HMS Victory by drobinson02199 - FINISHED - Caldercraft - Scale 1:72

[allanyed]

David,

 

The deck planking looks great and at 1:72 it is sooo nice to NOT see oversized and obtrusive treenails. Very nice work!

 

  Probably the camera angle in the pic, but is there something amiss with the alignment of the openings in the deck?  

Allan

 

Edited June 14, 2022 by allanyed

[drobinson02199]

Allan:

 

Not the camera angle -- your sharp eye has caught it.  When I fitted the poop deck, I sanded it to fit, but then put a dowel down into the mizzen hole and then brought the poop deck down over it.  Was misaligned, so I widened the hole in the poop deck ply so it would fit, and then when I planked it I did so to narrow the hole again around the dowel.  But it is slightly off-center.

 

My guess is that things are misaligned down in the bowels of the hull, causing the mizzen to slightly tilt to starboard, and the effect of that by the time it gets to the poop deck is what you see.

 

I think it all goes back to the "dummy barrel strips" in the early hull building.  In retrospect, I should have sanded them down to slide into the frames more easily.  As it was, I had to knock them into place with a hammer, and that probably knocked some things out of alignment.  The issue with those is that you don't really understand how tight the fit is until they are halfway in, at which point it would be really difficult to remove and sand them.  Would be helpful if the manual had a tip on this.  And in fact, I'm not sure it's the fit at all -- as I now remember I think it was just the curve, even though I soaked them in the bathtub before installing them.  The space between the bulkhead frames isn't sufficient to manage the curve as you go in, so what I had to do was bend them down at the next frame, then knock in with a hammer.  Even very softened wood would have an issue here.

 

The other effect of that is that when I ultimately go to install the dummy cannons, many of the holes their stems fit into are out of line -- some considerably.  So I'm going to have to fashion anchors for them that I can fit in through the cannon ports and glue once inside.

 

Regards,

David

[drobinson02199]

My previous post (and the one above it that I replied to) have the background for what follows.

 

I decided to address the mizzen alignment issue (shown again below) by moving the skylight and bitts over.  So I installed a length of plank under the deck, topped it with some scrap .8 ply to represent the height of the poop deck template, and then installed a fitted plank.  

 

All of that allowed me to move over and center the skylight and the bitts on the mizzen hole.  If you study it all from the end, you can see that it's all now misaligned with the flag lockers, but if you look at it from the side, it doesn't jump out at you, and I think will look fine once the shrouds and other rigging are up.

 

Regards,
David

[drobinson02199]

Built and installed the poop deck ladders.

 

Regards,

David

[drobinson02199]

The buckets:

 

The manual says to drill the brass buckets to accept a handle, but I wasn't up for that, so I used a different approach pictured below.  First, create a wire loop around a small nail.  Then, glue the stem into the bucket.

 

The other pictures show the stern and bow side of the poop deck barricade, from which the buckets are hung.  You'll notice that I did not paint them black as called for, because I like a bit of brass in every model and because I thought it would add more interest.  It's almost impossible to get them perfectly aligned, but I think that wouldn't be as realistic as what came out here.

 

Regards,

David

[drobinson02199]

Working on the stern fascia.  The dilemma was how to paint the yellow bands.  Most get a good edge from the railing assemblies, but the top curve appeared to be a freehand job, which wouldn't look clean.  Then it hit on me to cut painters tape to that curve using one of the railings as a guide for the knife.

 

Worked pretty well, with some touchup.  The pictures show the process. [EDIT:  The pics came up out of order.  The third one below is pre-painting, dry fitted railings.  Then the process with tape is #1 and #4, and then #2 is the finished product.  I really wish the website wouldn't do this random reordering.]

 

Now I'm trying to see how much of this I can build off the ship before I mount the external fascia, because once mounted, detail work will become much more difficult.

 

Regards,

David

Edited June 25, 2022 by drobinson02199

[drobinson02199]

More progress on the stern fascia.  What's missing from this pic is the trophy of arms (big deal micro painting coming up), and the nameplate.

 

I am not terrific at the fine painting, so we'll see what I get.

 

Regards,

David

[drobinson02199]

Finished the Trophy of Arms and the stern nameplate.  Some notes:

• On the Trophy, the blue section to the right of the white crown is supposed to have some detail, but try as I might, I couldn't get those lines to show well, so I just painted it over as a solid color.
• On the nameplate, I didn't paint it yellow because I'd never have been able to get sharp lettering.  So this is painted black and then the raised parts sanded off.

