H.M.S. Victory by Caldercraft - Build Log

[AllanKP69]

Did you use clove hitches for your ratlines? They look rather small for those. Very neat though.

Funny thing is that I thought they looked huge.

Re-rigging the ratlines would keep me awake at night, but perhaps for the future or others building her:
For HMS Victory from the formulas in James Lees' The Masting and Rigging of English Ships of War.........

238/2=119" mast length
119/3=39.6" mast diameter
39.6/2=19.8" Main stay circumference
19.8X0.6=11.9" Shroud circumference
11.9/3.14 = 3.787" diameter of the main mast shrouds (1.3mm at 1:72)

Ratlines - always just under about 1/2" diameter ---> 0,5/72 X 25.4 = 0.17mm at 1:72

I have no idea if the shrouds in the kit are the correct size, but the ratlines would be about 0.13 X the diameter of the shrouds. Scaling your photo, the ratlines look to be about 0.35 the diameter of the shrouds, or nearly three times too large. If they were closer to scale, the knots would be smaller.

Allan

In the photo below the contrast in size is pretty clear.

 

[team118]

Funny thing is that I thought they looked huge.

Re-rigging the ratlines would keep me awake at night, but perhaps for the future or others building her:
For HMS Victory from the formulas in James Lees' The Masting and Rigging of English Ships of War.........

238/2=119" mast length
119/3=39.6" mast diameter
39.6/2=19.8" Main stay circumference
19.8X0.6=11.9" Shroud circumference
11.9/3.14 = 3.787" diameter of the main mast shrouds (1.3mm at 1:72)

Ratlines - always just under about 1/2" diameter ---> 0,5/72 X 25.4 = 0.17mm at 1:72

I have no idea if the shrouds in the kit are the correct size, but the ratlines would be about 0.13 X the diameter of the shrouds. Scaling your photo, the ratlines look to be about 0.35 the diameter of the shrouds, or nearly three times too large. If they were closer to scale, the knots would be smaller.

Allan

In the photo below the contrast in size is pretty clear.

Allan
I agree that the lines are probably way too big. I believe that I used the .1mm natural thread as called for in the plans. Course, now you got me thinking and I'm too lazy to go down stairs! ....lol, I did go down and check!

They are .1mm, and that would convert to about 7.2mm scale wise? Or about 1/4" in US measurements...and yes all of the shrouds are 1.3mm with the #1's all served, so they're a bit thicker.

They do look big and perhaps because my knot tying wasn't as tight as it should be. They should have been synched down more?

I did hold some thread in front of it and it's the same.

We'll just have to squint when we look closely!!!!

 

[team118]

Lovely work as usual, thanks for posting. Can you explain the 2 part strop thing? As a Newby I've wondered more than once the proper way to rig this bit. (I really must buy the Longridge book!)

I can sure try!!!!

So most definitely, there are a few books that have helped me immensely!
Neplean Longridge's The Anatomy of Nelson's Ships.
It includes a bunch of hand drawings and some fold out inserts....be sure if you get it, that it includes those!
I think I paid about $50USD for a used book
It is a model builder's dream. In my mind, if you have the skills, tools and understanding of ship building, you could actually build your own Victory from scratch, it's that detailed.

Alan McGowan's Her Construction, Career and Restoration.
It too is expensive at around $100USD
It has a lot of pictures of the ship in various stages of rehab and repair.
It excels in the back with many isometric pictures of all of the rigging, sails, masts, yards and more!

John McKay's The 100 Gun Ship Victory
Again, about $100USD used.
This has VERY detailed running and rigging diagrams, an actual numbered list of each of the lines....should you want to memorize each line for that quiz you know you'll get when someone comes to look at your finished model and asks...."Do you know each of the lines?" and you respond, OF COURSE and they begin to point at the shifting breast stay for the mizzen mast and demand to know what it's called!!!!!

Longridge has a good diagrams of the 2-part strop/sling for the main yards for the 3 masts. My sense is the strop/sling actually holds the yard in place and the various larger blocks would have the ability to raise or lower the whole yard if needed. The only for the main yard or course is that you'd have to cut the lashing to allow this. I am sure there are those that have a better idea of that.

So the instructions just call for a continuous loop that would be tied around the middle of the yard and then 'hung' to the mast cap. They ask that you add 2 knots to simulate the thimbles.

You can see the sling here. It is between the two pairs of triple/double jeer blocks that do the actually lifting of the yard.
The bottom end has a thimble on it. The upper sling is hung over the cap, the bottom also has a thimble and it is finished with 2 rings that are secured together ( can see that on the side just below the mast cap)

So now you would have those 2 thimbles and lash them together with .1 or .25mm natural thread.

Then you would secure the jeer blocks to the sides of the mast per the instructions.

​

These are some pictures of other builders use of the slings with thimbles





Hope I said all that right!!!!!!

 

[team118]

What an afternoon! I spent 6 hours working on the fore yard, finishing up all the things I missed.

First off though....why all of a sudden are all my pictures that I'm uploading on their side. I am forced to open each picture, edit it and resave it.
This just started.....

So one down, ten or so to go!!!!

I relied HEAVILY on Longridge's diagrams and my database of other builds.

I created the upper sling for the yard. Now Longridge has the eyes of the sling tied together, but that would be a lot of work because my mast is already in place. If I had built these before the upper and top gallant masts had been installed, I could have done it that way. As it was I created the little mini eyes for the sling and then lashed them together with black thread.



You can see here that I lashed to the two eyelets together with black thread rather than creating one eyelet and then running the other one through it...



After that, it was just slow work adding the double jeers to the yard, then the triple jeers off the mast. I did use the wrong size lashing for those jeers, it should have been 1mm natural. By the time I realized it, I had committed to the smaller diameter and didn't want to remove my work and possible damage things.


Getting the jeers lashed and then run down to the deck was tough with all of the other standing rigging in the way, especially with my fat shakey fingers. I also tried to create coils and I am going to have to circle back to some of the videos around because I'm not happy so far with my work there.

The next thing was adding the truss pendants. At first I didn't understand what the directions were saying. Not even a little bit. But there is a reference in Longridge and a diagram of how they are made and lashed to the yard around the back of the mast. After looking at that, I did notice on the blueprints there is a similar diagram with the rigging down to the deck. Then it made sense.



Not that that matters because this is a task that would be WAY easier without all of the stays in place. Also, I should have installed them BEFORE I did any of the slings or jeers. That would have helped too. As it was, I was forced to create these truss pendants, tie them to an already shipped yard, wrap them around the back of the mast, bring the bitter ends down to the deck, attach blocks to the eyelets and the ends of the pendants, lash those together and then secure them to the teeny tiny cleats at the base of the mast.

Well I'll know what to do with the main!!!!

 

[Mike Dowling]

Well I think that your ratlines look amazing regardless of scale, so there !!!

 

[team118]

Well I think that your ratlines look amazing regardless of scale, so there !!!

Lol....thank you Mike!!!!