HMS Victory by gjdale - FINISHED - Mamoli - Scale 1:90

[keelhauled]

Looks great!!

[Ship Shape]

Hello Grant, ah yes, your Victory...........still one of the best I have ever seen.  Good to see you still @ her ole friend.

Rick

[gjdale]

Thank you Keel Hauled and Ship Shape for stopping by and for your kind remarks. I can't help smiling at that "Keel Hauled and Ship Shape" - perhaps one of you is the evil twin brother of the other?

 

I hope to be able to celebrate completion of ratlines this weekend - stay tuned!

[Kevin]

she looks very nice, another vict build for me to follow

[gjdale]

Thanks Kevin - nice to see you over for a visit; I'm looking forward to seeing your new workshop in a few weeks time, and of course your re-commencement of work on your Vic.

 

Hi all,

Hooray!!!!  I have just tied the last ratline.  

380 ratlines; 2,682 clove hitches (all tied with tweezers and Optivisor magnifier).  

 

And yes, I counted them............

 

Just to keep Sjors happy, here's a few overall pics to mark the completion of this milestone:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On reflection:

 

I prevaricated about the ratline colour, but I'm glad I settled on black.  Danny's tip about tying the outer clove hitches with their "tails" pointing inwards is well worth pursuing - it's not difficult once you get your head around it, and looks much neater.  Using a card template is a must - both for eveness of spacing and also as an aid to actually tying the lines.  Your Optivisor and your bent nose tweezers are you best friends.  Your elbows are your worst enemies. 

 

Now it's on to the yards and running rigging.  Fortunately Gil is a little ways ahead of me, so I'll be able to draw on his experience and pinch all his good ideas! 

 

[st george]

Grant

 

Great looking Victory.

 

David

[Sjors]

Morning Grant,

 

It's early sunday morning and thanks for the great pictures!

It looks fabulous and great.

Is there now callus on the tweezers?

 

Sjors

[mtaylor]

A fantastic milestone, Grant. Looking better all the time. 

[rafine]

Congrats on finishing the ratlines -- never a fun job. It all looks great, Grant.

 

Bob

[gjdale]

Thanks David, Sjors, Mark and Bob for your kind words. It's a relief to be able to go back to making something other than tiny knots!

Edited March 10, 2013 by gjdale

[Trussben]

Grant - Congrats on finishing the ratlines, a major milestone in any build, and it all looks superb, very well done my friend. Can't wait to see the next update and post lots of pics for you know who...

 

Ben

[gjdale]

Thanks Ben,

 

I'll keep the pictures coming in case Voldemort drops by!

[Sjors]

No comment    

 

You know who

[Patrick Haw]

Grant,

 

I've been watching your build from the sidelines and I have to say you have done a marvellous job on her.  The standing rigging is very impressive, can't wait to see the yards and the running rigging go up.

 

Patrick

[Shipyard sid]

Grant

Well this is exellent, cracking stuff. I just finished my first channel tonight, looks like I have a long long way to go!!. DAVID

[gil middleton]

Grant,  I've toasted your ship with a wee dram of scotch, to go with your bottle of Chamaigne.  Having watched the rebuilding of the stern along with all the other improvements, she has become a most beautiful ship. Congratulations on the rat lines. It's a lot more fun with new and different projects each day. cheers, Gil

[gjdale]

Thanks Patrick and David for your kind words.

 

And you too Voldemort!

[gjdale]

Thanks Gil,

 

I'm partial to a wee dram myself! I'm looking forward to a little more variety for a while as work on the yards commences.

[mobbsie]

Hi Grant,

 

Thanks for the stats on the number of Ratlines tied, my heart just sank into my boots at the thought of tying roughly the same number on my Aggy, also the 2000 odd copper plates that need to be fitted.

 

Victory is looking superb mate, always an inspiration.

 

Mobbsie

[gjdale]

Thanks Mobbsie,

 

Don't worry about the number of plates or ratlines to be fitted - just approach it as a task that will take a little time, but with some focus it will be done before you know it. Mine took a little longer because I'm still working full time, so only get to play in the shipyard on weekends - once the honey-do list is complete!

[mtaylor]

Mobbsie,

Here's the secret.  You only have to do one ratline and one copper plate.  Then repeat as needed.   

[themadchemist]

Hello Grant

 

Nice HMS Victory, she is definitely First Rate!

 

At 2682 clove hitches thats only 44.7 minutes.... if you can do them at a rate of 1 per second.... . 

or 44.7 hours if it takes a minute... YIKES, no wonder ratlines give me nightmares.

 

Seriously, once in rhythm how long does it take per hitch? How many hours over all do you think it took, just curious?

Also do they get easier or more difficult as you work up the Shroud?

