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

[Charter33]

Outstanding, and truly inspirational work as ever, Robert.

Thank you for sharing the link about the bucket decals - that's definitely a route I shall be persuing! 

My own build  continues well, but a little more slowly than yours. I have had to retire from a lifetime of teaching and one consequence has been the loss of access to a computer and subsequently my ability to add posts to my own build log. I can only visit this website using my phone which is hampering my contributions, especially with a fault that appeared after the most recent up-grade that causes the phone's operating system to crash after every 'up-swipe'  - it gets very frustrating when the screen only advances a couple of lines before locking up, to put it politely ....(it's taken over half an hour to add this post!!!!🤨)

Keep up the excellent work!

 

Graham.

[Anthony Hearne]

now thats determination👍

[Robert29]

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

 

 

  

Edited February 23, 2021 by Robert29

[egkb]

Very Crisp work Robert .. A Pleasure to follow you along !

 

Eamonn

[Roberts Orca]

You are an inspiration for me. Love following your work. A true masterpiece. 😍

[michael101]

As always just a pleaser to watch your build log 

you did a beautiful job on the net 🤩

 

[Robert29]

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

Edited February 24, 2021 by Robert29

[md1400cs]

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

 

[Charter33]

I'm rapidly running out of superlatives - just superb, Robert,

Stunning!

[Robert29]

Hi md, thank you for your comment and especially for the website for the Roman numbers.  They look great, pity I did not know about them before.  In my case, my only hesitation is that, although they are very small (2.5mm high) they might be a bit too big for my scale (1:72). The decals I used are 1.5mm.  I doubt it if they make them that small.

 

Graham, I try my best and I owe most of my moderate ability to a lot of members in this forum, who are magnificent builders, from whom I learned a lot. 

 

Robert

[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,

 

 

[Robert29]

The bowsprit is fitted in place and gammoning done.  Passing the line in between the bow rails was not that straight forward.  When doing the gammoning saddles I had calculated  that the distance between them will accommodate exactly the nine turns of gammoning.  While doing the gammoning I managed to knock down one of the cat heads, but already fitted back. 

 

Then fitted the knights heads, with the boomkins already attached to them.  I seized the boomkin shrouds and the block beforehand.  When possible, seizing is much easier done when items are still in your hands. I worked two saddle bars to hold the boomkin in place on the main rail.  Figurehead fitted in place as well.

 

    

 

 Net railing also fitted, but for the moment it is only dry fitted to be able to remove if needed to the bowsprit rigging.  The marines' walk is only dry fitted as well.

 

 

 

 

Robert

[michael101]

What a beautiful process Robert !

you did a perfect job as always ! 
Best regards,

Michael.

[Robert29]

Thank you Michael and thank you all for the likes.

 

I have a small update.

I fixed the Victory letters to the stern. They are quite tiny and fragile. I glued them with just a small dab of CA glue.  

This is how I marked the positions of the letters.

a. With the  computer I printed the 'VICTORY', same size as the supplied brass letters, using double spacing between the letters, on a plain paper.

b. As soon as I printed it I took a piece of Tamaya masking tape, which is slightly transparent, and stuck it on top of the printed letters.  Took the tape off again and the  letters were transferred to the back of the tape (on the side of the glue).

c. With a thin marker I drew some lines marking the side positions of the letters and some of them the centre as well. Then with a blade I cut the tape in two all along the base of the letters.  The bottom part of the tape is about 3mm. I centred this on the stern and against the brass profile underneath the letters.  This served as a guide  for the right spacing and to be horizontally in line with each other along the brass profile.  The other half of he tape I taped on top just as a guide to know that the letters are perpendicular.  When you use CA glue on a painted surface, the glue melts the paint a bit and does not dry immediately.  It gives you a few seconds, enough to adjust the letters in their exact position.

 

 

The result after taking off the tape and retouching the letters with paint. I was wondering if it's a good idea to go all over the letterings and cover all that area with a coat of matt clear varnish so that all the tiny fragile ends will adhere to the stern with the varnish.  

