HMS Victory by Charter33 - Caldercraft - Scale 1:72

[Charter33]

Thank you Robert for your kind comments, and for all the other positive reactions my last post received.

 

Constructing the flag lockers and the skylight proved a bit more challenging than I expected, although those with the latter were, admittedly, self inflicted.......

Assembling the shelving for the flag lockers went alright but I had problems with the carcases which seemed too big with gaps on both sides and top and bottom when the shelf assembly was dry fitted. Grooves are provided on the inner surfaces of the side pieces for the shelves to fit into and my initial plan was to cut down the shoulders of the carcase joints to reduce these gaps. It was clear, however, that by doing this sufficiently to get the shelves to fit in the grooves would result the size of the left and righthand vertical shelf spaces being noticeably smaller than the rest. My solution was to re-make the ends from scrap ply without the grooves.

 

Once finally assembled and painted the overall length of these units still matched the size shown on the plan.

Additional tapering plinths fitted under the outer half of the base to improve the fit on the deck.

Installed with the inner and outer transom knees, ensign staff support and Horse.

 

Comparing the design for the model's skylight and pictures of that on the full size version there was several differences, the biggest being the curved roof of the original. To achieve this the roof part in the kit was soaked briefly in hot water, bound with a strip of polythene and masking tape around a suitable mould - in this case a drinking glass,  with parallel sides, zapped in a microwave oven for 30 seconds, and then left for a couple of days in the airing cupboard.

It worked.....

There is more of a decorative moulding to the edges of the roof as well and this was achieved by cutting away the lower layer of ply on the underside.....

 

the tops of the end pieces were shaped to match the curve and the top edge of the side pieces was bevelled prior to assembly.

The Pre-painted brass window frames were glazed and fitted before this assembly stage. Finally additional twin mouldings were fitted to the lower edges of the sides and ends (the upper one curved here} and the whole unit given a coat of matt varnish before gluing onto the deck.

At this point the other poop deck fitting such as the various cleats, snatch blocks, Kevels and the Mizzen Topsail Sheet Bitts were added.

Cheers,

Graham.

[mort stoll]

I too had issues with the flag lockers. Tried filing the shelf slots and tapering the sides to no avail. Finally ordered another set from Caldercraft and that set  fit perfectly together. 

I love what you did with the skylight. Wish I would have thought of it.

Keep up the great work,

Mort

   

[Charter33]

More progress......

Mort - good to know it wasn't just me! I couldn't work out if maybe I'd done something wrong. Possibly it was an issue with earlier kits that has been subsequently resolved (my build has been underway for quite some time!)

Going back to the flag locker, I found that there were some different versions of how many sections were blanked off adjacent to the outer transom knees. I changed these from the photographic evidence of a contemporary version, four sections, that I originally included, to that shown in Longbridge's book - just two on the bottom row.

Moving on to the Poop ladder assembly I decided to try to improve the handrail. Rather than fabricating it from 1.5 mm sq. walnut I hoped to be able to achieve the elegant curves in a different way. Option one was to try and steam bend the stock material. It seemed unlikely that this would work so I went for an alternative method that involved laminating the profile using three lengths of 3 x 0.5 mm walnut strip. The press forming tool was made from  a piece of acrylic - the forming surfaces lined with double sided Sellotape with one side retaining the protective (PTFE coated?) cover to reduce the chance of the component sticking to them.

This is probably one of the most 'Heath Robinson' forming solutions on this site!.........

but it worked......

After a light sanding and trimming they were attached to the rest of the assembly which went as described in the instructions.

These pictures also show the fitted poop deck termination rail. As commented on by other builders this part seems very plain compared to the the original. Using some of the copper profiles left over from additional enhancements I made to the quarterdeck plus some pieces of soft solder I tried to remedy this -

Additional bullnose mouldings made from the 1.5 mm sq. walnut were also added to the top step.

With the barricade assembly attached I did a trial fitting of the fire buckets....

There will need to be a bit of fine tuning to the handles to get them to hang properly before gluing in place, but I also want to add the GR emblem to each one first, just need to work out how........

The stern facia is next, but first I need to buy some more Dull Black paint as I'm almost out of it, and I have taken Robert's advice concerning VMS metal prep fluid, solvents and flexy ca for all that PE brass. CMB and Scale Model Shop deliveries expected shortly......

