HMS Victory 1805 by Robert29 - FINISHED - Caldercraft - Scale 1:72

[mort stoll]

looking through the beakhead bulkhead  door, one is transported back to the day.......

 

great shot, great modeling.

mort

[Old Collingwood]

Excellent work   really really nice,   you may also find this intersting  - the news of Trafalgar and how it reached Britain.    -   https://twitter.com/LtLapenotiere

 

OC.

[Robert29]

Rob,

yes in fact i have the caldercraft metal primer.  As you said it is quite good on metal castings, but on brass, although it gives a good base for the finishing paint, adhesion wise it does not make much diference.

Thank you for your comments, I try to keep it a hobby and not a job to get over and done with, that way it gives me more encouragement to redo things when they are not exacly to my liking.

 

Mark,

thank you, when I have the time I would like to take a few close ups inside the decks, through gunports or doors when it is lit.  It is a bit tricky as you got to have the right lighting and the right exposure.

 

CBM is for Cornwall Model Boats. They are very good suppliers in Cornwall, UK,  and they are quite popular with model ship builders in UK.   Basically they stock everything you need for modelling.  In my country, Malta, we dont have good modelling suppliers, especially for timber, if any at all, so I dont even bother to source them locally I just go on their site and order from them. Postage is really reasonable and within a week they are in my hands.  I suppose this is not a problem in USA, probably you have very good suppliers there.  For me to order from USA is not feasable as postage from there to Malta is very high.

 

Mort,

Thank you Mort.  Lately I have watched a move which had really taken me to the day while watching it.  It's title is 'Master and Commander', worth watching.  It's a nautical historical fictional novel. Here is a clip from it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G95g0vzTAKI

 

Old Collingwood,

thank you, I will have a look into it, I'm sure it is interesting.

 

Robert

 

[RickyGene]

Most excellent craftmanship.  You are bringing the beauty of this Grand Lady to life.  I was wondering, have you ever gave this a look.  www.shapeways.com, they might have something of interest for the galleys.  And they do print in 1/72.  Not sure if you would want to stray away from the supplied material, but I have used many times and the products are just wonderful.  The Gallery Banisters are far and away better that flat PE.  I have a old Sergal 1/78 Victory with the infamous brass sheet, photo engraved detail.  The stuff is almost impossible to cut and make look half way deceit.  Many of these items have been replaced by Shapeways 3d printed parts.  Heck, spent as much for them as I did the kit.  But what a God send to not have to contend with that awful brass sheet.  Look forward to more of your build.  Do have a question, what do you think about the now applied color as she now wears!

Rick

 

[Robert29]

Hi Rick, thank you for your comments.  To be honest I haven't yet looked  into shapeways web site, but I will definitely do.  The photo etched sheets supplied with the caldercraft kit are quite good,  I dont mind straying away from the supplied material, in fact I did not finish the bottom of the hull with the copper plates supplied with the kit.  I preferred to leave it with the wooden planks showing.  Obviously the planking entailed a lot more work to finish it nicely.  If I had to copper plate the bottom I could get away with any irregularitie as everything will be covered.   You asked me what I think about the now new applied colour on HMS Victory, well, it is being claimed that the aunthentic colour, pink hue, is the actual colour it was during the Battle of Trafalgar.  To be honest I see the new pinkish colour a bit odd for such a battle ship.  I prefer the previous colour it was painted in, which apparently is described as mustard orange or orange-brown.  I stuck to this colour, in 'admirality paints' it is the 'yellow ochre'.  I think the question is if either you want your model to look like the colours you were already used to see her in, which in my opinion looks better, or how authentic you want to be and paint it in the pinkish colour it is being claimed is the right one, which colour some people even desribed as hedious.

 

Now for an update for the work I managed to do on my model.

Fitted the side entry port steps.  As a guide for their alignment I use pieces of tape to avoid pencil marks on the painted surface.

 

Also painted the Cat Heads.  I will glue on the cast crowns at a later stage to avoid scratching them while doing other work.  The band is made from 0.25 x 1.00mm polystyrene strip.

