HMS Victory by rmazdra - Artesania Latina - Scale 1:84 - 1/2 1805 Trafalgar colors + 1/2 natural wood

[rmazdra]

Hi everyone. I'm a new member of MSW but have viewed the contents on the site off and on for the last year. 

 

I'm starting my build log a bit late. I actually started the AL Victory in Feb'19. It has been about 30 years since I built my last wooden ship (USS Constitution kit by Mamoli). However, I had been thinking for the last 10 years about building 1 more ship. How could I go wrong with the most famous ship in naval history (at least in my opinion). I actually was going to build a the Fokker DR1 (Red Baron's triplane from WWI) first, but when it got ordered for Christmas and still had no word late January when it would be delivered, I plugged the plug on the plane and dove in the deep end with Victory. I seriously considered the Caldercraft kit for Victory, but I just didn't have the funds saved up for that. I would have to wait another year! So, I found the AL Victory on ebay and got it for $600, which I thought was reasonable. 

 

I haven't been disappointed with the AL kit. I like the quality of the wood. The instructions are ok. The full color instruction guide (no CD/DVD) has lots of pictures for reference. Building a model of this type is not for the faint of heart. The instruction guide is OK, but one needs to always be looking forward as to how a certain area of the model is going to change to ensure the earlier steps are done right. So, experience really helps. 

 

Right up front, I chose to do some customizations to the build: 

1) Plate the hull with copper

2) Build out the lower gun deck with full cannons versus just exposing the cannon barrels attached to a blackened façade behind the port holes

3) Add lighting to the interior of the ship (thus wanting to have the lower gun deck fully available)

4) I'm painting half the ship with Victory's Trafalgar colors and the other half I'm leaving with the natural wood that's varished. The National Museum of the Royal Navy produced a video in 2015 (see here) describing the true colors of Victory in 1805. A big reason for choosing these colors is that for the masts, the color is a muted ivory color, which is relatively close to basswood and thus when viewing the side of the model with natural wood, it wouldn't be a distraction.

 

A lot of this customization work is already done. So far, I'm at approximately 420 hours. At this rate, I expect to be in the 1500 hour ballpark before I finish.

 

Thanks for reading. Any feedback is appreciated.

 

Ron

 

 

 

 

[rmazdra]

Dealing with the lights has introduced several challenges. 

 

First, what kind of lights. I thought initially that I wanted something that I could plug into a wall outlet, but I couldn't find any lights small enough to do that. So, I chose to use battery-operated string lings (10ft strand). These lights are super small and have copper wire between the lights that is easily bendable. I found that they come in different colors of light though. Some are bright white, which didn't look right in this application. The one I chose gives off a soft, warm, yellowish glow. I felt this was more appropriate to the candles/lanterns that would have been used. 

 

Second, how to get the lights threaded through to the decks. I make sure to drill a hole in the keel where I expected the mounting pedestal to go. I will have to ensure the pedestal as well as the display base is drilled out so the wiring can go through them undetected. I put a thin piece of wire through the keel and then through the bottom gun deck while I was planking so that I could just pull the lights through when it came time. An issue I didn't foresee was that some of the small lights actually didn't make it up to the ceiling of the bottom deck. They were below the bottom deck and between the frames of the hull. No big deal, I thought. No one would see them. However, when I was done planking and turned on the lights, because the AL Victory has only a single layer of planking, even the smallest of gaps between the planks had light shining through it when the lights were turned on. This was only a problem on the natural wood side of the ship. The other side had the copper plating and black paint, so any small gaps where covered or filled in.  I should have used something like black construction paper to make a tube that the lighting would have to pass through from the keel to the lower gun deck. What I actually wound up doing was opening up the very thin gaps where light was coming through in the planks. They I inserted very thin shims of the planking wood. After sanding and varnishing, the gaps were patched up and unnoticeable. 

 

Third, placing the lights. I had to plan out what length of the string lights I needed. Initially I thought I would have to hang the lights from the bottom of the deck braces (the instructions call these braces "supporting bowsprits"). That would have been difficult as the lights would have to be installed on the braces first before the braces are glued in place. Instead, I just installed the braces first. Then I ran the copper wiring and lights right on top of the braces and taped it down in position. Next, the plywood decking would be laid on top of the braces, which also meant they would lay on top of the lights and wiring. The wiring was so thin that it didn't cause a problem when I planked the decks with the thin battens. 

 

Fourth, ensuring no "hot spots" appeared on the deck from the lights. As you can see from the picture of the lights already installed, the top gun deck has "hot spots" from the lights appearing on it (before the decking battens are laid down). I thought perhaps the battens would cover up the spots without a problem, but that wasn't the case. So, I used small squares of black construction paper to cover the hot spots and glued them onto the plywood decking. I will have to take a different approach when working with the foc'sle and quarterdeck (the deck above the upper gun deck) since it doesn't have a plywood deck. There are braces and directly on the braces go the battens. I think I'll use a full sheet of construction paper fitted correctly and lay that on top of the braces and lights. Then I'll plank with the battens on top of the paper. I'll include some pictures of this process as I get to it.  

 

Fifth, ensuring the lights aren't too bright. My battery operated string lights aren't dimmable. I felt that they were initially too bright on the lowest gun deck. So, I just used black paint on every other bulb. The lights are not going to be on very long, so I'm not worried about them getting too hot with the paint. I figure I'll turn the lights on for just a few minutes at a time when someone is looking closely at the finished product. 

[rmazdra]

Sorry, haven't been on in a while...but my progress on Victory has progressed pretty nicely. The hull and decks are finished. I'm nearing the end of building the masts and will start on shrouds pretty soo.