 

 

This was the other name plate supplied with the kit.  Of course this would have been much easier to paint and fit but I think the individual letters are more authentic.

 

 

I also painted the Side Entry port castings.  I think I will fit them in place after I finish the shrouds.

 

As you can see I have driven two brass pins into the back of the side entry arch for a stronger fit and also as a guide to their exact position.  This has been done before painting them and holes to accommodate these pins are already prepared on the hull over the side door.  This way I will eliminate handling them as much as possible as I will only have to put some glue and slide them in their respective holes. 

 

Robert

 

[Bossman]

Robert, top notch work and craftsmanship Sir! 

[Anthony Hearne]

i have been following this thread for a while now but feel compelled to congratulate you on the progress you have made and on the excellent craftmanship , ell done sir

[Robert29]

Bossman and Anthony, thank you for your comments.

 

I am just about to start on the rigging, a subject on which I still have a long way to go to learn.  I will be starting with the Burton Pendants and the Shrouds. In the kit manual they are indicated to be done with 1.3mm line.  I intend to serve the pendants and the shrouds (the part that goes round the mast), but my first obstacle is what size of line should I use for the serving, which I have never done.  

From a local store I can get two different types of Gutermann thread.  The one on the cream reel is very thin, I think it is about 0.1mm, apparently it is the normal sewing size.  I tried a small piece with it and I think it is too thin, you don't really see the effect of the serving.  The one with the green reel is thicker, it is about 0.5mm, which I haven't tried yet. This is completely new to me and knowing there are builders on this forum with much greater experience and know how on this subject, I would appreciate any suggestions of what size of thread should I use.

 

Thanking you for any suggestions.

Robert

[mort stoll]

I think it depends on the size of the rope you're serving. I've used both sizes - Gutermann's - for years and am happy with the results.

 

Stay safe and well,

Mort  

[Robert29]

Mort, Thank you for your reply.  Guess you are right, depends on the size of the rope you are serving.  So I took out the serving machine I had made at the very start of the project but have never used up to now and give it a trial run.  It ran pretty good and was amazed how accurate and quickly you can serve the lines with this machine.  After a trial runs on the 1.3mm line used for the pendants I decided to go for the thinnest thread for serving.

 

This is the serving machine I had made, of course I took the ideas from this forum, from those which are ready made to buy and from those that builders made themselves.  In my garage I found two perspex angles which were a holder of something, a piece of mdf, which was already the size I needed and after some planning I bought the gears, rods, and a few bolts and nuts that I needed.  Their cost was only a few euros.

 

As you can see the length can be adjusted by undoing the bolts and moving the angles to the other pre drilled holes in the board.

 

 

Although there are some serving machines which are pretty expensive and come with a motor and so on, which do a very good job, there are also others which are quite cheap and do the job just as well but maybe take a bit longer.  So if you do not want to take the hassle of doing it, you can buy one at a very reasonable price.  In my opinion, if you are not doing it as a fun project, its not worth the hassle  for the price you can get one.😁 

 

Anyway, so as I had stated in my previous post I was starting with the Burton Pendants, so I served the lines for them, which ran pretty smooth.  I intended to put thimbles at the end of the pendants.  In an earlier post I had posted how I made tiny thimbles from brass tubes.  But I have a small problem, the line used for the pendants is quite thick, 1.3mm,  and the thimbles I had made (out of 1.5mm diam. tube were too small, and the next tube size I have is too big.  So I had to shelve the rigging until I order more brass tubes.  I am ordering 2mm and 2.5mm diam. and see which is best.

 

In the meantime I continued on some other work.  I prepared the 10mm Jeer Blocks, the 8.5mm Cat Blocks and the Open Hearts for the stays which will be used further on. I made the grooves on my proton table.

 

 

Cleaned and sanded.

 

 

 

Blocks and hearts dyed and varnished.

 

 

I started work on the boats as well.  My intension was to start the boats and do them little by little whilst I am doing the rigging, sort of every now and then having a break from the rigging.

