get this build log up to date by editing and uploading previous material, and to finish planking the upper gun deck including tree nailing.  It was a close thing but both of these objectives were achieved. 
 

 

 
The planking and tree nails have now been refined to a smooth finish with a scraper and given the first of several coats of mat varnish.
 
These photographs show the second planking of the hull.  
 

 

 

 
Unfortunately I omitted to photograph this work as it progressed.  I decided to go the route of using short planks (127mm / 5”) as opposed to longer lengths and found this easier, gluing them in place (CA glue) and shaping the profile of any planks as required. Any minor gaps and imperfections were dealt with using a little wood filler. The hull has now been sanded to a good finish although I am expecting to have to give it a final going over once it’s been primed with grey primer once the wales have been completed.
 
 
There’s plenty to do in between adding coats of varnish on the deck. Cannon barrels and carriages need assembling, plus preparing the various different styles of plank for each of the wales ( jigs made but not yet tested). This will keep me busy until the final coat of deck varnish has dried.
 
 
Not until this is done can I tackle the problem of the miss-aligned inner gun port patterns. Note to self – read the excellent build logs produced by others more carefully!  When I fitted the inner patterns they were carefully aligned horizontally. The patterns slipped so nicely into the spaces in the bulkheads, with the top edge level with the outer pattern that I assumed all was well ……WRONG!  
 

 
 
As these photos show, the inner patterns need to be dropped by almost 3mm before they can be lined. My plan is to cut out the excess from the bottom edge and then graft a new piece into the top. This will be easier than pulling the whole pattern out and re-fitting it, and the final planking will hide the evidence!
 
Cheers for now,
 
Graham.

Hi Folks,
 
The first of the challenges I chose to undertake was the
rudder – to replicate the kit’s original piece, on the left, using the Victory
oak.
 

 
One side was cleaned up, the thickness then cut narrowly
oversize with a band saw, and then the timber was sanded down to its final
thickness of 5mm using the jig. The aroma of old oak (with a hint of tar?)
added to the pleasure of the task.
 

 

It was going to be a tight fit!
 

After transferring the outline the shaping was done using a
powered fretsaw and needle files.
 

Job done! The finished rudder is mostly copper clad with the
top section painted black – I’ll probably leave some of this upper area
unpainted and just apply matt varnish; but that’s way off in the future….

Next – the copper plates.
 
Cheers,
 
Graham

Graham,
 
Just catching up - super nice updates. Learning a lot from you and this great build.
 
PS: Lovely detail work on your aircraft as well.
 
 
Cheers,

Manage to spend some quality time in the workshop. Planking the inside is done to the level of the lower deck.

 

 
The guide lines for the treenails is marked, next is drilling the holes and do the treenails.

 
In the meantime I planed to do something different for the deck beams. I did a two timber deck beam with a table and lipped scarph.
 
The one on the right is glued and with the black paper. It came out better then I was expecting for a first try. Now the problem is that the plans are made to use a constant thickness beam which is not the case of this one.

 
Any advice on how to compensate for this? In the case of the lower left and upper right beam arm it must be shorter then on the plans and the other two it must be bigger... I could not find an example of a two timber beam on a model (found several examples of a three timber beams though). As for this one the cuts for the beam arms and carling will "cut" the scarph of the beam.
 
Any advice is welcome...
 
Hugo

Hi,
 
Tackling the wales proved to be fairly straight forward.
 
After taking measurements from the plan and transferring them onto the hull, a strip of wood was pinned on these marks and, after a little ‘fine adjustment’, the curved lines were marked on.
 

 
The majority of the prepared pieces fitted straight on and CA glue was used for bonding.  At the bow and stern some additional shaping was required together with gentle bending with plank ‘nippers’.
These photographs show the work in progress and the final results.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
Drifting randomly through the wide ranging posts on this site the other evening I came across many superb examples of the model makers art that reminded me of a time, back in the mid-1960s, when the ‘Birthday treat’ of choice was a trip across London to visit the Cutty Sark followed by the model ship galleries at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.  It was these amazing models, mostly ‘plank on frame’, that sparked a lifetime’s interest.  Sadly these wonderfully detailed models are no longer on display although they can be examined to some extent on-line.
 