Happy days...

Graham

  

 

Edited July 7, 2022 by Charter33

[AJohnson]

Nice detailing you added there. 👏 - Looking good!

[mort stoll]

I bought my kit in 2005.

Keep up the great work,

Mort

[Charter33]

Thanks Andrew - and 2005 was the year that I embarked on this build too Mort. 😁

A slight delay in progress. Before tackling the stern facia I decided that it was time to re-organise the work area as it was getting a bit too cluttered. Space is a little tight, in fact I managed to knock off the starboard cathead when turning the model to access the other side one evening. Heard something snap, couldn't see any obvious damage so ignored it. Next day, with that awful sinking feeling, I spotted the problem. Couldn't see the assembly anywhere. The carpet has consumed many tiny components in the past, but a whole cathead? Eventually found it. It had pinged down the back of the workbench and then bounced under a set of draws - panic over...... and easily re-fitted.

Then the pandemic finally caught up with me, fairly mild fortunately, but it still knocked me for six. All good now.

 

When I trial fitted the fire buckets a couple of posts ago it was clear that there was an issue with the copper wire handles I had given them. They were too short and it was difficult to get the buckets to hang correctly. Only solution was to remove these handles and replace them with the recommended black .25 mm thread. Not easy.... First attempts with the thread tied to each eyelet was disappointing with the knots looking a bit 'tufty'. Solution was to tie the thread in a complete loop, a simple jig to ensure consistent size, and the knot in the loop being pushed down into the bucket to hide it. Buckets were then pinned to a piece of foam to pre-shape the handles which were given a light coat of matt lacquer to set them.

Next job was to source the GR and crown monogram decals to enhance the buckets. With international postage rates so high I wanted to find a UK based supplier. On the advice of a good friend, a dedicated and highly accomplished model railway enthusiast, I contacted John Peck who operates the on-line company www.precisionlabels.com 

His usual range of products is railway based but he also does 'custom' work.

Working from an image I found and sent him he produced the artwork and came up with these little beauties in just under a week, and at a great price too.....

First bucket...

Brilliant! A light coat of Decalfix made the clear carrier layer less obvious.

All buckets now in place.

 

Time to start the stern facia. After an initial painting of the black and yellow areas the window frames were fitted. To create the black panels between the windows I used Tamiya masking tape.

At the same time I masked the P E baluster pieces, after painting them yellow, in preparation for the black lines. Preparing these with the VMS metal prep certainly improved the adhesion of the paint to the brass - thanks Robert!

P E panels laid in place but not yet glued....

Once the facia was fitted it was time to add the capping. The instructions say to use 3 x 1 walnut strip, but this seemed too narrow. Instead I went for 4 x 1, and glued two lengths of this together to get a piece wide enough for the top piece which curved more than I could get the strip to bend sideways to match. This double width piece was cut to the required shape with a scalpel and sanded to final shape after gluing in place. To bend the curved sections on the top corners strip was soaked for 5 minutes in boiling water and then clamped to a suitable former, in this instance an acrylic cosmetic jar donated by the admiral as a 

storage container for small ship components..... Left to dry overnight the resulting shaped wood was cut to length and glued in place.

Last picture shows the capping after it's first coat of paint. Added some more detail to the flag locker - signal flags made from the backing sheet from self adhesive labels, coloured with alcohol based permanent marker pens and folded to fit.

 

Time to start preparing the stern decorations.....

Cheers,

Graham. 

 

[mort stoll]

Great job. Keep up the great work. Love the signal flags and royal monograms. I regret not doing the monograms.

Mort

[Kevin]

i tried the fire bucket decals and failed

[Charter33]

Those decals are fiddly little devils with minds of their own! I resorted to clamping each bucket in my Proxxon mini vice 

There's a strip of double sided tape across the fixed jaw to help set the front surface of the bucket on top, and yes, that tiny gold spot just about the handle is just one of the decals that got away 😒. I needed 21 decals, ordered 30 and have 4 left......... at 2.8 mm high and about 2 mm wide juggling the monogram into the correct position with a wet paint brush kept me gainfully employed for a long evening. 

