Hi All

My copper plates have arrived. It did not include any instructions on how to install)

Can any of the more experienced builders on this forum tell me were to start and how to overlap etc.

All help will be appreciated.

Thanks for the info Mr T

Great tutorial MR T

The link is just to give an idea of a coppering process, it was not intended as being that for the Victory, where you'll notice it is NOT a Victory model being worked on.

I take it your planning to overlap the Caldercraft tiles on your Calder Victory build which are designed to be butted and are unsuitable for overlapping, where when butted you end up with double rows of tack markings along each seam, where there should only be a single row of tacks if your hoping to achieve the true overlap effect.

In reality, few modellers overlap the tiling but opt for the butt method.

Also, research shows that in many cases, a 75mm wide batten may have covered the top edge of the plating at the waterline, which many builders adopt as being a tidy method for finishing the raw copper edge, which also makes it a lot easier to achieve a straight line without need of copper paint as a touch in, which I think you'll find your kit manual suggest's copper paint.

Food for thought eh Mike....

Plenty of time for thought ... I'm a long way off coppering, having only just reached the end of the first planking. The idea of overlapping the sheets is to avoid the double row of rivets, the downside of that is that considerably more sheets are required and I have already discussed how many with Jotika. I understand that there are other modellers who have bought the extra sheets and intended overlapping at the time. I will try out the options before deciding on buying the extra.

Thanks for the tip re: waterline, you are correct in as much as the instructions suggest touching in a straight line with copper paint and even suggests copper paint for the end of the rudder and stern post.

I think that reading posts on all the forums makes it clear that you read the instructions and then think hard about improvements and I will bear the waterline tip in mind when I eventuaslly get to that job. Can't wait only stern galleries .. second planking etc etc first oh well!!

Mike T

Some prefer the waterline strip as it adds to the finish, and like I said, there is reseaerch that suggests such a strip would have been in place.

Steady away and you'll end up with a superb model to be very proud of, modelling is not intended to be a race, other than enthusiasm to complete can sometimes get the better of you which occasionally means mistakes are the result.

The other problem is getting the number and size of tacks being right for the purist, which at the scale being modelled is nigh on impossible and comes back to the tacks being just about invisible hence why many leave them plain, though if one has too much time on your hands and have the inclination for tack marks, you could always pounce-wheel each tile

Exactly what I was suggesting, simply because research shows that there would have likely been such a wood strip.

Hi Jase,

You are spot on!!!!Plain no overlap we have scale

Thank you Mr T thats gone straight into favorites, good reading