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

[dafi]

Just enjoy 🙂

 

XXXDAn

[bcochran]

I am presently working on Revell's Cutty Sark which looks like child's play next to your Victory. I love looking at your pictures of your model.

[Bill97]

Thank you bcochran. I also loved building the Revell Cutty Sark. Have you started a build log here on MSW?  I will have to check. If interested you can look in the index for my build. That was several ships ago and as you can tell looking at pictures from that build, I have learned more with each from the fine people here on MSW. As I told Kevin in previous post as he is working on his CS, that is one I would love to do again employing the new things I have learned since I built it, especially the shrouds and ratlines. 

[Bill97]

Finished the top mast backstays (breast, standing, and shifting) for all 3 masts. Moving up the masts to the next level stays and backstays. Still a good ways to go on the standing rigging but I think I am getting near starting  running rigging! Will be so glad when I feel confident enough to do the final tightening of the lanyards on all the shrouds and backstays and then trim off all the excess thread. I am very neat by nature and constantly seeing all these haphazard ends of threads drives me crazy! 😊

[Bill97]

Well many months ago I decided to replace the Heller plastic dolphin striker with a brass rod for added strength. What I as I thinking?  When it came time to officially run the three martingales and the one fore mast stay I did not have the four needed holes in the dolphin striker. I could have just wrapped the four lines around the dolphin striker and then on to the appropriate blocks and tackles (which I did) but without the freedom of the line at the dolphin striker I could not snug the line as I needed. To solve the issue I removed the dolphin striker rod and replaced it with a new one I made with two small loops on each side. I think this will work fine providing metal strength and unobstructed slide of the martingales and stay. 

[Kevin-the-lubber]

Bill, did you solder them? I know this sounds mad but years ago, when I still smoked (silly man) I was given a lighter than is like a mini-blowtorch, which is just right for this kind of thing!

[Bill97]

No Kevin. That is something I am still thinking about getting.  I just mixed some epoxy. The wires that I made the loops in run the full length of the dolphin striker so I had plenty of gluing surface to attach them to the back. Would solder work for something like that?  I have always thought solder was good for holding electric connections and such together, but did not know if it had any real holding strength. 

[Kevin-the-lubber]

Soldering is great for stuff like this, it’s bombproof. It can take a little practice to get it to flow only where you want though.

[Bill97]

Well thank you my friend. I will give it a practice. 
 

By the way, I exhausted my supply of wood deadeyes and switched to your 3D printed ones painted to match the wood. Can you tell which ones are your’s and which ones are wood?

[Bill97]

Kevin is there a particular solder you would recommend for projects like this?  I noticed on line that there are various types, 60/40, etc. 

[Kevin-the-lubber]

While messing around a couple of weeks ago aimed at making whisker booms from copper wire, I just used my plumbing blowtorch and plumbers lead-free solder, as I always have some of that in the toolkit. I prefer using a flame rather than soldering iron, just because it's quicker and you can draw the solder to where you want it a little more easily. As and when I see myself doing this for real on models, I'll look for a true mini-torch, for ease. There's are loads of 'mini's' on amazon but they mostly look like standard size. I wouldn't spend too much either. A torch is a torch.

[Kevin-the-lubber]

1 hour ago, Bill97 said:

Can you tell which ones are your’s and which ones are wood

To be honest I'm not sure I can, which makes my day. You've made a very good job of the painting, that's for sure. If I had to guess I'd say the two pairs in the middle are mine? Have you tried the blocks yet? In both instances, please critique freely, it'll only lead to improvement.

 

[Bill97]

Actually Kevin there is only one in this photo. The top left. You can tell the difference because your’s has a bit larger holes, which I like. Easier to rig without a needle threader. I have not tried the blocks yet but plan to in the running rigging. Now that I feel good about the paint colors I have no doubt they will be great too. 

[Bill97]

May 14, 2021 post:

 

”OK my MSW friends. I am going to need a kick to get me started on my Heller 1/100 HMS Victory. I know it is going to be a long and enjoyable process so I have to eventually get started. I got the kit a good while ago but have only removed the plastic wrapper and peeked inside.”

 

This was my post 1 year ago today!  Soon after this post (the middle of June 2021) I started my Victory journey. With all the help and advice from some great new friends here on MSW I have made steady progress and it appears I may complete, or be close to completing, the standing rigging by my one year anniversary of starting. I have learned so much from you my friends, and with that knowledge I have become almost obsessed with working on it. I told my wife she may need to get me professional counseling if I get more dedicated to it 😀

[Dave_E]

Go for it, jump in, don’t look back, move forward, go team go! 👍

[Bill97]

Stays, stays, and more stays. Every kind of stay I ever heard of and many I never heard of before rigging the Victory. Almost finished with stays!