I no longer have access to the CAD and CAM software and hardware I taught with unfortunately, so producing my own art work and using a good quality printer myself were no longer an option. (Never thought I'd miss the smell of freshly laser cut MDF, but I do....) Can't fault the product I received and the customer service was brilliant.

A couple of pictures of that simple jig for making the bucket handles. A 4 mm hole for the bucket body, and a 0.5 mm hole, 5 mm from the bucket's centre, for a needle.

Tying reef knots with two pairs of tweezers gets easier with practise, a skill that will no doubt become useful sometime in the future.😏

Cheers,

Graham

[Charter33]

I've been focusing on the stern facia and quarter gallery decoration details. With the facia windows I have followed advice to mount the frames from the back of the outer stern facia to give the windows more depth. To achieve a similar effect on the Quarter Galleries I used Robert's innovation of adding an additional 0.5 mm layer to the three window skins.

The two false baluster patterns were fixed with C.A. adhesive. With very limited time to align them I opted to temporarily pin a scrap strip across the facia to help. The simple  'tacky stick' gripped the pattern as it was placed in position.

The gap between the facia's surface and the transom seemed a bit excessive, putting it mildly....

.... so I made an additional piece to improve things. I never throw away any off-cuts and found a piece of the 2 mm walnut ply big enough for the job. The hole in the remnant of the original transom ply made a perfect template. Edges bevelled as required ....... 

...... and the new piece glued in place. The lower edge was then blended in with carving knife, file and sandpaper.

To create the black panels between the Quarter gallery windows it was back to careful masking 

I wanted to add additional detail to the vertical edges of the facia so, after cutting strips of tape down to about 0.7 mm wide, these were put in place together with masking on the front and back surfaces, and the unmasked areas over painted yellow.

To get the Quarter gallery false baluster patterns in place I used rapid epoxy to provide more adjustment time. Brass pins were pushed into the skins as an alignment aid.

At this point I began work on the Trophy of Arms, carving the groove where it intersects the top stern facia moulding

This was then primed together with the other white metal components - and all the associated tales of woe explained earlier in the 'What have you done in the garden today' thread 😖. Once painted yellow these castings were glued in place, once again using epoxy adhesive.

...the errant scroll was the one bottom left!

 

The Trophy of Arms was painted up using images found on line. The left hand draped flag was re-worked a couple of times, and I'm still not completely happy with it. I'll probably go back to it in the future

 

 

Ship's name added, 

A couple of daylight pictures with the drop decorations in place.

 

and finally I made a start on the lanterns.....

Cheers,

Graham.

 

[Robert29]

Wow, great work on the stern fascia and the quarter galleries.  Glad you took the extra work on the quarter galleries to create that bit of depth in the windows.  It makes such a difference. When I was doing mine as per manual instructions I was so disappointed with the result and just couldn't leave it like that. Keep up the great work Graham.

 

Robert

[AJohnson]

Great work Graham, the extra details you are adding are making all the difference.  👏

[Charter33]

Thank you for all the positive responses, always a great motivator!

Totally agree with you about the windows, Robert. I'm really pleased with how they came out. I also followed your example and added those two extra wooden mouldings under the false baluster pieces on the Quarter galleries using 1.5 mm pre-rounded strips cut from some unused first planking material. Another great suggestion - thanks again.

Andrew - you're so right about the effect of adding extra detail. It not only improves the appearance, it also adds to the enjoyment of the build. Time well invested, as you showed with your superb 'Nisha' 👏

Working on the stern lamps I was tempted to add a new tag to this thread - 'misadventures in modelling' or 'a comedy of errors'........

Having successfully drilled three of the lamp base castings for their supporting frames, the 0.7 mm drill bit started to bind on the final one and before I could turn the Dremel off the casting had twisted out of the vice, bending the drill bit, and was projected across the room. I did see a couple of the rebounds it made off walls etc. before it finally disappeared into a parallel universe. Time spent looking for it proved unproductive. The only saving grace was that the lost base was from one of the two middle sized lamps and its twin could be used as a pattern. Having dug out the Delft clay and associated equipment the mould was created and some metal (pewter) melted and poured.

Did it work? oh yes......

Not as crisp as the original, but serviceable after a little fettling......

Lamps assembled prior to gluing and painting,

but first I fabricated the fames to support them based on images found on-line.