 

Fitted and paintred the remaing brass rails on the hull sides. Did some retouching on the already fitted rails.  The paint chips so easily from on brass!!!  

 

Finished the blue trimmings on the edges of the head timbers.  I made them from strips of Polystyrene 0.25 x 1.0mm.  I cut them to the required lengths, paint them and when dry glue them in place.

 

Robert

[md1400cs]

Robert,

Just catching up - Woa - Your build is superb. That shot from the bow facing upwards - your planking work is just perfect   paint trim work is not so bad either -- haha

So many awesome details including (earlier) your staircase railings - brilliant 

Regards,

[Robert29]

Thank you Michael for your comments and thank you all for the likes.

 

I am about to start work on fitting the deadeyes to the Channels.  I have a question as I am not sure if I am missing something on how the deadeyes in strops should be fitted to the channel.

 

As you can see in the picture the strop is open on one side with the ends having another short length protruding at right angles.  To be honest I cannot see any scope for these.  I can solder the ends together so that the strop will not open when under tension from the shrouds.  My question is 'should the protruding sides be trimmed off after I solder the ends as obviously the strop will not fit in the notch on the Channel, or am I missing something on how this should be fitted?' I cannot find any details in the kit manual.  Would appreciate any tips. 

 

Robert

Edited December 9, 2019 by Bertu

[The Lazy Saint]

Hi Robert.

l can't help really other than say l don't think you are missing anything. I was as puzzled as you when l was faced with the same problem. I was at a loss as there doesn't seem to be a definitive answer so decided to make my own. On my Ballahoo l used .05mm wire which was reasonably successful but on my Sherbourne l used 1mm rigging cord and tied them on which I thought more successful. 

Hope this helps.

Best wishes as always, 

The Lazy Saint. 

[Robert29]

Still unsure how to go about fitting the deadeye strops I sent an email to Caldercraft and by the following day I received a pdf file with the attached details and told me that the nubs are pressed into place on the channel which compresses this section of the strop and this compression helps to hold the strop while the shrouds/chainplates etc are fitted.  

 

To make sure the strops won't prise open or move from place while fitting the shrouds and chainplates I decided to make some adjustments.

I soldered the nubs together to make sure the strop does not prise open.

 

 

With a round nosed pliers I pressed together the middle of the lower part of the strop.

 

Drilled a hole on the side of the slots on the channel to take the nubs, always on the same side.  I reinforced the the wood around the holes by applying a drop of superglue.

 

Fitted the strop in the slots on the channel at the same time inserting the nubs in the drilled hole.  You might need to trim a bit of the slot edges to allow the strops to move just a bit sideways.  Do not glue the strops with the channel, at least for now, as they have to be aligned in line with the shrouds.

 

The soldered area will be covered when fitting the walnut strip across the edge of the channel.

 

The images above show the 5mm deadeyes.  The 7mm deadeyes will look something like this.

I will upload more images of the finished channels later on as I have only tried the strops on one of the channels.

I hope this upload will be of some help to anyone who encounters the same problem.

 

Robert

Edited December 13, 2019 by Bertu

[mort stoll]

great job great job. an elegant build 

mort

[Sailor1234567890]

The level of detail this scale affords in pretty mind blowing. Those two shots, 5 and 7 in post 290. Beautifully executed. 

[Robert29]

Wallace, Mort Stoll and  Sailor thank you for you encouraging comments. 

 

I have a small update.  Fitted all deadeyes on channels. I also fitted the eyelets and the studding sail boom brackets on the channels.  On the brackets a added a small detail by drilling two holes in them and inserting two round headed nails in each bracket.  I have also glued the nails  in the holes on the channels edge which already have their corresponding holes on the side of the hull. 

 

 

I decided not to fix the channels in place for the moment.  Some of the gunport lids and the thread for the upper gun deck are very close underneath the channels.  I think it is much easier to fit these lids first and then the channels.  So I started work on the gunport lids for the upper gun deck.  Glued 1mm walnut strips corresponding with the Wales going across them.

