HMS Victory by guraus - scale 1:48 - plank on frame

[guraus]

Thank you guys for all the information. I don't have much experience in metal working and you teach me a few things. I didn't even know that there are special bits required to drill brass.

 

Same for annealing - I knew that heating the metal and let it cool will change its properties but didn't know is called annealing. And this did the trick! The pieces become much softer - maybe a bit too soft. Because of that I managed to drill all strap holes on the drill press with the cost of only one additional 1mm bit.

 

So I am one step further to solder the pintles. For them I decided to use a 1/16'' tubing I have as I also have a larger diameter one which has 1/16in internal diameter for gudgeons. They fit very smoothly one inside the other. The problem I have now is that the holes for the pintles were made with a 1/16 drill bit which gave a very thigh and nice fit and now the silver solder won't get in between the two pieces. All I managed to do was joint surface soldering which is fine till I start filing down the excess of solder. When I am done and the piece looks how I like, the tube gets unsoldered and falls of. Tried a couple of times with the same result.

 

Next thing I want to try is to use regular solder to see if this one gets inside the joint. (The silver solder I have is in a paste inside a syringe mixed with some other substance that bubbles away when heated so a bit difficult to apply uniformly.)

 

If this won't work either, I'll machine on my lathe the pintle pins from brass rod to a slightly smaller diameter than the holes to live more space in the joint and try again the silver solder.

 

Thanks again

 

Alexandru 

[bizibilder]

If you want to get silver solder to flow into the joints then you need flux and silver solder in wire form (not the paste that you are using).  Flux the end of the wire and the inside of the hole (Flux powder is mixed with a little water to make a thin paste). Make a tiny ring of solder wire and assemble the three parts (pin, hole and ring of solder wire) heat with the blowtorch and when the solder melts it will run wherever you have the flux i.e. inside the joint.  There must be a tiny amount of room for the solder to get into so a "loose sliding fit" is what to go for - alternatively just file (or saw with a jewellers saw) a couple or three tiny "nicks" around the inside of the hole to give the solder somewhere to go.

[WackoWolf]

bizibilder,

 

    Thank you for the tip, this is one that i will make sure I remember if I ever run into this problem. Thank you.

[guraus]

Thanks Bizibilder, I will try to remember your advice.

 

In the meantime I worked with what I had: I made new pins a tad smaller then the holes on the lathe and I managed to solder them in place with the paste I have. Some took two or even three tries but I finally did it.

 

Next I did the ruder head reinforcement hoops from thin copper strips soldered together on a piece of wood same size as the ruder so I won't burn or tarnish the ruder.

 

In the end all was blackened with Jax and dry fit on the ruder.

 

Here are some pictures.

Edited November 17, 2013 by guraus

[guraus]

...

[guraus]

I am quite happy with the results. 

Now I have to find a way to make the head of the boost used to attach the pintles....

 

 

Alexandru

Edited November 17, 2013 by guraus

[Beef Wellington]

I'm speechless Alexandru, absolutely stunning result!  Have never seen this level of detail on a rudder before.  Well done.

[Jim Lad]

Oh, my!  That's very nice indeed!

 

John

[SJSoane]

 

Alexandru,

 

Beautiful work. I will return to this as a good tutorial when i get to that stage.

 

Best wishes,

 

Mark

[michael mott]

Very Nice results Alexandru, great to see that you solved your pintle issues.

 

Michael

[mtaylor]

Wow!!!  

[norriro]

Fantastic job, we are all speechless!

Bob

[AntonyUK]

Hello Alexandru.

Top notch workmanship on the entire model.

As usual you are raising the standard and it will challenge me to acheave a better quality of build.

Very Very nice.

 

Regards Antony.

[guraus]

Thank you all for the kind words.

 

All I do is try to do my best and use the most of the knowledge I gathered from other posts - like yours - on this site.

 

Regards,

Alexandru

[Amalio]

I´m with you every day.

Thank for all.

Best regards from Spain.

Amalio Sanchez

[mij]

Hi Alexandru

 

It`s the first time I`ve seen your Log.

Very inpressive work.

 

mij

[guraus]

Hello all,

 

The pintles are now finished, blackened and glued in place on the rudder. I've decided to use small nails to attach them instead of brass wire with a rounded or flattened end.

 

The head of the smallest nails I had, were too big and didn't had uniform size so I had to put them in the lathe to try to make them nicer. In the end I just used a small file to get the size while spinning in the lathe chuck because when I tried to machine them they broke.

 

After that I blackened them and cut a bit from the length and drive them through the pintle straps holes with a small hammer and a small drop of CA glue. Think this way they will hold strong enough.

 

Next I moved to the gudgeons. These I make from thin strips of brass bended to shape (not cut to shape from thicker brass like the pintles). A small piece of brass tubing is silver soldered on the middle of the strap then the strap is bended to follow the shape of the hull at the corresponding place. Next, holes are drilled and the piece is cleaned and blackened with JAX.

 

I've already done the first from the top as you can see in the pictures. There is a bit of scratching of the hull but I will retouch it with a bit of varnish when I am done with it. Here too I am using the same nails but without cutting them as the hull is thick enough.

 

On the unplanned side I decided not to put a piece of plank under the strap but to make the straps asymmetrical a bit to fit in place.

 

Regards,

Alexandru

Edited November 23, 2013 by guraus

[lambsbk]

I just linked up with your build. Stunning work.

[ChrisLBren]

Hi Alexandru,

I'm admire your work immensely - curious - how long long ago did you start your build and when do you foresee finishing ?  Also will you mast and rig ?

Thanks,

Chris

[guraus]

Thank you Chris and lambsbk for appreciation.

 

Chris, I started working on Victory in the fall of 2007. As for the completion date, your guess is as good as mine. Probably another 5 years or even more. I do not have a schedule to meet so when is going to be done its fine. What is decided already is that I won't do a complete rigging for sure otherwise the finished model won't get out of my basement anymore. What is not decided yet is: will I do any rigging at all or not. And if I'll do something will probably be only the lower masts and standing rigging for them.

 

Regards Alexandru

Edited December 14, 2013 by guraus

[ChrisLBren]

Thanks Alexandru - Ive got the Commerce de Marseille Monograph - another 3 decker -  and am thinking about  building her in 1/48th.  Enjoying watching your build,

Chris

[keelhauled]

Amazing work!  I'm just blown away.  Just following the build I have a much better idea of how the ship is actually laid out. much better than just looking at the book

 

Thank you for posting your work!

 

Marc

[Sailor1234567890]

WOW. That's impressive work there.

[guraus]

Thanks again.

 

Here is an update for the last couple of weeks. The ruder is done and in place now. I am quite happy with it even if I am sure the next one I'll do will be even better. As my first metal-working task I put together a small step by step of how I made my gudgeons maybe will help somebody else too. There are 6 "straps" for Victory rudder but I think I made at least twice that many till I get the ruder in place. Biggest problem was the soldering - not strong enough - and the holes - broke a lot of 0.5mm drills.

Edited May 2, 2014 by guraus

[guraus]

Then I started with the main deck gratings.

Edited May 2, 2014 by guraus

[guraus]

Next I've done the breast hook and continued the planking in blood wood.

Edited May 2, 2014 by guraus

[dafi]

Simply wonderful!

 

DAniel

[md1400cs]

Your build, with each update, just keeps raising the "bar". Awesome work.

 

Michael

[Jim Lad]

Can't get enough of this, Alexandru.

 

John

[gjdale]

Fantastic work Alexandru. Your step-by-step photos are really helpful to understand your processes too - thank you.