Once painted it was time for a dry fit before removing them and adding them to the growing collection of parts being stored until closer to the end of the build for their own protection.

Time to start work on shaping the brass profiles to finish the stern facia and Quarter galleries.

Cheers,

Graham

[AJohnson]

Nice save with making your own pewter parts!  Good idea leaving them off until later, I wish I had done that with my Bounty! 😣

[Charter33]

Well ....... turns out it's one of those instances where half a dozen lines of instructions in the manual proves to be deceptively vague and a bit more thought is needed ........

I managed to bend the brass profile to the correct shape to match the curve on the top part of the Quarter gallery but then found out that it was a compound bend and needed to also curve slightly upwards.

Got a bit creative with some bits and pieces that were to hand and came up with this solution 

.... successful, but not very elegant.....

There had to be a simpler way ...... time to go back to the drawing board. Rummaging through the 'odds and s*ds' box I came up with a random block of 'bound to be useful one day' brass and four 5 mm dia. brass connector pins.

Four drilled holes and the light application of a hammer later I now have a double sided jig to to form the brass in both axis'. 2 mm gap between pins on one side, and 3mm on t'other.

A long way still to go, but I'm a bit more confident that it's do-able......

 

Cheers,

Graham

 

Edited August 25, 2022 by Charter33

[Charter33]

Well.... the brass profile decorations turned out to be more of a challenge than expected. It took a several evenings to achieve pieces that were of an acceptable standard and a couple of attempts that had to discarded, not just the compound curves but the bevelling of the ends to match the hull etc. Thankfully the manufacturer is generous in the amount of profile provided. Got there in the end and this stage of the stern is now just about completed. I'll attempt the two pieces to finish the the bow next. These look a little more tricky, but the brass profile is annealed and ready to go.

Off to the West country for a break today so away from the shipyard for a little while - so 'anchors aweigh' ..... literally - the components for the bower and sheet anchors, plus basic range of tools, paints and brushes, oh, and the side entry port casting as well it seems, appear to have fallen into the bottom of the suitcase......... well, sometimes you need a mini project to keep you going ...... 😉

[Landlubber Mike]

That looks spectacular, nice job!  

 

Do you anneal all the brass in the kit?  I wouldn't have thought to do so, but maybe can see doing it with larger pieces.

 

Enjoy your trip!

[Charter33]

Hi Mike, and thank you.

I just anneal profiles that need a significant degree of bending. A lot of the brass strips required are straight so are fine as supplied, just needing to be cut and finished to length. I put off doing the bow pieces that run from the Catsheads to the top bow rail until I'd had a bit of practise on the stern. These two need to curve through 90 degrees and also flow around the hull's curve. Should be fun!

Cheers,

Graham

[Charter33]

Construction of the anchors was well within the scope of the reduced 'building facilities' with my usual 'shipyard' temporarily little more than an A3 wooden drawing board on the dining room table illuminated by a clip-on flexible LED lamp.

After cleaning up the castings and adding the anchor palms I made stops from some of the left-over photo-etched frame from the stern decorations, in this case from one of the thicker sheets. Once bent to shape they were soft soldered, cleaned up with a needle file and glued in place.

Anchor stocks glued together and carved/sanded to achieve the tapers ......

...... and after a light chamfer to the edges the iron bands were fitted, this time utilizing the fine brass strips recycled from the thinnest PE sheet frames.

The rings were fabricated .....

and the anchors painted.

After fitting the rings, darkened using 'brass black' solution, I looked on-line for advice on how to do the puddening. The search engine brought me straight back to MSW. Lesson learned - forget Google and just use this site's search tool! 

Cheers,

Graham

[AJohnson]

Another very neat sub assembly completed Graham.  Having cleaned up a few Caldercraft anchor castings myself, I can see the effort you have put in! 👏

[Charter33]

Back in the shipyard, and picking up from where I had got to on the Victory build.

The first step was to get the white metal components for the two entry ports painted. These later additions to the vessel didn't exist when the ship was launched, neither were they fitted at the battle of Trafalgar. The models castings appear a little different to those shown in my 'go to' reference sources so I relied heavily on internet images.