 

Robert

 

 

[Robert29]

I have shaped the profiles that have to run from the cat-head supports to the upper rail.  It wasn't easy, I had to heat the profile to bend sideways.

 

Continued work on the upper gundeck lids. Fixed hinges.

 

Fixed eyelets, the 3mm once supplied with the kit and added rings to them I made from copper wire as I couldn't find small enough for the job. 

 

Adding thread to the gun-port lids.  In the instructions manual it tells you to drill 5mm holes in the hull and insert the other end of the thread in it.  I wanted to make something more realistic to the real once.

 

 

I had some very small brass tubing, 1mm x .225mm thin wall, cut very small pieces, about 4mm/5mm in length and blackened them.  I will drill a hole in the hull were the tubing will be inserted and glued leaving just a small part protruding out.  The thread will be inserted inside the tube.

 

This is one of the lids fitted in place.  There are a few of the lids which are just under the channels and it would be very difficult to fit with the channels in place so I fitted them before the channels.

 

I fitted the chain plates to the dead eyes before I glued the channels in place.  I blackened the chain plates.  When I dry fitted the channels I realised that for some reason the base of the chain plates that is pinned to the hull was not really in the right place, they were lower.  Good thing the channels were still just dry fitted because I had to reopen some of the chains and shorten them by cutting off part of them  and reshaping them again. 

 

Profile from cat-head support to rail in place, black paint needs retouching.  Channels fitted in place and chain plates pinned in place.  This is the port side.  Still have to pin the chain plates on the starboard side as I ran out of round headed pins and I am waiting for some more from CBM.  When pinning the lower parts of the chain plates I suggest you temporarily block the gunports below, I used masking tape,  as it is quite easy to drop the lower part of the chain plate inside one of them and there is no way you can get it back and you have no extra once.  Don't remember how many times I dropped them on the floor and had to look for them until I find them knowing I have no extras.

 

Robert

Edited February 21, 2020 by Bertu

[Jeff-E]

Excellent work Bertu, those gunport lids will look stunning when completed with their rigging.

[mcpwilk]

The level of detail in this build, including the painting, is superb.

 

Mike

[Robert29]

Although I don't intend to fit the gunport lids for the moment I thought I better start preparing some of their accessories as they involve a lot of repetitive work and will get a bit boring.  This way I can do work on them every so and then.  I have the lids for the quarterdeck gunports ready.  I had prepared them as I needed to fit a few of them before the Channels.  I started with preparing the eyelets and the rings for the lids, four sets for each lid.  In the manual it only mentions the eyebolts for the gunport lids but in my opinion they look much better with the rings as well.  I ordered some more small eyelets like the once supplied with the kit but the problem was with the rings. I couldn't find ready made rings small enough for the job.  I ordered a roll of 0.5mm diameter copper wire, cut a piece of it, wind it round a 1.2mm drill bit, pull the drill bit out and wit a small pointed side cutter cut the rings from the winded wire.

 

The small eyelets come in a photo etched sheet. I cut them in smaller pieces to be able to blacken them but left them mounted as it will be much better to handle them to fit the rings on them.

 

Eyelets and rings blackened.

 

Rings fitted to eyelets.

 

All 244 sets I need plus a few extra to compensate for any I damage while mounting them on the lids are ready.  The legs of the eyelets are very thin and easily damaged while fitting them.

 

Robert

 

 

 

Edited March 24, 2020 by Bertu

[Richardjjs]

25 minutes ago, Bertu said:

Although I don't intend to fit the gunport lids for moment I thought I better start preparing some of their accessories as they involve a lot of repetitive work and will get a bit boring.  This way I can do work on them every so and then.  I have the lids for the quarterdeck gunports ready.  I had prepared them as I needed to fit a few of them before the Channels.  I started with preparing the eyelets and the rings for the lids, four sets for each lid.  In the manual it only mentions the eyebolts for the gunport lids but in my opinion they look much better with the rings as well.  I ordered some more small eyelets like the once supplied with the kit but the problem was with the rings. I couldn't find ready made rings small enough for the job.  I ordered a roll of 0.5mm diameter copper wire, cut a piece of it, wind it round a 1.2mm drill bit, pull the drill bit out and wit a small pointed side cutter cut the rings from the winded wire.

