HMS Victory by Dlowder - Corel - 1:98 - Cross-Section

[Dlowder]

Hi. David here.

I thought I could start a build log in mid progress it that’s okay. I don’t have any photos of my previous work on this, but I’ll start now. I probably should say that this might be more of a “how to avoid mistakes that I made” rather than a “see how good a job I did.”

This is going to be a skill building project for me. I know that Victory changed over time so I’m not trying to be perfect but to follow the sources and use my judgement when they disagree or are missing details. I want to make it… well if not completely accurate then at least plausible.

And something nice to go on the wall! I also didn’t want to spend a fortune on upgrading it.

I grabbed up this kit back in 2007 and set it aside for a while. Eventually I got around to working on it. I followed the instructions in the beginning. I joined the two half frame units, attached the keel and keelson, planked the hold, and added the orlop deck. I then decided it was not very accurate. I put it aside for a time.

Around 2019, as I was heading towards retirement, I started getting serious about redoing it and I started my research.

Main print sources used so far:

·        McGowan, Alan P.  HMS Victory: Her Construction, Career, and Restoration. Naval Institute Press, 1999.

·        Bugler, Arthur R. H.M.S. Victory: Building, Restoration & Repair. Her Majesty's Stationary Office, 1966.

·        McKay, John. The 100-Gun Ship Victory (Anatomy of the Ship). Naval Institute Press, 2000.

·        Longridge, C. Nepean. The Anatomy of Nelson’s Ships. Percival Marshal & Co., Ltd, 1955.

·        Goodwin, Peter. The Construction and Fitting of the English Man of War: 1650 – 1850. Naval Institute Press, 1987.

·        Lavery, Brian. The Arming and Fitting of English Ships of War, 1600 – 1815. Naval Institute Press, 1987

·        Peter G. Goodwin (2013) The Application and Scheme of Paintworks in British Men-of-War in the Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries, The Mariner's Mirror, 99:3, 287-300, DOI: 10.1080/00253359.2013.815993

 

I also did a lot of searching on the web for photographs and YouTube has several good video tours that helped with a few areas that don’t show well in the plans or in any photographs I had seen.

 

I decided to have the forward edge of the model end with the forward wall of the pump room. I didn’t want to try to open the room to show the pumps.  The other edge would end at the orlop deck beam aft of the shot locker. On the McKay plans this would be from about station 1? to about station 8?

I will say that the McKay plans scale easily to 1:96 but this model is listed as 1:98. I felt the difference was small enough to work around.

I bought some additional walnut wood strips and sheets to supplement what came with the kit since I needed different sizes. Sizes I mention in this are how they were listed by the seller in my order, but the actual materials vary a little bit. I don’t have any power tools other than a Dremel tool with a shaper/router table and a Rockwell Bladerunner for home repairs. They are okay for rough cutting and shaping but not for the fine stuff.

 

The hold.

The first thing that I did was remove my previous orlop deck entirely. Next, I removed one plank on either side of the keelson to create the limber passages and covered them with thin limber boards.

I traced out templates and used the Bladerunner to rough cut some riders from a 1/8” walnut sheet and shaped them with the Dremel. They are not as tight a fit as I would like.  If I had something thicker, I probably would have used it.

I built the pump house from 1mm x 3mm strips. I put in a door on the port side even though I couldn't get a good view anywhere to see what it looked like.

The platforms are 2mm x 2mm with 2mm wide strips.

I’ll detail later with hinges for the shot locker lids along with iron and shingle ballast.

I planked the exterior up to the level of the orlop using the kit supplied strips.

 

Orlop Deck

I used 4mm x 4mm walnut strips for the orlop deck beams, 2.5mm x 2.5mm for the fore and aft carlings and 1.5mm x 1mm for the athwartship carlings. I tried adding the carlings with the beams in place and leaving room for the deck boards to recess. I used 2mm x 5mm strips for the waterways. It ended up uneven in places. I should have built the deck as one unit before installing it. I didn’t paint the underside of the deck but I probably should have. Probably too late now.

