1/100 Heller HMS Victory by Stevedownunder

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Location
Melbourne, Australia.
G’day Viewers,

This is not exactly a build blog more a where I got to before stopping work around 1995.

There are a few reasons I stopped working on this model. One main reason, being very disappointed with the way some of my shrouds turned out mainly the first shroud on each lower mast and fore top mast these I had “served”. Serving was done using a fairly crude rig powered by a pistol drill at one end and a free spinning hook at the other. The line to be served being tied to each end and pulled tight, then with the drill turned on, fine cotton wrapped around to simulate serving. The problem being that for the non-driven hook to turn the line had to twist up a lot before it would drive the hook, result being a permanent twist in the finished line. Being a bit stubborn at times I pushed on thinking it would be alright later, well it did not improve subsequently I cracked it and stopped work. The main hold up now is that I am more focussed on scratch building and have not got around to making a rope making machine with a driven tail/rear hook.

Another problem is the loss of one of the cherubs.

I have had this kit for a very long time, it being bought with paper round money not long after Heller released it, add to that it is still my first sailing ship build, nothing like jumping into the deep end.

Luckily, the local library had a copy of, The Anatomy of Nelsons Ships, by C. Nepean Longridge, a fantastic book with beautiful drawings, a bit later I got a copy of The 100 Gun ship Victory, in the Anatomy of the ship series and later still The Masting and Rigging of English ships of War, 1625 to 1860, by James Lees.

There were a few disasters along the way with this build, the first that I recall is using far to much glue to glue the lower mizzen mast together it subsequently deforming and bending horribly requiring a lot of work to get it back in shape. Not so much a disaster more a step backwards was re-painting the stripes along the hull.

There is no photo etch used in this build, I have made up some parts from scratch. A new Dolphin striker being made of brass and pinned on, some of the more special blocks that are not supplied in the kit, I made of wood I cannot remember their names, they are mounted on some hull to bowsprit lines and lower fore stays for Main and Fore masts. All plastic eye bolts were replaced with wire, eye bolts were made up and fitted in the hull sides for the cannons recoil line. Hammock nets were made of vail material with brass wire glued on, see photo. There are probably other things that I have forgotten for the moment.

There are some mistakes I can see now like the gun port lid line/rope colour. Also the model is not finished, the shrouds are only temporarily tied off as is the lower main and fore stays.

I built a display cabinet for this model in my opinion absolutely necessary to prevent dust and inquisitive cats at bay.

I will be happy to answer any questions if I can.

Cheers,

Stephen.

DSC_0749.JPGDSC_0754.JPGDSC_0763.JPGDSC_0778.JPGDSC_0783.JPGDSC_0794.JPGDSC_0780.JPG
 
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Yes, somewhere, I still have that Les Wilkins book, myself. Stephen, this is a fantastic Victory, and I will be following along with great interest.
G'day Marc,
After seeing your amazing work on the Soleil Royal, that is very generous, thank you.
Unfortunately I don't know when I will get back to working on the Victory. Firstly I need to make a rope making machine with a center hook driven at both ends for "serving". Secondly all of my hobby time at present is going into my scratch built wooden steam drifter trawler now into it's second decade.
Cheers,
Stephen.
 
Hi Stephen, can you tell me where you got the hammock netting material from? Thanks.
YuriyView attachment 213830
Hi Yuriy,

The material is for making veils.

I bought the material from a sewing/fabric shop.

I made a simple jig to manufacture the hammock nettings, if you are interested I can post a photo of the jig, although it is really only a piece of ply wood with some nails at the appropriate spacing to form a frame that the brass could be temporarily attached to while the veil material was super glued to.

Cheers,
Stephen.
 
I am joining here as I still think a rebuild "deep down to the 1765 phenotype "may be some thimg interesting to me based on the same Heller kit.
Hi Chris,

That sounds like quite a big project, I hope you do a build log so I and others can have a look.

Have you seen the wonderful work that Hubac’s Historian is doing with his Heller Soleil Royal worth a look if you are contemplating an extensive rebuild.

Cheers,
Stephen.
 
Hi Chris,

That sounds like quite a big project, I hope you do a build log so I and others can have a look.

Have you seen the wonderful work that Hubac’s Historian is doing with his Heller Soleil Royal worth a look if you are contemplating an extensive rebuild.

Cheers,
Stephen.
Hy Stephen, as I rebuild the Heller SR, too I really know how much work has to be invested into the kit to change it from SR towards SAINT PHILIPPE 1693.So this VICTORY 1765 project is something very very far away.

As I like your build I recommend the well known project "VICTORY... and beyond" from DaFi Daniel. Hope this helps as he is as fundamentalistic as Marc is with his Heller kit...
 
Hello girls and guys...

I added a triangle ruler to the lines plan to give you some impression of the size of the project. So you can see the 10 is at the keel's underside and rising up to 208mm hight at the hull's side towards the hutt deck over poop. L. F. is the bent CWL si we do look onto the horizontal keel:

Polish_20210217_000505347.jpg

and a picture of the flat to show how much changes have to be made with this kit's underwater part.

Polish_20210217_092444759.jpg
I am not happy with the shape recently and have to get rid of this line coming out - by sanding...


Polish_20210217_092616410.jpg

... but what stays is this very sharp edge in the kit's surface form the planked towards the smooth surface that runs me mad till I got a first look onto the hull of the kit when opening this fantasticly large box.

Edit:
Ohhh no I didn't run mad and worked with a dwarf's axe on the kit this is a kit pice I got sent by Mark for shape and testing purposes.
 
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Hello girls and guys...

I added a triangle ruler to the lines plan to give you some impression of the size of the project. So you can see the 10 is at the keel's underside and rising up to 208mm hight at the hull's side towards the hutt deck over poop. L. F. is the bent CWL si we do look onto the horizontal keel:

View attachment 214008

and a picture of the flat to show how much changes have to be made with this kit's underwater part.

View attachment 214012
I am not happy with the shape recently and have to get rid of this line coming out - by sanding...


View attachment 214013

... but what stays is this very sharp edge in the kit's surface form the planked towards the smooth surface that runs me mad till I got a first look onto the hull of the kit when opening this fantasticly large box.

Edit:
Ohhh no I didn't run mad and worked with a dwarf's axe on the kit this is a kit pice I got sent by Mark for shape and testing purposes.
Hi Chris,

Maybe you could start a build log for your project.

Currently my HMS Victory is on hold while I focus on a scratch built drifter trawler.

Cheers,
Stephen.
 
Hi YT,

I should have checked if I could find the jig before offering to take a photo of it, as I am unable to find it I have drawn a sketch of what it was.
I hope this helps.

You will need to determine the distance between the two wires or what ever material you use, there are several widths required depending on the hammock crane in question, mark it onto a piece of wood and carefully hammer some suitable nails, on my original one I used what we call "brads" over here these are simply a fairly short nail around 1" long.

I used cyno to glue the brass wire to the veil material, over the years the cyno has turned sort of white and doesn't look too good, I would probably try Titebond 3.

There needs to be a small amount of tension in the netting but not much before gluing.

I trimmed excess netting with a fresh scalpel blade.

If I have left out something let me know and I will add in some more detail, hope this helps.

Cheers,
Stephen.
 

Attachments

  • hammock jig drawing21022021.pdf
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Hi Stephen.
I know this project is on hold and has been for a while, but I still want to say you have done a really great job on this ship and as for the weathering on the copper plates below the waterline that is absolutely amazing.

Martin555.
 
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