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HMS Victory 1:72 - Caldercraft by Gilbertm

Grandkids will steal your attention, time and love, and are worth the time and effort to know you and your family.

The work on the ship is going fast and looks good.
 
Gilbertm said:
Hello friends
I am starting the build of the Caldercraft HMS Victory.
I plan to add lights inside the hull and officers quarter and I am investigating where are the best places to add LEDs. I have ordered 3mm warm white 12V LEDs and should receive them quite shortly.
In the meantime I have assembled the keelson, bulkheads, the middle deck, the dummy gunports, the quarter deck and the gunport patterns. Of course dry fit only at this stage. I have also tapered the keel for the bearding line.

Dry fitting the hull allows me to precisely determine where to include the LEDs.
When assembling the hull, I had to widen the slots on the bulkheads and on the keel in order to fit smoothly. As noted by other builders, the slots where a bit too narrow.
One interesting thing to mention is the fact that the laser cut plywood for the various parts (bulkheads, keel, ...) are not burnt on the side which is very nice and avoids sanding. By the way the quality of the wood is excellent.
I also noticed that I had to widen the foremost slot on the keel and the hole on bulkhead 1 in order to fit the foremast and the bowsprit. I am glad I checked that before gluing the skeleton.

Some pictures below

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Click to expand...
Very nice build.
I would like a position on n the second row to watch this build.
I really admire the building fixture holding the keel.
 
Hi Gilbert. I've pulled up a chair.
I am pleased that I can learn from your construction report.

Best regards
Günther Ship-1
 
It looks like your picking up the who's who has f this forum. Myself excepted, I'm a hack.
 
Gilbertm said:
Hello all
I have not posted any update on my progress since a few weeks as I have been rather slow working on the HMS Victory hull. Other priorities have come and I spent much less time in the shipyard.
Anyway, I have now just completed and sanded the hull.
See pictures below

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View attachment 520947View attachment 520948
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Again, progress will be slow in the coming weeks as I am flying to the US later this week to meet my grand daughter who was born last week. This is definitely higher priority than ship building :p

View attachment 520958

Cheers
Click to expand...
 
Hello Gilbert,

First of all, congratulations on your granddaughter. Always a special event in the family. Indeed much more important than model building.

I have been following your build report for a while and I must say you are making nice progress. Nice to meet another Victory builder, especially with the package from Caldercraft. Good choice you made.
I also notice that you are a loyal follower of my build report. Thanks for your interest and responses. As you noticed, I try to post a chapter every week, summarizing my process of now 2.5 years. Total is 29 chapters. Right now, I have just started putting on the first ropes. That will be chapter 30, so I'm almost keeping up with reality.

But now back to your project.
The lighting in your boat will be a spectacular addition, I think.
Now that your first planking is finished, there follows an important moment that will greatly affect the actual outcome of your second planking. Namely, the sanding of the first planking. Looking at your last photo, it seems to me that more sanding is needed to get a nice tight shape of the hull. My advice: sand too much rather than too little. See also the last photo in the Jan. 24 post in my build report. If at all possible, try to get a tight shape without the use of putty. This is also important for good adhesion when gluing the second planking. Also do not apply a coat of paint to the first planking, for the same reason.

Good luck, I will continue to follow you.
 
Scheepshoorn said:
Hello Gilbert,

First of all, congratulations on your granddaughter. Always a special event in the family. Indeed much more important than model building.

I have been following your build report for a while and I must say you are making nice progress. Nice to meet another Victory builder, especially with the package from Caldercraft. Good choice you made.
I also notice that you are a loyal follower of my build report. Thanks for your interest and responses. As you noticed, I try to post a chapter every week, summarizing my process of now 2.5 years. Total is 29 chapters. Right now, I have just started putting on the first ropes. That will be chapter 30, so I'm almost keeping up with reality.

But now back to your project.
The lighting in your boat will be a spectacular addition, I think.
Now that your first planking is finished, there follows an important moment that will greatly affect the actual outcome of your second planking. Namely, the sanding of the first planking. Looking at your last photo, it seems to me that more sanding is needed to get a nice tight shape of the hull. My advice: sand too much rather than too little. See also the last photo in the Jan. 24 post in my build report. If at all possible, try to get a tight shape without the use of putty. This is also important for good adhesion when gluing the second planking. Also do not apply a coat of paint to the first planking, for the same reason.

Good luck, I will continue to follow you.
Click to expand...
HI Will
Thanks for your feedback
I agree with you: more sanding is better than less.
I'll definitely look into this once I am back home around mid-June
I appreciate your advice.
Best
 
Hello friends
After a few weeks break traveling to the US, I have restarted the build of the Victory.
First thing was to work on the quarter galleries and to include LEDs for this portion of the ship.
3 LEDs on each side and 6 LEDs on the inside of the galleries.
I also made sure to include the wires for the 3 lanterns at the stern as well as wire to insert lights below the upper gun deck.

20250612_162654_02.jpg
20250614_182506.jpg
20250614_182522.jpg
20250614_182549.jpg

After the lights were installed I mounted the quarter guallery itself and have to say that I really struggled with this part.
Alignement with the stern fascia was far from ideal and adding the plastic film for the windows without havving a blurr was a challenge.
Anyway, after multiple trials the results are below.
I still need some work to clean this up but I am not sure I am able to do much better

20250626_175042.jpg
20250626_175113.jpg

and with lights on

20250626_180429.jpg
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I then planked the middle gun deck using a 4 butt layout and added 3 coats of matt varnish.
20250626_175128.jpg
20250626_175137.jpg

Next will the second layer planking and will definitely take some time...