Sorry for all the questions, but I'm new and picked the Swift specifically because it has no ratlines. Is it me or do others find this task daunting.

You definitely have the ratline hitchin' gift I dont see a sag anywhere. Absolutely Magnificent!

 

Beautiful Build and great show of bravery in Bashing the stern. Its one thing to bash a kit as you go, it's another to tear off something thats nicely completed and improve upon it. She's a beaut' with all the shrouds up. Can't wait to see her fully rigged.

 

Thanks for the info on the netting (tulle I think you called it) and the ships boat build. MSW just has so many ideas, I love this place.

 

Shine On -/\=

Keith

[gjdale]

Hi Keith,

 

Thanks for your very kind words about my build. Let me try and answer your questions:

 

Ratlines are something that you definitely get faster at as you "gain experience". The topmast ratlines are easier in that there are fewer shrouds and hence fewer clove hitches to be tied, but the counter to this is that you are inevitably sitting with your arms in a very awkward position that makes the upper arms and shoulders tire quickly.

 

For the lower shrouds, I think it was taking me about 20 minutes to do one complete row (across eleven shrouds) and for the top masts about 10 minutes for a row across six shrouds. There are about 30 rows for each set. I'm not even going to try to do the math on that to work out overall time, but for me it was spread across several weeks. I seem to recall that it took me an entire (full) day to finish one complete set of lower mast shrouds, but I managed two sets for the top masts in one day. (Rough approximation, nine full days of work - not much really, since it's taken 16 years to get to this point )

 

I would have to say that while this is tedious job, it is certainly not a difficult one. And if practice makes perfect, there's plenty of opportunity to achieve perfection.

 

As for not seeing a sag anywhere - that must just be some clever photography on my part - there are a few if you look closely.

 

One thing I would advise though. Be careful with your selection of material for the ratlines - it really needs to be close to the scale size in diameter. For me, it was a happy coincidence that some of my wife's quilting thread was just the right diameter and it was an easy material to work with, having a bit of "body" to it.

 

Best wishes for your Swift build.

[gjdale]

Hi all,

 

It seems ages since I posted some progress, though in reality it's only been a couple of weeks.  Life has been pretty busy lately, between work and house guests, but I've slowly managed to make a little progress with the yards.  I've now completed the basic shaping of all of the yards.  Not much to tell with this part of the build - cut to length, place in lathe and sand until you've got the right taper.  Fairly mind-numbing, but at least I was making sawdust again.  The yokes for the Driver Boom and Gaff were an interesting proposition to make. The kit instructions would have you make each of these from two pieces of timber.  I had some stock of sufficient size, so opted to make each from one piece of timber.  As simple as they look, there were some interesting challenges in making these (read, I got to play with lots of my toys ).

 

I've placed all of the yards together in the one picture below.  The ship in the background gives you some indication of the relative size of these.  In the picture, all of the Foremast yards are at the lower left (including the Studdingsail Booms), the Mainmast yards are in the centre at the rear, and the Mizzenmast yards are at the lower right.  I still need to add some 2mm x 1mm strips to the centre section of the lower two yards for both Fore and Main masts (this gives the larger octagonal section for these yards).  I then need to paint them and add all of the various fittings etc.

 

The glacier moves!

 

 

[mobbsie]

Hi Grant,

 

Those yokes are very nicely made mate, I'd like to see your stock yard if you have spare that size.

 

Victory is looking superb.

 

mobbsie

[Sjors]

That looks good Grant.

I see pictures….yes!

 

[John Allen]

Grant,

 

Perused your build, per earlier conversation I agree the launch makes it right will attempt a scratch build when the time comes, if I can keep cats out of the rigging.

 

Question? the plating for the hull bottom in the kit I have may have been copper at one time but has turned green or was originally green. Do you know or have seen a build where the plating was kept green which would be a natural state for a ship at sea for a time. Am contemplating leaving it green or putting a light copper wash over it.

 

Thanks John

[mobbsie]

Hi John,

 

I would leave it green, the pattina takes an age to get and enhances the look of any ship.

 

Just my own thoughts.

 

mobbsie

[gjdale]

John,

 

In the Mamoli kit, the "copper" plates are simulated by wood tiles which have been given a green finish. The idea is that once they have been applied to the hull and given a very light sanding, you then apply copper paint and sand that back lightly so that some of the green shows through. This gives an aged "patina" to it. I was dubious about this, but went ahead with it anyway. As you can see from the photos, it comes up pretty well in the end.

 

Hope this helps.

[rdsaplala]

Hi Grant,

 

Just catching up, wow! excellent progress on the rigging work my friend, you must be very glad to be finally finished with all those ratlines She's looking really ship-shape with all those stays now in place, keep up the top-notch job mate