HMS Victory by Bill97 - FINISHED - Heller - 1/100 - PLASTIC

[Kevin-the-lubber]

On 6/7/2022 at 2:10 PM, Bill97 said:

Kevin is that the color of the ones you sent me

Bill, if you look at any of the bare items on either my victory or cutty log, it'll be that colour, which gets represented fairly well on the photos. I know what you mean about energy levels. Mine took a nose dive more or less as I hit sixty, which is partly why I now do modelling. Previously I would always have been doing some kind of major house or garden project, something creative to keep me busy.

[Kevin-the-lubber]

Bill, you've got a much more grey deck than my CS even though we used the same paints. I'd assume you had a stage where it was various shades of brown, do you remember what you used to wash it grey? (Yes, I am looking at re-doing my CS deck - after demolishing the quarterdeck yesterday I'm thinking I may as well look at this while I'm at it).

[Bill97]

Kevin I used a Vallejo product named Old and New Wood. Look back to comment #5 in my CS build and you can see a picture of the package. I first sprayed the deck sections with a Vallejo gray acrylic primer and then just followed the directions that come with the package. There is a base color for either old or new wood followed by highlight colors applied randomly to various deck boards. I further applied more of the darker highlights to what wood have been high traffic areas. One additional step I did was to use a very fine pigment pen to draw all the lines between boards before the highlight colors. If I remember correctly, it seems like when I was finished I covered it all with a thinned white wash to blend it all and soften the appearance. That is pretty much the process I have followed since. You can probably notice my CS deck resembles my Victory deck. Hope this helps my friend. 

[Kevin-the-lubber]

Thanks Bill. That’s weird - I’ve used the same paint set, maybe I haven’t followed the instructions so closely. Or maybe I’ve been a bit too tentative on the washes, watered them down too much.

[Bill97]

It is interesting the difference the application of the colors can make. I definitely start out with a uniform darker gray base after the application of the gray primer and gray base coat from the color kit. 

[Ian_Grant]

I used a pen along my Victory's deck seams but I will never do it that way again; for Preussen I just applied a wash which was left in the seams after wiping. Much easier and probably more permanent.

[Bill97]

Kevin this is the Vallejo primer I use before the Old and New Wood color set. I don’t know if the primer I use aids in the grey starting point. 

[Kevin-the-lubber]

I think I originally used that but then changed to a sand colour. I guess I'll just have to do some more testing and see what's what.

[Bill97]

Wonder if the sand color primer could make a difference?  I have a grey primer and a white primer. Even though I cover both with the same color I can tell the difference of the primer coat I used. 

[Kevin-the-lubber]

It definitely makes a difference - I used the sand colour on the furniture and that gave them a warmer, more yellow-ish (to state the obvious) tint. But it was only a tint. I think this is likely more about the final washes, coupled with the flatness of the printed deck, which doesn't have the fake woodgrain. The really funny (as in ha-ha) thing is that I just fished out the kit deck, which I painted months back, and that is much closer to what I want.... if I can but remember what colours I used!

[Bill97]

Last day at sea then back to the ship yard 🙁.

Wonder how many nights Admiral Nelson went to bed with this view out his quarter’s window?

Edited June 10, 2022 by Bill97

[Bill97]

Ok gentlemen back home from the sea and peaked in the ship yard. Here is the blocks I have to work with. In the photos the dark printed block is the 4mm provided by Heller. The smallest block (part p) that came with the kit. The grey blue is the 4mm Kevin gave me. Again thank you Kevin!  The wood block is the slightly larger, 4.5mm maybe, that I ordered. The wood block is the one under discussion that I have attached to the foremast yards. It is definitely more bulky than the slimmer shaped printed blocks although virtually the same length. What to do?  Do I leave them as is or replace them with either the Heller or Kevin block. I have hundreds of 4mm blocks and don’t want to spend more money unnecessarily for blocks so minutely smaller I doubt anyone would really notice. As I mentioned above I made the mistake, which I won’t do again, of combining wood blocks and printed blocks in the same model. 