 

There are four boats in all and here are the Launch, the Barge and the Pinnace.  Trimmed and glued the bulkheads, floor and keel glued

together ready for planking.

 

 

But when I came to the Cutter and dry fitted the bulkheads to the keel I noticed something was not right.

If you look at the photo when you insert the bulkhead into the keel notches, the bulkheads go down to the very lower edge of the keel, leaving no space for the planking, that is the planking will be protruding further out then the keel itself!!! 

 

 

This is a picture of the Launch and this is how more or less the space between the edge of the keel and the bulkheads should be with the Cutter as well.

 

On checking the dimensions with the drawing (full scale) in the manual I also realised that if I had to fit them like this the top edge of the bulkheads would be substantially lower than they should be.  In the next photo I marked in red the position were they would be.  So you end up with the front (stem) and the back of the keel (stern post) much higher than hull of the boat.  

  

 

 

I tried to look in other caldercraft Victory builds, but strangely enough nobody mentions it.  I think that there is a miscalculation. 

 

The best I could think of to solve this problem is to fit the bulkheads at a higher level, thus getting the space needed between the edge of the keel and the bulkheads and rising the sides of the hull to the right height.  I blanked all the notches in the keel, so by ding this the bulkheads will go up by the same depth of those notches.  The only disadvantage is that the bulkheads will have a much less strong fitting to the keel and might break off while doing the planking.  But I think this can be overcome by inserting and gluing some sort of spacers in between the bulkheads, and anyway all the bulkheads are to be removed after the planking. 

 

 

Here are the bulkheads dry fitted.  The space down the edge of the keel is better and the top edge of the bulkheads is also much better to the relative height of the front and back of the keel.

I will align and glue the bulkheads and let you know the outcome of the boat.

 

Robert

Edited March 16, 2021 by Robert29

[Robert29]

Whilst still waiting for the brass tubes for the thimbles I finished the boats with the first planking.

 

The Launch with the first plank.

 

The Launch planked all over.

 

 

 

The Pinnace.

 

 

 

 

 

The Cutter.

 

 

 

All four boats brushed all over with watered down white glue, trimmed and sanded, ready for the second planking.

 

 

 

Having received the brass tubes I finished the lower masts pendants.

For the fore and main mast pendants I used the 2mm diam. brass tube for the thimbles, and for the mizzen mast I used the 1.5mm diam. tube, and blackened them.  I served the lines for the pendants all along before fitting the thimbles. 

 

 

 

Pendants rigged in place.  One problem that I found rigging them in place was that when you loop the pendant round the mast and tie a knot round the two lines you will not be able to push back the knot because of the line being served.  I had to tie the knot exactly in its place otherwise I wasn't able to slide it back. With the line not served it is quite easy to slide the knots.  I will have the same problem with the shrouds.  I don't know if there is any other way to go about it!!!

 

 

 

Now I can start work on the shrouds.

 

Robert

[Will Ferris]

Robert,

 

Excellent build!  I bought the same kit.  We're at slightly different stages.  It would be great to be able to compare notes with you as this is my first ship model.  I'm definitely going to borrow your trick for cannon placement.

[md1400cs]

Robert,

 

Just catching up - as always superbly well detailed work!!

[Heinz6672]

Wonderful work, Robert.

Now I know all my mistakes... 

keep on the good work!

 

Best

 

Heinz

[Robert29]

Will, MD and Heinz thank you for your comments.  Thank you also for the likes.

 

My intention was to do the boats in between the rigging.  Although I started some work on the shrouds I got carried away with the boats and continued working on them.  The boats are a project in themselves.  I will try to put as much detail in them as possible because I think they will be very eye catching when you are looking at the complete model.

 

On the Launch and the Barge, for the second planking I used the 0.5mm Walnut as indicated in the manual.

  

 

 

For the Pinnace and the Cutter I did not use the 0.5mm Walnut supplied with the kit.  I had some left overs of Sapele from the model Bluenose II.  It was slightly thinner, 0.4mm and more flexible, which I thought made it a better material for the second planking because of the small size of the boats.

