Looking good John the tiles look brilliant

Rgd Martyn

Hi John, if all you are proposing to do now is plank the upper deck area to assist in obtaining the correct gun port height the I don't foresee you having any problems.

Regards

Alan

Hi John,
Superb job on the tiling. Your build is looking fantastic.
Kind regards,
Garth

Latest updates. Back in the UK again for a couple of months and missing my lady friend already so I have been looking at the build videos to keep me going. It has been refreshing to do a variety of tasks again after endless copper tiles, I must say, and slowly it’s all coming back.

So, I have now jumped around quite a bit. Having put a hold on the planking whilst I completed the hull and tiling, I am now back on track and will try to pick up the threads again. But there was one problem I needed to overcome, which was the position of the upper deck gun ports that appeared to be a shade to low if you follow the instructions. To get the position perfect I needed to jump ahead and lay the upper deck planks in order to mark the exact centre of the gun ports. This meant leaving the planking once again together with the some bow work and the start of the gallery.

In the end I realised that I didn’t need to complete the planking of the decks at this stage but to simply put the deck supports in and use a few planks to rest one of the cannons on, that I had completed previously. This worked out really well and I could line up every gun port precisely before cutting it out. I will now go back to the gallery to put the floor in and then complete the upper deck before finishing the bulwarks and quarterdeck. If anyone wants to follow this route here is the procedure:

1. Place a cannon on a few strips of planking and push it up to the inside of the hull.

2. Notice where the tip of the cannon touches the planks, this was at the bottom of the third plank on mine but it will vary along the deck so you will need to mark it for every port.

3. Drill a hole in the middle of the left and right edges you have already marked, at the same height as the inside position.

4. Mark the top and bottom lines 6mm either side of the hole. Use a cocktail stick to check the position on the inside against the muzzle of the cannon.

5. Cut the width exactly but open the hole out top and bottom gradually testing with the cannon as you go.

I used an emery board for finishing. It is an excellent tool, tapered at one end to fit the hole before it is full size and, exactly 12mm at the thick end to use as a guide/jig. Indeed, I have spent many hours looking around the women’s sections of department stores for useful tools often acquiring strange looks on the way but at least my wife has stopped apologising for me now.



Here is the completed deck stained and ready to fit the cannons. I took a lot of care with the planking even though it wasn’t necessary because most of the deck won’t be visible because I need the practice ready for the quarter deck and poop deck. I also noticed from my pictures on-board the real Victory a couple of years ago, that the grating is lighter than the surrounding frame so, out came the masking tape.



Whilst I have been playing around with stains and oils I also pondered on making wooden nails/trenails, for the quarter deck planking. I never bothered with the upper gun deck as most of it won’t be seen but the test results look good. A bit more work involved but hey, she’s a beautiful lady and deserves the best.




Here’s the real thing.




Finally, after racking brains I now have a location for the finished ship, a shade higher than I would have like but it was determined as a result of negations with the boss so that’s that.



I have also decided to go into cannon production. The problem is, when you get used to building them again, it can be quite a while before the next lot are due so it makes sense to get them all out of the way in one go. I wasn’t happy with the brass wire for the axles and barrels so I used the multi-purpose cocktail stick. This meant drilling out the sides and the barrels a little but I think they look more authentic. Also, doing them altogether allowed me to choose the best 8 to go on the quarter deck.






I have now almost finished the upper deck with just the rigging for the cannons and the ladders to complete before moving up to the quarterdeck. The colour is a little dark than I wanted so I will adjust for the quarter and poop decks.




That’s all for now. As always, any comments, criticism or advice is most welcome. See you again in a couple of months.

Looks great. You've done a top job on the decking and the Cannons.
Chris.

Nicely done John, looks great.....

Regards

Alan

Hi John.
Great job on your cannons and deck. look forward to seeing your progress Ian

I have to agree with with Derek, maybe a rename to Johns Victory is in order.

It's looking mighty fine so far and something to be very proud of, keep up the great work

Shambles it is not, beautiful work it is. Keep up the good work John, something to be proud of.

What a fantastic response, I am honoured to receive comments like that from some great ship builders. Many thanks indeed guys. And a purple medal thrown in.


As I mentioned elsewhere, I am away from the build for a couple of months and missing her already. I have set my next goal, which is to complete up to issue 60 and looking forward to getting on with that again. One thing that has helped these last couple of weeks is, watching the videos in preparation for that.

To anyone who hasn't found them yet, click here they are great if not essential viewing.

HMS Victory Build Videos.