HMS Victory - Cancelled due to fatal mishap - Model stepped on!

[Bertie McBoatface]

On the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar, HM dined in the great cabin of HMS Victory. I wonder if salt pork, hard tack and weevils were on the menu? 🥴 Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if Nelson's menu wasn't even more sumptuous than Elizabeth's, given his high position and the eating habits of the rich and powerful in the Georgian period. 

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4361064.stm

 

I have a Revell HMS Victory on hand in 1/225 scale which I would like to start as soon as my current maritime project finishes in a week or two.

 

 

[Bertie McBoatface]

I'm saving this post for pictures of the finished model. 

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Not completed but very definitely finished.

[Bertie McBoatface]

It's the day of the Jubilee and clearly, it is my duty as an Englishman to make a start on HMS Victory today, however reluctant I may be to have three simultaneous projects in progress. 

 

 

I found quite acceptable box art on the side opening Revell box. All very exciting! (I choose to ignore the rather suspect waterline!)

 

And inside the box, what delights were waiting! No sarcasm here, this is truly an excellent kit.

 

 

The moulds were made only seven years after the Coronation. I was two years old in 1959.

 

We must judge the kit by the standards of its day, though it might be that some will judge Revell somewhat harshly for not mentioning on the box that the kit is not quite as new as the illustration. 

 

 

I've been provided with two colours of thread for the rigging. Black for the tarred standing rigging which held the masts up and 'natural hemp' for the running rigging which was used to control the sails. It's overscale of course, for this is a 1/225 scale kit. It may be that I'll use fishing line to avoid the hairiness of cotton and to help me keep things taut. The thicker string is the cable for the bow anchors, and looking at some photos of the ship, that's about the right size. I didn't know that rope could be that thick. The paper flags and the famous signal 'England expects...' look very 1959, don't they?

 

 

Only eleven sails are provided in vac-formed plastic. That's just a small sample of the spread of sail that the Victory could hoist but it's adequate in this scale. I remember this style of model sail from building kits like this during the last century. I wasn't impressed then but I am now. 

 

 

With careful painting they can be splendid and I'll be delighted if mine look this good.

 

 

Shrouds and ratlines, the essential feature of a square rigged ship. These are and always were inadequate. That said, this was the only way that a cheap plastic kit (and it's still cheap) could provide some version of shrouds that a kid could put together. I used them as a kid and I'll be trying to do better this time.

 

 

There's surprisingly little flash and the moulding is rather good. The plastic is hard, to take all that detail, and I think it will be good to work with.

 

 

It's a bit overscale but it really will look good with the simplest of painting techniques; washes and dry brushes to the fore!

 

 

There's been a little damage done to the mould over the years. 

 

 

The coppered bottom is very well done. I like that the nails aren't precisely in line. It's an overscale variation, but I can accept it for the 'hand-built' appearance it gives.

 

 

I'm not a fan of wood grain in plastic in any scale but that's just my opinion. I love the coils of rope. They will look fab under paint and I can't wait for the booing from RN types who will say that the fleet flagship would NEVER have been that untidy!

 

 

Ew! The masts still have the sink-marks that I remember from last time.

 

 

But that's made up for by the pieces like this. I think that's first rate for 1959.

 

 

And even in 1/225 the big 32 pounders are brilliant. Big enough to drill out the barrels.

 

 

The ship's boats are very delicately done. Nice one Revell.

 

 

And look at those stairs down to the orlop and the grating just waiting to be drilled out.

 

 

Fabulous deadeyes and the ironwork below is easily replaced with stretched sprue. I think I'll need a lot of that resource.

 

 

The instructions are bang up to date. I hope that they are reliable.

 

 

Standing rigging. This will be an excellent lesson for me prior to trying to rig my Beagle, an upcoming wooden model ship. There are equally good diagrams for the running rigging and the sails themselves.

 

 

And finally, there's a not bad representation of the complicated figurehead.

 

I can't wait to have at it. The action begins after tea!

 

[arfa1983]

This will be the flagship of this GB I believe! I very much look forward to following this one Bertie.

[Black Knight]

25 minutes ago, Bertie Psmith said:

I

 

 

Shrouds and ratlines, the essential feature of a square rigged ship. These are and always were inadequate. That said, this was the only way that a cheap plastic kit (and it's still cheap) could provide some version of shrouds that a kid could put together. I used them as a kid and I'll be trying to do better this time.

 

1. does any parts get glued over that Revell Copyright marking? or is it a matter of scraping it off?

2. You should try to obtain an Airfix Shroud Making Frame. They came with most of their sailing ship kits after they dropped the polythene pre-made shrouds. Someone may have one laying about in their scrap box [not me though]

[Bertie McBoatface]

12 minutes ago, Black Knight said:

1. does any parts get glued over that Revell Copyright marking? or is it a matter of scraping it off?

