Let me introduce myself, Hi.

[spider999]

Hi there, I am a former Merchant Seaman in the UK.

I made a plastic model of the Cutty Sark over 35 years ago on my first trip to sea, and about 12 years ago decided I wanted to do another one, a bit more adventurous this time though..

I bought the mamoli 1:90 scale plank on frame model of the HMS Victory..........

 

I am about 90 hrs into it, I know, that's no time after all those years, let me explain:

 

My son was born 13 years ago and I bought the model on the weekend of his 1st birthday.  I set to and put the frames together and started planking the decks, and the first layer of hull planks.   

 

all was well, till 9 years ago my daughter came along, and I haven't really done much to it since..

 

We moved house 5 years ago and when i had got my "boat-shed" set up I told "Er - indoors  "I am now gonna be able to get back to building the boat, to which she said

 

" yes, you can, when the bathroom and separate toilet room are knocked into one, the log burner is fitted, the kitchen is extended and the kids bedrooms are done, oh and i also want the loft boarding out...."

 

Well, all done, I am about a month away from finishing the house, just got to build my son a new set of wardrobes for his new bigger bedroom (we dont need the dining room at the front as we have a large kitchen diner at the back of the house now!!!  so he is moving downstairs.  madam just needs a bit of plastering in her room and bingo..

 

 

here are a few pics of my boat so far, many many more to follow.

 

I have recently watched a youtube video of someone building same boat, different kit and I realise with horror that I may have dropped a big clanger.  he put his guns on each deck as he went along, I just followed each instruction page step by step.  My question is:

 

SHOULD I HAVE READ FURTHER INTO THE INSTRUCTIONS BEFORE FIXING EACH DECK AND PLANKING THEM, HOW DO YOU GET ALL THE GUNS IN PLACE NOW???

[spider999]

looking at a few of my pics a bit closer I think I may have answered my own question, the lower ones seem to have solid backs and I am now wondering if just the front of the cannons go in the metal openings, shall have to dig out the relevant instruction sheet.

[spars]

Welcome to this site from a landlubber in Minnesota. My granddad, his two sons and one uncle served in the U.S. Navy during WW II. I wound up in the army. I admire those who go down to the sea. I, too, started in plastic. Now I do wood. Not very good. JoTiKa on youtube has some instructive information about their HMS Victory. DiAgostini too.

[lmagna]

2 hours ago, spider999 said:

 

My son was born 13 years ago and I bought the model on the weekend of his 1st birthday.

 

2 hours ago, spider999 said:

all was well, till 9 years ago my daughter came along, and I haven't really done much to it since

Welcome to the forum spider999. It looks like you should have stopped at just a Son!

 

I'm on my third generation of kids myself, (Three born and two adopted) so I know of what you speak. But in truth I think I lost most of my craft time the day I married! Shows you the true power of women over men, it does not really matter if you marry them or they are born into your life they still take over! 

 

I wish you all the luck with your build.

 

Lou

PS: Just close the gun ports on the lower decks and pretend you did it on purpose!

Edited March 19, 2018 by lmagna

[shihawk]

Welcome spider , it,s always advisable to read the instructions well in advance of the stage u are at. i,m not familiar with Mamoli kit or the instructions but from experience kit instructions can sometimes be a bit basic , search the forum for similiar builds and any questions they don,t answer ,just ask ,, lots of willing helpers here . It looks like your lower decks will be fitted with only the cannon barrels ,no carriage , which is simple enough , . The upper decks will prob have complete cannons , but u still should have room to fit them . I would be inclined to finish the hull planking before fitting to many small pieces on decks as they may get damaged in the planking process , good luck with the build and may all your problems be small ones !!!

 

Boyd 

 

[mtaylor]

Welcome to MSW, Spider.  To answer your questions... the lower two decks are using "dummy guns"... not full fledged cannon with carriage.   The dummy just goes into the the hole at the back of the port.  Do paint the port flat black before install the barrel.  As for the upper decks... you should probably read ahead on this.  Could be the deck will need to come off to give you access or....???     Disclaimer:   I've not built this kit but the lower ports and dummies are standard on a lot of kits.