 
Why am I rambling on about this?  Well – one of the sections I was exploring that started this reminiscing was the HMS Triton project.  WOW!  My head is telling me to keep focused, the ‘Victory’ journey has a long way still to go, my heart is saying – what a challenge! The build logs, both completed models and works in progress, are very impressive.  It costs nothing to start planning… the keel plans are easily down loaded,…. and there just happens to be a very helpful and friendly print shop less than a mile away ……mmmm
 
Meanwhile, it time to start lining the gun ports.

Hi,
 
The lining of the gun ports was one task where it really paid to do some homework and invest time reviewing the excellent build logs available through this site.  I would never have thought of adding balsa strips behind the edges of the ports to increase the gluing area.

I went for 2 x 2 mm strips and produced this simple aid to help get them in position.


 


 
It’s based on Gil’s example (thank you!) but rather than using a spirit level to ensure that horizontal pieces were correctly positioned I added a simple ‘clinometer’.  With the hull leveled, when the plumb line matched the vertical line on the plastic disc the strips were correctly aligned.
 

 
 

 
This device was flipped 180 degrees to deal with the strips at the top of each port. Made from whatever I could find in the workshop it’s a bit ‘Heath Robinson’ but it does the job.

The lower and middle rows of gun ports were now straight forward to line with pre-painted strips. The gap between the ‘holding pins’ and the wooden strip was just right to enable this tool to be used grip and tweek the angle of the horizontal strips of walnut to their final position.


 

 
A second simple and very effective tool I made was this one:


 

 
 
Its purpose is to help manouvre  the cut strips onto place and ensure that the front edge of the lining is set back the required 1 mm. Basically a 5” length of 4 mm dia. brass tube, flattened both ends. For the depth gauge a scrap of wood was glued the appropriate distance back from the end, and the 90 degree return at the other end was useful for pulling strips that were too far in back into place.


 

 
Balsa strips in  place.
 
The ports on the upper gun deck were the most challenging. For the side pieces I resorted to making individual templates to the correct size and then using these to mark out the required shape onto the wood.


 

 
Starboard side is now complete ….. 
 

 
........ but I think a bit of tidying up of the workbench would be a good idea before tackling the other side!….


 


 
Cheers for now,


 
Graham.

Thanks WackoWolf and mort stoll for the 'likes'.
 
A bit of progress made this week …..
With the aid of a couple of card templates,  plan sheet 2,  google images and several build logs the location for the dummy gun ports was found and marked onto the hull.  
 


 
 One of the most helpful logs was JJacobi’s – thank you!  I made a comment on his build log back at the beginning of March about how his build was a few pages further on in the instruction manual compared to mine only to discover that he was still in the process of uploading pictures.  In truth it transpires that he is way, way ahead! If my Victory gets anywhere close to his in terms of quality I will be well satisfied.
The outlines of the ports were incised with a sharp chisel as was the division between the double doors on the middle deck.

The ports were then painted. I’ll add the hinges etc. later on.
 

To drill the holes for the spigots of the dummy cannons some simple guides were made. These were produced from some hardwood offcuts trimmed to size to fit the ports and then mounted in a four jaw chuck on a lathe for boring. 



The manual suggests that the drill to use should be slightly larger than 2 mm.  Checking the spigots showed that they were well under this size coming out at about dia. 1.77 mm.  Trial holes drilled in a spare piece of ply from the kit resulted in my selection of a Number 49 drill bit (1.85 mm).  Although they still need painting I couldn’t resist pushing them temporarily into place.
 


I’ll be spraying the cannons at the same time as the upper gun deck barrels but first I have plans to modify these.  More details will follow once I’ve worked out how to achieve the results I am hoping for.
 
As for progress with my other project - I finally found a couple of UK based suppliers of T Track.  Neither have them I stock at present but at least they have been ordered.  I now have the base board ready and waiting for them, the parts for the gantry prepared and the set of 1:48 scales printed.  About time to start shaping some wood, I think, and another build log to begin …..
With the Victory build the next challenge is the copper plating – lots and lots of copper plating ….!
 
