HMS Victory by Patrick Haw - Caldercraft - Scale 1/72

[Patrick Haw]

It's been ages since I've posted.  Had a fantastic vacation in Italy...the week on the Amalfi coast was amazingly relaxing and we didn't want to leave.  So, back home now, had to attend to lots of chores after vacation, including putting an air-conditioner in the garage/shipyard (It's Maryland in the summer - temperatures in the 90's and really humid). Finally got back in the shipyard yesterday.  Inner bulwarks are lined and first coats of paint done and I've started putting the "shelves" in the lower and middle gun deck gunports preparatory to lining them.  Hopefully will get them lined in the next few days and then keep going.  We thought having a pool built last year was a good idea...and it was, except that we suddenly have family showing up on weekends in the summer, which puts a dent in shipyard time!  I've been following all the other Victory builds and you guys are an inspiration to me to get my a$$ in gear and get on with the build.  I'll post new pictures soon.

 

Cheers,

 

Patrick

[Sjors]

Welcome home world traveller…….

Glad you like it in Italy !

Did you eat the real pizza?????

Let us see some progress and pictures please !!!!!

 

[Patrick Haw]

Thanks Sjors.  Ate so much pizza and pasta...and drank a lot of wine! Need to go on a diet to get back in building shape!!

 

Patrick

[gjdale]

Welcome home Patrick. Glad to hear you enjoyed your holiday. Looking forward to seeing more progress now that you're back.

[pompey2]

Hi Patrick

I've been enjoying your log, thanks

Victory is coming along very nicely, a great job.

looking forward to seeing latest progress.

 

Nick

[Patrick Haw]

Not a lot of progress since my last post (house full of in-laws for the weekend), but I thought I'd post some pictures of where I'm at.  The first three show upper gun deck bulwarks planked and painting under way,  I added stringers and waterways and used a combination of Tamiya and 3M masking tape to protect the deck from my shaky painting!  Second two show the "shelves" placed inside the lower and middle gun deck ports to give backing to the gunport linings.  Final two are of my version of a tool to place the "shelves" and the gun port linings...made from two paper clips and electrical tape.  I used balsa for the shelves as it's easy to carve it flush with the gun port openings if any of them are slightly out of place. (Apologies for poor photo quality.  I'm going to have to invest in a decent camera one day)

 

So, next is to finish painting the inner bulwarks and tidy up the paint on the lid-less gun ports, then pant, fill, sand, paint, fill sand the hull above the waterline and then line the gun ports.  Then I suppose it's on to coppering...I know, I know, at some point it's unavoidable so I will just have to buckle down and get it done!

 

Cheers,

 

Patrick

[dafi]

Looking good .-)

 

Love the blue carpet it gives a nice and homy touch to the needy sailors ;-)

 

XXXDAn

[Shipyard sid]

Hello Patrick

Welcome back, I look forward to following your progress once again. Crack on and enjoy your build DAVID

[Patrick Haw]

Thanks Dan and David,

 

I think the carpeting will go very well with the jacuzzi and massage spa I'm installing for the crew!

 

Patrick

[Patrick Haw]

Ooops!  Sorry about that.  I was playing around with adding pictures/text.  Thought I'd cancelled it, but apparently not!

[Kevin]

very nice - i  am really impressed

[Patrick Haw]

Been making slow progress but it's time for an update.  First I finished painting the inner bulwarks and removed the "carpet".  The stringer and waterway can now be seen better.

 

Then I started prepping for coppering.  First I realized that the hull was not nearly smooth enough for the plates to lie smoothly so I primed the hull to reveal all cracks or depressions that needed filling and filled them and sanded it down again.  Then more primer and drew on the waterline.  Following others' advice here I placed a 1mm x 1mm styrene strip along the water line then painted the strip and its surroundings black.  I'm now ready to begin coppering.  Oh joy!  I plan on coppering down from the waterline 12 rows as per Longridge and many on here, then coppering up from the keel to a gore line, forming two coppering "belts".  Wish me luck!

 

I haven't figured out how to add text to each picture, so you get the blurb followed by the pictures!

 

Cheers

 

Patrick

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Patrick Haw]

And so it begins!  24 plates on, 2,576 to go.  I'm using contact cement and the plates seem to be going on fairly easily so far.  The tolulene in the contact cement took the paint off the styrene waterline strip, but I'll worry about cleaning that up later.

 

Patrick

[Shipyard sid]

Hello Patrick

Ok Patrick you have realized it has to be done. That hull looks nice and smooth to lay the tiles on. I don't know how to add text under the pictures, but don't know if it is possible using an ipad. Anyway good luck, and keep the tiles clean throughout the laying process. Regards DAVID

[Sjors]

Hi Patrick,

 

Are you calculating all those copper plates?????

I will follow you closely on this because in the future I have the same thing to do…..

 

[Patrick Haw]

David,

 

You're right.  I have never coppered a model before and have to admit I have been intimidated by the prospect.  But now I've jumped in and started the task I'm actually enjoying it.  We'll see how long that lasts! The hardest part is working while wearing the respirator mask...but it's essential with the contact cement.  So far I've found that a paper towel with a little acetone on it, rubbed rapidly over the plates does a great job of cleaning them after they've been applied.  Of course, not getting glue on my fingers when attaching the plates means they don't get messy in the first place...but that seems to be impossible!