[Ian_Grant]

Looking great Bill!  Happy modelling...........

[Veszett Roka]

Stay strong Bill!

[Kevin-the-lubber]

The rigging takes it to another level, keep at it Bill

[Bill97]

This may or may not be a good idea, and I guess I will find out quickly, but I think once I finish the standing rigging, which will be after I do the mizzenmast, I am going to clean everything up and lock down all my lines in preparation for mounting the yards and all the running rigging. The risky part of this plan would be that I go ahead and do all the ratlines. I don’t know if I should lock down the shrouds before I am finished messing with them as I tie the ratlines. I am so anxious to get it cleaned up, do a little touch up painting and check the mental box STANDING RIGGING COMPLETE!  Then start yards, running rigging, sails, etc. Just as I expect the actual ship would have been built. The anchors, lanterns, rails along the mast tops, and other actual parts still need to go on at some point. The lanterns and rails are probably to delicate to risk putting on before running rigging complete. I know adding the ratlines now may complicate the ease of doing the running rigging. What do you guys think?

[Dave_E]

Hi Bill,

 

I just went through this dilemma on my Lady Nelson build. I was told several times “ground up, middle outwards and front to back. All standing rigging needs to be completed first (but after such items as booms etc), then the ratlines and finally running rigging”. I’m thinking that every build is different and the more complex the ship (I see yours as big and complex), you might have more to think about and plan your strategy before you start. Things like are the belaying pins right behind the shrouds? How would you ever tie up your running rigging and construct rope hoops hanging on belaying pins if you can’t get to them? Stuff like that. See my build log for the Lady Nelson (not near the ship complexity you have, but the dilemma was the same). My new way of thinking before I start is “if I install this rigging, what might need to be installed behind it? Can I get to it? What if I wait”. But I’m a noob 1st time builder and may be told I don’t know what I’m talking about. 😊

 

 

Edited May 18, 2022 by Dave_E

[Bill97]

I will give your Lady Nelson a look Dave. I have no doubt my anxiousness is my nature to want to check the completed box and see how she looks cleaned up rather than have all the steps “in progress”.

[Dave_E]

2 hours ago, Bill97 said:

I will give your Lady Nelson a look Dave. I have no doubt my anxiousness is my nature to want to check the completed box and see how she looks cleaned up rather than have all the steps “in progress”.

Me too, I’m very sure that got me in the spot I’m in now. Mine is so small, I started seeing the finish line.

[Bill97]

Gentlemen I need to do a double check, especially around the bow sprit, but I think the STANDING RIGGING IS COMPLETE!  Woo Hoo!  Of course as I mentioned before I will still need to do ratlines and final tie of lanyards. What an experience!  Actually enjoyed it very much. 

[Kevin-the-lubber]

Well done indeed Bill. That's two of the three major milestones completed in a year, which is extraordinary.

[Hubac's Historian]

There’s no doubt, Bill, that the speed of your build has been pretty astonishing!  Your standing rigging looks very crisp and taught - CONGRATULATIONS on this major milestone!!

[Bill97]

Thank you guys for the nice compliments. Using wood and metal rods to strengthen the mast sections definitely helped with the crisp and taught. I only had to be careful with the top section of each mast so as to watch out for bowing. Having a 3 point anchor (Stay and two back stays) at each level, as you all know,  makes for solid mast. Now I guess I will start adding blocks and foot ropes to the yards and making parrals as I get ready to start the running rigging. 

[Mexspur]

I’m building Hms Victory as well. I’m taking inspiration and not a few helpful tips from your build log and of course Daniels. I’m really enjoying everything about building this.

[Bill97]

Mexspur welcome to my build. As I have said many times, I think MSW is very much a pay it forward kind of site! And I am grateful for that. No way I would have gotten this far without other experienced modelers, especially with the instructions that came with the kit. Likewise I hope to be able to pay forward what I have learned. Please feel free to ask any questions you have. 

[Bill97]

OK my fiends, as Kevin said above, I am moving into stage 3 of my build. The running rigging. As with the standing rigging I plan to read through the section in Longridge’s book on running rigging before I get started. My initial impression is that I need to install the yards first before I can do any of the running rigging? Is that correct?  Would seem to be correct since all the running rigging deals with the yards and sails. Or, is there some of the running rigging I should complete first before putting the yards on. I know I want to prepare all the blocks on each yard off the masts, and plan to do that.