2. You should try to obtain an Airfix Shroud Making Frame. They came with most of their sailing ship kits after they dropped the polythene pre-made shrouds. Someone may have one laying about in their scrap box [not me though]

 

1.  It's the poop so it will be completely visible. I plan to dry brush the trademark and date to make it pop on the poop.

 

2. I'm going to rig the shrouds as they were actually done, up from a deadeye, around the mast and back down to the next deadeye, then repeat alternating port and starboard. I'll do the ratlines the easy way in this small scale with stretched sprue.

[Bertie McBoatface]

I know there was an Airfix Victory too, but when I look at this kit, I get the strangest feeling that I've been here before. I remember building a Victory as a nipper and I think this was it. However, that's my memory we are relying on so I may never have built a Victory at all!

[Black Knight]

I'd recommend using very fine nylon monofilament fishing line

1. you'll have consistent thickness

2. you'll have plenty, and you'll need plenty, on a reel

3. Superglue and nylon fishing line love each other. When I rig a biplane with it, it only takes seconds for the glue to set with it 

4. you can get fishing line in suitable colours, for Rat lines you'd be wanting black or a very, very dark brown

 

[Bertie McBoatface]

16 minutes ago, Black Knight said:

I'd recommend using ... fishing line

 

That's what I said. Pay attention at the back, there's a dear. 🤣🤣🤣

[Black Knight]

53 minutes ago, Bertie Psmith said:

 

2. I'm going to rig the shrouds as they were actually done, up from a deadeye, around the mast and back down to the next deadeye, then repeat alternating port and starboard. I'll do the ratlines the easy way in this small scale with stretched sprue.

ahem!

[Bertie McBoatface]

2 hours ago, Black Knight said:

I'd recommend using very fine nylon monofilament fishing line

 

You didn't say what for. 🙂

 

 

I think fishing line for the ratlines is impractical. I'd never be able to keep it straight, space it evenly, avoid applying any tension or twist to the shrouds and glue line to line with only these two trembling hands. If anyone can in 1/225, I'd love to see it done. 

 

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I've made a considerable start on the kit and spent the best part of two hours cleaning up the hull sides and making them a little more likely to fit each other and the deck. What wasn't obvious in the box inspection was that between warpage and mould damage and flash and short shots, the bits don't fit! At least, the bits don't fit easily or well, but this is 1959 so what was I expecting? 😆 

 

I think it's going to be useful to adjust and carefully manage my expectations with regard to this project. 🤣

 

 

[Bertie McBoatface]

 

This was one part of the process. I had to take off a few details like railings and gun port eyebrows along the way and enlarge some of the gun ports to make them line up with the moulded-in trucks on the gundeck but eventually I got to a stage where I could glue some pieces together which was my goal for Jubilee day.

 

 

It ain't perfect but it's done.

[stevej60]

I'll tag along with this one looks to be a very interesting project Bertie..

[Bertie McBoatface]

21 minutes ago, stevej60 said:

I'll tag along with this one looks to be a very interesting project Bertie..

 

Welcome aboard. ⛵

[Bertie McBoatface]

It’s clear that this model was based on Victory in dry dock in the fifties. The main hatches, under the boats, are open to the sky, lighting up the upper gun deck for the visitors. A ‘random’ selection of gun ports are open to show the location of the other two gun decks. (In dry dock, Victory cannot carry many of her guns, due to their immense weight. I suspect that the lower decks weren’t fully available for inspection back then.)
 

I don’t feel bound to follow the kit design exactly which gives me freedom to close all of the gun ports except those few which serve the guns visible through the open hatches. This will make life easier for me and make the hull neater and sweeter to my eyes. 
 

