Royal William Euromodel 1:72 by Vince P. -- FINISHED

[Dicas]

What product did you use to blacken the guns? It seems to give a good finish.

Regards

JL

 

[Vpirozzi]

One main deck gun station completed. I am trying to put as much detail in as possible. It is fun making all of the items from scratch.
The cannon balls are #6 shot from a shotgun shell, and the ram and cannon ball racks are made from scratch. The bucket was bought.

Vince P.

 

[Vpirozzi]

What product did you use to blacken the guns? It seems to give a good finish.

Regards

JL

Hi JL,
See photo.
Just put some in a dish and place the parts. Watch until the color suits your needs. Pour the liquid back into the jar, as it can be re-used. Rinse off the parts 3 times in fresh water.
I bought it from MicoMark.

Vince P.

 

[Dicas]

Thank you.

I don't believe they sell to Europe being an harmful liquid.

We have a similar product sold by Uschi van der Rosten, a german suplier.

Thanks, anyway

You are doing a very good job with that kit.

Regards

JL

 

[Vpirozzi]

The starboard main deck gun battery completed. Putting this much detail is very time consuming. I have completed several ships with complex rigging, which is my favorite part, but rigging these guns is tougher. The close quarters and short lengths is a real challenge. I still have to do the port side. The quarterdeck and forecastle guns are even smaller.

Vince P.

 

[Vpirozzi]

The maindeck gun battery is completed. A lot of busy work here.

Next up is the gangways between the forecastle and quarterdeck.

Vince P.

 

[DenisR]

Very nice detailing Vince.

Denis

 

[Pat71]

Looks good. Respect for Your patience!

 

[Vpirozzi]

Constructing the gangways. I used a nice piece of 1/16 " walnut sheeting from my stash. I cut the strips 13mm wide and used some leftover planking wood for the hanging knees.

Vince P.

 

[Vpirozzi]

The gangways between the quarterdeck and forecastle along with the ladders and stairs are completed. I used some nice brass stanchions for the railing and some 3x3mm walnut lumber for the support posts. The stairs at the aft end were made from scrap lumber as well.

Next up is the main deck anchor bits and quarterdeck breast rail. The breast rail will be a challenge with all of the curved railings. The railings could be made with a more squared off look and would still be fine, but I am going to attempt to include the decorative curves.

Vince P.

 

[Vpirozzi]

The anchor bits are completed and in place. A grating assembly is also added where the beams connect to the quarterdeck. Again, no precut parts. Everything from scratch directly from the plans.

Now the hard part is to construct and install the quarterdeck breast rail.

Vince P.

 

[Vpirozzi]

Finished the quarterdeck breast rail. Not as bad as I thought it would be, but considerable amount of work if you want to put the decorative curves and bends like I chose to do. I think it came out nice.

I tried to take photos at each stage of the construction. The overall railing had to be constructed in layers. For the rounded corners of the top rails, I used some plywood and cut the round corners by hand. For the bends at the ends I used 4mm x 1mm walnut and laminated 2 strips for a thickness of 2mm. It made bending easier. The straight sections were 4mm x 2mm strips, and the little posts were 3 x 3mm.

I am not sure what comes next, but it will be on the quarterdeck somewhere.

Vince P.

 

[Vpirozzi]

The quarter and forecastle deck guns have been assembled. These guns are smaller than the main deck guns and even more difficult to work on if you want to add all of the detail. Since these guns would sit out in the weather all of the time on a real ship, they would look pretty dirty and tarnished. When I blackened them I tried to get a weathered and worn look on the barrels. I think they came out pretty nice and will look authentic out on the decks. Next up is to place and rig them.

Vince P.

 

[Vpirozzi]

Hi Mates,
More on my Royal William. Construction of the curved staircases. There are several ways to accomplish this and no matter, it has to be done from scratch. I chose not construct them like I did with the main deck staircase by creating each step out of little blocks. I also didn't want to reinvent the wheel, so I used Keith Julier's method of starting with a solid block of wood, which is shown in the first photo. It was quite a chore, but not as bad as I anticipated. The results were not quite a work of art,

but as good as my skills would allow. They may have come out a little long, as they encroach on the grates when mounted.

Vince P.

 

[Vpirozzi]

Photos of the staircases in place with the newly constructed quarterdeck breast rail and the deck guns. The guns have to be added first if you are going to rig them. The aft gun on each side is actually under the staircase and partially under the forecastle beast beam. The breast rail is all made from scratch and is constructed of several pieces, some of which have to be hand carved such as the curved panels in the uprights.

I also added some little decorative plates to the staircase walls for an additional feature.

Next up is finishing up on all of the remaining deck fixtures, boat supports, and remaining forecastle guns.

Vince P.

 

[Vpirozzi]

A few more little updates to the deck fixtures.

I constructed and placed the boat supports on the main deck.

I had some little brass stars and placed on the ends of the catheads for a personal touch.

The ladders to the poopdeck.

The rigging brackets on the rear of the poopdeck for the main course sails.

The bits on the upper quarterdeck.

Next up are the forecastle guns.

Vince P.

 

[Vpirozzi]

I think I have completed all of the topside deck fixtures with the exception of the long boat.

I also added some spare mast sections tied down to the boat racks. Ships of the line would carry spares in case of battle damage.

If you choose to go the long route and add a lot of detail, it takes quite a while to do.

Next up is the rudder assembly.

Vince P.

 

[Vpirozzi]

The rudder assembly has been completed and placed on the hull. Pretty straight forward, but bending the metal brackets to follow the hull was tricky. The metal is very soft and the bends needed are quite drastic. A little heating with a hair dryer and bending ever so slowly is small increments is critical to prevent breaking them.

Also, the safety lines on the rudder according to the plans are ropes and not chains. There is no chain supplied in the kit, so I just used the correct size rope (1.0mm).

Next up will be to continue with the outside hull fixtures such as gun port lids, chain wales, doorways, and ladders, etc.

Vince P.

 

[Vpirozzi]

Ok, Pirate Pete and I did some research on rudder pendants of ships of the RW period. It appears that the plans are not exactly correct, but close. I decided that I will remove the rope pendants I installed and do it the accurate way. I actually got the idea from photos of the actual HMS Victory currently moored in England. I have to order some supplies in order to complete this, so more to come as soon as they arrive.

Vince P.

 

[Vpirozzi]

I have installed the closed gun port lids on the port side. They were created from walnut plywood and strips. The hinge plates were not the ones included in the kit. I used larger ones for the lower ports and smaller ones for the uppers. I made the hinges out of small eye bolts and brass wire. I determined that 2 pull up ropes were needed for the lower ports, since these ports were large and heavy. Single ropes are used for the uppers. When I make and install the open port lids, I will use the same configuration. I also added the rain gutters above some of the ports. The plans show these but you have to make them from scratch or buy them. I bought mine. Some of the ports are crossed by the wales, so you have to modify the lids by adding wood so when they are closed they conform to the slope and flow of the wales.

Now on to the starboard side.

Vince P.