Tricky to achieve the result I had in mind, especially the line of rivets/studs under the front and side edges if the canopy. The colour of the sheathing on this first attempt was way out, so I had a go at mixing my own version of what I guess is lead from my small stock of enamels. These decorations were fixed in place with epoxy glue.

An unexpected task next, and totally self inflicted. Sorting out the various parts that form the steps up to, around and above the port I found that the two steps immediately below the ports had gone AWOL. I think they had become detached from their walnut sheet back when I was tackling the belfry. Classic mistake - I put them somewhere 'safe'..... and they disappeared into another dimension. Eventually solved by converting a scrap piece of stock to the required profile and then deducing their length from the remnants of the hole where they once resided when originally machined.

Masking tape helped align the steps and a couple of scaps of redundant planking made a simple 2 mm spacer for the gaps between them.

Finally the fenders and chesstrees were painted and added.

The three 'Victory' copper plates I mentioned back in posts #12 and #42 can be seen under each entry port.

Good to be back at the work bench.

Cheers.

Graham

[AJohnson]

Hi Graham, glad to see you back in your shipyard. Though I have been following your 1=1 scale project!

Edited January 27 by AJohnson

[kiwiron]

On 9/3/2022 at 9:36 AM, Charter33 said:

Hi Mike, and thank you.

I just anneal profiles that need a significant degree of bending. A lot of the brass strips required are straight so are fine as supplied, just needing to be cut and finished to length. I put off doing the bow pieces that run from the Catsheads to the top bow rail until I'd had a bit of practise on the stern. These two need to curve through 90 degrees and also flow around the hull's curve. Should be fun!

Cheers,

Graham

Beautiful work as usual.

[Charter33]

Thanks for the likes and comments. Bit of a hick-up with the 1:1 workshop build at the moment. The main cause of my absence from the shipyard last year was the Admiral's garden project. It went a bit over budget so funds for the shed were diverted. Soon be back on track though, and I'll update both related threads in Shore Leave for anyone interested later.....

[Charter33]

Reviewing the instruction manual for the hull I realized that I had missed one of the final steps on the bow, namely the brass moulding that runs from the base of the cat-heads to the upper bow rails. Before events temporarily halted progress I did get as far as annealing the strip of brass profile. Seems I'm not alone in this omission, this component is also conspicuous by its absence from the photograph of the otherwise completed hull example that adorns the front cover of the manual! 😄

First task was to make a card template to guide the shaping...

The bending jig I made earlier in post #135 came in handy again

After shaping the tricky job of marking out and then removing a section of wale to get the moulding to sit against the hull......

Dry fit....

Before painting the ends were filled with soft solder to be more in keeping with contemporary photographs 

Finally glued in place

and after a bit of filler the paint work had its first touching up.

I'll be checking it again under natural light tomorrow.

A couple more views:

Channels and chainplates next.......

Cheers,

Graham.

[kiwiron]

Great job, once annealed I found it easy to shape the brass.

[AJohnson]

Very neatly done Graham.

[Robert29]

Very nicely done Graham.  

 

Robert

[Charter33]

Thank you for the likes and kind and encouraging comments. Robert, I still visit your build log for inspiration. Have you managed to get your Victory mounted on that intriguing base that you were working on? I look forward to seeing it done......

First step with the channels, once they had been cut from the sheet and cleaned up, was to fit some mounting/location pins. These were made from fine brass lace makers pins with the heads cut off.

Next the pin positions on the hull were marked and drilled with a 0.5 mm drill bit.

Deadeyes were slotted into strops and the nib joint soldered, self locking tweezers keeping things together.

A small hole at the bottom of each cut out in the channels acted as locating aids before the covering strip was glued in place.

The white metal castings for the studding sail boom bracket and the support were filed to appear closer to the shape shown in Longbridge's illustration (page 94)......

... the 'waist' just inboard of the ends achieved with a half round needle file

and a simple jig constructed from matches..

Once glued in place, to simulate the method these components are fixed to the channel, the pin heads previously cut off were literally pressed into service.

All the assemblies were painted...

These are just dry fitted at the moment. I've decided to add the brass decorations to the hull first, and the advice is that it could also aid the fitting of the top row of gun ports - thanks Robert!😄

Cheers,

Graham.

[Charter33]

Edited March 5 by Charter33
Miss posted!