The rigging is my main interest and to that I will add complication. Simplifying the hull will emphasise the complexity of the ropes and spars. 
 

~~~~~~~~~~~~
 

Last night I was only able to fit the gun deck to the hull. The instructions directed me to glue that to the main deck before fitting but both decks are warped and neither are shaped to fit! They both have squared off sides while the hull has that tumble home of Perhaps 20 degrees. This is extra significant on the gun deck where the trucks are moulded right at the edge.

I shaped the deck/truck combination to fit the hull and then the large strong locating tabs, together with the angle of the hull sides, trapped the gun deck in place very nicely. It’s made a good strong foundation, perhaps too strong. 
 

I have created a situation that’s woken me up early today. The main deck is wider than the hull sides at the bulwarks. I think it’s possible to fit it by bending the sides apart but I daren’t dry fit because once it’s in, it’s in for keeps. The worst case would be that the bulwarks break during the operation! 
 

Before I find out whether I’ve painted myself into a fatal corner already, I have to paint the gun deck, close the redundant gun ports and fit the remaining guns.
 

I’d like to get that all that done and the main deck fitted before nightfall to avoid another early waking by a subconscious that just won’t let go of this niggle. 
 

we shall see…

[Mjwomack]

10 hours ago, Bertie Psmith said:

I think it's going to be useful to adjust and carefully manage my expectations with regard to this project. 🤣

I should write this out a thousand times. My problem is that every build starts as a mojo restorer before growing like topsy with no expectations management 🫣

[Bertie McBoatface]

5 minutes ago, Mjwomack said:

I should write this out a thousand times. My problem is that every build starts as a mojo restorer before growing like topsy with no expectations management 🫣

I find that the trick is to decide at the start which aspects are important and which ones you are going to just float across with a smile. 🙂

[Bertie McBoatface]

1 hour ago, Bertie Psmith said:

we shall see…

 

@Mjwomack and @Corsairfoxfouruncle, don't be sad until it all goes awry. At the moment it's just slightly exciting!

[JOCKNEY]

Don't forget to add weight in the bilges Bertie, otherwise it wont float upright when you're playing with it in the bath 🛀

 

Cheers Pat

[Bertie McBoatface]

7 minutes ago, JOCKNEY said:

Don't forget to add weight in the bilges Bertie, otherwise it wont float upright when your playing with it in the bath 🛀

 

Cheers Pat

 

You get a haha! and a thank you for that. A bit of ballast will prevent the top heavy ship rolling over while I'm rigging it with potentially damaging results. I'll bung some lead in there when I've finished work this morning. 

[Bertie McBoatface]

 

This was the extent of the problem at first light today. Note the general asymmetry of the whole model. a particular problem was the difference in thickness of two sides of the hull, especially at the point where the main deck needs to locate. This meant that unless I could make an unstressed joint, the thick port side would force the thinner weaker starboard side outwards, making the foremast lean over to starboard. I will accept a wobbly blobbly hull but the spars have to be as straight as I can make them. I decided that I'd have to get a good dry fit before I could go further. There would be no point painting details until I knew it would go in and who knew what would have to be scraped, sanded and ground away to make that happen?

 

 

A further problem was the ridge which holds the main deck down (blue arrow) It doesn't exist on the ship and is more or less unnecessary on the model as the angle of the sides will hold the deck down onto the locating tabs below (green arrow). That had to go, but I decided to keep just a little of it aft of the waist as it's out of sight there and will help with the gluing up later. 

 

Note the thinness of the starboard side, admittedly sanded down here because I had to remove some weird shaped from mould damage. I'll be replacing the rail here and also in the waist where I removed it before I broke it.

 

 

The first time I managed to dry fit the deck I could see the displacement to the stbd side in the position of the steps in the scuttle. More work needed. 

 

 

Here's the same thing at the bow. Note how the stbd side flares more than the port. I had started thinning the entire port side bulwarks down when I remembered to take a photo. It was much more obvious at the start. I nearly sanded the stbd side of the deck instead but that would have left the hole in the deck for the fore mast hopelessly displaced sideways. Sanding and scraping continued for ages until...

 

   Straight    and parallel!

 

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Turning to the main deck itself, I realised that the huge cylinders of plastic under the tiniest locating hole were visible through the open hatch. Also the deck is three feet thick!

 

 

I went over to the attack!

 

 

Much better. Still overscale probably but I didn't want to weaken things too much, just in case. The deck gets brutalised every time I force it into place.

 

 

It's one of those "bury yourself in shavings" days. You should see the carpet!

 

 

And now I'm closing the gun ports. It's a bit tedious after the first few have been done and the method perfected so I broke off to post this and to eat something. I'll be back on the job later.

 

This is turning into something of a Blitzbuild for me, not of the whole build of course, but it would suit me to get the hull done over the weekend and then just play with the strings for the rest of the GB. I'll see how it goes though, as the sun is shining and I'd also like to do some serious dog walking.

 

[Bertie McBoatface]

 

Finished! 

 

'nuff sed.

[Mjwomack]

Sign it up for the Entropy GB (watt section). This is gutting at so many levels not least for the personal memories of when I've contrived to do something equally inexplicable.

As I'm hoping to do the Revell Mayflower of comparable age in the Classic Revell GB I was relying g on your build to give me a few hands hints- not jumping on them was one I'd already worked out for myself though

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Oh no Shipwrecked in drydock ! 😱

[stevej60]

Been there a hundred times Bertie,tomorrows another day in the modelling world.