HMS Victory by dafi - Heller - PLASTIC - To Victory and beyond ...

[Hubac's Historian]

Hello Daniel,

 

Where have you sourced your crew figures?

[druxey]

Your paintwork is very nice and subtly done. The highlights and shadows look very natural and not painted. Well done!

[dafi]

@Hubac's Historian Preiser 74090 🙂

 

XXXDAn

[dafi]

Thank you druxey!

 

XXXDAn

[Hubac's Historian]

That is very helpful, Daniel.  I will soon need to begin populating my ship.  Do you make up a sort of gesso to modify the clothing of the figures, or is it simpler/better to use Squadron white putty, which actually adheres to the plastic?  Fantastic work on your Vic, as always!

[dafi]

@Hubac's Historian

For the highlight figures like officers I use more care and putty but also lot of paper as for the frog tails, belts and other stuff. For the common seamen I usually just scratch off all modern items as pockets, watches and zips 🙂 The rest is done by then paint.

 

The plastic is a good one, just like the kit itself, so no problem in putting putty and paint, not like the airfix 1/72 figures that are done in a soft plastic.

 

XXXDAn

 

[Hubac's Historian]

Excellent - Thank you!

[dafi]

The days I have again made some guns, 2 horizontal, two lashed upwards, one with etched parts but unpainted and an old one painted but without etch parts.

 

 

Then some shipwrights came by and installed a makeshift deck in the aft capstan area. The caulkers came also immediately and left a giant mess with their tow and tar ...

 

 

I'll spare you the curses of the sailors who had to clear the deck, they were terrible, but afterwards the whole thing looked passable again.

 

 

Here is shown the area covered by the capstan bars´ radius.

 

 

 

And this is where the guns come into play: in their normal position, they are simply in the way of the spars. But stowed lengthwise on the ship's side, it looks much more spill user-friendly.

 

Here in the lashed position with the muzzle on top, without chair and the coin.

 

 

Here with the barrel in the horizontal position, chair and coin inserted.

 

 

And just to check: even when run out, it's not enough for a decent bar radius.

 

 

It remains exciting 🙂

 

XXXDAn

Edited May 20, 2021 by dafi

[europapete]

Hi Dan, this just keeps getting better, awesome job. I put in a request for your new 3D printed parts this morning, over on your website. Regards, Pete in RI.

[allanyed]

Hi Dan,

She is gorgeous.   Sorry to jump in on this build, but as you're are a fan of Victory, and as you have so many followers I hope you don't mind a little hijack to get the word out on Nelson and  the Trafalgar TV series that is in the works.   Lots to be told about it, but easiest is to check out the screenwriter's post here at MSW in the Nautical and Naval history section under New podcast/tv series about Nelson and Maritime Britain during the Trafalgar period.   Anyone interested in Victory or any of Nelson's history should find this project fascinating.

 

Thanks

 

[Gahm]

Super! It is a pleasure and a learning experience to follow along!

 

Thomas

[dafi]

Thank you Sirs 🙂

 

Once you take a look at the whole thing manned, you immediately see how tight it is inside and out.

 

 

 

Seen from above, it's clear that even the diving away under the swifter and running back that some people assume will be somewhat difficult here, and could quickly throw the others out of rhythm. If, while the bars are being inserted, the rest of the crew is heaving the guns over, a smooth work flow is guaranteed while turning. I'm not talking about work safety here but of a smooth rotating flow 🙂

 

 

The Swifter was led by a notch at the end of the bars. Whether there was only ever a knot in front and behind the bar or whether it was secured for example by a half hitch I will still find out.

 

Interesting also in the lower perspective. Jumping over the guns wasn't possible there either, the deck beams were only a few centimeters above the

heads, and the outer sailors probably have to watch out with the hanging knees anyway ...

 

 

 

Here you can see it nicely what I mean, at 0:15 - This action combined with deck beams one would then hear a rhythmic "Klock" when hard wood (sailor's thick head) hits hard wood (deck beams) ... 

 

Jumping the gun

 

Simply delightful to see. 

 

And for the naval officers in the boats finally a possibility to look unpunished under skirts, as the girls up there come along on the spar ...

 

It remains exciting 🙂

 

XXXDAn
 

[druxey]

Nice demonstration, dafi. If you are planning on actually manning the capstan in your model, remember that they gripped the bars thumbs upward and palms towards them. (This was to avoid broken forearms should the capstan kick back.) So often the wrong grip is shown, like pushing a baby stroller or bike.

[Bob Cleek]

2 hours ago, druxey said:

... remember that they gripped the bars thumbs upward and palms towards them. (This was to avoid broken forearms should the capstan kick back.)

... which was the most practical posture, given that they often put their chest into it to push the bar. Oddly, though, the  contemporary pictorial record frequently depicts seamen carelessly pushing the bars with their hands. Perhaps this was a casual approach used to take up a slack cable before the real work began. 

