HMS Victory by Deacon - Mantua 776 - 1:98

[Deacon]

A few notes first about this build. I purchased this kit in the mid-to-late 1970s. It's the original Mantua 776 kit, not the laser-cut version. As you can see in the photo below, the box is definitely showing its age having been carted between Canada and the U.S. multiple times and back-and-forth across the continent several times over the years. Now retired, I decided it was finally time to tackle it, after all, you don't want to rush into these things. The build is a combination of scratch-built components married to or replacing plywood (predominantly) parts in the kit. I don't like plywood to be visible, so the only plywood used will be in the hidden interior structure. To that end I'm scratch-building a new keel which will be covered in more detail later in the log. Note that many of these photos are frame stills taken from our video log of the build on our YouTube channel Whisky Workbench, so image quality is not the best.

 

The second photo shows the interior of the box, basically a box of wood. There are smaller boxes with plastic detail castings, brass cannons, rigging materials, and so on.

 

 

[Deacon]

The first step in the project was to construct a build-board. I based mine on Dr. Longridge's design in The Anatomy of Nelson's Ships, for me the primary reference source I am using. The build-board is constructed from 3/4" Birch ply with two 1" x 1 1/2" Maple stringers on the underside to keep the board rigid and makes it easy to pick up and move if needed. The travelling frame is also constructed from 1" x 1 1/2" Maple. It's held in the desired position by brass pins with repurposed porcelain knobs. The central keel support strip was machined from 3/4" W. x 1/2" thick Maple.

[Deacon]

Though I am retaining the plywood keel provided by the kit, I am replacing the visible portions with solid timber. The first step was to cut the keel itself which I cut on the Preac saw from some Mahogany I had in stock. In the photo below I'm cutting the rabbets on both sides of the keel for the garboard strake.

 

In the second photo I'm cutting the rebate for the sternpost and inner post on the top of the keel, again on the Preac, but this time using a sled I fabricated for making cross cuts. As it is it will cut at exactly 90 degrees to the blade. With the addition of angle setup blocks, it's possible to make repetitive angle cuts at virtually any desired angle.

You may notice that the keel is wider than it should be. This is done on purpose, leaving extra material for fairing after planking.

 

Edited March 3, 2022 by Deacon
Correction

[Deacon]

With the keel cut it was time to cut the remaining stern and bow pieces to complete the keel. To that end I photocopied the relevant portions of the supplied plans onto drafting vellum. I used vellum because it is more stable than regular photocopy paper and it produces cleaner, sharper lines with much less ink/toner bleed. I then cut out the pattern pieces (highlighted in orange) with a scalpel following the plan.

Once each pattern was cut out, they were glued to the mahogany stock for cutting.

[Deacon]

The next pieces I cut were the sternpost and inner post. Rabbets were cut in the sternpost on the Preac to match those on the keel. Photo below shows the glue-up assembly joining the sternpost, inner post, and keel. I used setup blocks on a surface plate to ensure proper alignment in all planes. These joints will be reinforced with treenails as end grain (sternpost and inner post) has no glue strength.

 

While the glue was going off I made a small drawplate to make the Boxwood Treenails. I used a small piece of Titanium, salvaged from an old, dead MAC Titanium Powerbook that I scrapped. Titanium was drilled with a series of diminishing dia. holes from .050" to .024", then laminated between to pieces of thin plywood to add rigidity. I cut small Boxwood square strips on the Preac from leftover Boxwood scraps and offcuts to make the treenails.

With the keel, sternpost, and inner post cured, I set the assembly up in the mill to drill holes for the treenails. It was setup at the angle so that the holes would be vertically aligned with the sternpost.

Once drilled, the treenails were glued and tapped into place. Using a hypodermic needle I injected a small amount of glue into the bottom of each hole, then tapped in the treenail. In this manner, tapping the treenail in forced the glue up around the treenail ensuring a solid bond.

Once glue had gone off, I cleaned up the assembly.

The small aluminum block in the background is a sanding block which I used to cleanup the rabbets. I lapped one surface flat, then glued on a piece of sandpaper. It's excellent for getting into small areas and angles, and being absolutely flat, it functions much like a jointer plane in truing surfaces.

