To victory and beyond ...

[dafi]

After the fighting top had found its place, it was finally time to fit the futtock shrouds.

The work preparation was the blackening of the etched parts and the painting of the dead eyes. Then the irons of the dead eyes were bent open, the dead eyes inserted and everything squeezed shut and secured with some glue.

The upper hooks were then tied into the shrouds. This shroud was fully dressed, again using my technique with white glue as for my scale.

First test of the dead eyes in the holes of the fighting top and the shrouds hooked in.

Now you can see where the holes in the fighting top need to be reworked so that the irons don't sit at an angle. The lower shrouds have also been marked with a thread to hold the futtock shrouds.

Next, the dressing of the lower shrouds was completed and brought to the same height.

Finally the futtock shrouds could be hooked in, wrapped once around the futtock stave and tied to the shroud.

After trimming, this is what came out

XXXDAn

 

[dafi]

For the next level, I prepared the top mast shrouds. Even if Steel doesn't mention it explicitly, in most modern sources the foremost shroud is also dressed here, so that's what I decided to do. The sisterblock is also integrated between the two forward shrouds.

But first come the hangers / burton tackles ...

... then the sister blocks ...

... and everything in place.

Here you can see again the difference between the dressed and undressed shrouds. Unfortunately, in contrast to my self-made ropes, the purchased ropes do fluff a little, but this is not visible to the naked eye.

To continue working, I tensioned the shrouds down with clamps and gravity.

And dark ropes in front of a dark background are somewhat annoying even with good lighting, so I made a white cardboard template for this spot.

Here you can see again the difference between the dressed and undressed shrouds. Unfortunately, in contrast to my self-made ropes, the purchased ropes do fluff a little, but this is not visible to the naked eye.

To continue working, I tensioned the shrouds down again with clamps and gravity.

And dark ropes in front of a dark background are a bit annoying even with good lighting, so I made a white cardboard template for this spot.

Then the dead eyes were bound in as the lower ones. To compensate for the lack of a third hand, I then tied the shroud to be worked on with a thread to the yardarm, see green arrows, helps immensely.

XXXDAn

 

[europapete]

This detailed explanation is going to be SOOO helpful when I get to this stage. Thank you for doing this.

 

[europapete]

There we go, all caught up with the printing. (another 67 pages lololol) Volume 3 is nearly 3/4 full!

 

[dafi]

But this here is only the short story ;-)

Have a look here

Plastik: To HMS Victory (Heller) and beyond - Bauberichte - Das Wettringer Modellbauforum

The (almost) complete story since 2010 with 4600+ entries and 760,000+ views.

Go and fetch some more paper and files

 

[europapete]

WOW! That's going to take all week to read through! Thanks Dan, that lot will keep me busy for a while.

 

[dafi]

The main thing is to get you off the road so you don't do anything stupid ;-)

 

[europapete]

lolol, reading all that and driving at the same time. hhmmm......yep, keep me off the road.

 

[dafi]

It was that time again. My little one had wanderlust again and wanted to get out.

Evian on Lake Geneva was the destination this time, a big meeting of the French. And as Madame doesn't like travelling, I was allowed to come along too. And a few other bits and pieces.

The SMS Trinkstein was a big hit! The number of times Joachim had to tell the story is mind boggling, as the dafi was never there, he was at all times everywhere and gossiping with everyone. Thanks Joachim for the help!

Captain Hornblower's starting scene was also well received, Capitaine sans peur as he is called in French, the captain without fear

Various printed parts ...

... tools ...

... books ...

... and of course savoury slices - after all, the French are gourmets

And the little one was also very excited ...

...we had a photo session with her straight away.

Best regards, DAniel

 

[europapete]

Looks like a fantastic show Dan, thank you for posting the report. Those gourmet slice came out really well. I love the Austrian Mountain Navy also.

 

[dafi]

Merry Christmas everyone. It's been a while since Evian, but my little fat girl with the stripes is still slumbering in her transport box in the camper van. Too much to do in the time before the contemplative time.

Nevertheless, there was some news. Late additions and news. First the late addition

Some time ago I needed some more guns. The proportions of the kit barrels are actually quite good, and with the etched parts you can also get the coat of arms on quite well. However, the most difficult part was always the part that you see the most - the muzzle. In the past, I had always closed it with some sprue and drilled a new hole, which was acceptable for individual pieces but annoying for mass production. Since I already had the basic programming for the guns of the USS Constitution, I took the Blomefield lines from the contemporary plans and updated them in the file and also added the coat of arms in the correct thickness for the scale. So I was able to reconstruct the whole set of guns quite quickly, I still use the gun mounts from the box.

Here's the old and the new together.