I cut knees from the 1/8” sheet. For the pump house on the orlop I used 2mm x 2mm uprights with 0.6mm x 3mm strips. I arranged the strips in a louvered pattern. I wasn’t able to leave a gap between each strip for ventilation so just pretend that they are there.

I felt the kit grate was too bulky, so I purchased a grate with 0.6mm holes and cut a piece to size. If my math is right the openings scale to 2.35 inches at 1:98. I framed it with 1mm x2mm strips.

Kit grate.

Pearwood grate.

 

I painted the sides of this deck and the pump house white.

 

[Dlowder]

Lower Gun Deck

 

This deck should be pitched up in the center by 1.5mm but I didn’t want to attempt that. I used 4mm x 4mm walnut strips for the straight beams and used 2.5mm x 2.5mm strips for the fore and aft carlings. The athwartship carlings are 1.5mm x 1.5mm. The curved beams were cut from 1/8” walnut sheet. Should have been thicker but it’s what I had available. I goofed on the measurements and had to add spacers.

I cut the beams to the correct length and then planked them with 1mm x 3mm strips leaving a gap in the center for the grate and the main mast. At both edges I used 2mm x 5mm strips for the waterways. I flipped the deck over and installed the curved beams and cut the carlings to size. I didn’t try to do notches for a more authentic look. I painted the underside white before sliding the whole thing into place and gluing it down.

 

I built the coaming using 3mm x 3mm strip and I used more of the better grate. The kit ladder seemed oversize so I made a new one from 1mm x 5mm and 0.6mm x 3mm.

 

This is a figure from the Revell 1:96 Constitution. He's a little bit off scale for this but it helped me get an idea of the proper sizes of things like the grates. The mast support is from the kit and will be covered by the pumps.

 

[Seahorse]

Nice work David...I will be following your build. I am building the Corel kit as well, and as it is my first build, I will be sticking close to the supplied plans. 

[allanyed]

Looking good David, and kudos for doing your research with the sources you listed! 

 

One small note for consideration if you are going to have the deck exposed to show the beams, etc. on other decks and/or future builds.  Your beams, carlings, and ledges (what I think you are calling athwartships carlings) look spot on dimensionally, but hard to tell from the photo.  Regarding a first rate like Victory, for the lower gun deck the beams at midships were 18" square, the carlings 11.5" broad by 10.5" deep, and the ledges 6" broad by 5" deep based on the scantlings from Steel's  Elements and Practice of Naval Architecture and The Shipbuilder's Repository and shown in the Scantlings of  Royal Navy Ships as well.  The spacing of the ledges would be such that they would be "in the clear asunder not more than 12" nor less than 9" so maybe fewer than what you show.  For the middle and upper gun decks, the scantlings of the beams, carlings and ledges are of course slightly smaller as would the scantlings be different for lower rate ships.

 

Looking forward to your next progress photos.

 

Allan   

Edited March 21, 2022 by allanyed

[Dlowder]

Thanks to you both.

Allan, I used the terminology on McKay's plans for the decks and tried measuring from them. I've located a copy of Steel and will check it out.

[Dlowder]

I've been doing a bit more reading and planning so haven't done much on this.

One nit picky thing I did will probably only be noticed by me. The kit instructions don't call for cutting the rabbet into the keel so I didn't do it at first. Now I went back and faked one. I sliced a small piece off of each of the garboard strakes and then made shallow cuts into the keel. I shaped two end pieces of walnut, so I would have exposed end grain, and basically made inlays. Since I will be coppering the hull later, the cuts on the strakes shouldn't show.

 

I have started on the lower gun deck sides. I had originally made the cuts for the ports since I was afraid if I waited, I'd be too rough and might shake something loose. Turns out the material is soft enough to work with a hobby knife. Good thing since I have had to make some adjustments.

In order to check the size I needed to prepare one of the 32 pounders.