Cheers
 
Hello Gilbert,
I must say that lighting on a model isn't really my thing. It must have been quite a task to install all those little lights. That’s why I wonder what you're trying to achieve with this. Isn’t it too many lights? It’s a lot of brightness, which certainly wouldn’t have been the case in reality at the time. Will you be able to dim the lights later on? Otherwise, I fear there will be a lot of visibility into the interior, showing mostly wires. I'm very curious to see how you’re going to solve this.

Do I understand correctly that you’ve planked the middle gundeck and finished it with three layers of varnish, but that you're going to add a second layer of planks on top of it? That seems illogical to me. The deck already looks great this way. Soon, none of it will be visible at all.

Furthermore, your build looks solid, but then again, what else can you expect with a Caldercraft kit. Keep it up, I’ll keep following your progress.
 
Scheepshoorn said:
Hello Gilbert,
I must say that lighting on a model isn't really my thing. It must have been quite a task to install all those little lights. That’s why I wonder what you're trying to achieve with this. Isn’t it too many lights? It’s a lot of brightness, which certainly wouldn’t have been the case in reality at the time. Will you be able to dim the lights later on? Otherwise, I fear there will be a lot of visibility into the interior, showing mostly wires. I'm very curious to see how you’re going to solve this.

Do I understand correctly that you’ve planked the middle gundeck and finished it with three layers of varnish, but that you're going to add a second layer of planks on top of it? That seems illogical to me. The deck already looks great this way. Soon, none of it will be visible at all.

Furthermore, your build looks solid, but then again, what else can you expect with a Caldercraft kit. Keep it up, I’ll keep following your progress.
Click to expand...
Hi Will
Thanks for your input.
To answer your questions:

- YES I can dim the lights by adjusting the voltage. Now, in the end if I don't want to have lights, I can turn them off.
- Regarding the middle gun deck planking it's now complete. When I say second layer planking I am talking about the hull second layer planking that I am about to start.

Cheers
 
Gilbertm said:
Hi Will
Thanks for your input.
To answer your questions:

- YES I can dim the lights by adjusting the voltage. Now, in the end if I don't want to have lights, I can turn them off.
- Regarding the middle gun deck planking it's now complete. When I say second layer planking I am talking about the hull second layer planking that I am about to start.

Cheers
Click to expand...

Bonjour Gilbert,

I noted in your AV build, you elected not to apply the second layer of hull planking. Why on this model have you decided to apply the second layer?
 
JJ Lad said:
Bonjour Gilbert,

I noted in your AV build, you elected not to apply the second layer of hull planking. Why on this model have you decided to apply the second layer?
Click to expand...
Hello JJ
You are correct regarding single planking for the AV. I felt this was not really necessary.
Regarding the Victory the 1st plank layers are actually quite thin (0.9mm) and after sanding I thought I would have a more robust hull with a second layer.
In addition, I feel that feeling some pain with a second layer planking is just fun :p
Let's see if I still feel that in a few days :p
Cheers
 
Gilbertm said:
Regarding the Victory the 1st plank layers are actually quite thin (0.9mm)
Click to expand...
I think you are right about them being too thin. At 1:72 scale that is only 2.5" and the hull planking varied from about 4.5" to 10" (1.6mm to 3.5mm at 1:72) thick on first rates depending on where on the hull. Good choice to go with the other layer. :)
Allan
 
Gilbertm said:
Hello friends
After a few weeks break traveling to the US, I have restarted the build of the Victory.
First thing was to work on the quarter galleries and to include LEDs for this portion of the ship.
3 LEDs on each side and 6 LEDs on the inside of the galleries.
I also made sure to include the wires for the 3 lanterns at the stern as well as wire to insert lights below the upper gun deck.

View attachment 528372
View attachment 528376
View attachment 528377
View attachment 528378

After the lights were installed I mounted the quarter guallery itself and have to say that I really struggled with this part.
Alignement with the stern fascia was far from ideal and adding the plastic film for the windows without havving a blurr was a challenge.
Anyway, after multiple trials the results are below.
I still need some work to clean this up but I am not sure I am able to do much better

View attachment 528380
View attachment 528381

and with lights on

View attachment 528383
View attachment 528384


I then planked the middle gun deck using a 4 butt layout and added 3 coats of matt varnish.
View attachment 528385
View attachment 528386

Next will the second layer planking and will definitely take some time...

Cheers
Click to expand...
Good morning Gilbert. The stern galleries on the Victory are a mission and you have got the backing and prep looking good. Cool job on the lights it will look impressive on this mighty ship. Cheers Grant
 
AllanKP69 said:
I think you are right about them being too thin. At 1:72 scale that is only 2.5" and the hull planking varied from about 4.5" to 10" (1.6mm to 3.5mm at 1:72) thick on first rates depending on where on the hull. Good choice to go with the other layer. :)
Allan
Click to expand...
Hi Allan
Thanks for your input
Makes sense
 
Hello friends
After a couple of weeks of work, I am making steady progress on the hull second planking..
I believe I am approximately half way thru.
Caldercraft documentation recommends to use medium CA to glue the walnut planks. I did not like that approach too much as it tends to leave dark spots on the planks. I used wood white glue instead (Weld bond glue).
Below some pictures of the hull as it stands today.
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Some thourough sanding is needed but I'll work on that a bit later.

In parallel I have adjusted the height and width of the cannon ports in order to match with the Caldercraft plan. Still some work to be done here but I'll be completing this at the same time as I complete the second planking.

Cheers
 
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