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

[dafi]

Note: Added some more details to the spoiler in #1439 :-)

 

XXXDAn

[dafi]

 Oh those marvels of modern technology. Sitting in the car towards a job in Switzerland and being able to update some of the late progress***.

 

Not much was possible, just small bits late night, so one had to find the right subject - I found one, not too far off :-)

 

I love the small etch skylight, but as all etch it misses a bit of depth. Long time I wanted to try something.

 

First glued some 0,25 mm sheet onto the back of the roof using CA  …

 

 

… cleaned the edges, drilled the holes and opened the windows with a file using the brass as template …

 

 

… and then separated the parts very caaaaaaaaarefully using a scalpel.

 

 

Then cleaned the back of the roof and glued the clear sheet onto it by just applying CA on the edges to minimise fumes and mess …

 

 

… and glued the sheet back in place thus resulting into a nice three level sandwich brass-clear sheet-normal sheet with a nice edge with the right thickness :-)

 

 

The sides went alike, first clear, then normal, this time using Evergreen for the glazing bars fixed with UHU-Plast. Like this, the „glass“ is nicely packed in the middle.

 

 

The lower part was left longer on purpose as this gives a nice anchorage on the deck.

 

 

Still added the deck beams …

 

 

… and it already looked rather cute …

 

 

… even reflecting in the light.

 

 

Even though I used clear sheet, how was the original glazed? Using mica for the advantage of not breaking? Or old fashioned very disturbed glas?

 

Cheers, Daniel

 

 

 

PS: ***Do not worry, my colleague is driving ;-)

Edited June 10, 2016 by dafi

[dafi]

 

Bern in Switzerland at night and it rains cats and dogs. Lovely city with wonderful arcades and beautiful shops, but all closed by this time. To wet to do anything else so I sit underneath the arcades in front of the hotel and do some more addenda - bad luck for you lot ;-)

 

If being fed up with gross motor skilled work like the planking or skylighting, I still had something else to do.

 

As I already knew that I will need two more figure heads, so i decided to do a decent one, and this time to hopefully do a casting of it.

 

Here are two Heller originals. and even here one is less crisp than the other and even that one has the appearance of an old chewed and sucked out chewing gum …

 

 

… that is why I spend several nighttimes giving some TLC wich the help of my scraping skills and a scalpel …

 

 

… and no, the red is no blood, it is only Edding marker to have a control what i was doing. And suddenly the horse started to jump, the harp harped again, the ice bucket rebecame Charlemagne’s crown and the duke´s hat behated everything once more and the undercuts finally cutted under …

 

… only ..

 

… only the lions where not be be revived by this treatment, so I replaced them by thin sheet like I already did with figure-head.1 :-)

 

And to crown the assembly …

 

 

… massacred the old crown …

 

 

 … to serve as a bending template for the replacement.

 

 

Hollowed the base …

 

 

… and checked how much space was under the spriet mast.

 

 

Shortened the top accordingly …

 

 

… and it looked good :-)

 

 

 

O yes the small lettering was also fixed. After using pincers and paint, after spray glue and CA I tried something new, transparent Post-its

 

Cut in small stripes …

 

 

… and catch the letter with the sticky side - the transparent allows to see the orientation  - applied little CA …

 

 

… placed it and used something pointed to press against the surface …

 

 

… and it fits :-)

 

XXXDAn

Edited June 9, 2016 by dafi

[foxy]

Nice work Daniel as usual!!.

 

Love the cut out crown Idea.

 

Did that on an extra piece and stuffed paper towel in for the red cloth effect.

 

Will maybe have a go at my sky light,( did come loose once all ready) this will hold it firmer to the deck.

 

Frank. 

[dafi]

I knew it! I KNEW it!

 

I knew I took pictures while taming the lions :-) Here is the addendum´s addendum.

 

 

Yes that thing in the right lower corner is my scalpel. Some more before-after shots.

 

 

 

XXXDAn

[Gerhardvienna]

Hi Daniel

 

I knew what you are doing at this microscopic scale. But you still get over it every time.............

 

Regards

Gerhard

[mtaylor]

Always makes me drop me jaw, Daniel.    Hat's off on some super sub-miniature work.  