 

The guy on the right in the black cap is definitely a slacker, but then again, there's nothing on the drum!

 

The men to the left are doing it right. The men to the right aren't. Likely "artistic license" in this engraving.

 

It seems the Finnish Navy did things differently, but there doesn't appear to be anything on the drum in this apparently posed photo. I mean, really, who mans a capstan in their dress blues?

 

Doing it right, but again, everybody's in their Class A's and this steam screw vessel appears underway at sea with white-painted anchor chain secured, clean and Bristol fashion, so what are they hauling, anyway?

 

 

Germans, correctly putting their backs into it like they actually might be doing some real work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 1, 2021 by Bob Cleek

[europapete]

Hi Dan, sorry to hear about all the flooding, hope you and yours are safe and ok.  Regards, Pete in RI

[dafi]

Hello Pete , sorry for the late reply. Yes the family is safe and sound even thogh my brother in law just lives 1,2 km from this infamous earth slide that went throug the international media. He was very lucky, even being that near, hiss house did not even suffer a water stain. But the area was build upon sand - quite biblical - and one one of the facilities that were hurt was a castle, standing there for centuries ...

 

XXXDAn

[GrandpaPhil]

Glad to hear the family is safe and well!

[europapete]

Good to hear you are all Ok and no damage done.  That's awful about the castle, hope it will be repaired. 

[dafi]

Message for John Walker: Can you please try to contact me here in a PM?

 

All the best, Daniel

[dafi]

Since I can't physically get to my tinkering place at the moment (moving box stacking place), here are at least some further developments on some detailed topics 🙂

 

The cathead in Portsmouth displays a crown. So far no historical evidence of this use was to be tracked down by my knowledge. One favorite of those days, als displayed on the contemporary 1765 model of the vic was a what I believed to be a compass rose. A german forum comrade pointed it out to be the Order of the Garter, and if one looks carefully some models really show those colors on the star.

 

So here is the new cathead with the Order of the Garter as decorative plate instead of the well known but possibly incorrect crown. 

 

The first picture shows the kit part, then the first draft and after that the optimised version: The proportions were adjusted, the star of the order was emphasized and the cassette compartments got the cambered base typical for the time. However, there are still a few small things to be done.

 

 

 

 

 

The two-part fighting top, the masthead and the cap have also been reworked again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But as usual, every corner solved draws two new ones behind it 🙂 It remains exciting.

 

Greetings, Daniel

 

Edited October 20, 2021 by dafi

[europapete]

Nice update Dan, thank you

[Kevin]

lovely work as usual @dafi

[mtaylor]

Looking good, Daniel.  I'm surprised you haven't basically tossed out all the kit parts and made your own.  

[Kevin-the-lubber]

Lovely detail there Daniel, even with resin printing (I assume) it looks like you are pushing the boundaries. I especially like the plank lines on the underside of the top. I have to admit I probably wouldn't have even thought of that. Are you not tempted to remake the masts as well? Doesn't look that hard 😁.

[dafi]

Thank you all 🙂

 

I think it makes the difference that I am a model maker transferring my knowledge into the printing opposed to many programmers transferring their knowledge into model making. It really helps that I produced all the parts by hand first, as it gives a feeling about the needed details and also on how things have to be altered, like what detail has to be emphasized in what way to appear "real" on the model. If I do the programming strictly by the plans, it only looks half as good 🙂

 

The mast are not an option, even though they would need it badly, but the resin is much too brittle for that. I think the art of model making is also to know, which is the most appropriate material for a job, in this case it is by my experience a rework of the steel reinforced kit masts with redone iron hoops or a complete replacement with wooden masts.

 

All the best, Daniel

Edited October 21, 2021 by dafi

[Kevin-the-lubber]

There's truth in that. Regarding resin, I'm finding ABS-like resin fairly tolerant of flexing, up to a point; and at that point, it simply snaps rather than remains bent. I keep meaning to read up on the structure of cured resin, I imagine it's crystalline, in case it's possible to heat treat it post-printing to make it more fibrous. I would have thought that, if the mast or spar has a carbon fibre/steel core, it would be fine. Something I'll test at some point.

[dafi]

If you heat up the cured resin it happens the same thing as with the classical cast resin: it gets soft.

 

Good to bend them if they got warped by time or wrong storage, just put a minute or two into warm water - or earl grey hot as Jean Luc used to say - and put them back in shape before cooling down or use the heat to do funny tricks.

 

 

That was possible after warming up my balusters 🙂

 

XXXDAn

Edited October 21, 2021 by dafi

[mbp521]

Daniel,

 

Beautiful and meticulous work as always!

 

-Brian

[Kevin-the-lubber]

That’s an interesting and unexpected change in properties!

[Kevin-the-lubber]

On a different note, one of idle curiosity. Do you know why the fighting tops had the planking underneath the ‘joists’? I’m sure there was a good, logical reason for that.