HMS Victory by Jeff-E - FINISHED - Panart - 1:78 Scale - Bow Section

[Jeff-E]

Hi All,

 

While the deck planks were drying I made up the grating for the hatch and the coamings for the companionways and the ladders

 

 

 

 

 

 

After these were made I fitted the companion way coamings and mast partner to the deck

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[AntonyUK]

Hello Jeff.

I am very impressed with the kit and the build.

Panart have made a nice job with this kit

Keep up the good work.

 

Regards Antony.

[Jeff-E]

One of the mod ifcations I am making to this kit is to fit hand rails to the companionways. I don't know if they  were fittited on this deck but as I said previously there was only one ladder leading to the hold deck in this part of the ship.

 

I am going to make the hand rails out of tooth picks as they have a pattern already turned on the handle end and are about the right diameter.

 

To make them I cut them to length plus a few millimeters and then turned the ends down in my dremel so I had a pin to locate into the holes I had drilled in the coamings. They were then stained with oak.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The ladders were then fitted and the hand rail post were fitted to the Hold deck, the Orlop deck posts won't be fitted until the lower gun deck as fitted as they are fragile and may get broken off

 

 

 

 

 

[Jeff-E]

Hi Anthony,

 

Thank you. I am fairly happy with the quality of kit .

[Stockholm tar]

Jeff,

 

Looking very good. I particularly like your deck planking.

[Jeff-E]

Thankyou Kester. It is unfortunate most of it will be covered up but it's good practice  

[Jeff-E]

Hi All,

 

The last job to do on this deck before it was varnished was to fit the stantions that help support the deck above. They are a pre made  part and need to be filed down to fit between the deck and the frame they were then lightly stained with oak

 

 

 

They were then glued into position at the distance shown on the plans

 

 

[jarero]

Jeff,

 

First rate work there.  I really like the rails you made and the stain on everything looks great.  From the picture it appears "aged".  Very cool!

[Jeff-E]

Hi Jared,

 

Thank you for your kind comments, I never really noticed until you mentioned it but the stain does give it a bit of an antique look  

[Jeff-E]

Hi All,

 

On to the next deck, the Lower gun deck. The under side of this deck was painted white to form the ceiling of the Orlop deck and then it was glued into position

 

 

The false deck was then marked out for planking and the planks laid

 

 

 

 

[Stockholm tar]

Jeff,

 

Looking very good, and I agree, your stanchions do look 'antiquey'. It'll be interesting to see how this develops, so keep up the good work.

[Jeff-E]

Hi Kester,

 

Thank you for your kind comments  

[Jeff-E]

Hi All,

 

After the deck planking was completed the next job was to fit the mast partner , this one differs from the other decks as it is larger and lines up under 2 of the frames above . It will have a stantion in each corner I will also make a shot garland down it's length on either side

 

 

 

I also fitted the hand rails to the Orlop deck companionways and rigged them

 

 

 

 

[Jeff-E]

After test fittng the Middle Gun deck with the plank termination pieces fitted to the keel and the small beakhead deck fitted , I determined that I would not be able to fit this deck after the hull panking was complete without doing some serious modification to it. So I decided to fit the Middle Gun deck and then plank the hull. Doing it this way will limit my access to the Lower Gun deck cannons meaning that I will not be able to fully rig all of them but I will try to give them as much rigging as I can get on them.

 

I temporarily attached the Gun port pattern to the frames to indetify the position of the guns on thr lower deck. I made up one 32 pounder gun carrige and marked the position for the ringbolts for the train tackle to be drilled into the deck. However I think I made a slight error here as after fitting them I have read a few logs here where they say that these bolts should be located as close to the centre line of the ship as possible, mine aren't because I made allowance for the anchor cable to pass behind them but I think it might be too much

 

 

 

 

 

In the next few photos you can see the ring bolts fitted along with the Fore rining bits and the shot garlands in the mast partner.

 

 

 

[Stockholm tar]

Jeff,

 

I can understand your problems with the various fittings, as I have been pondering many of them myself – before I actually get to the construction stage.

 

I'm actually not too happy with the gunport pattern itself, as the ports are not that equally spaced, as on the ship. Therefore I'm actually contemplating not using it at all, due to the dust created as per the instructions. In any case I think the method of making the gun ports they contemplate will be impossible to implement, with all the details you've so carefully put into it. My idea is to build up the side planking from the lower gun deck up, piece by piece and deck by deck and including the gunports, after fitting out the interior. This will mean that most of the cutting will be done off the model. Good idea though to use it for spacing the guns, before planking.

 

You're right, the ringbolts for the gun tackles are not really far back enough. According to the drawings and photographs of the ship, they are right back against the centre line, butting up to hatches, shot garlands, etc. Any chance you can alter them at this stage without difficulty? If not perhaps you shouldn't worry too much. When she's finished they probably won't notice! You're adding some nice detail.

[Jeff-E]

Hi Kester,

 

That is a good idea of yours to build your gunports from the Lower Gun deck up, I wish I thought of that but I'm not sure how confident I would be at lining everything up, so I am going to complete the first planking and the cut out the gun ports using the pattern and any minor adjustments can then be made with the second planking.

 

The gunport pattern may look a bit out in the spacing of the ports but I think this is to accomodate the their position in realation to the decks and frames of which the latter are not in the position they are on the real ship.

