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

[Patrick Haw]

Gil,

 

Thank you so much for your comment.  Coming from the person most people consider to have set the standard for Victory builders on MSW, that is very high praise indeed!  If my finished product turns out just half as well as yours I will be very happy!

 

Patrick

[Patrick Haw]

A quick update on this week's progress.  The lower and middle deck gun ports are all lined.  Not a pleasant job, even though the blasa "shelves" inside the gun ports were a big help and absolutely necessary.  The gun port linings aren't perfect and wouldn't withstand scrutiny uner a magnifying glass, but I think I got the "set back" into the hull about right so everything should be alright when I get to putting the port lids on.

 

Patrick

[Patrick Haw]

The ship's dog wasn't much interested.  Except for trying to figure out which cabin the treats are kept in!

[dafi]

Wuff-wuff :-)

 

XXXDAn

[edmay]

Hello Patrick, Outstanding workmanship,very neat. nice work area,Edwin

[Sjors]

Just wonderful Patrick !

 

When I magnify the pictures it still looks if everything is one piece of wood instead of different planks .........

Really really great !!!

Also the pictures outside ,I can not do that, when I do that everything is sailing away 

 

[Patrick Haw]

Thanks Dan, Lawrence, Edwin and Sjors.  I really like how the outdoor pictures come out.  The natural light is so much better I think.  The ship is getting heavy though and pretty soon there'll be enough fiddly bits on it to make carrying it around a bit dodgy.  Mind you, plenty of others have posted their outdoor pics without breaking everything, so there's a way!

 

Patrick

[Shipyard sid]

Hello Patrick

Well done Patrick, it looks really smart, and the paint work on the hull looks excellent, really crisp and smooth. Just keep enjoying it. Well done DAVID

[Patrick Haw]

A question for my fellow Caldercraft Victory builders.  I'm starting on the upper gundeck cannons and would like to know what size thread you all used to a) rig the side and train tackles, and the recoil ropes?

 

Thanks

 

Patrick

[Shipyard sid]

Hello Patrick

The tackle is 0.1mm for all guns, and the breaching ropes are 0.5mm. 0.1 seems very thin but that's what it says. Page 14 of manual....I started using the wrong size and M Taylor spotted it and warned me.. Enjoy all those 2mm single blocks they are very small. Best wishes DAVID

Edited November 9, 2013 by Shipyard sid

[Patrick Haw]

Thank you David.  I completely missed it on Page 14 of the manual.  Silly me was looking on Page 15 under Upper Gun Deck 12 pounder long gun.  This manual will drive you to distraction. 

 

I also completely missed the fact that my central companionway going down to the middle gun deck was installed backwards, going down from forward to aft instead of aft to forward.  Turned out to be an easy fix and the ladder came out very easily and popped right into the other end of the companionway opening, so no harm, no foul!

 

Patrick

[Shipyard sid]

Hello Patrick

One of my companion ways is the wrong way around, you have to climb over the canon balls to reach the ladders, have a look on my ship. You must have been following my build. Any way how many guns are you rigging?. There are only ten visible, five on each side, so that's all I rigged. Regards DAVID

[Patrick Haw]

David,

 

I hadn't noticed your companion way ladder was on backwards.  I just noticed mine was yesterday when I was rigging the hand rails. Mind you, once the ship's boats are on the skid beams hardly anything will be visible on the upper gun deck, so nobody is going to notice anyway! I think I'm going to rig seven guns on each side, but not sure if the two at each end just under the quarterdeck will be visible so I may end up just doing five a side like you.  I've made up the prototype of the first gun but ran out of the matte black spray paint I'm using for the barrels, so that's on hold and I'll just be doing gun carriages until Monday.  The ones that won't be visible will be completely bare-bones...carriage, wheels and barrel, the others will have all the ring bolts and rigging. Photos coming soon.

 

Patrick

[Patrick Haw]

Interesting. I agree that 0.1 mm line for the tackles does seem to be very thin, and also think 0.5 mm seems a bit thin for the breech ropes too. I checked with Gil Middleton and he used 1.0 mm for the breech ropes and 0.25 for the tackles.  I had put a 1.0 mm breech rope on my prototype and think it looks fine, so I'll go with it.

 

Patrick

[Shipyard sid]

Patrick

I totally agree with that, it will look a lot better. So there's no prob feeding the 1.00mm thread going through the eyelets? Have you fitted rings ( I don't know what they call them) on the rear of the barrels ? I look forward to seeing them completed with the heavier rigging. I fitted the eyelets on the thread first, then drilled the holes in the carriage and then fitted the eyelet in the hole already threaded if you follow, it made threading it easy. DAVID

[Patrick Haw]

I've been away for the past week so not much activity to report.  I made my first prototype cannon.  I used copper rings for the eyebolts rather than the flimst brass etched eyebolts provided with the kit.  Also used copper ring with the stem cut off for the breech rope ring on the trunion.  The breech rope is 1mm thread rather than the 0.5mm suggested in the manual.  I think it looks better and more realistic. After painting I did have to drill out the breech rop ring a little bit in order to pass the breech rope through it.  I'm pleased with the result and as I get better at it I'll pick the best 10 guns to be positioned under the waist where they'll be viisible.  This one will probably end up hidden under the quarter deck. Now in mass production of guns! 