[gjdale]

Welcome to MSW from downunda, Spider. I’ve built this kit and it does make into a nice model with a substantial amount of kit bashing. You are correct in that the instructions will paint you into a corner. As Mark has said, the lower two rows of guns are duumies (barrels only). The problem is the top row (where you have a completely open gun port). The instructions invite you to insert the completed guns, with their carriages, through the gun ports from the outside. They won’t fit through the opening. The only real solution would be to remove the deck that sits above them and place the guns after completing the hull planking and before fitting that deck. The alternative would be to fit gunport lids to these gunports and display the model with these closed.

 

As others have said, there are a number of build logs of this kit, and other versions, on the forum. Read through some of these, start a build log of your own, and ask as many questions as you can. There are no “dumb” questions here.

 

Link to my own build log is in my signature below.

[KeithAug]

Hello Spider. You are doing quite well really. Wife, kids and home extended one of my builds to 20 years. The kids now have homes of their own and are constantly compiling long lists of refurbishment demands. Crack on while you can, you never know what diversion is around the corner.

[spider999]

Hi guys, many thanks for your kind replies.  I had another close look at some of the pics i posted and i can see what you mean about the closed off lower gum ports.  I kinda worked out after starting this post that they were probably gonna be dummy front ends.  phew!!

 

I certainly aren't gonna start taking decks off, too far in for that.    I should be able to manage to get the upper deck cannons in place, got some nice long tweezers that i used to use with some of my more grumpy scorpions.  Name's gary but after keeping upwards of 20 or so different types of tarantula and quite a few widow spiders as well as a whole host of buthid, centroides and leirus scorpions under the cover of my dangerous wild animals license I kinda like the nickname.  Er indoors hates it, so Spider it is!!!!!

 

Canberra eh?, we tried to get in but couldn't get any points for my job/s so we gave up and she wanted to be a mum, so the rest is history.  Wanted to live where they had some decent respectible wildlife.  I love snakes as well, having kept rat snakes, corns, garters, grass snakes, dusky pygmy rattlers, and a couple of boas, who wouldn't want to live in a country where they are in your back yard...

 

I was an AB in the UK merchant navy but they ran out of ships in 86 or so, so i went ashore, been airport fire and rescue now for 28 years.  10 to go till retirement, then full time on the boat .......

 

am at work at mo so will sign off and post more again in morning from home.

 

night lads

 

S

 

[spider999]

quick one before i go.  I posted on another site - modelshipbuilder.com, about 7 years ago, then we moved house, so haven't been back on till today, here is the link to my posts on there, if it works :

http://modelshipbuilder.com/userposts.php?0.forums.1643

[geoff]

Welcome to MSW Spider, all the best, Geoff

[spider999]

[spider999]

I glued the deck planks in place, good old fashioned brick pattern, thinking it would look ok, big mistake.

 

I went to the naval dockyard in portsmouth when we were down in devon on a family holiday a few years ago ,( the ticket includes the Victory, the Mary rose and all the rest of the ships, sheds, harbour trip, armaments depot tour etc etc) only to discover that the planks were all wrong...

 

Too late, they aren't coming back off.

 

It is a model , not the real thing, it will be what it is.

 

I am still gutted though.

Edited March 26, 2018 by spider999

[spider999]

just a few of my "reference" pics.

Edited March 26, 2018 by spider999

[shihawk]

don,t be gutted ,, think , am i building a model or a replica ?????

it becomes a lot easier when u come to the answer 1

 

Edited March 26, 2018 by shihawk

[spider999]

yeah, you're right, I just wish i had visited it before i started to put the planks down.  I have plenty of pics for reference now. am really looking forward to the rigging, being an old ex sailor, having said that, you never stop being a sailor, just cos you are ashore now.

 

[spider999]

yeah, you're right, I just wish i had visited it before i started to put the planks down.  I have plenty of pics for reference now. am really looking forward to the rigging, being an old ex sailor, having said that, you never stop being a sailor, just cos you are ashore now.

 

 

 

This is me with the Victory behind...  hope mine turns out looking something similar!!

Edited March 31, 2018 by spider999