HMS Victory by shihawk - FINISHED - Billing Boats - 1:75

[Philg88]

Boyd,

 

Warrior aside, I was thinking of doing a scratch build of of one of these: http://www.cocatrez.net/Water/FerrisShips/FerrisShips.html of which some schematics are available. Between us ( and anyone else who's interested) we should be able to come up with a credible plan.

 

Thoughts?

 

Philip

[shihawk]

Honest thoughts are it,s not something i would normally be interested in but will rule nothing of interest out . My big concern about scratch building is lack of experience and my ability to start from nothing ? Plus my preference is earlier ships .  

[gjdale]

Boyd,

 

If you're interested in trying your hand at scratch building, I can thoroughly recommend the Bomb Vessel Cross Section (link to my build log below), or you could go for an Echo class or Triton cross section. Noting your aversion to painting, you can "paint with wood" as I am doing. The advantage of a cross section is that it introduces you to all of the skills/techniques of scratch building, without a mammoth undertaking. It's a great way to learn, and you end up with a pretty nice model to boot.

[shihawk]

Grant , I have been considering the Echo or Triton section ,as you say it would be a good way to learn and find out my limitations. The abundance of tutorials and logs would be a big bonus . But i have plenty of time to decide as i still hope to finish the Vic before starting another project . My intentions are good anyway !!

[shihawk]

I thought it was time for a small update just to prove i haven,t gone away . Decided i would not post pics of my numerous and everchanging ideas as it gets confusing ,and as i,m now at the mast and rigging stage things are confusing enough ??? . After several variations on the mast platforms i have finaly decided on a finnished plan . Everything except the mast rings is scratched as usual with ideas taken from books and other build logs ,so some of it is authentic but most artistic !!!!!!! 

 

 

 

 

 

I am now trying various colors for the rigging and will probably stick to a light color but who knows ??? trying serving with different colors to make it stand out more but will post progress later . Having Fun .

[GLakie]

Pretty sweet Boyd!  Hey, - having fun is what it's all about! 

[clearway]

looking sweet there Boyd m8.

Keith

[keelhauled]

Quite a beauty!

The detail is showing!

Marc

[Heinz6672]

hello Boyd,

 

I love your work. It´s really beautiful! You give me so much inspiration to keep on building my model :-)

 

Keep on your good work!!!

 

- Heinz -

[Seventynet]

Lovely build and truly an inspiration for my Victory. Keep up the great work!

Ian

[shihawk]

Tks for the kind comments ,thats all the motivation i need !!!!!!!!!

[mtdoramike]

Absolutely stunning work. She is looking like the prettiest girl at the ball already

 

 

mike

[seamymcnally]

Hi boyd...when you did your hammocks ,which seems to have been a long time ago now,can you remember were you got the tulle from !.great work and pictures ....

[shihawk]

Thanks Seamy , your right i can,t remember exactily where i ordered it from but it was either Ebay or Amazon . try to get the diamond shape rather than the square ,apparently it is more authentic although i found it more difficult to cut a straight edge . You will know what i mean when you try it ?? I have plenty left if you want it .

[seamymcnally]

Cheers boyd , i will check it out ..if no joy ,i might take you up on your offer....

[shihawk]

Hi all ,as i promised in an  earlier post i have been trying to keep my everchanging ideas to myself untill i have something definite to report .   I have for some reason been keen to get started the rigging ,maybe just a need for a change ?? As i still have this daft idea in my head about only building to the first stage of the masts i want to do as good a job on the limited rigging as i can , (good intentions ) . I,m slowly learning that what i want and what i can actually achieve are not always the same , i tend to start of with great ideas and finish up settling for what my abilities allow . Enough excuses !!!.

First thing was to decide on the color of the rigging , should be simple ,dark for anything that would have been tarred and light for everything else ?  Normally this is the rule ,but because i,m going for the natural look i have decided to go for all natural color thread with perhaps a few exceptions .

I decided to use CC thread ,easily available ,less fluff ,all size options, fairly cheap as i expect a lot of waste !!