Cheers for now,
 
Graham

Hi,
It’s been a little while since my last post – life can get a bit complicated at times!
Thanks’ for all the ‘likes’, they are much appreciated and a source of motivation when tackling those more challenging tasks.
 
Before starting to apply the paint I did a bit of improvising with the tools to hand and marked on the waterline.

 
Two coats of yellow ocher where brushed on and once dry, after several attempts to get the lines right, the edges of the black strips were masked off using Tamiya’s fine masking tape.
 


Two coats of black paint later the tape was removed and the gun port linings were then neatened up with red ocher and a very fine brush. My concerns that I might lose the definition of the different plank patterns on the wales proved unfounded.
 

 
Finally I masked along the waterline and applied some copper paint.
 


Next task is to mark out the additional gun ports on the bow and come up with some kind of drilling guide for the dummy guns on the lower and middle decks.
 
Cheers,
 
Graham.

Hi,
With the gun ports now lined the construction manual recommends painting the hull before undertaking the copper plating and decking out the upper gun deck. With such a large area to deal with I had already made the decision that the way forward was to use an airbrush. Problem – never used one! Always up for a challenge, and able to access the equipment, the sensible decision was to have a go on something else first. My model ‘stash’ included two plastic kits - a Seafire bought primarily as a research source for detailing an electric motor powered R/C version  I was building, and a Gloster Javelin given to me by my department colleagues to keep me occupied while on extended sick leave. Haven’t built a plastic kit literally for decades and they have certainly come on in terms of complexity! These photos show the results.
 

 
Both kits had the feature of two colours meeting in a similar way to the black and yellow ocher strips on the Victory. To cut a long story short using an airbrush, like any new tool, requires plenty of practice. I got the hang of applying paint to broad areas but struggled a bit with achieving crisp lines where two colours meet. I resorted to having to touch these up with a paint brush. Rather than risk this on the hull I decided to modify my plans and use the airbrush to apply primer to provide a good base surface and then to brush on the final colours.
 
The first step was to blank off the open gun ports to stop the spray going into the hull. This was done with pieces of soft balsa sheet cut to size and pressed into place. The heal of a Swan – Morton scalpel handle proved idea for this task.
 

 
The stern fascia, the quarter gallery windows and the linings of the gun ports with lids were additionally protected with masking film.
Finally the top was sealed off with scraps of card and masking tape giving the hull the appearance of a prison hulk rather than a first rate ship of the line ……
 

 
The Admiral objects to me spraying paint in the house for some reason, although the same rules don’t count apparently when brushing or rolling emulsion, gloss etc. to walls, doors and ceilings ….mmmmm!  So, as I had to earlier with the plastic kits, a trip to the school workshops, currently empty of ‘clients’ due to the Easter holidays, was called for.
 
                        
 
The first coat of primer revealed a few gaps and blemishes that needed a little filler and a light sand before the second and final primer coat was applied.
 
                              
Job done!
 
                        
 
 
Next task – applying the colour ….
 
 
HMS Triton update. Made the journey over to the timber supplier I had found on-line and picked up a piece of cherry and some maple at a good price. A genuine Aladdin’s cave with some fantastic exotic hardwoods and as a bonus they have a range of wood turning blanks. Could have spent hours there! I’ll put details of the company in ‘Wood Discussion’ section. Now to try and source aluminium T track for the building board.
 
Cheers for now,
 
Graham.
 
 

Thanks WackoWolf and mort stoll for the 'likes'.
 
A bit of progress made this week …..
With the aid of a couple of card templates,  plan sheet 2,  google images and several build logs the location for the dummy gun ports was found and marked onto the hull.  
 


 
 One of the most helpful logs was JJacobi’s – thank you!  I made a comment on his build log back at the beginning of March about how his build was a few pages further on in the instruction manual compared to mine only to discover that he was still in the process of uploading pictures.  In truth it transpires that he is way, way ahead! If my Victory gets anywhere close to his in terms of quality I will be well satisfied.
The outlines of the ports were incised with a sharp chisel as was the division between the double doors on the middle deck.