 

Patrick

[Shipyard sid]

Hello Patrick

Yep your cannons look excellent with heavier breech ropes, as will the tackle using 0.25mm. Are your guns central height wise in their ports, if not you may have to raise the front wheels. Well done. DAVID

[Patrick Haw]

Been gun making this week.  The 20 upper gun deck guns which will be invisible once the quarterdeck is in place are "bare bones" - barrel, carriage, quoin and wheels.  I have the utmost respect and admiration for those builders who fully rig every one of the upper gun deck guns and then are quite content to cover them up, never to be seen again...I'm just not one of them!!    The 10 guns which will be visible at the waist of the ship will be fully rigged with tackles, breech ropes, train tackles, etc. and are in the process of being built right now. I used primer and flat black spray paint on the barrels.  The guns shown in the pictures are only temporarily there.  I still have the last few gunports to line before gluing the guns in place.

 

Patrick

[Sjors]

Hi Patrick,

 

Very nice paint job on the guns.

And the carriages nice and straight at one line !

And you are so right.

Why rigging al the guns at the lower deck when you cover them later on.

I'm with you that you don't do it !

 

[Kevin]

Patrick, lovely work

i only rigged the ones that could be seen

[Eric. C]

Hi Patrick, cannons are looking pretty nice. Could I please talk you into having a quick look at my log, I am having an issue with the stern which is better explained there.

Thanks, Eric

[Patrick Haw]

Been away from the shipyard for a few weeks, dealing with the holidays, visiting family, etc., so not a huge amount of progress.  I finally finished lining the upper gun deck ports, which was harder than I thought as the inner bulwarks are not necessarily perfectly lined up with the outer gunport holes, which made for some interesting shaping of the gun port lining pieces, but it worked out ok and I don't think you can notice.  Got the upper gun deck guns in place and have started rigging the breech ropes, so now she has some "teeth".  Life in the shipyard has been made considerably easier by the arrival on Christmas Day of a Byrnes disk sander!  Fantastic product and well worth the price, and Ed is a pleasure to deal with.  It's going to get a lot of use.

 

Here's a few update pictures.  Like I said, not a huge amount of progress, but some!

 

Happy New Year everyone.

 

Patrick

[Shipyard sid]

Hello Patrick

Happy New Year, and those cannons look good with the much heavier breaching ropes. Yes I had the same misalignment with the outer and inner gunports but with a bit of packing here and there the cannons look ok. Keep up the good work and enjoy your new sander. DAVID

[mikec]

Happy new year Patrick, looking great

[Sjors]

Hi patrick,

 

That looks again great !

And a nice tool   

At the cannons, you are doing only the breach rope and not the whole rigging ?

Best wishes for you and the family also.

 

[Patrick Haw]

Thanks Dvaid, Mike, and Sjors,

 

Sjors, I'm going to rig fully rig the 10 guns that showin the ship's waist.  Just doing the breech ropes right now, then onto the side and train tackles.  Be patient, I'm slow!

 

Patrick

[Sjors]

I have all the time of the world Patrick.

 

I'll wait for the end result !

 

[Rich.F]

Hi, Patrick.

Coming along lovely.

 

Cant wait to start mine, feed up laying in bed looking at it in the corner, ,. What do you mean in your post ((I'm going to rig fully rig the 10 guns that showin the ship's waist. Just doing the breech ropes right now, then onto the side and train tackles. ))

[Patrick Haw]

Hi Archicar

 

There are 30 guns on the upper gun deck.  When the quarter deck is put on 20 0f those guns will be completely covered up, never to be seen again, so I'm not rigging them at all. Once the quarter deck is in place there are 10 upper gun deck guns that will be visible under the skids that hold the ship's boats.  I am going to fully rig these 10 guns with breech ropes, which controlled the gun's recoil, the 2mm blocks and tackles used for hauling the guns out, and the train tackles at the rear of the guns, used for hauling the guns inboard.

 

Best wishes

 

Patrick

[Patrick Haw]

Time for a quick update.  After poring over all the Victory build logs here I noticed that very few people did the side tackles for the uppergun deck guns, but only did the rear tackle.  This makes sense to me as very little of the detail on these guns will be visible once the ship is completed (in abut 25 years at my rate of work!).  So I decided to skip the side tackles too.  Rigging the guns has been very time-consuming with a lot of trial and error and do overs.  I orginally intended to attach hooks to the tackle blocks a la Gil Middleton.  Made my own hooks out of copper eyebolts and everything, but when I rigged the prototype the blocks were too close together and didn't look right, so scratch that idea.  I used 3mm blocks with a double block at the rear of the gun and a single block attached to the eyebolt in the deck.  Looks ok I think.  I then made rope coils for each tackle.  Trial and error again.  The trick is to get the right mix of water and PVA glue to brush the finished coils with.  At first I used too little glue and the coils just fell apart when I peeled them of the masking tape backing.  I just kept adding glue to the mix until I got it right and the coils dry into hard little disks.  A bit of black paint touch up needed on some of the gun eyebolts, but no problem.  I think I may be done with the upper gun deck this week and can move on to getting the quarter in place.

 

Patrick