I have been advised to start rigging from the missen mast and intend doing so but as the Foremast was the only one i had ready i thought i would experiment on it ,plus it,s probably the easiest worked on . My next job was to learn a bit about serving, seizing,worming and all the other new stuff i am going to need . 

Then i had to decide on what thickness of rigging to use . 

CC recomended 1.3 for the shrouds , i found this looked oversized and reduced it to 1.0 but this is a personal decision and could yet prove wrong . this meant i also reduced the main stay from 1.6 to 1.3 .      All serving was done with 0.10 

Asyou will see in the following pics nothing has been permenantly fixed but i wanted to dryfit as much as possible before i make any final decisions !

 

 

Its important to keep the loop around the mast as tight as possible to get the shrouds to sit correctly 

 

 

Im not 100% sure about the black worming on the main stay but think it helps to highlight it ?? The spliceing of the eye and mouse need reworking although they may look better when tightened ?

 

 

 

 

Although i,m using LONGRIDGE  ANATOMY  as a guide and find it very use full i still intend keeping the rigging as simple as possible ,as some will have noticed i decided to leave off the burton pendants .

 

sorry for the long post but i tried to remember anything that might be relevant 

 

I couldn,t resist tieing a couple of the lanyards to see how the would look,been wondering if the 3 seizings should be done in black ??

Progress should speed up a bit now that i have the look i,was after !!!

 

[GLakie]

Looks good Boyd!  A question.  Are you planning on serving the rest of the wormed shrouds? If not, to show the contrast of the wormed lines, maybe using a darker color brown, or black for those lanyard seizings would make for another good contrast in color? 

[shihawk]

George, according to Longridge the main stay was only wormed to just after the mouse so i think i will leave it at that ,.the black lanyards was something i didn,t think of and may indeed be a way of breaking up the natural color . It,s a reverse of the normal but may work .watch this space !!!

[clearway]

I think the lanyards look ok au natural Boyd keep up the good work (i always rig starting with the mizzen mast working forward as it is easier to rig the forestays without the shrouds of the mast infront getting in the way).

Keith

[GLakie]

Oh I wasn't talking about the lanyards themselves. Just the shroud seizings above them. Probably should have worded it different. 

[shihawk]

My  mistake George ,when i reread you did say lanyard seizings . Anyway just in cases i tied a couple to see how they look 

 

 

 

I think the light lanyards and black seizing is my preference ?

[Mike Dowling]

Hi matey !! I have just found a Billing kit like yours at a not bad price. Should I be brave and go for it ? Does the large scale make it easier or harder do you think ?  What do you reckon would be a good price as, not wishing to be too nosey I have no idea what yours cost.

Also, and not too much of the flattery, do you think I could make a decent job of it ? Yours is so brilliant I am not sure I could do nearly as well.

[GLakie]

I like the lighter color lanyards with the black shroud seizings as well Boyd! That was what I wanted to say in the beginning, but didn't come out that way. 

[shihawk]

Mike , I can,t remember exactly what i payed ,but i bought it from Cornwall Model Boats and at present it can be bought for £286.00 and i assume free delivery , i think that was roughly what i paid nearly 2 years ago .

When you say larger scale . If you mean the overall size of the finished model ,it is hugh ,not only will you need a lot of build space but i have read where some builders of the CC Victory ran into problems with display space ,never mind the cost of a display case £500----- £1000  .partly the reason for my "half rigging thingy "

If you mean the 1:75 scale i know i wouldn,t go any smaller like 1:90 or 1:100 because of eyesight and extremely small parts  , IMO. My last build was a 1:64 Cruiser by CC and  i find very little difference in part sizes detail etc .

I did complain in the early part of my log about this kit ,lack of instructions and ply parts etc but it is advertised for the experienced builder and you get what you pay for !! Your painting skills should mean that you could build straight from the box if you wish ? If you are considering building with a natural wood finish like mine then be prepared to spend at least the same again as the kit price on timber and other extras . I wonder could the CC version be built with a natural wood finish straight from the box ?? I doubt it .