Here is the difference between the untreated kit carronade and the new one, once pure and once with paint.

The long tubes also benefit. The basic proportions are correct, but now the reinforcement rings are more clearly defined and the crest fits the scale.

Here is a comparison of the lengths of the 12-pounders: short, medium, long, medium, short. I also took the opportunity to attach the flint lock. Because you never actually saw the empty pan shown otherwise. Either there was a cover over it or the flint lock was fitted.

I think it was worth it

XXXDAn

 

[shota70]

Merry Christmas everyone. It's been a while since Evian, but my little fat girl with the stripes is still slumbering in her transport box in the camper van. Too much to do in the time before the contemplative time.

Nevertheless, there was some news. Late additions and news. First the late addition

Some time ago I needed some more guns. The proportions of the kit barrels are actually quite good, and with the etched parts you can also get the coat of arms on quite well. However, the most difficult part was always the part that you see the most - the muzzle. In the past, I had always closed it with some sprue and drilled a new hole, which was acceptable for individual pieces but annoying for mass production. Since I already had the basic programming for the guns of the USS Constitution, I took the Blomefield lines from the contemporary plans and updated them in the file and also added the coat of arms in the correct thickness for the scale. So I was able to reconstruct the whole set of guns quite quickly, I still use the gun mounts from the box.

Here's the old and the new together.

Here is the difference between the untreated kit carronade and the new one, once pure and once with paint.

The long tubes also benefit. The basic proportions are correct, but now the reinforcement rings are more clearly defined and the crest fits the scale.

Here is a comparison of the lengths of the 12-pounders: short, medium, long, medium, short. I also took the opportunity to attach the flint lock. Because you never actually saw the empty pan shown otherwise. Either there was a cover over it or the flint lock was fitted.

I think it was worth it

XXXDAn

wonderful work my friend
merry Christmas and Happy new year

 

[AllanKP69]

Love the Blomefield pattern guns, it is really nice to see the realistic cannon pattern for your ship. The carriages had cleats on the front sides of the brackets and breasts on the front of the brackets at some point. Do you or anyone else here know when these came into use? Contemporary paintings show these but I was wondering when these were added to the carriages. The following drawing is from Caruana's The History of English Sea Ordnance, Volume 2 and the painting is by Benjamin West , circa 1806.
Allan

 

[dafi]

The sketchbook of William Rivers - Victory´s gunner from 1790 up to 1812 - show carriages completely identical with those of Thorsminde 1811, but without any cleats. Gary Morgan from MSW had a look at this book in the archive but the pages are out of chronical order, so no conclusion can be done timewise apart that at 1790 the carriages most possibly had none. The carriages in Thorsminde from 1811 only show horns, see the picture, one on each side and 2 vertical ones in the front but no horizontal breast. Those horns were appiled afterwards and are not integral like in Corunas sketch.

Also there could have been instead stop beams on the hull underneath the port as seen on HMS Colossus wrecked in 1798. View from top.

You see, one has plenty of options ;-)

XXXDAn

 

[OldPaBE]

The Victory was already a famous ship, when she was fighting at Trafalgar. She had a long successful career that she represented in several different outfits. Funny enough the iconic Trafalgar appearance was the most short lived one and the least documented too. She served about 35 years in her original outfit, 2 years the Trafalgar outfit, and more than 100 years in her black and white painting. The actual restored Trafalgar state is now also more than a 100 years old and an epoch by itself.

Let me take you for a small ride though these times. It was a most exciting project, that started with simply trying out new resin, took off by itself, and developed into nice display on the history of that great ship.

Already longer finished was the rigged version of a 1805 first rate.

Now come the version as build from about 1780, the actual state of my research for the iconic 1805 version, the black and white version of past 1910 and the latest version of the museums ship in its past 2016 look.

Here the overview.

Travelling times in 4 pictures

We start with the beauty of the as build version, with its nice friezes and - not visible - the wonderful carvings on head and stern.

The best known version is the least known by far. Done under pressure of time there is no known documentation. Here shown is the intermediate result of my research so far.

The biggest changes were suffered from 1814 on to 1920. The planking was removed and the new one was flush without any wales. The bow was reconstructed as a round bow, the hammocks got build cases and the masts were replaced by smaller steel ones with a reduced number of shrouds.

Seen by todays eyes a pity but still the historical version that lasted the longest.

And of course the version that is the best known, the almost complete reconstruction in Portsmouth ;-)
Even with many anachronisms and differences to contemporary sources, this ship gives a nice impression onto how ships may have looked in the old days, a pleasure to be there and see

XXXDAn

Very interesting, congratulations from Belgium -)) Philippe

 

[dafi]

Well, and the little fat one with the stripes is still stuck in the camper van since Evian. Nevertheless, there is always enough Victory for me to do.

