HMS Victory by Erik Nyren - FINISHED - Corel - 1:98

[Erik Nyren]

Of cource beeing a finished log of a kit we end up between a review and a build log so I leave it up to our excellent admins to move the topic if deemed necessary

 

Historical background on HMS
Victory

 

The history of this proud vessel resting in a Portsmouth dry dock is well known to this community but I thought a brief introduction is in It’s place for potential newcomers to the hobby. I took the liberty to borrow the historical background from the Caldercraft Victory- building manual.

 

Forever associated with Nelson’s last battle, HMS Victory is one of the most famous ships of all time, and is now preserved as a major part of the Royal Naval Museum in Portsmouth. The ship’s survival is particularly appropriate since Victory is not only an example of the ultimate sailing warship “ the three decker first rate “but she was also the most popular and successful 100-Gun ship of the period. Forty years old by the time of Trafalgar (1805), she had been the flagship of half a
dozen Admirals, and was to continue in active service until 1812.

 

This was not the first ship of the Royal Navy to bear the name Victory; there were in fact four predecessors. This the fifth Victory, was one of the twelve ships ordered by the Navy board on Jun 6^th 1759. Designed by sir Thomas Slade, construction began at Chatham Dockyard on July 23^rd 1759. This, the year of victories, marked the turning point of the “seven years war” for Britain. These facts may well have played a significant part in the naming of the vessel
and the name Victory being restored to the Admiralty list of ships.

During the battle of Trafalgar Admiral Lord Nelson was struck by a musket fired from the French ship Redoubtable. As Nelson died some three hours later he was heard to say: “Thank god, I have done my duty.”

HMS Victory kit; Many to
choose from

There are several kits of HMS Victory available with a wide range of scale, quality and prize levels. I have listed the ones that comes to mind

Caldercraft/Jotika: Considered by many as the best but also the most expensive

Constructo:                         Often criticized forlack of quality.

Panart:                                Don’t know much about this kit

Mamoli:                              Don’t know much about this one either

Corel:                                  Described in detail below

 

My thoughts of the Corel HMS
Victory kit

Materials

The wood is 5mm plywood for the keel and framing, fibreboard for the first planking and walnut for the second planking. Deck planking wood is Tanganika. Fittings are made from pressed wood, metal casting and brass The pressed wood parts after a slight heating gets amazingly easy to handle.

The general wood quality is excellent and there is no lacking in materials to work with.

Annoying that some pressed wood parts are to short (ornamentations on the side of the ship).

Also the gallery window construction is not accurate but a little scratch work can do wonders.

Plans

Some of the plans are in scale but most of them are out of scale and in strange angels which makes it hard to take measurements.

 

Rigging plans………………………..

You will no doubt need to do further studies form other sources if you wish to build an accurate model of the HMS Victory. I recommend getting the “Ships anatomy 100gun tallship HMS Victory” a book that were of great help to me.

 

Manual

The manual demand a lot of knowledge from the builder. It is written in a general manner and there are no pictures in the actual manual. Also the descriptions are not very detailed often referring to the plans described above. As a whole the

manual is 7 pages A3 in very small text making it hard to read. I did not find much use of the manual and ended up mostly using the plans and pictures gathered from books and the web.

Build experience

With some scratchbuilt additions you can produce a great Victory-model but this is not a kit for the novice. I have had a wonderful time building this model because of it’s inbound challenge, the model has forced me to do a lot of research and
reading which I personally find rewarding. Also the lacking in instructions and plans has given me a significant boost in building skills.

 

Summary

The Corel Victory is as said before not a beginner’s kit perhaps even not intermediate. This is not because of demand of advanced building skills but due to the shortcomings of the manual and plans. The quality of the wood and materials of
the kit compensates a lot for these shortcomings and therefore the building experience of the kit has to be considered as Very good. I’d say that if you are looking for a Victory-kit to base a bash-build on this is the one to use. If you are looking for historical accuracy or instructions that give you all you need there are better kits out there.

 

In short: Challenging model kit, very poor instructions, plans in strange angles and often out of scale making messurments hard, Very high quality wood: Better than my CC Vic actually. (That could be a coincident though)

 

PICTURES TO COME

 

Erik

 

 

 

[Erik Nyren]

Ok, as far as I can remember the keel and bukheads came together nicely.

I had no ide what a rabbetline was in those days but it did not matter much

[Erik Nyren]

Early on in the build one needs to consider how to align the gunports.

guns are mostly "dummies" and aligning theese can be a challange.

One do not want them pointing all over the place.

[Erik Nyren]

The first planking

Rabbits left us unfortunatly.

[Erik Nyren]

First planking pretty much finished

Second starting with the whales

 

second planking was really good milled walnut.

 

Oh and that horrible Gibson Epiphonic has been replaced by a Fender Stratocaster.

Edited February 26, 2013 by Erik Nyren

[Erik Nyren]

Well pictures coming

keeping track of the gunports and blackening thebackgrounds I suppose.

 

this backdating is hard.

[Erik Nyren]

I seem to remember having the whales ending up at the same hight at the bow was an issue.

Came out OK anyway

The first layer of planking though....Lets not discuss that to much   

Edited February 26, 2013 by Erik Nyren

[Erik Nyren]

Starting to have the whole hull covered in valnut

[Erik Nyren]

More valnut planking

[Erik Nyren]

Now thats a gem

 

Note the differecne in milling quality between Corel and Caldercraft.

I promptly complained to Caldercraft and they sent me a new batch of strip wood. this however got lost in the mail and I had to complain again. Caldercraft sent me yet another batch of strip wood, all at no additional cost. They do know customer service.

 

 

[Erik Nyren]

More planking pics

 

Lets face it, I cant remember the details so let the questions come

and It will come back to me.

 

I do remember dryfitting the cannons several times and adjusting the gunports in order to straighten the metal inlayes, only to realise that theese are one of the Corel generic parts :-(

 

You can also note that I left out the lower part of the hull from planks. This was intentional as I figured I would sooner or later drop one of the cannons inside the ship and having it closed up I would have achieved a pretty expencive maraccas.

Edited February 26, 2013 by Erik Nyren

[Erik Nyren]

Having completed the planking focus went into the deck details.

Again sorry for the lack of detailed descriptions, this is an old build.

[Erik Nyren]

Amazing what a bit of paint can do

[Erik Nyren]

No masterpiece I know

I had a bit of fun with the skylights though

[Erik Nyren]

Messing around and learning, this is the essence of the hobby

Not to impressive results this time though.

[Erik Nyren]

Some more paint

 

Those mouldings that comes with the kit is kind if "paper" when heated even slightly it becomes very flexible and brittle aswell.

Takes a bit of trying but whe one get the hang of it it´s a very good material to work moldings with.

[Erik Nyren]

Starting on the masts I suppose

Still looking for pictures

[Erik Nyren]

I have to admit the rig is not yet finished, I have some ratlines to do but theese wil be dealt with in time.

 

Comments. questions and well whatever is always wellcome.

 

Erik

[captainscott]

Thanks for posting, your Victory looks great, nice work!

[Rich.F]

very nice, work.  how long did she take as she is next to do.

 

rich

[Erik Nyren]

Thanks all

 

Rich, she took me about 4 years but you have to take three kids and a fulltime job in cocideration.

I get 4h buildtime a week if I´m lucky.

 

Erik

[JPett]

Ahoy Eric

 

Thank you for taking the time to post your build. Your work here has provided me with much needed information

 

Your ship is beautiful and your efforts very much appreciated

 

 

[navyveteran]

Awesome work on the build. Does anyone know who has made this radio controlled?