Daliab

Ship is in drydock for the moment while I'm soaking up the sun in the Dominican Republic. Tough life leaving the Nebraska cold weather behind.  I'm calling it research.... you may call it something else.

GREAT! Now I get to move on as the replacement order of yellow ochre (first order never came) has finally arrived.  Now I can paint the ribs that require the paint and then I can finish the first layer of planking between the lower deck and the main deck. In the past, all I have used were Model Master acrylic paints but couldn't find any in yellow ochre so I had to settle for Model Color by Vallejo.  Never used this brand so we'll see if I like it.  Color me a happy camper!  While I was waiting for the paint to arrive, I made a temporary cradle for the Vic to sit on and removed the keel clamp for good.

For those who have built the HMS Victory 738 by Mantua/Panart may be wondering why I haven't planked from the lower deck to the main deck yet. One of the surprises that I had was to paint the low deck's six ribs 5, 6, and 7 yellow ochre. I figured I was a long way from breaking out the paint and brushes.  Not having yellow ochre at the time and couldn't find any locally, I ordered it from a company in the U.K.  I figured I ordered the HMS Victory from Mantua in the U.K and it arrived in less than a week in perfect condition and at a great price that 4 small bottles of paint will be a breeze.  Today I have waited 4 weeks for the paint to arrive that was coming via airmail.  In short, the company I ordered it from refunded my money after numerous emails..... but they refunded the money.  I found a different source for the paint but a different brand, so I ordered it..... 3 bottles..... this wasn't easy to find here in the U.S. and didn't want to go through a long wait since I am at the point to plank the upper portion.  This Monday the package should arrive and I can move on to finished the first layer of planking and start prepping for the next step.  I will not say the name of the company because I do not want to taint their business reputation because they did the right thing and refunded the money.  The package just got lost in the mail.  So until then this is the latest status of my build.

Almost there!  There is light at the end of the tunnel.

Thanks for the encouraging comments RickyGene.  I too have Bob Hunt's practicum on the Victory but was spooked right off the bat with hacking off the bow and the stern and then modifying the bulkheads.  After I email Bob, he said nobody had ever finished building the Victory like his using the practicum.  If I had more years under my belt building wooden plank on frame ships, then maybe I would have cut away.  So I look at the practicum, look at the books, look at other folks builds and go from there.  In addition I have downloaded hundreds of pictures of other people's build to file away for future ideas and; what did they do when they were at this stage?. I was given one piece of cautionary advice from one of the members... if your going to use the practicum, then stay with the practicum all the way.  I'm presently working on the first layer of planking and find the stern/bow challenging but trudging through it at a slow pace.  Attached is a picture of the stern.... not the prettiest of planking jobs but learning with each plank laid.  I know I'll spend hours applying wood filler and sanding the hull smooth as my penance. I'm not into a dead perfect copy of the actual HMS Victory but at this stage of my model shipbuilding, I would like to have a decent looking model when finished that I can say I learned this, and that, on this model.   Please chime in at anytime with suggestions of things I'm doing right and things I'm doing wrong. Understand and agree on your statement....."Too many want to build that ultimate...….never gets finished because they are burned out!"  I'm not quitting and will plow forward and having fun doing so.  I'm building a wooden model ship, not the space shuttle.  I can do this..... I think.

Yesterday I laid the first row of planks over the stern on each side of the ship using the fillers to see how they would work out. Today I removed the fillers after taking Wallace's comment to heart cautioning me about having to much of an angle. Good cautionary note Wallace. The fillers were not the correct shape and I would have had to bend the planks 90 degrees to their anchor point on the stern. Not correct. 

Thank you for posting. Clears up the question I had.

David56.... here is my delemia. Can't tell what to adhere planks to on the stern. I cut out a couple of fillers thinking it would help, but they look like they need more carving on to get it right. If I go without the filler like you did, wanted to see how you did it.

Thanks David56. If you go to my build page you can see pictures of my issue.

It's really shaping up nicely!  Nice even planking.  Hope my Vic come out as nice.  You're blazing the trail for me as I am referring to your build with great interest.  Understand about going slowly.  I figured I'll do the same thing with the first layer as this is the first build I've planked.  Do you have a picture of the stern of your build?  The picture you posted on 22 Sept doesn't really show how you ended the planking in the stern.  I have made some balsa blocks that I can carve as a filler but it will really be an aggressive angle to carve.

Thanks David56.  After looking at your build pictures, I realized I can proceed with about 10 rows of planking below the existing planking I have installed but still will have to wait for the paint to progress further.

Planking complete on the lower gun deck, main deck, and poop deck. Officer's cabin walls, steering wheel, and transom have been installed and the first strip of the inter hull plank installed. Now I'm dead in the water waiting for yellow ochre paint to arrive from the U.K. The supplier tells me it could take 1-3 weeks for delivery. If I knew that, I would have ordered it someplace else. Need to paint the upper bulkhead numbers 4-8. May work on grates or some cannons. Model makers that become to idle end in drydock.

Almost done with planking the main deck. Takes a lot of time cutting planks and darkening the edges with a pencil.

For those that are building the Victory, or other Mantua/Panart kits and find the multi-language instructions difficult to follow then go to this site for strictly the english versions that seem to be a little easier to follow.  Not all of the kits are there but maybe yours will be. 

https://www.mantuamodel.co.uk/downloads/2-uncategorised/37-english-translations

David56, were you able to find the English versions of the build instructions from the link sent to you?  I find them a little easier to follow than the other multi-language version although I use both in conjunction with each other.  How about you?

Moving along slowly after getting help from David56. Started cutting planks for the lower gun deck.

Here's all of them. Note Victory 738 is in four parts.

https://www.mantuamodel.co.uk/downloads/2-uncategorised/37-english-translations

I bought my kit from them and had it shipped to me in Nebraska.  Great price, fast service. Kit came to me very well packaged.

Bob

In addition to downloading the instructions to the 738, I also downloaded the 776 instructions. I found the instructions are basically the same but different. I found that if I got confused with the 738 wording in the instructions, I could look at the 776 and it would be a little different but helped clear up any confusion. Just my 2 cents.

Dave, are you using the instructions that came with the kit in different languages? I found a copy of the plans for the 776 and 738 on the Mantua website that someone re-did in english which I think so far are easier to follow.... still not great but better that the multi language version. I started the 738 about a week ago and at the point of planking the upper deck but it doesn't look like the kit contains enough planking to do that deck not to mention the larger main deck, poop deck, and the decking at the bow. How about you?

Started the HMS Victory the other night and already caught my first mistake with the bulkheads. Bulkheads number 4 and 5 were in each others position. They look very simular with the exception to the very top. Ended up cutting the the false deck plates (no:15 & 16), chiseling the glue join very carefully and as a unit rotated the unit into the proper position. Very lucky! Now re-glue and add some additional bracing under the false deck plates.