Edited March 4, 2022 by Deacon
Correction

[Deacon]

Next step was to cut the multiple pieces that make up the bow section of the keel. Before starting that process, I made a new throat plate for my scrollsaw to increase accuracy and safety. In the photo below the original throat plate is on the left. It has a rather large hole for the blade plus two open channels which make it almost impossible to cut smaller pieces as there is no support for the piece close to the cutting edge of the blade. It works fine though for cutting plywood or larger pieces of stock. To remedy the problem I turned a new throat plate from aluminum with two brass inserts. The one in place is for pinned blades, the second (with the smaller blade hole) is for pinless blades. Now, stock is fully supported up to the cutting edge of the blade making for greater accuracy and safety while using the saw.

 

[Deacon]

The various pieces that form the exterior of the bow section of the keel were then cut using the scroll saw for all the curved edges and razor saw for the straight edges.

The aluminum sanding block was very useful for truing up the straight joint edges while the curved edges were faired using various sanding drums in the mill. All pieces were glued up on the surface plate ensuring that the lower surface was flat and true.

Once the glue was cured, the edges were faired using the drum sander again, and the port and starboard surfaces were cleaned up with a thickness sander. Like the keel itself, this section is slightly thicker than needed, leaving extra material for final fairing.

 

Being something of a traditionalist, I use Hide Glue throughout. It has a longer setup time, produces a very strong bond, and cleans up readily with water.

[Deacon]

The remaining five bow timbers have now been cut and glued up to the assembly and I'm preparing to cut the rabbets by hand with chisels to accommodate the forward plank ends. The photo below shows the assembled bow section (note vellum pattern still in place with rabbet lines) and two fixtures I prepared for the task. In front is a bass pattern formed to match the curve of the outer rabbet line. It's a piece of brass channel, formed in a small rolling bender. Three clamping feet were then machined and soldered into place on the backside. In the background is a piece of 3/4" T. MDF with channels cut to accommodate the clamps. This serves as a baseboard to keep the bow section stable and flat during cutting.

 

The next photo shows everything set up and clamped in place ready for cutting the rabbet on the starboard side. Everything can be flipped over to cut a matching rabbet on the port side. First step is to scribe a line along the pattern with the marking knife which will help to accurately position the chisels.

[Deacon]

The plank-end rabbets are now cut on both the Port and Starboard sides of the bow timbers. The brass pattern and setup in above post worked well. I trued up the rabbet using an angled dental burr in the flex-shaft tool. This completes the initial work on the bow timbers. Be a bit of a lull now in the construction of the Victory. There is a huge amount of chainsaw milling to be done on the property (see: https://modelshipworld.com/topic/31549-tree-felling-season-has-begun/#comment-894435). Plus I'm expanding the workshop, bringing in my cabinet makers bench to make room for assembly of the Victory.

 

 

 

[Deacon]

While not a construction post for the Victory, this post is relevant to continuing work on the model. Spent the past couple of weeks rearranging the workshop to accommodate my cabinet-makers bench. The bench has lived in the garage for the past seven years which has limited its usability to six months of the year due to the garage not being climate controlled. Now that it's in the modelshop in the house, it's in a stable environment and is available for year-round use, primarily to function as the dedicated "shipyard" for the construction of the Victory, though it will be pressed into service for some other woodworking projects on my to-do list. In the photo the Victory buildboard is in place with the keel set into the keel support.

 

I built the bench in 1989 from Maple and Cherry with Record vise hardware. It's been well-travelled over the past thirty-some years and has held up well considering the variety of environments it's lived in and the variety of work that's been done on it. At one point it was in our motorcycle shop and served as a bench for rebuilding engines and motorcycle frames! That was the darkest point in its history as it was stolen, fortunately recovered two years later. Before this current move, I scraped, sanded, steel-wooled, and hard-waxed the top, and replaced the leather on the clamping surfaces of the tail vise, so it should be good for at least another thirty years. It's an absolute beast to move (the top does separate from the support frame) and I owe a massive thank-you to my friend Jeff who helped with schlepping this back-breaker from the garage to the shop.

 

[Rob S]

Very nice work! Clearly your woodworking skills and tools will be on display during the build process. It will be interesting to know the percentage of original Mantua kit used when it’s all said & done. My Mamoli Victory was purchased in the early nineties, started in ‘19 and I’m finding some of the wood brittle. Can’t imagine building a kit 20 years older! Anyway, I’m looking forward to watching your journey:)

 

Rob S

[Deacon]

Thank you Rob. The plan with the Mantua kit is to replace any visible plywood elements with solid timber. I haven't checked every piece by any means, but the wood stock in the kit still appears to be in surprisingly good condition. The plywood pieces though have suffered over time from chipping and warping. Since no ply will be visible I'm not overly concerned about the edge chipping, but the warping is an issue which will have to be addressed on a per piece basis.