The guns for this aren't perfect but good enough for my needs. The barrels measure out okay except that the trunnions are in the wrong place. I'm debating about trying to move them since I might make a mess.

The carriages need work however. The profile works but there is a solid base connecting the two sides. I cut off the sides and built the rest using various illustrations I had found. The trucks seemed to be too thick so I cut them down also.

 

 

Now back to the books!

[Dlowder]

I’ve been slowly working on this. The material used in the kit for the frames looks pretty rough. It flakes off it in places and I didn’t think that even sealing and painting it would not do. I set the model on my scanner and printed 1:1 templates to cut strips from a thin sheet of walnut, paying attention to the direction the grain runs, and covered the kit parts.

 

Next, I started working on the pumps. I read that the existing pumps on Victory are not original but I used photos of them along with print sources.
One thing to be cautious about is that McKay uses simplified versions in his deck plans. Other sources show more detailed views with fancy curved feet. I tried to create those but they kept breaking. Photos of Victory seem to show that they are just straight in the reconstruction so I decided to go with that.  I printed out scaled drawings of the pumps from McGowan and used them to make guides for construction.

After I got these assembled, I decided to retry the curved feet. I took very thin strips and laminated in two layers with the grain at cross directions to make them stronger. I rough cut them and then used sandpaper wrapped around a dowel to shape them. I cut off the squared front legs and cut notches to hold the new legs and it looked pretty good. I left the back legs alone. I connected the pumps in pairs with a channel since that was an option on the real pumps and because it helped stabilize the structure. I also connected them with a piece of copper wire. I built little hollow boxes and attached them to the front of each pump.

The pumps sit on a raised platform. I left notches in the corners for posts which will be added latter and cut a hole for the mast. I surrounded the hole with a number of wooden wedges and then covered them with tissue and white glue.
I painted this assembly rather than keeping it natural. Currently Victory photos seem to show a red platform with brown pumps. The brown makes since to me since the pumps handle water and if it was me, I’d waterproof them. I don’t know about authenticity of the red color but it looks cool and they had red paint on hand.
I made the pumps as an assembly that I can just slide in later since I thought there would be too much risk of damage as I work on decks and planking.

 

They look okay… if you look from about ten feet away… and with one eye closed…

 

I will probably consider these to be a first draft and make some better ones later.

 

[Rob S]

She’s a beaut mate! Very nicely done and a joy to watch! 

[allanyed]

Nicely done Dlowder!

Does the kit provide the parts for the gun carriages?  The reason I ask is that among other oddities it appears the rear trucks are the same diameter as the front trucks rather than being a smaller diameter as they should be. 

Thanks

Allan

[Dlowder]

Thanks Rob!

 

David

[Dlowder]

16 hours ago, allanyed said:

Nicely done Dlowder!

Does the kit provide the parts for the gun carriages?  The reason I ask is that among other oddities it appears the rear trucks are the same diameter as the front trucks rather than being a smaller diameter as they should be. 

Thanks

Allan

Thank Allan!

The kit guns are pretty basic as shown below. The 12 pounders are too small but I may be able to use the 24 pounders in place of them. Because of the way the kit is aligned, I don't have full gun ports on the middle deck. That decision is down the road.

Right now I have only built up the 32 pounders. I cut the carriages apart so I could use the sides since they seemed adequate. The trucks were too thick so I sliced them in half as shown below. That was a pain to do. The rest I built from scratch.

They are the same front and back in the kit and I just stuck those on to measure the height. I will use smaller ones when I get ready to rig and install them. For now I'm only going to install the deck hardware.