The ports were then painted. I’ll add the hinges etc. later on.
 

To drill the holes for the spigots of the dummy cannons some simple guides were made. These were produced from some hardwood offcuts trimmed to size to fit the ports and then mounted in a four jaw chuck on a lathe for boring. 



The manual suggests that the drill to use should be slightly larger than 2 mm.  Checking the spigots showed that they were well under this size coming out at about dia. 1.77 mm.  Trial holes drilled in a spare piece of ply from the kit resulted in my selection of a Number 49 drill bit (1.85 mm).  Although they still need painting I couldn’t resist pushing them temporarily into place.
 


I’ll be spraying the cannons at the same time as the upper gun deck barrels but first I have plans to modify these.  More details will follow once I’ve worked out how to achieve the results I am hoping for.
 
As for progress with my other project - I finally found a couple of UK based suppliers of T Track.  Neither have them I stock at present but at least they have been ordered.  I now have the base board ready and waiting for them, the parts for the gantry prepared and the set of 1:48 scales printed.  About time to start shaping some wood, I think, and another build log to begin …..
With the Victory build the next challenge is the copper plating – lots and lots of copper plating ….!
 
Cheers for now,
 
Graham

Thanks WackoWolf and mort stoll for the 'likes'.
 
A bit of progress made this week …..
With the aid of a couple of card templates,  plan sheet 2,  google images and several build logs the location for the dummy gun ports was found and marked onto the hull.  
 


 
 One of the most helpful logs was JJacobi’s – thank you!  I made a comment on his build log back at the beginning of March about how his build was a few pages further on in the instruction manual compared to mine only to discover that he was still in the process of uploading pictures.  In truth it transpires that he is way, way ahead! If my Victory gets anywhere close to his in terms of quality I will be well satisfied.
The outlines of the ports were incised with a sharp chisel as was the division between the double doors on the middle deck.

The ports were then painted. I’ll add the hinges etc. later on.
 

To drill the holes for the spigots of the dummy cannons some simple guides were made. These were produced from some hardwood offcuts trimmed to size to fit the ports and then mounted in a four jaw chuck on a lathe for boring. 



The manual suggests that the drill to use should be slightly larger than 2 mm.  Checking the spigots showed that they were well under this size coming out at about dia. 1.77 mm.  Trial holes drilled in a spare piece of ply from the kit resulted in my selection of a Number 49 drill bit (1.85 mm).  Although they still need painting I couldn’t resist pushing them temporarily into place.
 


I’ll be spraying the cannons at the same time as the upper gun deck barrels but first I have plans to modify these.  More details will follow once I’ve worked out how to achieve the results I am hoping for.
 
As for progress with my other project - I finally found a couple of UK based suppliers of T Track.  Neither have them I stock at present but at least they have been ordered.  I now have the base board ready and waiting for them, the parts for the gantry prepared and the set of 1:48 scales printed.  About time to start shaping some wood, I think, and another build log to begin …..
With the Victory build the next challenge is the copper plating – lots and lots of copper plating ….!
 
Cheers for now,
 
Graham

I've completed most of the inboard details. I've gotten to the freizes also. I sprayed fixative onto the model at this time.

Hi,
It’s been a little while since my last post – life can get a bit complicated at times!
Thanks’ for all the ‘likes’, they are much appreciated and a source of motivation when tackling those more challenging tasks.
 
Before starting to apply the paint I did a bit of improvising with the tools to hand and marked on the waterline.

 
Two coats of yellow ocher where brushed on and once dry, after several attempts to get the lines right, the edges of the black strips were masked off using Tamiya’s fine masking tape.
 


Two coats of black paint later the tape was removed and the gun port linings were then neatened up with red ocher and a very fine brush. My concerns that I might lose the definition of the different plank patterns on the wales proved unfounded.
 

 
Finally I masked along the waterline and applied some copper paint.
 


Next task is to mark out the additional gun ports on the bow and come up with some kind of drilling guide for the dummy guns on the lower and middle decks.
 
Cheers,
 
Graham.

Thanks WackoWolf and mort stoll for the 'likes'.
 