 

Unfortunately it is a bit late to move the ring bolts on the Lower gun deck as the Middle Gun deck has been fitted and I no longer have access to it

[Jeff-E]

Hi All,

 

The last thing to do on this deck was to fit the aft riding bit. The parts supplied for the riding bits were laser cut 5mm plywood and the uprights terminated on the orlop deck where McKay's ATOS shows them going down to the hold so I extended the aft set of bits down to the hold deck, the fore set wont be seen on this deck so they were left to terminate on the Orlop deck.

 

 

 

 

 

A couple of more photos of the shot garlands from the bow

 

 

[Jeff-E]

The middle gun deck was the last deck to be fitted before I began the first layer of planking. It was fitted in the same way as the other decks with care taken to make sure the mast holes were aligned and that the deck sat flush on the frames. It was then marked out and the deck planking was laid.

 

 

 

 

I then fitted the bow plank termination supports and the false beakhead deck. The bow plank supports are fitted at an angle to the keel and this is another reason why the middle gun deck was fitted to get this angle correct at the top. I hope you can see in the following pics that it would be rather difficult to fit the middle gun deck after the planking was complete.

 

 

 

 

 

The gap between the supports and the keel seen in the first picture was filled with balsa wedges and sanded flush with the supports

[Jeff-E]

The last job to be done on this deck was to fit the stantions under the middle 2 frames

 

 

[Jeff-E]

The Middle gun deck has been left unvarnished for now and it is the last deck that will permantly fixed in place until the outer hull is completed.

 

I temporarily fixed the foc'sle deck in place so that I could accuately fix on the first plank, the plastic wrap is to stop the plank sticking to the deck

 

 

 

 

The first plank was then laid

 

 

 

The next four planks were then laid down to the beakhead deck without any problems.

 

 

[Pygothian]

Excellent job!

 

 

I've just ordered the Corel Victory cross section but unfortunately it's not the bow. Wish I knew this one existed before I bought my one as I like it better.

 

Your planning and workmanship is fantastic and I'll get a lot of tips from you.

 

 

Cheers

Rowan

[Jeff-E]

Now it came to the tricky part of shaping the planks around the bow and keeping their upper edge tight against the previous laid plank. To achieve this I soaked the planks in cold water for about 20 minutes and then shaped the curve around the bow with plank nippers I then pinned the plank to the frames and allowed it to dry. When it was dry I removed from the frames and made any small adjustments required and then glued it into position. 

 

I did not measure the frames or lay planking bands on this model as it only a section. I laid the planks by eye judging when and for how much of their length tapering was required. The first three planks around the bow are full width and then they taper slightly as they go down the hull. No plank is tapered to less than half of it's width. The supplied timber for the first planking is 6 x1.5 mm Walnut

 

 

 

Some of the planks required clamps to keep the edges together and to help keep them flat  so that minimal filling  and sanding will be reqiured for the second layer, I hope  

 

 

 

I think this type of model is difficult to plank because you only have the 4 frames and the support pattrens to fix the planks to so they tend to want buldge outwards especially in the bow area and it was hard to try and hold a good shape, filler blocks can't be used as they block out the decks, but with a bit effort I am fairly happy with the result so far  

 

 

 

 

I should also mention that I filled the nail holes with bamboo treenails to give the planks a bit of extra security

[Jeff-E]

Hi Rowan,

 

Thank you for looking in and your kind comments. The Corel cross section is a nice model and I will look in on your build when your kit arrives and you start a log

[Jeff-E]

Hi All,

 

A quick footnote on the planking that I failed to mention in my last update, I did record how much and over what length each plank was tapered to make the second planking easier and to correct any mistakes that might and probably will be made

 

Before I planked any further dow the hull I decided I could add a couple of filler blocks at the bottom of the hull to try and keep a round shape to it. These will not be seen as they are in front of the first bulkhead.

 

 

 

I also had been toying with the idea of adding a mast step for the fore mast and decided to make one. It will be fitted over the keel and the third frame. Unfortunately I can not find a photo of it before it was fitted but I do have a pic of the drawing I made it from. Sorry if it's a bit on the light side

 

 

and the mast step fitted to the keel.

 

 

 

Edited October 20, 2013 by Jeff-E

[Jeff-E]

The hull planking was then continued down to the keel. The first pic shows of an inside view of the hull.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Captain Slog]

Hi Jeff, really moving along now!  Are you going to paint the hull, in like the Trafalgar colours or going with the natural look?

 

Cheers

Slog

[Jeff-E]

The first planking is finished I am fairly happy with how it turned out however some filler will be needed to fill some small gaps between the planks and to fill the dimples near the lower part of the bow to give it a nice round shape

 

 

 

 

[Jeff-E]

Hi Slog,

 

Thank you. Yes I will be painting the hull in the Trafalgur colours and coppering it

[Stockholm tar]

Hi Jeff,

 

You're certainly going great guns with the build, and making a very good job of it.

 

I spotted the same areas for improvement too, such as the hatches down into the hold; the extension of the after bitts down into the bottom of the ship; balsa bow pieces; and the mast step. Regarding the last, you probably also spotted that it rested on the upward sloping keel piece, which to my mind didn't make for a satisfactory solution. However, your mast step is rather more 'picturesque' than mine – although it won't matter that much as it won't be visible!

 

Nice job on the planking too!

Edited October 20, 2013 by Stockholm tar

[mobbsie]

Very nicely done Jeff.  

 

mobbsie