Edited April 24, 2022 by Deacon
Spelling correction

[Deacon]

Minor update on the Victory. I planed a taper on the underside of the Buildboard's keel strip with a Jointer plane, removing .122" (one scale foot) at the aft end of the strip and nothing at the bow end. The Victory was built to draw one foot more aft than forward. By tapering the keel strip it will make it easier to keep waterlines level during construction. Trueness of the taper was checked with a precision straight edge and square.

Edited April 25, 2022 by Deacon
Correction

[Deacon]

Small update on the Victory build. The scratchbuilt solid timber keel pieces are now complete. Time now to finish milling the original Mantua plywood keel structure, remove the sections being replaced with solid timber pieces, then assemble the new keel structure. You may notice I added additional pieces (stemson and apron) to the bow portion in order to replace the entire plywood bow section, and make a stronger assembly. The original plywood keel is warped in that area and thus unusable.

[Deacon]

Just finished milling the frame slots in the original Mantua plywood keel. Bottoms of the slots were squared up with chisels. The screw holes in the plywood keel were used to mount it to the sacrificial MDF table in the milling machine. Photo shows all the major components for the keel. Now it's time to cut down the plywood keel to accommodate and join the scratchbuilt solid-timber keel, sternpost, and bow timber assembly.

 

Edited June 11, 2022 by Deacon

[Deacon]

It's been a long time since I've posted an update on this project. Took July off from the model bench to build a vendor display (in Maple and Purpleheart) for my sister's embroidery business. Because of its size, that project took over the entire workshop. Our two remaining Ash trees were felled last month, so I've been spending a lot of time flailing about with a chainsaw, schlepping logs, and splitting firewood... it never ends.

Concerning the Victory, the solid wood Bow Timbers are now glued up to the modified Mantua plywood keel and the joint has been cut in the solid wood Keel/Sternpost assembly, ready to be glued and treenailed in place.

[Deacon]

After months of intermittent work on the keel, attention can now be turned to the Victory frames. First photo shows the full keel assembly with the solid timber keel, sternpost and bow timbers married to the modified Mantua plywood keel.

Second photo is a detail shot of the forward section showing the Boxwood treenails used to reinforce the solid timber keel to plywood joint. There are also three brass "treenails" (not visible) reinforcing the joint between the bow timbers and the plywood. These pins come in from the top of the plywood keel and pass into the bow timbers. Near the upper right of the photo you can see one of the two threaded brass inserts in the keel which provide the option of mounting the hull to machined support pillars as opposed to a cradle.

[Bill Morrison]

On 4/16/2022 at 11:05 AM, Rob S said:

Very nice work! Clearly your woodworking skills and tools will be on display during the build process. It will be interesting to know the percentage of original Mantua kit used when it’s all said & done. My Mamoli Victory was purchased in the early nineties, started in ‘19 and I’m finding some of the wood brittle. Can’t imagine building a kit 20 years older! Anyway, I’m looking forward to watching your journey:)

 

Rob S

I am building a very old Aeropiccola kit that my wife bought in 1978 as we were transferring back from Italy to the USA. All wood (basswood) is in excellent condition and is usable.  Good luck with your Mantua kit!

 

Bill

[Deacon]

On 8/31/2022 at 3:31 PM, Bill Morrison said:

I am building a very old Aeropiccola kit that my wife bought in 1978 as we were transferring back from Italy to the USA. All wood (basswood) is in excellent condition and is usable.  Good luck with your Mantua kit!

 

Bill

Thank you Bill. Which Aeropiccola kit are you building? All the solid wood in the Mantua kit is usable. The plywood though is a little sketchy in some areas, so my plan is to replace all the visible plywood with solid timber which adds a great deal more work but should result in a better finished product.

[Bill Morrison]

3 hours ago, Deacon said:

Thank you Bill. Which Aeropiccola kit are you building? All the solid wood in the Mantua kit is usable. The plywood though is a little sketchy in some areas, so my plan is to replace all the visible plywood with solid timber which adds a great deal more work but should result in a better finished product.

I am building HMS Victory, which is a very basic jut that I have heavily changed to a much better model. 

