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HMS Victory-Mamoli 1:90 Bruce Ives Build log

Well. It has been a while. Summer and grandchildren explain it all.

At the moment there are no grandchildren so I just spent a couple of hours continuing to work on the rigging. My friend with whom I visited the Victory in Portsmouth sooo many years ago is coming to visit and he keeps asking what progress I have made. And of course I rediscovered why I have so much trouble mentally and physically working on the rigging!

I have to change my attitude!! Working with the wooden and metal bits ( on every model I have worked on ) has given me much less trouble and has been much more satisfying. The problem is that there are very few of these left to do on this one …. and I do want to finish it.

So I am going to start a new model alongside and see if that helps. I will let you know how successful this strategy is.
 
That is a good question which I have set about to answer. It must be small because I don’t have much ( any ) room on my workbench and it must have minimal rigging. I have not yet built the Muscongus Bay lobster smack from the Model Shipways trio kit. I also have a vintage Midwest Maine lobster boat but it is too large.

The third option may disappoint you - I also have the Occre kit of the Lisboa streetcar. It may fit the bill perfectly. It has lots of bits and pieces to paint and assemble when I reach rigging overload.

I am going to think about it and let you know. What is certain is that I will continue with the Victory no matter how slow the progress is.

I hope it is ok that what I write here is more like a diary than a build log. It helps me a lot.
 
It almost feels like cheating. I have started working on the Occre streetcar Lisboa and I have made more progress on the Victory rigging than I have made in a long time! I am quite surprised. I will post a picture or two when the shrouds are complete.
 
It has been a long time since I last worked on the Victory. However I had a chance to do so today and worked on ratlines. I now feel less intimidated by how much has to be done. It is not neat and is not correct but progress is encouraging. I am hoping that I will be able to ‘read ahead’ and work on other bits of the rigging without painting myself into corners so I can relieve the tedium and stop my fingers from cramping!!

I have been familiar with knots from my youth but I just found it difficult to miniaturize the clove hitch so there has been a lot of backtracking. I now know the moves and can push forward.
 
I am reading ahead. Working on the footropes to break the ratline routine. This seems to be working as I am making good progress. I have also found that the rigging diagrams seem to be mislabeled. In spots the foremast is rigged in two different ways and there is no reference to the same spots on the mainmast. I think I can figure this one out as the ‘heftier’ rigging must be on the mainmast. We will see. As always I am glad when I can find the time to work on this. IMG_2242.jpeg
 
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I have been able to spend more time this week. Many more ratlines have been installed - but I am still working on the starboard side. It is a slow process. I will post pictures as long as nobody looks too closely …

I have also installed some hooks in what I hope are the right spots for future use and I have also installed some blocks and drilled the holes for many more. The variety helps keep me going!!

Speaking of blocks - there are some that are so small and iin such awkward places that there is no way I will be able to thread them. I have decided to leave these out. Accuracy will be sacrificed in order to make things possible. On the other hand there are blocks that are large enough and in spots I can manage ( I hope ). I will give these a go.

I made the commitment and installed the bowsprit. Now I need to be even more careful since I don’t have a lot of room and turning the model is an issue.

And of course, what I thought were mislabeled diagrams are just me misreading them. I should have known….

I told my partner that once the model is done there is no place in the house to display it. She said that she would clear if the mantle and it could go there - but I don’t think it’s big enough.
 
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