md1400cs

Robert,
 
No they only have that one size. I too was a bit concerned about their sizes; using for a 1/78th project. Here are a couple more images. That said, yours look perfectly in scaled. Good choice indeed!. I may decided to do your method - thanks for the idea and the company link.
 
Regards,
 

 

Frank, E.J.,
 
Thanks for dropping by and your comments.
 
E.J., You are right I don’t know of a single kit that correctly offsets the bowsprit masts for certain ships. I was also not going to offset it either then – wanted to give it a try – let’s see how it works out later. I also need to completely redesign the beakhead – not satisfied with this first effort.
 
Frank; My understanding is that the offset is required because the foremast is so far forward that there would not be enough room and leverage to securely anchor the mast in place into the foremast. Note the images from the Vasa as compared with the Mckay image of the SoS - (foremast placements)
And no the mast needs to re-center for the spritsail yard – or so I understand?
 
PS: Don’t know why some foremasts were placed so far forward. Maybe a much more knowledgeable member could post some thoughts? (balance)?
 

 
 
 this is a model by H. Culver from the US Navy Museum in Annapolis, Maryland. mast recenters....
 

Robert,
 
As always superb work; Fire buckets are beyond perfect - also depth markers look excellent.
 
I plan on adding depth markers details for my current build. FYI found these brass etched examples
 
https://www.hfminis.co.uk/shop?product=roman-numerals~hfpkpro05&category=accessories~etched-brass-%28architectural%29
 

Robert,
 
As always superb work; Fire buckets are beyond perfect - also depth markers look excellent.
 
I plan on adding depth markers details for my current build. FYI found these brass etched examples
 
https://www.hfminis.co.uk/shop?product=roman-numerals~hfpkpro05&category=accessories~etched-brass-%28architectural%29
 

Robert,
 
As always superb work; Fire buckets are beyond perfect - also depth markers look excellent.
 
I plan on adding depth markers details for my current build. FYI found these brass etched examples
 
https://www.hfminis.co.uk/shop?product=roman-numerals~hfpkpro05&category=accessories~etched-brass-%28architectural%29
 

Robert,
 
As always superb work; Fire buckets are beyond perfect - also depth markers look excellent.
 
I plan on adding depth markers details for my current build. FYI found these brass etched examples
 
https://www.hfminis.co.uk/shop?product=roman-numerals~hfpkpro05&category=accessories~etched-brass-%28architectural%29
 

Progress on the hammock cranes and netting is very slow.  I finished both Forecastle hammock cranes.

 

 
Also finished the Quarter Barricade Hammock Cranes and the Poop Deck Hammock Cranes with netting.
 

 
  
 
 
Once I dry fitted the waist hammock cranes I realised that when fitting the anchor, the side that rests on the palm block has to go through the netting of the hammock cranes.  I have to see if I can do something more realistic than just cutting a slit in the net.
  
 
Robert

Finally I received the decals and finished the fire buckets.
 
The actual fire buckets on HMS Victory were made of leather so I tried to paint them as close as I could to look like the leather colour.  I used the walnut colour paint and the red ochre.  I did not mix them together, I just dipped the brush in the walnut then in the red ochre, sort of mixing the two colours together but not getting a uniform colour.  When dry I put on the monogram decals.  Wish I had some more experience in fixing decals. When decals were dry I painted over them with matt varnish as a protector as they are quite delicate and easily scratched.  When the varnish dried some areas of the decals, where they are transparent, became a bit misty.  I went over them again with the liquid Micro Sol and became a bit better.  To the naked eye they are hardly visible but in photos they become more visible. 

 

 
With the lights inside the cabins on.

 

 

 
I also put the Roman numbers (depth markers) on the stern post.  I had ordered them together with the decals.

 
Now I can continue with the rest of the hammock cranes.
 
Robert
 
NB.  If it is of any interest to other builders I ordered the decals from Bedlam Creations. (www.bedlamcreations.com).  You give them the image of what you want, dimensions and they do it for you.  I know you can do them yourself on a computer, but when doing very small decals, if you do not have a very good printer that can print in very small fine details they will not come out good.
 
 
 
 

Hi Graham, thankyou for your encouragement.  Enjoy your retirement, now is the time to try and catch up to do things you did not find time for before.  Pity you are not updating your build anymore, I am sure you are doing a great job on your Victory.  I am retired as well, to be honest I cannot imagine myself without the access to a computer, as I use it for a lot of other things apart from this forum, such as my other hobby, photography.  
 
Anthony, thank you for your comments.  I have another small update.  I continued the work on the hammock cranes.  I really wanted to finish them because I was worried that I was going to loose some of the brass etched cranes.  I counted them every time I handled them to trim them, blacken, etc. In fact I was short a couple of times and had to really look hard for them, finding them on the floor.  There are no extra once with the kit, you have the exact quantity.  I also rigged the hand rails for the stairs leading to the poop deck. 