 

 

 

 

[Dlowder]

I haven’t done much in a few weeks. I relocated my work table from the spare bedroom to the study so that should help.
I wanted to do the wales using top and butt planking but thought it would be too complicated to try to set up for just a few short pieces. I decided to use strips twice the width and scribe them to look correct. We’ll see when I get around to painting if the scribed lines are too wide.
I lined the lower deck gun ports with thin strips leaving rabbets at the top and sides. For the ports that are partial because they are on the edge, I first enlarged the port and installed sills and lintels. This side of the model will be hidden but it was good practice since the ones one the upper deck will show.
I cut short pieces of planking and glued them to a thin strip to create a cut off port lid and glued them closed. I was careful to make sure the planks on the lid aligned with the planks on the hull. I’m sure the partial lids would be too fragile to try to model open. Closer to the end of this build I’ll decide about having the full-size ports open or closed.

 

David

 

 

[Seahorse]

Very impressive workmanship and attention to detail. Nicely done mate!!

 

[Dlowder]

On 9/16/2022 at 3:36 AM, Seahorse said:

Very impressive workmanship and attention to detail. Nicely done mate!!

 

Thanks!

[Dlowder]

Since I last posted I’ve moved my workspace from the spare bedroom to the study. I still have what I think must be the messiest table out there! But I face a window now instead of a blank wall.

 

It’s a challenge having to make up my process as I go along. I need to finish the lower gun deck but I think I need to build the middle gun deck first so I can locate things like hanging knees, eyebolts, support pillars etc. But if I install the middle deck then I won’t be able to get to the lower deck to paint and install fragile things like gun carriages. But if I paint now then I won’t have a bare surface to glue the knees. I've been uncertain how to proceed.

My solution is to again build the deck so I can slide it in and out. I can slide it in so I can measure and cut the hanging knees. I can slide it back out, paint the sides of the lower deck leaving bare surfaces where I have marked the locations of the knees. I’ll install eyebolts for the guns and the port lids. Then I can slide the deck back in and use tweezers to glue the knees into the prepared locations and then touch up the paint. I hope it works out!

Since I started this a long time ago and then ripped out what I had done to start over, I have run out of deck planks. I have ordered more so I’ve only planked the outer portions of the deck until the shipment arrives. Some of these are a lot darker than I like so I may replace them if the new strips look better. I shaped and installed the waterways. I’ve labeled the hanging knees so that I know where they fit. I’ve left the templates tacked onto them for now.

This shows the underside with the beams, beam arms, lodging knees, carlings and ledgers installed under the planks that I have. For the picture I placed the hanging knees where they will eventually fit. One on each side will be placed at an angle to keep from blocking the gun ports.

Now that I have the height of the middle deck, I placed the support pillars that go between the chain pumps and the hatch. The cable lifters are made from shaped 3mmx3mm with 0.6x3mm strip glued on the side. I’ll probably try to add rollers if I can get them small enough and I’m not sure if I will end up adding the messenger cables themselves.

I made the hatch for the middle deck differently than the other ones. Instead of cutting a rabbet to receive the grating, I made the hatch from 2mmx3mm strips and lined it with 1mm strips recessed the correct depth. It's not glued down yet, just positioned for the photo.

 

Thanks for viewing.

David

 

 

[Dlowder]

Hi. David here. It's been slow lately as I face new challenges with this. I'm thinking that I should add kit-bash to the title of this.

I've built the middle deck structure and painted it. The paint is thin in places but too thick in the corners. It's the underside so I don't think it will show. Parts were left unpainted so I can glue the knees in place and have a good surface. I'll touch up that paint once the deck is in place.
 
One thing that's not in the Victory plans I have is the mast partners and people touring Victory now never seem to look up when they take photos so I had to rely on general texts about period ship building.

The hole to the left of the mast is for an elm tree pump on the upper deck. That's another thing that I would like to find a good photo of since I'm interested in how it was waterproofed underneath.

Speaking of the elm tree pump, I didn't do a good job of trying to make the long one octagonal by sanding a square strip. At this scale and painted dark like the ones currently on Victory, it seems acceptable but I may redo it. For now I just need it for alignment.

 

I simulated rollers on the cable lifters but using round toothpicks cut in half lengthwise.