 

Without flattery it is very hard to say if you will make a decent jod of it ??  Of course you will . I only wish you had bought yours first so i could have got some tips from you .If you want to build an authentic Victory with every bucket and nail  in exactly the correct  place your probably better starting with the CC version but if you are open to artistic interpitation and a challange at a budget price go for the Billings . Part of the reason i bought the Billings was i wasn,t sure i had the ability .I,m glad now i did i don,t think i would ever fork out big money for a kit again .       If this long winded reply is not enough please feel free to ask or PM me if you like. Let me know what you decide , if it,s less than £300 you get a lot of kit for the money ??

[shihawk]

George . Great minds think alike !!!

[shihawk]

Hi all, seems like a long time since my last post but thought i would wait till i had something to show . I wanted to make sure i had the deck finished before i fixed the masts so i revisited the cannons and decided to add a simple back tackle , just to take the bare look of it ,also added a few cannon ball racks and think i will leave it at that .

 

 

 

these are made with 2 mm blocks with a hook at one end and a 2mm ring on the deck end  

I now have the 3 masts ready for rigging , i left the top fittings off untill the shrouds etc are fitted which means a lot of the work can be done off ship 

I decided to go with the black seizing on the natural shrouds and am happy with the result but won,t tie anything permenantly untill later in case i need to make a few adjustments 

 

 

the next few pics are of the simple tool i used to keep the deadeyes a constant distance . I have seen several variations on many logs so nothing new ,but they are a must so worth mentioning.

 

 

 

 

Next pics show masts in place although not yet permanent or squared 

 

 

 

I,m sorry my pictures seem to be mixed up at least in the preview , the last 2 were supposed to be of my latest tool purchase , the Proxxon sander . I was thinking ahead to my next build which will probably be an attempt at a Triton cross section and am hoping this will do as a thickness sander as well , time will tell ? I haven,t used it yet but i think it will be usefull 

 

 

[GLakie]

She's looking great Boyd! Nice score with the sander. 

[Philg88]

Nice looking sander Boyd, even nicer looking ship!

 

Cheers,

 

Philip

[shihawk]

This post was prompted by a request to further explain my rigging of deadeyes and i must admit when i looked back over my log my previous post on that stage where slightly confusing with my many wandering ideas . As i am at the rigging stage at present it seemed a good idea to explain more full my method and hope it may be usefull to others who like myself have not mastered soldering . Excuse the many pics but i find it the best way to explain .

 

 

this is .5 mm coated brass wire ,any finer may not hold it,s shape , any stronger is too hard to bend . once you have the correct length they are simple to mass produce .

 

 

 

the 2 ends are pushed past each other which leaves a double thickness at the bottom of the hook 

 

this then fits snugly into the slot in the channels 

 

I then drilled and put a very fine pin in to hold the deadeye in place and take the pressure of the chainplates 

 

the cap on the channels then covers everything 

 

the first link of the chainplates is then hooked in and the end closed in , No solder was used at this stage either as the pin inserted earlier will take the pressure of the chain , I hope .

 

The top deadeye was measured for length using the simple tool and then siezed in place 

I didn,t worry about leaving a small space at the top of the deadeye as it turned out usefull when finishing tieing the lanyards . 2 further seizings finished the process 

 

The 2 on the left have been trimed and are hopefully finished .When tieing off the lanyards i brought the line through the space between the deadeye end the first seizing on the shrouds , this kept it in line and ment the final tieing is on the back of the deadeye . Hope that makes sence ? I,m pleased to say that the solderless stroups held up under the strain of tightening the shrouds so i think i can safely say they work !!!!     Any further expanation needed i will gladly provide ?

 

last 2 pics show the mainstays from the missen mast ,i have been warned they are better fitted now than when the shrouds are on the mainmast .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Mike Dowling]

Many thanks for all that Boyd. My remaining question is, how do you manage to keep the loop of thread around the top deadeye when you are doing the seizing? It may also be of interest to others that both the boat builds I have done/am doing have chain fastenings below the bottom dead eye rather than solid ones but the principal is the same.