HMS Victory - Caldercraft 1/72 build log by Andi

Andi · Jan 1, 2026

Altered the build room a bit as had limited space when I built the Endeavour

Bought a reasonable priced computer table and put it at 90 degrees to my original work bench

I then bought a cheap turntable from amazon and made up a support base for the keel (as many others of you have done). As you can see from the photo I have added a spacer at each end of the board to stop it tipping left or right when being worked on

Have sanded down the beard line as instructed and as every one will agree the bulkheads are an extremely tight fit on the keel. Every one of the bulkheads (apart from 9 for some reason) has 3 slightly raised areas about 1cm long on either side of the slot (the slots in the keel also have the same raised areas). On the bulkheads only, I carefully sanded the raised areas and this then gave a perfect tight push fit to seat the bulkheads fully. Below is a picture of a bulkhead with the raised areas and also a picture of bulkhead 9 slot which was perfectly flat on both sides.

My wife bought me this for Christmas

But also told me I can’t drink it until I have finished the ship!!! I am sure it will be a really good vintage by then.

Have now dry fitted the bulkheads to the keel and also dry fitted the middle gun deck - it looks good already

Enough for today, will begin again tomorrow

Andi · Jan 17, 2026

Have now added the dummy barrel strips which I first tapered at the ends and lightly sanded the edges, they needed no soaking or pre-bending and although they were a tight fit they went into place with just a few taps on the end with a small hammer.

The inner and outer stern extensions have also been fitted with only a small amount of sanding needed on the lower lugs.

The bow forward supports have also been fitted and some sanding was needed on parts 40 (port and starboard). The arrows on the photo show where this sanding was necessary

The section of dummy barrel strip between bulkheads 9 & 10 has been removed using a fret saw and the quarter deck has been temporarily pinned in place in order to dry fit the top gun port pattern on both sides

The position of the bulkheads behind the top gun port were marked and then, in order to comply with the instructions and ensure that between bulkheads 6 and 9 the top gun port was 1mm above the quarterdeck i used a 1mm thick strip, layed on the quarterdeck and butted up to the top gun port pattern. (Thanks PaulV as demonstrated in his YouTube video)The bottom of the top gunport pattern was also marked in pencil on each of the bulkheadstop gun ports were removed. Pins were then driven through the top gun port where the position of the bulkheads had been marked ( this will make it much easier
To secure the gun port in place when glue is applied

The photos below show the 1mm strip in place to correctly position the top gunport and also the top gunport with pins in place

Having looked at a number of other build logs have decided to add filler blocks between the bulkheads at the bow and stern. The only material I had to hand was a few sheets of 2mm thick ply so I started cutting out shapes, gluing them in place and then sanding back to the correct profile, using a little filler where needed (see photos below)

However this was very laborious and took a lot of time so I have ordered some thicker soft balsa pieces which I hope will speed the procedure up. While I am waiting for this to arrive I have started installation of the lights. The LED’s I am using are 3mm warm white flicker/candle effect, 9v/12v and built in diodes. I also purchased a box of 3mm plastic LED diode lamp socks and the first job was to push the sock over the LED and apply a small drop of CA glue to hold it in place

The next job was to drill holes in the dummy barrel strips, the bulkheads and the middle gun deck (22). The holes were drilled with a 5.5mm bit which provided a snug fit for the LED’s with socks on, and also allowed enough room for all the wires to pass through each bulkhead. Care should be taken to ensure that the drilled holes are not in line with the gunport openings on the middle and lower gunport patterns (271, 272)

The LED’s can then be inserted into the upper dummy barrel strips and fed down through the holes in the middle gun deck (22) and then the LED’s can be placed in the lower dummy barrel strips. I took a quick course in soldering and use of flux off YouTube and managed to solder all the black wires and then the red wires together but testing the circuit every time a LED was added

At this point I ran out of LED’s so ordered another batch of the same that arrived last Thursday but unfortunately they were plain warm white and did not flicker. The supplier is replacing them but that won’t be until the end of next week so finishing the lights will have to wait a while now

Following the instructions I have drilled 3 holes up into the keel. One between bulkheads 4 and 5, one between bulkheads 9 and 10 and the third between bulkheads 13 and 14. Prior to drilling the holes the keel was reinforced on either side with some scrap 5mm ply.The holes left and right of centre I used a 3mm drill bit and the hole in the centre I used a 3.5mm drill bit. The centre hole was drilled at a slight angle which allowed the drill bit to emerge from the side of the keel just above the 5mm reinforcing piece. This allows enough room for the feed supply for the lights to exit via the bottom of the keel (see photos)