Regards,

David

[drobinson02199]

Finished painting and decorating the starboard quarter gallery.

 

Regards,

David

[vossy]

This is stunning David. I so hope to one day build and portray this ship as well as you are doing.

 

Chris

 

[drobinson02199]

Finished side entry port, steps, fenders and chesstree.

 

Regards,

David

[drobinson02199]

Since my last post about 10 days ago, I've been working on the channels, deadeyes and chainplate.  I started on my "learning side" and did come up a learning curve in terms of how to get the chainplate much better aligned.  It took a while to get both sides done.  Here are some pictures.

 

Regards,

David

[drobinson02199]

Completed the dummy cannon barrels, the gunport lids, and the "rigols".  From the date of my last post, it looks like this took about 8 days for both sides.

 

Full disclosure:

• You will notice that I did not install ropes on the gunport lids.  On my previous models, those have "wilted" -- I suspect because it's hard to get tension on them the way you do with mast and yard rigging.  The look of the lids here was so clean that I didn't want to "junk them up" with ropes that would eventually look squiggly, and I build for fun and "look on the shelf", not historical accuracy.  I fully assume that this is my failing and that there is some way to keep them all straight over time -- perhaps diluted PVA glue? -- but in any event I skipped them.  🥵

 

• While installing the dummy barrels, I dry fitted them first, and didn't notice on one of them that the bottom of the dummy barrel strip below the hold had chipped away somehow, so when I let go of the barrel it fell down inside the hull -- from the lowest gunport level -- irretrievable!  And there are no spares.  So as shown in the picture, I closed one of the gunports at the stern end to compensate.  Since this is my "good side", I briefly considered pulling one of the barrels from the other side, but didn't want to get into removing the gunport lid.

Regards,

David

[vossy]

Looking amazing David. I actually really like models such as the Victory that show some of the gunports closed as well as open. Also once she is finished and fully rigged I doubt anyone will even notice the missing rigging in the gunport lids.

 

Chris

 

[drobinson02199]

Finished the rudder -- another adventure in creative adaptation.

 

When I got to the rudder, I discovered that the hole in the stern counter was too low and there was no place to fit the rudder up -- which meant that there was no way to "hang" it on hinges.  So I cut it down to leave enough room to slip up and over the hinges, and then when finished I glued back and painted a section to go up to the stern counter.  Looks fine if not perfect -- but I'm really puzzled about the alignment of that rudder hole.  A note in the manual would have been helpful -- but I'm trying to remember if it would have fitted anyway if slid further up.  Oh well. . . .

 

I managed to get the hinges aligned, using a lot of step by step "fit in place" work.  Helps to shorten the hinge pins so that the hull side hinge parts will fit in to the rudder spaces.

 

Then the chain -- the manual would have the chains much lower on the rudder, and brought further around to the side.  This would produce big chain loops, so I Googled a bit and found a different chain arrangement which is what you see here, and which looks much neater.

 

Regards,

David

[drobinson02199]

Finished the hammock cranes, deck rails, and external poop stair rails.  The lines aren't always easy to see in these pics because they are white.

 

Next step is the poop barricade.  I'm not clear that I can get it shaped to look nice, since I have to shape it to an irregular curve, so I'm going to give it a try and if it fits well and looks good, I'll use it -- otherwise I'll leave it off.

 

Regards,

David

[vossy]

Looking awesome David!

 

[drobinson02199]

In the "much to my surprise" category, I managed to get the Poop Deck Bulwark Barricades done.

 

My concern was fitting the lower curve that sits on the poop bulwark capping rail, so I scanned the profile of the bulwark on Plan Sheet 5, and then printed it out at about 107% to get it back to the right size.  I then had a template pattern I could use to mark a line on the laminated bulwark for cutting and sanding, and it was perfect for cutting out the gunports.

 

I only cut two of the three gunports, because the third one would require cutting down into the poop deck bulwark and I wasn't up for that.

 

Regards,

David

[drobinson02199]

I have finished the brass rails along the side of the hull (see pictures attached), and that completes my work on the hull for now.  I took some artistic license with the routing of the brass rails compared to the plan drawings, because by the time I got to this point things (like chain plate) didn't line up vertically exactly the way the plan sheet thinks they should.