I don't want to close up the deck until I install the hardware. I'm finishing the guns but having a few issues. I found some leftover brass photoetch that had border strips of the right width and bent them. I can't get a good tight right angle for the transition from flat to curve. I'm tempted to try doing them as a semicircle with two flat pieces fastened to it.  It might be better looking to use tape.

The eyebolts that come with the kit are too large for real eyebolts but about right for the size of the rings. They need to be shaped more round. Instead I had some small eyebolts and made rings from some copper wire. I have some Blaken-it that is very many years old so I tried to use it. Diluted it didn't work so I tried full strength. It darkened the brass some but not enough and rubs off. I'm trying paint next but I also just ordered some Artistic Wire that should be here in a week and I'll see how that does.

Once I get the eyebolts and rings finished I can attach them to sides of the deck since they will be hard to get to once the middle deck is glued in place.

Rigging the gun carriage. The blocks from the kit (5) are just basic and would take time to improve so I splurged on some blocks from Syren (6) and they look great! I made some hooks from copper wire. I put two small drill bits in a scrap piece of wood. I started with the wire between the bits (1), wrapped it around the left bit, back up the middle and around the right bit (2). I cut the right one off to make the hook (3) and cut the left one flush to make the loop (4). I think they look good but I will wait for the new black wire to see how that works.
Since these are for the gun tackles they will be hanging loose so I don't think I need to worry about sealing the loop. I will rig the guns in place to get the ropes looking good and then remove them until I finish the kit. I don't want them to shake loose.

I also painted my little sailor figure that I stole from a plastic kit. Big bushy eyebrows on that fellow.

 

 

Thanks for tuning in.

David

Edited December 8, 2022 by Dlowder
Correct typo

[Dlowder]

I haven’t felt up to working on this the last few months but thought I should at least update the log.
I added eyebolts and rings to the ports and to the deck. I predrilled holes in the knees so I can add hardware there when I mount the guns.

 

 

I installed the middle gun deck and then glued the knees in place. Before gluing I had very carefully shaped the knees to fit tightly in place but of course once I glued them in in, there were gaps where the fit was off. I mixed some sawdust with glue and packed it into the gaps before doing the touch up painting. I have an angled paint brush to make it easier to reach tight places.

I added some more of the very thin walnut sheet to cover the rough kit material. I love this clamp. I also added the gun port sill. I need to increase the height of the ports.

 

 

Speaking of clamps, I don’t remember where I got these screw in clamps. I’ve had them for years. They are too flexible for some areas but work well for places like this.

 

[Katsumoto]

This is a nice kit of Corel. You make a special edition of it. Nice work!

[Dlowder]

Thanks Peter. I'll check your logs out tomorrow. The subjects look interesting.

 

David

[Dlowder]

I’m back at it again. Been under the weather for a while so moving slowly on this.

 

Plans from several sources show small grates at the entry ports so I built these using the same grate material as I used before. I’ll wait to glue them in place after I paint the deck sides.

 

The octagonal hole in this deck is for an elm tree pump to will continue up to the upper deck.

I planked up the exterior and interior with rough openings for the entry ports and the gun ports. I’ll clean them up when I add the linings.

 

 

Next I'm working on the structure of the upper deck since there are middle deck fixtures that have to align with those beams.

 

David

[Dlowder]

Just a quick update that I haven't given up on this. I’ve been away from this for a while. After many tests they finally found and removed the tumor that’s been playing havoc with me for the last year so now I hope to make up for lost time. I just need to remember where I was in the build.

 

Beams for the upper deck test fitted. Like the other decks, I made this so I can slide it in and out as needed.

 

Test fitting the main mast and what will become an elm tree pump to check for alignment and clearance between beams.

 

 

Adding more structural members and planking. I cut a notch for the pump.

 

Sliding the deck in for another test fit with the pump.

 

I have to get the hanging knees shaped and located. Then I can slide this deck back out and finish out the middle deck with details and paint.

 

Thanks.

David