A bit of progress made this week …..
With the aid of a couple of card templates,  plan sheet 2,  google images and several build logs the location for the dummy gun ports was found and marked onto the hull.  
 


 
 One of the most helpful logs was JJacobi’s – thank you!  I made a comment on his build log back at the beginning of March about how his build was a few pages further on in the instruction manual compared to mine only to discover that he was still in the process of uploading pictures.  In truth it transpires that he is way, way ahead! If my Victory gets anywhere close to his in terms of quality I will be well satisfied.
The outlines of the ports were incised with a sharp chisel as was the division between the double doors on the middle deck.

The ports were then painted. I’ll add the hinges etc. later on.
 

To drill the holes for the spigots of the dummy cannons some simple guides were made. These were produced from some hardwood offcuts trimmed to size to fit the ports and then mounted in a four jaw chuck on a lathe for boring. 



The manual suggests that the drill to use should be slightly larger than 2 mm.  Checking the spigots showed that they were well under this size coming out at about dia. 1.77 mm.  Trial holes drilled in a spare piece of ply from the kit resulted in my selection of a Number 49 drill bit (1.85 mm).  Although they still need painting I couldn’t resist pushing them temporarily into place.
 


I’ll be spraying the cannons at the same time as the upper gun deck barrels but first I have plans to modify these.  More details will follow once I’ve worked out how to achieve the results I am hoping for.
 
As for progress with my other project - I finally found a couple of UK based suppliers of T Track.  Neither have them I stock at present but at least they have been ordered.  I now have the base board ready and waiting for them, the parts for the gantry prepared and the set of 1:48 scales printed.  About time to start shaping some wood, I think, and another build log to begin …..
With the Victory build the next challenge is the copper plating – lots and lots of copper plating ….!
 
Cheers for now,
 
Graham

Good evening for everyone, work continues with the survival coils and the anchors of the ship.
This time we worked on these styles in styrene and ABS.
A beautiful evening I still want you.

Adrian.

Hi,
It’s been a little while since my last post – life can get a bit complicated at times!
Thanks’ for all the ‘likes’, they are much appreciated and a source of motivation when tackling those more challenging tasks.
 
Before starting to apply the paint I did a bit of improvising with the tools to hand and marked on the waterline.

 
Two coats of yellow ocher where brushed on and once dry, after several attempts to get the lines right, the edges of the black strips were masked off using Tamiya’s fine masking tape.
 


Two coats of black paint later the tape was removed and the gun port linings were then neatened up with red ocher and a very fine brush. My concerns that I might lose the definition of the different plank patterns on the wales proved unfounded.
 

 
Finally I masked along the waterline and applied some copper paint.
 


Next task is to mark out the additional gun ports on the bow and come up with some kind of drilling guide for the dummy guns on the lower and middle decks.
 
Cheers,
 
Graham.

Hi,
It’s been a little while since my last post – life can get a bit complicated at times!
Thanks’ for all the ‘likes’, they are much appreciated and a source of motivation when tackling those more challenging tasks.
 
Before starting to apply the paint I did a bit of improvising with the tools to hand and marked on the waterline.

 
Two coats of yellow ocher where brushed on and once dry, after several attempts to get the lines right, the edges of the black strips were masked off using Tamiya’s fine masking tape.
 


Two coats of black paint later the tape was removed and the gun port linings were then neatened up with red ocher and a very fine brush. My concerns that I might lose the definition of the different plank patterns on the wales proved unfounded.
 

 
Finally I masked along the waterline and applied some copper paint.
 


Next task is to mark out the additional gun ports on the bow and come up with some kind of drilling guide for the dummy guns on the lower and middle decks.
 
Cheers,
 
Graham.

Hi all,
 
First of all, thx for all the kind words!
 
After six years my Aggy finally found her way home....
I want to thank you all for all the commends and advices and of course all the likes! I am still waiting for my next project, the Sovereign of the Seas (Sergal). When all goes well, it should arrive this week, but I am afraid it will take some more time. Looks if they send my order to the planet Saturnus.....
 
As promised some pictures. As you can see, I did some repairs. I fixed that nasty angle in the top stay.