 

I say finished 'for now" because I have left some things for later that are fragile, and that I'll do at the end:

• The lanterns
• The boomkins (built but not mounted)
• The anchors, which need to be mounted after the other rigging is done

I also have the four ship's boats to build, which I think I'll do as mental breaks when I get weary of sanding yards or rigging ratlines.  The instructions for building those are in the rigging manual.

 

Regards,

David

[src]

David,

I just discovered your build.

Well done. I always enjoy seeing somebody who can paint at small scale (Paint and I dont get along well )

That was a nice save on your ladder; I ended up scratching two on my Enterpise, I know how fiddly they can be to get the angles on the steps correct.

Will follow along,

Sam

[drobinson02199]

Thanks, Sam.  Nice to have you looking in.

 

Regards,

David

[drobinson02199]

Worked on the first part of the bowsprit.  I've added some pictures of the unpainted bowsprit showing all of the parts added, and then a picture of the painted one -- still dry fitted on the ship.

 

A couple of comments on building this:

• The plan sheets would suggest that the full 12mm dowel can go down inside the bow -- and on my model, there's no way that a hole that size is provided by the bow deck template openings.  So as you can see, I had to taper it down in order for it to fit.
• I found the instructions and plan sheets extremely hard to follow.  Had to pull up lots of pics on the internet and feel my way through it.  I think I got it right, but wouldn't swear to it.

Now need to work on the jibbooms.

 

Regards,

David

[drobinson02199]

Full bowsprit completed and shown still dry-fitted.  I could glue it now but I'm concerned that I'll prang it when I move the ship to mount the masts.  I will wait until the mast shrouds are up, I think.

 

Lots of "figure it out" needed with this poring between the instructions and the drawings.  Also had to slice one of the mast rings to fit it on, but that works OK.  I used wrapped thread for the main sprit banding vs. the black cartridge paper the manual calls for. 

 

Regards,

David

[drobinson02199]

Interim fore mast progress:  built the lower fore mast and banded it with thread (vs. cartridge paper).  Built the top.  What you see is all dry-fitted, which is why on the side view the top might seem to tilt down a bit.  The bibbs aren't on yet and the top isn't painted yet.

 

Since I used thread, some of the wood to be added later to the lower fore mast will be glued to the banding, and will stand out a bit from the mast, which I actually think is fine.  My aversion to using the black cartridge paper is getting the strips to be uniform.  I should also note that the manual calls for painting the bands yellow, and I think the black will look better (even if not accurate), so that's how I'm building it.

 

Some look-aheads needed here:  the boarding pike racks don't fit over the 12.7mm dowel without sanding and fitting, which needs to be done before painting.  I painted it, then looked ahead and had to sand it and repaint it again to get the pike racks to fit.  Those racks don't go on until later in the process, and they will need to be prepainted black.

 

Now on to the next section.

 

Regards,

David

 

 

[drobinson02199]

Finished the foremast.  Some notes:

 

1)  Painted the boarding pikes after they were mounted.

 

2)  I completely gave up on trying to shape the masts as octagons.  Much of that shaping is painted black and doesn't show anyway, but the real reason is that I just don't have the skills for it.

 

So it's round masts (and yards).

 

Regards,

David

[src]

David,

Round looks good to my eye.

If you decide to try shaping octagonal parts again in the future I found a small violin makers plane works wonders on these small parts. That and being extra careful with the layout. even so it is still a bit fiddly.

Sam

 

[drobinson02199]

Main mast done, so 2 out of 3 completed.  I've found that the tapering on the topgallant masts makes them incredibly fragile where they taper back to 3.5mm in the middle.  After two breaks on the main topgallant, I had to sink a pin in while re-gluing it.

 

Regards,

David

[src]

nicely done.

Broken parts are so frustrating. I found on the T'Gallant masts for my Enterprise scraping with a recently honed chisel or scalpel gave me more control and less pressure on a fragile part.

Sam

[allanyed]

Hard to tell from the photo but the upper masts look a bit long.   Maybe check what they would be per the Lees formulas using the Dan Vadas download on the Article data base here at MSW.   Plug in the scale then enter the data needed for the proper era for Victory, be it the length on the gun deck (186 feet) and breadth (51 feet 10 inches) if I have it right and see what the lengths would be.  Yours may be perfect, but the photo makes them look a bit long.      

Allan

[drobinson02199]

Allan:

 

Just rechecked, and they are correct to the millimeter according to the Caldercraft plan sheets.

 

Regards,

David