 

The small eyelets come in a photo etched sheet. I cut them in smaller pieces to be able to blacken them but left them mounted as it will be much better to handle them to fit the rings on them.

 

Eyelets and rings blackened.

 

Rings fitted to eyelets.

 

All 244 sets I need plus a few extra to compensate for any I damage while mounting them on the lids are ready.  The legs of the eyelets are very thin and easily damaged while fitting them.

 

Robert

 

 

 

This is superb work
I would suggest that you don't fit the Gunport lids until after the RIGGING!!! How ever carefull you are the thread gets caught in the open ports lids!!
I have also suggested that the Mast should be fitted and rigged seperatly Now I am working on the Spars I THINK its better to fit the LOwer Masts and the  lower spars BEFORE the upper masts.
The Fore and Main mast wave very complicated ways of securing them to the masts and it would be easier to do this if all the Upper rigging is fixed 

[mort stoll]

did you order the eyelets from cmb?

keep up the great work it's very very nice.

 

mort

[Robert29]

Thank you for the likes.

 

Thank you Richard for the comment and for the suggestion. You are right, I am sure the thread will be caught in the gunport lids.  So probably I will get the lids ready but will fit in place after the rigging.

 

Mort, thanks for the nice comment.  Yes, I ordered the small eyelets from CMB.  They are made by Caldercraft (Brass Etched Eyelets - O/A diam: 1.3mm, O/A L: 7mm, Hole diam: 0.7mm) and are the same like the once supplied with the kit.

The CMB item part number is C83505 and they come in a packet of 250 pieces.  Price is £5.24 per packet plus postage. 

 

Robert

Edited March 1, 2020 by Bertu

[Kevin]

wow she looks fantastic, sorry i have not been keeping up with your progress

[mort stoll]

perfect. thank you very much my friend.

 

mort

[Robert29]

Kevin, thank you, from time to time I visit your magnificent build for the Victory to steal some ideas.

 

Some more progress:

 

Added some more detail to the flag lockers.  I added the flags folded in the lockers I made from thin strips of styrene, folded in three layers and painted different colours.

 

I decided to start work on the stern fascia.  As I had noticed on some Victory builds I fitted the window frames from the back of the fascia. Since I am putting lights in the three stern lanterns the positioning of them on the stern fascia is quite critical to make sure the wiring entering the fascia are in the right position to connect to the prepared inside wiring.  Decided it would be much easier to prepare the lanterns now, find the exact positions on the fascia and prepare the holes with the fascia still in my hands, otherwise if I leave them for after finishing the fascia I am sure it will be more difficult and I would damage the paintwork, especially on the brass fittings.

 

I made the frames holding the lanterns from 1.5mm brass tubes through which the wiring is to pass.  Soldered the supporting arms made from 0.7mm brass rods supplied with the kit. 

 

Calculated the positions of the entry holes of the brass tube and the rods into the fascia.  As you can see I drew a grid on the fascia which helped me a lot to keep everything symmetrical.  I made sure that the entry holes did not interfere with the trophy of arms or any brass mouldings that have to go on the fascia.  Only dry fitted for now.

 

Bent the lantern brass etched components to the right shape and soldered where they meet.

 

Soldered the wiring to the small LED's and glued the base of the lanterns to the brass tube with epoxy glue. I also made sure all the lantern components fitted each other.

 

After passing the wiring through the brass tube I glued the LED to the lantern base with Araldite epoxy glue, which is non conductive.  You have to be sure that the glue you use is non conductive otherwise it will short the LED connections.

 

Lantern components just dry fitted.  They still have to be painted and transparent plastic used to simulate the lantern  glass.

 

 

Tested each lantern to make sure they are working alright.

Now I will put the lanterns aside and carry on with the work on the fascia, knowing that I have the lanterns sorted out and have the exact position for them on the fascia.