I really missed the 1910 model at the last two exhibitions, as I like to show the developments on the ship. Time to take another look at my victorian black and white beauty. The first construction phase was January to March 2022, so that's already 2 years ago.

A brief look back: After sanding down and fattening up the entire side of the ship to get a level surface, she looked all tattered at first.

But the grace of the paint brought back some decency and dignity.

But in this state I realized one thing: A lot of glue and car filler had caused the hull halves to warp outwards quite a bit, 2 mm on the port side and 6 mm on the starboard side :-0

Then I was initially frustrated, but also realized that I should let the material work out in peace and see if it would still turn out any good.

And I think it's going to become something in the end. The good girl was released from her slumber and thoroughly checked. Deformation no had longer increased. However, it will take a lot of bending force, but I think the decks can manage this, with a little internal help if necessary. But that will only come when the time comes. Why?

I can only insert the decks once the window panes have been inserted. I can only insert the window panes once the outside has been painted. And I can't paint the outside until the planks are in place. So I had to take care of the planks.

In the past, I liked to use 0.2 mm ABS sheet, but the plastic glue tended to leave fingerprints. Wood was too thick for me and too time-consuming to procure. That's why I went exploring in my model maker friends' circles and found what I was looking for: 250 gram paper/cardboard.

Initial tests were quite inspiring.

In the original, there were wooden battens nailed on in two thicknesses to separate the colors. I made these from Evergreen, although I made them slightly thicker for handling reasons.

So planks cut on the guillotine shears ...

... and opened the glue pot.

First planks are slapped on ...

... and even that didn't put me off any further ;-)

And at some point the port half was planked, deliberately disregarding all planking schemes.

And in case anyone thinks that the entrance gate visible today is original, no, the gate that can be seen today is from this state of construction and was installed in the ship between 1820 and 1828. One gate further back than as build. And these port parts were simply reinstalled one port further forward in 1920 and declared as Trafalgar state. Honi soit qui mal y pense.

Fortunately, I've had the parts in my supply kit for a long time, so I just had to grab them.

For me as a plastic person, the tight planking around the stern was of course something new. I'll have to clean it up a bit, then it'll fit.

And I don't know why I remembered some well-known lines in the next picture ...

"Beneath it, visible to all, lay a huge spaceship, one hundred and fifty meters long, shaped like a smooth sneaker, snow-white and maddeningly beautiful. At its heart was a small golden box containing the most sophisticated invention ever made, an invention that made this spaceship something unique in the history of the galaxy, an invention that gave the spaceship its name - 'Heart of Gold'."
- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Chapter 4

But what still looks like this ...

... should develop into this

Cheers, DAniel

 

[dafi]

When it rolls, it rolls, or the victory of impatience over model-building caution.

Once I was this far along, I naturally wanted to see the whole thing in paint. This was a risk because the paper planking is quite sensitive and I still had to do the whole other side. But, but, but: it just had to be done.

I had slightly oversized the separating battens, so I sanded the thicker one even thinner and broke the edges. It did the whole thing good.
I used the masking tape to protect the paper planks. This worked really well.

After the first round of white spray over everything, a beveled skewer was ideal for removing grains and impurities.

Then I generously covered the white strip with masking tape and used the profile battens to cut it into shape with a scalpel, which went really quickly. Then black spray and removed the masking and simply: JOY! It worked.

The first size sample of the rigols hung up.

Very striking on the contemporary hull are the many additions, here the downpipes, probably plumbing.

But with a little paint, they blend into the overall work of art in such a way that one thinks they have always been there ;-)

Enjoy, DAniel

 

[dafi]

And because it was so beautiful, we went straight on.

Some of the ports have been planked up over the years. So that it still looks very well-fortified ...

... the missing windows were simply painted on. Honi soit qui mal y pense.

The artillery has also found its way to the dressed rehearsal. In front are the three signal cannons for the salute, above them short 12-pounders from dubious historical stocks ...

... and amidships the historic Trafalgar guns - or what they were considered to be at the time ;-)

And before the questions come, yes, the barrels did indeed sit on the lower portframe back then. Improperly executed changes to the port dimensions and incorrect carriages ...

XXXDAn

 

[dafi]

The rigols have also found their way onto the model. Here still in the stack ...

... and here already at the scene of the crime.

My favorite detail But I saw afterwards that the wooden panel only covers the top panel, so I'll probably have to touch that up again.

The area of the hase bolsters has already been marked on the bow and the prison cell has also been given its bars ...

... and the windows under the poop also got their window frames.

XXXDAn