Artesania Latina Anatomy of Lord Nelson’s HMS Victory 1805

[AlanOES]

Instructions video #45 Part 1

In this part I start by forming another brass sheave and housing that is fixed to the upper hull near the front of the poop deck ( one for port side, one for starboard.
Next it’s preparing and fitting the rigols,
these are the shaped gutterings above the gun ports to divert water from running into the gunport openings. The video doesn’t show this, but I decided to spray them with white primer before fitting to aid with the final paint coat.
Finally I fit parts E6, which are the moulded double doors to represent the forward most openings on the middle gun deck, these just glue onto the hull and there is no actual opening behind them. I did the port side as per instructions but on the starboard side , which will probably be the display side when the model is finished, I decided to make a major alteration.
I marked out the size of the doors on the hull and proceeded to cut out an opening and line the internal 4 sides with thin wood sheet. I purposely cut right through the solid bulkhead behind so that light from the lanterns would glow through the new opening
Studying photos of Victory there seems to be a partition blocking off the lower half of this port, I’m not sure but I think a sick bay was located directly behind these 2 front openings so having them open allowing fresh air in would have benefited the sick men, again just a guess but this partition may have been to prevent strong winds and sea spray getting to the patients, anyway, I fashioned this partition from wood sheet and strips. Next I cut the moulded double doors in half and as they were only made with thin wood I planked the back of them with 2x1 and 1x1 planking. The inside of the doors have a ring bolt on them to which rope is attached to pull the doors closed from inside the ship. I couldn’t find any very small brass rings so I made a couple from the 0.3mm copper rod that I use to make the axel pins on the guns, finally attaching ropes before fixing them in place.
Although quite a challenge I’m pleased with the outcome and it gives my Victory kit a unique feature

 

[Humble Ship Builder]

I really like these little doors. Might look to do the same.

 

[AlanOES]

I really like these little doors. Might look to do the same.

Thanks, it’s nice to put your own stamp on a model kit

 

[AlanOES]

Instructions video #43 Part 1 Update

After waiting a few weeks for the replacement parts to arrive, they finally turned up. Of the 4 parts they sent me you could see that 2 of them had broken and been glued together, one not particularly well I must say, so it wasn’t just me ,anyway, with the new parts and the best of my original parts, plus a dab of filler I was able to make the 2 billboards to complete video #43

 

[AlanOES]

Instructions video #45 Part 2

In this 2nd part I fit the chain wales or channels, prepare the deadeyes and all the different types of chains , then fit the deadeyes and chains to the foremast channels.
Again , I’ve made a couple of changes to the video instructions, firstly in the video they just show eyebolts ( part EB) fitted to the top of the channels but I’ve seen photos or drawings of rings attached as well, so I’ve added 3mm rings to the eyebolts. Also I wasn’t convinced about the sizes and layout of the deadeyes as again I’ve seen photos and drawings showing things differently to the video instructions.
To check this out I arranged to take the wife on a shopping trip to Gunwharf Quays in Portsmouth and while she was busy in the shopping outlets I sneaked away to the historic dockyards. I wasn’t expecting to see much of the exterior of Victory as she’s covered with scaffolding at the moment but was hoping to see the scale model of Victory they have in the museum there, but to my surprise the fore and mizzen channels were still visible and confirmed my suspicions that the video instructions were wrong,
there are at least 3 sizes of deadeyes on the channels not just the 5 and 4 mm ones supplied in the kit. I will mention at this point that I will not use the kit part numbers for the deadeyes as I am using aftermarket walnut parts, so will mention them by size.
For the fore channel I’ve used 5, 4 and 3mm deadeyes. To line up the angle of the chains, I fitted the mast in place and attached a thread at the approximate height of the fighting top and run it down over the channel deadeye positions to the hull were I marked the trajectory line. On the starboard side I was still able to mark a faint pencil line on the Perspex strip.
All the chains were blackened before fitting then touched in with matt black paint once in place. The deadeyes were painted with black satin finish.

 

[AlanOES]

Additional photos for video #45 part 2