 

Patrick

[Patrick Haw]

Hi Sjors,

 

They say it takes 2,600 copper plates to complete the job...give or take a few.  All I know is that I have less than 1% of the job done.  The plates I've put on so far look really good close up, then you stand back and look at the entire ship and realize that you have a long, long way to go!  Putting an air conditioner in the garage/workshop was the best idea I've had in a long time.  It's in the 90's F here and really, really humid.

 

Patrick

[Sjors]

Hi Patrick,

 

Still 99 % to go…...

How long it is gonna take ?

A few weeks?

Make a lot of pictures ,so I can see how it goes 

 

[Patrick Haw]

Coppering continues, slow and tedious but making progress.  I started at the waterline at midships and put down 14 rows of plates, down to about where I think the gore line is reasonable and well concealed under the body of the hull.  I think I got a little enthusiatic putting down the first 8 or rows down from the waterline and carried them a little far forward and was running into the possibility that each row was going to be completely parallel to the waterline. So now that I've got the gore line coppered and am coppering up from there I'm going to have to remove some of the forward plates to accomodate the curve of the gore line.  I've already removed a few, not a big deal but a good lesson learned for when I do the other side.  Lousy pics as usual, but you get the idea.

 

Patrick

[Shipyard sid]

Hello Patrick

Snap !!!! I did exactly the same as you when I started my coppering , laid them in a parallel line, and had to take lots of tiles off after realizing they should narrow off as they went around the waterline towards the bows and stern. I tiled from the waterline all the way down and think I got a bit lucky, as it worked out ok. I am sure it will all turn out fine for you, and know how tedious the whole thing is. Regards DAVID

[Sjors]

Hi Patrick,

 

It looks good to me 

But I have never done it so…...

Keep on going !

 

 

[Patrick Haw]

David,

 

Good to hear from someone whose log I've been using as a guide for the coppering made the same mistake as I did, and to know that it's not insurmountable!

 

Patrick

[Patrick Haw]

The Coppering Diaries (cont)

 

I'm 6 days and about 16-18 hours of actual work time on the coppering.  As I mentioned previously, I got a little too enthusiatic with pushing the rows of copper closest to the waterline too far forward so had to remove between 30-40 plates and then keep coppering up from toe gore line toward bow and stern. 

 

I have never coppered a model before and was a bit intimidated, but here are some observations on coppering so far:

 

1. It's not as hard as you think it's going to be!  I went down 15 rows from the waterline at about midships to establish the gore line.  Once I got that figured out and drawn onto the hull, laying the plates got pretty easy.

 

2. I'm using contact cement (Weldwood from Lowes here in the USA).  It gves you plenty of time to move and position the plates.

 

3. When using contact cement a good respirator is essential.  By using one you save yourself from headaches, dizziness, and random acts of stupidity!

 

4.  The copper plates tend to stick together in the bag and it's easy to put two plates on instead of one, which is usually ok, beacuse the top plate falls off when you clean up leaving the glued bottom plate intact.

 

5. It's tedious and boring!  Put on some music, relax...it'll get done.  I go out to the workshop with the intent of putting on, say, two rows of plates.  I do them and then do another row for good measure.

 

6. Doing this tedious and repetitive task is a good time for reflection...usually along the lines of "What the hell was I thinking!"

 

 Here's the latest update pics:

 

Patrick

[Shipyard sid]

Hello Patrick

It's all looking really good, very clean and tidy, and from what you are saying you are very happy with your progress, keep up the good work. Regards DAVID

[Patrick Haw]

Thanks David. And thanks for the message with your coppering pics...huge help!

 

Patrick

[gjdale]

Nice work Patrick, and great to read your "observations".  I particularly liked:

 

6. Doing this tedious and repetitive task is a good time for reflection...usually along the lines of "What the hell was I thinking!"

 

                       

[Jerry]

Hey Patrick..

 

Keep it going; it looks great.  I also started at the waterline and worked my way down.  I didn't run into any problems and you can see in my log that everything came out OK.  Just stay determined and you'll end up real fine. I had a lot of encouragement from Shipyard Sid and the others who have all been so friendly and helpful.  Take their advice; thay certainly know what they're doing.  Happy to see someone else building Victory....Jerry

[Patrick Haw]

The Coppering Diaries (cont.)

 

Well I'm 10 days into coppering, working most days 3-4 hours on the ship, with a couple of days off, and I've finished the upper coppering band on the port side.  Boy, those tiny little triangles when you get up to the waterline at bow and stern drive you crazy! All in all I'm pretty happy with the result so far for a first time coppering experience.  Have to thank folks like Kevin, Derek S, and a bunch of others whose logs I went to school on to figure out how to copper...and especially Shipyard Sid for his encouragement and sets of photographs of his coppering.  I figure I'm about 2/3 done on one side, so it'll be the end of August by the time I'm finished with the copper.

 

Patrick

[Kevin]

that looks fantastic my friend

 

all the best 

[Shipyard sid]

Greetings Patrick

Well there you go Patrick . It's pretty obvious by just looking at the coppering you have completed that this is going to be really really good when it's finished. Yep cracking stuff. Regards DAVID