Been busy over the Christmas period. Put the Wales on - yes they are not truly accurate however after alot of head scratching they seem right(ish)
The instructions said to use 2 no 4x2 mm strips for the top and middle wale (Caldercraft use 3 no Walnut strips 1x3.5mm). This immediately made me wonder if the Occre ones were too big - yes there is a difference in scale. My reading of the Alan McGowan Victory book talks about Wales being 10 inches thick and made up of 4 strakes each 15 inch wide and 10 inch deep
Instructions call for the use of 2 no 2x4mm strips for the top and middle wale. First I tried 2 no strips for the middle Wale but it did not seem right in proportion of distance between gun ports so I put a third one on. Middle one looks right with only two strips. As you can see I had a bit of a problem getting them in the correct position, in some places its a bit too high. I then used my miniature plane to reduce the thickness of them to around 1.5mm
Visually it seems to work even though they are not really correct if you scale up the originals........ So moving on
As you can see the bow and stern where the Wales curve round is still 'work in progress' - more sanding plus filling to get any gaps between strips filled in and the strips to meet correctly - still it will be hidden once the all covering paint is applied. Clever use of painting the black bands against the yellow hull will make the problems I encountered fitting the Wales visually go away - I hope!!
Started to cut away above the gun ports to make room for the pre-cast pieces of metal to go above the gun port (photo to follow in the next posting)
It beginning to come to life. Next job making hinges for the gun ports
Happy new year to everyone - I will make 2024 a Occre Victory modeling year with the aim of completion before 2025!!
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