HMS Victory by Charter33 - Caldercraft - Scale 1:72

[Charter33]

This picture shows my first attempt at the decorative scrolls, refered to as moulding swirls in the manual, that enhance the hull decorations.

The method that the kit provides is a bit lacking and many builders have come up with alternative improvements. 

My plan was to try and replicate the way these scrolls flow from the straight sections of brass profile. This first attempt is very rough but in terms of developing the technique and proving the concept it taught me alot.

The first step was to use a piercing saw fitted with a 0/4 blade to cut 20 mm up the brass strip following the two thinest sections

The second cut then turned out to remove the bottom piece

 

The two remaining pieces were carefully spread apart wide enough to allow a needle file to access the inner sufaces to smooth them off.

8 mm was then cut off the centre section and the outer sides filed to tapered points

One lesson learned from the test piece was not to anneal the strip until all the cutting and filing was completed.

Once these two 'fingers' were annealled

round nosed pliers were used to roll the centre of the scroll

The top section was then bent around the centre

The excess length was cut off and this piece pushed into place

These pictures shows the scrolls in place and includes the larger scroll at the stern. This one was made the same way, the only difference being those two saw cuts which were made 25 mm long, and the tightness of the scrolls.

Having the channels still removable at this stage made adding these brass strips more manageable, I certainly wouldn't want to have had to work around them! 

A word of warning relating to the channels. Looking at plan sheet 5 there are vertical lines shown under the three main sections which turned out to be PE support brackets (Part 626). I've looked through the manual but cannot see any written reference to them. Glad I spotted this now before adding the chainplate assemblies.

Just a few more sections of brass profile to add to this side, then I can tackle the port side of the hull.

Cheers,

Graham

 

 

Edited March 9 by Charter33
Correction of miss-posted photo

[Robert29]

Hi Graham, as always you come up with brilliant ideas how to tackle certain jobs. Those decorative scrolls are beautiful. I had also made some changes to the scrolls on my model,  but your idea is impressive.  Keep up you good work.

 

Robert

[kiwiron]

Amazing work Graham. Thanks for the channel supports warning. 

[Charter33]

Thanks for following my contributions and giving them a 'thumbs up'.....

Robert, it is a great motivation seeing the inspirational work of the master craftsmen on this site whose build logs have helped me through many of the challenges that have arisen. It certainly pushes me to try and improve my own skills.

It is really important to study the plans Ron, those brackets aren't the only instance where the written instructions don't give the whole story. It just happens that it was the case with the next task I tackled. On the same plan sheet (5) there are details of the decorations on the outside of the bulwarks. I cannot see any reference to how these are constructed in the manual. The parts manual shows parts 412 and 413 listing them as Moulding 90 degree and Moulding termination foot respectively. They are on the second sheet of 1.5 mm walnut. There is no information on what to use to use with them. I assume it should be 1.5 x 1.5 walnut strip.

When I added the inner bulwark decorations I used copper wire scavenged from a bit of twin and earth electrical cable (post #84), and I decided to go the same way here, discarding the wood for metal.

This took me back to those lockdown days when I made the inner decorations. Travelling to a modelshop for materials at that time was impossible so a bit of improvisation was called for.

First stage was to file the 1.7 mm dia. copper wire to profile, three flat sides and one, the outward facing surface, left curved. The final thickness is 1 mm.

Next step, after annealing, was flaring and tapering the ends in preparation for making the termination feet

followed by shaping

Pieces were then cut, bent and soft soldered as required. After cleaning up these were glued in place.

 

All this work needs to be painted next. Currently awaiting a delivery of Dull Black and Yellow Ochre from Cornwall Model Boats as my stock, purchased along with the kit many years ago, is showing its age....

In the meantime I'll get those support brackets cut from the PE frames and prepared for fitting.

Cheers,

Graham.

 

[kiwiron]

Great job. I have found things on the plans not in the instructions as well. Maybe at the end it will be where are these left over parts supposed to go. Ron. 

[kiwiron]

Above the termination foot to the right in the gap just below the top plank the plans show timberheads not mentioned in the instructions.

Edited March 13 by kiwiron

[Charter33]

Well spotted Ron!

The four timberheads, parts no.179, have now been cut out of 3 mm walnut sheet 1, cleaned up and painted ready for installation tomorrow together with the recently blackened channel brackets....

Cheers,

Graham

[kiwiron]

Good job, I saw them on Robert's amazing build then checked the plans. I'm sure that's not all in store in the future. Also no mention of the stern brass profiles but luckily I have got your photo's and Robert's to go by. Ron. 

[Charter33]

I've reached a stage in this build where several activities need to be prepared and organized before the primary task of fitting the channels and chainplates can be done. There are five gun ports on each side that I'm guessing would be best done first as they are below or very close to the channels. There are also the pairs of holes to drill above each gun port and the distance between these is determined from the hinges on the gun ports. Rather than just make and fit a few gun ports it seems that now would be a good time to make them all although most will be fitted after the main rigging has been done. To complicate things even more I want to follow Roberts excellent idea for adding the rings inside and outside of each port.

First step then, making these rings. 0.5 mm brass wire was wound around the shank of a no.56 drill bit giving an internal diameter of about 1.2 mm.

Cutting these into individual rings was initially tried with an acrylic clamp and a piercing saw

Moderately successful, but I finally resorted to using a modified pair of cutters.

These rings needed blacking as did the eyelets they need to be fitted to. As the work bench was set up to do this I also did the 1 mm diameter tubes that will guide the port ropes.

Fitting the rings into the eyelets was straight forward, but a bit tedious so cleaning up the port lids and building up those that overlapped wales was done to break things up a bit.

Approximately 350 rings, allowing for spares...

and the starboard lids..

Hinges etc. will be added once the port side ones are done, and then they can be painted, and the distance between the guide tubes measured. I know these will be 6 mm above each port.... think it will be time for yet another jig to help with accuracy and consistency...

Another slight modification. I decided to drop the height of the two foremost painted ports to give more room for the rigols

And finally.... it seems I've been adopted... meet Bertie...

He is not our cat, he lives in the next street, but he 'owns' the neighbourhood and is frequent visitor to our front garden with its better sunny steps and shady corners than available at his owner's property. He sometimes sneaks in and has recently taken to keeping me company. Seems we share the same taste in radio station and he fines the hum of the disc sander conducive to a quiet nap.....

Cheers,

Graham.

 

[kiwiron]

Nice job on the rings, Lots of lid work coming up alright. I hope the cat does'nt like the taste of walnut.