 

 
 

 
 
I had started with the Hammock cranes on the forecastle, and after I did the rest I decided that the netting on he forecastle was a bit too stretched, so I took the off and did them again, cutting the net slightly wider. 
 
 
 
Robert
 
 
  

Eamonn, Roberts and Michael, thank you for your comments.
 
I have a small update.
 
Painted and fitted the stern trophy of arms.  Also fitted the chain under the stern. I am not much of an artist, took me a long time to paint and retouch.

 

 
 
Figurehead painted but I will not be fitting it for now.  I will first do some further work on the bow first. 

 
I have prepared the railings on the bow.  They are only dry fitted for now.  My aim is to prepare the parts that go on the bow so that when I start fitting them I do not have to stay measuring, trying fits and so on, they will be ready and just fit in place, thus avoiding damaging parts already fitted. 

 
My next step is to fit the bowsprit, which is already prepared, do the gammoning, and when that is ready start fitting the parts on the bow plus the figurehead.
 
I am still undecided which name plate to use on the lower part of the stern.  With the kit there is a nameplate as a whole, and there are individual letters which in my opinion look better.  The first, of course is much easier to fit, as it is one whole piece, but the latter, apart from the problem that you have to keep them in line and equally spaced, some of the letters are quite fragile.  I might have a go at the  individual letter. 

 
 
Robert

Hello,
 
I have started to look at the davit area and davit posts on the starboard side of the model.
 
The Corel plan, as shown below, shows a pretty simple plan.
2 Vertical posts (298 and 297) supported by a cross beam (300).
Then the plans call to use a piece of the flexible wood in 2mm x 2mm size for the davits.

 
The "La Fleur De Lis" davit plan is a little more complicated, detailed, and interesting.
The davits are fitted onto the posts 23b and 23d. The davits are thicker for most of its length and are held onto the posts with what looks to be rods that are removable. I have tried to use elements of this plan.

 
A piece of walnut was thinned to 2 mm thick and the curved section from the Corel plan used as a guide.

 
The taller inner posts were cut and slotted to accept the davits and and the outer posts slotted for the outer end of the davit.
The davits themselves were made to look a bit more like the plan on "La Fleur De Lis"

 
The Inner and outer posts are attached to the model. 
The large eyelets shown are for the tie down lines of the long boat.
The other smaller eyelets will be used for attaching the rods to hold the davits (As talked about in the photos above)

 

 
My next steps will be to add a few deck cleats and rigging chains. Then attach the lower rail on the starboard side before adding the davits.
 
Thanks for stopping by for a look!!
 
Frank
 

Hi Eric, bit late with the reply but thanks for looking in and your kind comment do apricate it.
 
So have done a little more to her but not so much in making but redoing, it started with the lower chain plates, which I had made from the brass strips .016" thick supplied with the kit found this out once I removed them, thought I had used some .010" brass sheet.
 

 

 
So now I remade them out of .005" solder small tube to the ends then made a jig to drill the mounting holes and now have the lower chain plates more to scale.
 

 

 
 

 

 
Then was not to happy with the black paint job so sanded that down and as per Robin letting me know that I had not painted the sides right I masked the hull up to include black up the sides of the main rail and Monkey rail, board and buffalo rail.
 

 

 
Put some semi gloss on
 
 
 
Next up was to remake the eye bolts for the deadeye strops which I had made from wire and did not look to good, tried by making out of thicker wire and then soldering a small tube to the ends, but this did not work to well when I went to bend them to go around deadeye 🤔
So decided to use .016" brass flat bar worked out where I needed the holes, drill them first then filed to shape then bent to shape, came out way better than my first try.
 

 

 

 
Casey blacked all parts and will use a small bolt and nut 
 

 

 
Well not much to show these past few months have to figure what I am going to do with the scroll around the hawse holes then paint the cove, then the name plates.
 
Thanks again for all who have looked in and commenting on my on going build.
 
Regards
Richard 
 

Martyn,
 
Glad that you are back 🙂 She looks to be a very interesting project - really like the look and your details - well done
 
Regards,
 

Martyn,
 
Glad that you are back 🙂 She looks to be a very interesting project - really like the look and your details - well done
 
Regards,
 

Hi all sorry I haven't posted for a while but life and stuff has got in the way.  I have been slowly working away on the FD . I have finished the hull and have now put some details on the stern galleries and the sides.  As I'm no good at carving I have used modelling clay to make the scary faces and strange fishy things and to make her look old and battered I have put some barnacles and clamy things on the sides. I need to find away of putting some smaller barnacles on the lower hull. 
Thanks for looking. 
Martyn 

Andre - much nicer indeed !!! -
You saw that I also used a different stern lantern on my Vasa. Adds a big improvement indeed. The "wash" that I used helped the look. Your paint work added a nice look as well.   The Vasa lantern was never recovered. They are still, today, finding many artifacts from around the wreck - interesting!
 
When I went to the Vaset museum in 018 - I had a very nice meeting with Dr. Fred Hocker - he thought that the lantern, for the launch, had not yet been installed. So it's not know how it might have looked - specific to the Vasa,which was the flagship of the swedish navy....
 