[Kevin-the-lubber]

I’m the wrong person to offer an opinion as you know which direction I’ll head in. All I’ll say is that the ones I made were experimental so no-one is treading on eggshells by criticising them or favouring either of the others.

[Bill97]

Yeah Kevin I think from our previous conversations I know which direction you would lean 😊. Not a bad direction. Check mark in that column by your name. 

[Bill97]

Stumbled on something very interesting today online. Found this rigging chart for the Caldercraft 1805 HMS Victory. Looking at Caldercraft builds here on MSW has me of the opinion the Caldercraft HMS Victory is a high quality model. I find it interesting the block layout and number of blocks on the Caldercraft yards are different from what appears on Plan 7 of Longridge’s book. I have to say if the Caldercraft plan is close to accurate it would be easier to follow. 

[Bill97]

Disaster today!  The Victory took an enemy round to the fore topgallant mast. Repairs under way if crew can get lines untangled!

[Kevin-the-lubber]

June is not going very well on a few logs! I hope that's repairable, there's a lot of rigging there.

[Oldsalt1950]

There is a bit of cordage up there but looks fixable. One loop at a time.

[Bill97]

Fixed!  I had previously drilled a small hole through the mast to accept the pin I put in the yard. That proved to be a weak spot when I accidentally hit it reaching for something behind the ship.  I was able to untangle the lines and clamp the two mast sections.  May have to wait to glue and fix it until I am ready to permanently add the yard. If I glue it now I will close up the hole I drilled. Will see how this goes. 

[Kevin-the-lubber]

Nicely recovered.

[Bill97]

This question is for Daniel, or anyone that has used his etched plate 4. Included on the plate are 12 stun sail fittings. I only find use for 8. Two on the foremast yard and two on fore top mast yard. Two on the main yard and two on the main top mast yard. I don’t think they go on the topgallant yards or any of the mizzenmast yards, do they?

[Ian_Grant]

Bill, according to my print of Geoff Hunt's "England Expects" which depicts Victory plodding into Trafalgar in very light winds, she had stuns'ls on the fore and main topgallant yards too.

 

 

[Bill97]

Thanks Ian. Heller did not include parts for the topgallant yards. Did you fabricate and add them or just not have them?

[Ian_Grant]

No I just ignored them as this light equipment would be stored until needed.

 

I did however make fore and main royal yards for her, which I stowed lashed to the inside of the topmast shrouds, one to port and one to starboard.

[Ian_Grant]

Bill, just to clarify, the topgallant yards would not have had booms or boom irons like the lower yards. The topgallant stuns'l's foot would be set on the topsail yard boom, and its head on a small spar dangling from a block on the topgallant yard. You can make this out on the Geoff Hunt print.

[Bill97]

Thanks Ian. I think I will probably not go there. Just the stuns on the lower yards. 

[dafi]

Hello Bill,

 

thank you for the question. Have to think. I vaguely remember that there was an issue with the diameter of the provided spars, that made me give different diameters of the rings to find the right size. Stupidly I did not document this in the instructions ...

 

As far as I know, all stun´sails were up at Trafalgar But there were no stun´sail at the main yard as these were not issued any more after an admirality order from 1801 (Lees). This also means, that the spars on the main channels are most possibly for the fore yard stun´sails.

 

But still have to see if my memory does not play me tricks for the different sizes of rings.

 

All the best, DAniel

 

 

Edited June 14, 2022 by dafi

[Bill97]

Thanks Daniel. I could not find where the extra four were supposed to go. I have them on the yards that Heller provided the stun’sails for. Going to live with that. 

[Lieste]

Note that the four set stunsails are only set on the larboard side, with the starboard ones masked they are not employed, on this tack on a broad reach.

In a following wind the use might alternate larboard and starboard sides (probably leeward on the main, and windward on the fore if there is a slight angle on the vessel, to maximise the exposed sail area, though there might also be trim implications which might favour a particular usage, to avoid the drag from excessive helm.

Edited June 14, 2022 by Lieste
Can't count to five apparently.

[Bill97]

Fore topgallant mast repair completed. I ended up adding a small strip of brass to each side of the break for additional strength. My hope is once I add the yard and parral it will not be noticeable.