 

 

Outer hull brushed with watered down PVA glue, left to dry, sanded, then gone over them with a fine filler and left to dry.

 

 

When filler was thoroughly dry hull sanded with fine sand paper and inside bulkheads removed.

 

 

 

 

Robert

[allanyed]

Robert,

Fantastic work!!   As  a fan of HMS Victory, I think you may be interested to know that there is a project in the works to produce a television series about Nelson and Trafalgar.  The writer, Adam Preston, is working on getting folks to sign on to show the TV studios he works with that there is significant interest in seeing this project come to fruition.  I hope you don't mind that I am posting this here as Victory is an obvious part of this project.  Please take a look at the New Podcast/TV series about Nelson and Maritime Britain during the Trafalgar Period post in the Nautical/Naval History forum here at MSW and sign on board.  I imagine that vast majority of the members here would love to see this series happen, especially students of any of Nelson's ships like yourself.

 

[Robert29]

On 5/20/2021 at 12:23 PM, allanyed said:

Robert,

Fantastic work!!   As  a fan of HMS Victory, I think you may be interested to know that there is a project in the works to produce a television series about Nelson and Trafalgar.  The writer, Adam Preston, is working on getting folks to sign on to show the TV studios he works with that there is significant interest in seeing this project come to fruition.  I hope you don't mind that I am posting this here as Victory is an obvious part of this project.  Please take a look at the New Podcast/TV series about Nelson and Maritime Britain during the Trafalgar Period post in the Nautical/Naval History forum here at MSW and sign on board.  I imagine that vast majority of the members here would love to see this series happen, especially students of any of Nelson's ships like yourself.

 

Allan, thank you for bringing this project to my attention.  I have signed up, it is very interesting and wish all the luck to Adam Preston on his project.

 

Robert

[Robert29]

A brief update on the boats.

I was tempted to use styrene strips for the hull ribs, but decided to go for walnut strips.  Quite a lot of time involved to bend each and every one of them and glue.  The electric plank bender was really useful for this.

 

 

I left the ribs a bit longer then needed and easily trimmed them to the required length in place.

 

Launch with ribs trimmed and row locks cut as well.

 

 

Barge with ribs and row lock cut as well.

 

 

Pinnace,  I might differ some finishing from the manual so I left the ribs untrimmed for the moment.

 

Same with the cutter, ribs not yet trimmed.  In another Victory build, can't remember who it was, described the cutter as 'the little bugger'.  it truly is a little bugger, because of its small size it involved quite some work.  

 

Still a lot of finishing to go in them but the main basic work, constructing the hull and ribs is ready. 

 

Regards

Robert

 

 

[Anthony Hearne]

amazing work , you are an inspiration

[Ian_Grant]

Beautiful model!  Love your hammock netting; I recall many hours with the head magnifier stitching the nets along the thread between cranes, on my Heller plastic build. I am in awe of your workmanship.....

 

Ian

[Snug Harbor Johnny]

  Your process for removing the bulky kit 'frames' after planking, then replacing them with appropriate wood strips vastly improves the ship's boats ... something that I have been pondering with the OcCre Endurance kit I have yet to build.  It has four boats also - two double-ended life boats that (from photos) are apparently of the same design (the James Caird used by Shackleton survives and is on display in England), and two others with different dimensions and transoms (measurements and photos are available, but theses boats did not survive).  If the kit is built 'out of the box' per instructions, the results are good enough at the intermediate level, but I'd like to go the extra mile and modify wherever practical to get closer to the original ship and its equipment.  

 

  Your 'tutorial' will greatly help me when I tackle the project (however, I'm waiting to see how a couple of forum builds turn-out on this new kit - learning in the process).  After doing better ribs, I'll make a more appropriate gunwales, and equip the boats with stowed oars, mast(s) and sail(s), rudder gear (where applicable) rope and supplies.  Thanks mate!   Johnny