Regards,

Andre - much nicer indeed !!! -
You saw that I also used a different stern lantern on my Vasa. Adds a big improvement indeed. The "wash" that I used helped the look. Your paint work added a nice look as well.   The Vasa lantern was never recovered. They are still, today, finding many artifacts from around the wreck - interesting!
 
When I went to the Vaset museum in 018 - I had a very nice meeting with Dr. Fred Hocker - he thought that the lantern, for the launch, had not yet been installed. So it's not know how it might have looked - specific to the Vasa,which was the flagship of the swedish navy....
 
Regards,

Finishing Mast Stays and Mast Stays Tackle:
 
Finished up the rest of the mast stays, the mizzen mast stay has the rope fans that attach to the shrouds which I wasn't sure how I would do but they turned out to be fairly straightforward. I just seized three lines on the shroud and then working from inside to outside threaded the threads through the piece that holds them and then seized them in place on the shroud. Tying the seizings less than full tightness let me adjust the tension on each one to try and get that as even as possible. I would have liked to put a little more tension on them but that would have pulled the shroud out of place, there's a tiny bit not but not bad.
 
The mast stays tackle was easy and I did my first rope coil expiriment which can be seen in the pictures below. I'll have to do a bunch of these as I continue.
 
As I look forward to the next steps it calls for installing the yard ties for all the spars including the bowsprit and I can't seem to find anything that shows how the bowsprit spar should be attached, I'll start doing some research and if I'm still not sure I may have to start another thread in the rigging forum.

Hello,
Small update.
Slow, but steady progress!
 
There are 11 swivel guns to be installed. Six on the starboard side and five on the port side.
The mounts (posts) for the swivel guns are made.

 
One of the swivel gun posts installed.

 
5 of the posts shown here. On the port side, where the cooking station will be, a swivel gun is omitted, thus 5 on the port side.

 
In between all the railing posts and gun posts, there are 1mm x 2mm filler trim pieces installed.
 

 

 
Work has begun on the davits for the launch boat.
I will be modifying the davits to look a little bit more like those shown on the wonderful "La Fleur de Lis" plan by Gerard Delacroix.
Photos to follow soon.
 
Thanks for checking in!
Frank
 

 

Thank you for your comments.
 
All the following photos are from the little action camera:

Hello, 
I would like to thank you for your attention and interest. 
The strops with collars for the tye blocks of the fore topmast are finished.

 
 
The tye blocks are hung in and the pendants are put on.

Michel,
 
Mon Dieu --- Stunning work. So happy that I found your log. You live in a builder's world that I will never ever reach or be able to think about achieving.
That said, the pleasure that looking at your work gives me, makes up for my much. much, lower level of skills. Your work is, in fact, a work of art.
 
PS:J'espère que Google pourra traduire mes mots pour vous. Je suis née en France alors le français est ma première langue.
But English is the MSW required language - happy about this in fact.
 
Respectfully, 
 

Before I started with the masts, I had installed the life boat. Having in mind the ropes and blocks that I used for the sails, I wanted to reduce the size of the blocks and ropes of the life boat. So I did. Pictures of before and after.
 

 

Also the main sail was made and installed. This one without the copper wires and thus without curve. This because I intend to have this sail partly folded, as in the 1:10 model in the Vasa Museum.
Before mounting the sail, first all blocks and ropes were attached. I wait with tying all the lines and with the folding until I have also installed the main topsail, because the combination of main sail and top sail ensures that they are fixed in place, which will help me to have/keep the yards horizontally...
 

 

 
 

I feel your pain! Working with construction drawings daily, translating between flat paper and real life construction has become second nature. That being said, buildings are typically and simply, a series of cubes, right angles, parallel and perpendicular lines. As long as you can envision x,y & z dimensions, it is relatively simple to take a flat drawing and make it 3D. To my constant frustration, ship building is not as simple. Yes, the x,y&z dimensions still apply, but rarely is anything square, parallel or perpendicular to another item. Even when they are, the many curvatures of hull, and decks, varying angles of mast rakes, and often the reference picture we are using itself, is an artistic rendering of the ship at sea making the entire vessel angle in bizarre directions. Subtleties abound that frequently cannot be well portrait on flat surfaces therefore making us unaware of them until we try to fit that straight edge against a piece that is curving in three different directions. 
 
All of this places me in awe of the ship builders of the era. These men were nothing short of geniuses in their fields. Today, we cannot construct a rectangular box without dozens, sometimes hundreds of architectural and carefully engineered drawings, schematics and specs, where these people built towering ships often larger than some of the aforementioned buildings, that not only floated, they sailed in rough seas and withstood bombardment from enemy canon fire. All of that was without modern CAD programs and engineering. The plans used then, if any, were barely more that what we would call a cocktail napkin sketch. It begs the larger question of how much have we truly evolved...

Definitely a masterpiece, Marc.