[popeye the sailor]

wonderful work Daniel..........super neat detail!  

[dafi]

After the match yesterday was **** for my nerves, I had to calm down doing some of my favorite themes ;-)

 

Plumbers work. The drain angle could be possibly optimized towards then windows or - as Livesay indicates - with mock windows the drainage could even go down straight, possibly hidden behind a curtain wall. Does anybody know contemporary details about that?.

 

 

Also the front got some discharges to go around the window underneath. Here I chose to point it aft for waves not to get stuck in it and shower the roundhouses inside.

 

 

XXXDAn

[amateur]

Nothing wrong with the match.

You won in the last minute

 

Jan

[dafi]

Just the way there was too much for old little heard especially the last 47 Minutes, means everything past the usual 90+ mins. And very much the last 17 minutes ...

[mtaylor]

I feel for the gun crew on that front port where the discharge pipe is located...          Looks good, Daniel.  I would suspect that the plumbing would be hidden.  These are officer facilities you know.  

[dafi]

And now?!?

 

 

XXXDAn

[dafi]

So after I had no time to continue on the mystery part, here  some addendums to the poop skylight.

 

Even captains and admirals needed some privacy. That is why the skylight was fitted with sliding blinds in between the deck beams to give seclusion ...

 

 

... and for enlightenment.

 

 

But then I remembered the partitions of the cabins. That meant for the sliders to pass over the bulkheads, so I got this sorted.

 

 

And once on the run, the two small cabins beside the wheel were added too.

 

 

And two more remarks: The flag pole - a very subtle hint to skip the plastic spars and to make wooden replacements.

 

 

And I was asked to also show the Heller original parts - here they are :-)

One more nice enlightenment I had too. Heller positions 4 eyebolts around the mizzen mast: one left, one right, one fore and one aft. i first had them and already moved the fore and aft half a planck thickness to the side to not sit on the seam. Then I realised the Vic in P. has 3 bolts in a row on each side. Doing the beams underneath the poop deck I realised why, the rings are sitting on the small carling beside the mast and can be fixed much better that way.

 

 

XXXDAn

[riverboat]

That's some awesome work there Daniel..... it's a treat when checking out your log ,seeing all the amazing things you come up with.

 

Frank

[mtaylor]

Your eye for detail is beyond impressive, Daniel.  The sliders for the skylights is something that I don't believe ever gets modeled.

[dafi]

Thank you Mark and Frank!

 

So the plastic asparagus is already history :-)

 

 

Naturally with the proper pommel at its end with 2 pairs of integrated and working* sheaves and halyard.

 

 

And as everything in life should be grounded on a solid base, I overworked the Heller parts**... 

 

 

... and placed everything in situ. As alway standing on one leg is not good, I added the two flag lockers and covered them.

 

 

And now I am trying to find out about the sizes of the signal flags. Left 12 x 14 feet as found in Atkin´s "Trafalgar companion" and approx 3 x 4 feet the size mostly found in NMM.

 

 

More here:

                                          #4                         

 

XXXDAn

 

*not

**YES really you read right: Heller parts!

Edited July 10, 2016 by dafi

[dafi]

I still owe you one ...

 

... how the partners of the flag staff were build?

 

 

No, something else ...

 

 

... a piece of sheet, left a rectangular acrylic, then some stripes of Evergreen to keep even distances ...

 

 

... and yes, that is the mysterious picture of before, and then opening the gaps with the side cutter ...

 

 

... and lengthened ...

 

 

... but why?

 

As the first try to do the compartments of the flag lockers went completely wrong :-(

 

 

That is why some much more crisp workout made the difference ...

 

 

... then the side parts ...

 

 

... the small yellow tape giving the angle ...

 

 

... and a nice before and after shot :-)

 

 

So, that is where we are ...

 

Cheers, DAniel

[popeye the sailor]

such wonderful work Daniel.........the decks look great!    really great progress........would never thought how to make a locker like that.

[dafi]

"... would never thought how to make a locker like that."

 

... neither did I ;-)

 

Thank you Popeye!