 

Robert

 

[Richardjjs]

Incredible work Such detail 
Are you going to mark the deck treenails across the deck
At least mark treenails equivalent to butt end tree nails as each plank would have a number of securings.
Can post a picture if needed
GREAT WORK

[Robert29]

Richard, thank you for your nice comments, I have already marked the deck treenails, butt ends only.

 

With the lanterns put aside to be fitted at a much later stage, probably for the very last as otherwise I am sure I would nock them down multiple times whilst doing the rigging, I fitted the outer stern fascia in place.  Before I fitted it I painted the window frames, glued transparent plastic strips to the inner fascia, in front of the windows to represent the glass panes and gave it a coat of paint, just to know were the outlines of the two different colours should be.  I will finish the paint with more coats when in place as obviously there is going to be a lot of rough handling and sanding to fit the brass profiles. 

 

The bottom edge of the fascia had too much of an overhang on the pattern beneath it, so I decided to plank the pattern to bring it in line with the stern fascia. 

 

To get a good fit of the brass profiles and to match the corners where they meet mitered at the stern fascia and the galleries needed quite some work. It is imperative for the profiles to be fitted nicely and as accurate as possible.  Being at the edges, any imperfections will show.

Since I had added an extra 0.5mm skin on the galleries to create the window depths, I had to add a strip of wood underneath to fix the brass profile on. Also had to do some sanding and filling to the edge of the lower gallery where it meets the fascia.  to bring it exactly in line with the stern fascia.  I couldn't just sand the edge of the fascia as otherwise I will loose the symmetry of the fascia were the scrolls are to be fitted.

 

 

Fitted the edge capping for the fascia.

 

If you notice I left the edge of the outer curve overhanging a bit as I might glue thin strips of styrene on the outer edge of the fascia.  If not I will sand flash.

 

It was quiet time consuming to get the brass profiles the right shape as they had to be bent flat wise and edge wise at the same time.  Since there is no place to put any clips to hold the brass profiles whilst glue is drying I thought the best method to keep them in place was to drill small holes in the profiles and keep them in place with nails.  I did not want to use super glue as I wanted to have time to line them exactly in place and also for better adhesion I used epoxy glue.

 

Brass profiles mitred corners filed nicely together, finished with some filler and given a coat of metal primer.

 

Robert

 

[md1400cs]

Robert,

 

Just catching up - super nice - love the lanterns!! as well.

[Bill Morrison]

Wow!  This is an incredible model! I appreciate your fine attention to detail.  Well done indeed!

I am building a much smaller HMS Victory that appears to be the same 1/180 scale found in the Airfix plastic kit.  It is an old kit from the defunct Aeropiccola and is a very basic kit.  The kit designer recommended simply drawing gun ports onto the hull with a pencil.  Needless to say, I have been heavily modifying that approach!

Anyway, I have always liked the Victory with the raised forward bulwarks as found in the Caldercraft model.  Therefore, with your permission, I would like to use your photos to help me with my conversion.  I am also therefore excited to find this thread!  Please let me know since I will not use your work here from which to copy.

 

Bill

[Richardjjs]

Bill
You can down load the Instructions from Caldercraft web site
And also the instructions from DeAgasonii

 

If this doent ci=convince you to buy a Caldercraft Victory in the future I would be surprised

Both are asimilar price although you can spread the payments on DeAgastoi the wood quality has a lot to be desired  

[Bill Morrison]

Thanks!  But, your model is so beautiful, and your photography is exquisite!  If I were to purchase a Caldercraft kit in the future, I have my eyes on HMS Agamemnon as being out of the ordinary.  I have heard nothing but great things about their kits.

 

Bill

Edited March 21, 2020 by Bill Morrison
Adding information

[Robert29]

Thank you very much for the encouraging comments and likes.  

 

Bill feel free to use whatever is in my log.  As much as I have learned from this forum sourcing ideas and hints from other builders it is my pleasure to know that my work is of some help to others.

 

Robert

[Bill Morrison]

Robert,

 

Thank you!  I appreciate it.

 

Bill