 

Bill

[Deacon]

Finally have an update on the Victory project. The past several months have been something of a challenge. A long-standing CG watch animation project, put on hold during the pandemic, came back to life after the watchmaker was granted a patent on his new escapement design, so I am spending most of my time in the animation studio working on that. In addition I recently completed a program of radiation treatments (succesfully as far as we know at this time) which took a great deal of time and energy. Now that treatments are finished, I've been able to make some time for the workbench while work progresses on the watch animation, which will continue to take most of my time for the next few months. It certainly feels good to be back at the workbench, I've missed it.

 

I've cut out all of the frames on the scroll saw and milled/pared the slots in the frames where they attach to the keel. Photo shows them lined up temporarily on the keel on the build board. The holes in the frames were bored with a Forstner bit as access holes for cutting out the waste material in the deck regions. The large hole makes it easier to set up cutting angles in the scroll saw. In the foreground is the "T" reinforcement stringer that runs the length of the hull from the furthest forward frame to the aft-most frame.

Currently I'm milling openings in the lower portion of the frames to accept the "T" stringer. The photo shows the milling setup. I made an MDF sacrificial table onto which I scribed a centre line with the mill, then milled a small slot along that centre line to accept a piece of scrap keel stock as a locator. The frame is slid into place on the keel locator, then centre line alignment confirmed before clamping the frame to the table and milling the "T" slots. In this way the "T" slots are aligned accurately with the keel slots. After milling, I square up the ends of the slots with a small chisel.

I'm referencing off the frame centre line for all milling operations, as the printed cut-out lines are less than accurate on most of the frames. That is particularly obvious in this photo which shows the forward frame in position on the "T" stringer. The printed cut lines are considerably off centre. I also reduced slightly the overall size of the stringer by truing up the stock supplied in the kit and assembling the stringer with a machined rabbet in the top piece for added accuracy and strength.

That's it for now. Once all the "T" slots are milled, it will be time to cut out the waste material in the deck areas with the scroll saw and hand-held jewellers saw. I'm considering replacing the plywood deck beams with machined solid timber pieces for greater accuracy. Not sure yet, will depend on how the cutting goes.
 

[Deacon]

Crusing along milling the T-slots in the Victory frames. I added a second dial indicator providing dial readout on both axes, increasing efficiency and accuracy. In photo, vertical slot has been milled, cutter is at the zero point ready to mill the horizontal slot.

[Deacon]

After milling and paring out the T-slots in all the frames, I did a test assembly of the frames, T-stringer, and keel. Be a bit of a tricky process when it comes to glue-up, but as it is, it's a strong, rigid assembly without the glue. Next step is to finish flattening a couple of warped frames, then cut out the waste areas between the deck beams on all of the frames.

[Deacon]

Finally a bit of an update. Bulk of scroll saw work completed on the frames. What's left to cut are the half-lap joints on the hanging knees for the deck beams. Decided to cut and mill all the deck beams from solid timber. Presently building a pivoting table for the scroll saw which will allow me to cut the beams to a consistent radius and depth. Radius of the beams does increase slightly as you move up through the decks, but at 1:98 scale, the change is so small it would be unnoticeable, so all beams will be cut to the same radius. Once the curved beams are cut, I'll mill the grooves for deck stringers and the half-lap joints on the beams, then cut the half-lap joints on the frames to fit the beams. After that, the frames can be permanently installed to the keel and stringer, then beam and decking installation can begin from the lowest deck and progress up through the five decks... a ways to go before that can happen.

[dvm27]

I’m enjoying watching your build Deacon.

 

is it the camera angle or are the upper deck bulwark segments much narrower on the starboard side (frame 1)? With the grain orientation I’d be nervous about them snapping off.

[Deacon]

2 hours ago, dvm27 said:

I’m enjoying watching your build Deacon.

 

is it the camera angle or are the upper deck bulwark segments much narrower on the starboard side (frame 1)? With the grain orientation I’d be nervous about them snapping off.

Thanks Greg. It's a little of both. The starboard side is a bit narrower but it is also accentuated by the camera angle. As you can see, the original printing on the plywood was less than accurate. The frames are 3/16" T. plywood, so the grain you're seeing is only the outside layer. And yes, they are delicate. Plywood is approx. 45 years old, but is generally in good condition. The deck beams will be Maple, primarily because it is readily available here, economical, and should prove to be much stronger than the kit's original plywood beams, adding strength and rigidity to the frames. Working with a vintage kit like this presents a lot of challenges and makes one appreciate the materials and technology of modern day kits.