 

XXXDAn

Edited July 12, 2016 by dafi

[riverboat]

Pretty clever their "Capt,". Daniel........

 

frank

[dafi]

Thank you Maurice :-)

 

As on another place, there is the "war of the thimbles" raging, here is my input for special small ones.

 

A brass tube of 1mm outside and 0,5 mm inside is secured with a core of high-grade steel wire ...

 

 

... and placed upon a hard acrylic surface and a cutter blade is use to roll in a groove ...

 

 

... then the blade is placed further in and with pressing rolling the thimble is cut off.

 

Then the core is used as handle to sand off the edges ...

 

 

... and ready is the thimble of 1 mm outside, 0,5 mm inside and 0,5 mm thickness with 0,5 mm hight with groove.

 

 

Production is quite easy and if necessary also possible with reduced hight - then without the groove :-)

 

 

Cheers, Daniel

[dafi]

And what´s a thimble without a rope ?!?

 

Took off the inner edges to give the typical rounding on the inside ...

 

 

... hooked them up to put them into the blackening soup and to get them out without having to search ...

 

 

... ok, first trial was not the wanted result as smartened ropes can´t be sliced ...

 

 

... so to be smart no smartening but a splice, inserted the thimble and closed the loop ...

 

 

... smartened the ends off and lashed it down ...

 

 

... and went happy about the result :-)

 

 

XXXDAn

[md1400cs]

Daniel,

 

You posts 1468, 1469 are beyond my comprehension at that scale BRILLIANT work that looks so perfect. Congrats. Well there are also other posts that are also superlative examples of detailing (;-)

[foxy]

Cracking work as usual Daniel.

 

Those thimbles are the bee's nee's.

 

Frank 

[dafi]

... just wanted to work a bit on the bitts ...

 

At one point I just realised, that the cross pieces were underneath the knees of my sailors - somewhat short it appears.

So do your own ones dear dafi and take the chance to add the needed number of sheaves by doing so.

 

So I took McKays measures but the result appeared a bit high. So I did the mistake to start investigating ...

 

New modern sources like Schrade give 1,2 meters height for the total height above the deck whereas McKay indivcats 1,4 meters.

 

 

Then looked at Goodwins Construction und Fitting summing up Steels measurements - and I was totally lost ...

 

More to be found here

                 Thinking things through: Some bits about the bitts             

 

So here is the situation, before I send my dear Proxon Micromiller into a prematurely holliday.

 

Mizzen and main bitts were done, the crosspieces for the fores and the pre-cuts for the bitts themselves.

 

 

And already somethings in red to be adapted:

Slimming down the crosspieces a bit, easy-bisy :-)

 

The bitts of mizzen and main have to be shortened a bit. Also to be done by some clean cuts on the circular saw. Just how much, THAT is the question?!?

 

 

And then I am sure in strongly believing that the fore bitts will be an easy game too :-)

 

XXXDAn

[Kevin]

wonderful work, thank you yet again for sharing with us

[Kevin]

dont know if you have seen this (will delete if you have)

 

http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/13930-a-tour-of-hms-victory-from-vhs-tape-1993/

[popeye the sailor]

very nice work Daniel

[dafi]

Thank you Kevin and Popeye!

 

Finally some time for tinkering ...

 

First shortened the first version of the mizzen topsail sheet bitts to 90 cm height ...

 

 

... and adapted to the fall of the mast. Then worked the fore brace bitts.

 

Then carved new main top bowline and fore topsail sheet bitts and added the needed number of sheaves. 

 

 



 



 

As I (still) follow McKay for the rigging, I opted for the fore topsail sheet bitts with a third sheave bolted to the side for the foretop sheets, fore sail clue lines and bowlines. As the maintop bowline bitts held only the fore yard sheer falls and the top sail bowlines, I omitted the third sheave - one sometimes is lazy , you know ;-)

 

Here to compare with the kits parts. Surprisingly the basic measures are quite near the ones I choose - the kit is surely better that its reputation :-)

Theonly thing are the details, still difficult to cast at the times the kit was developed .

 



 



 

Still the mizzen topsail sheet bitts with the partners to bolt it onto the deck beams.

 



 

XXXDAn