Hello All,

I made up my mind how to get around the short cross beams.
I didn't wanted to force the bulwark inwards being afraid that the glue will release over time and letting the quarter deck fall apart.
Therefore I decided to fill the gaps but not with wood filler as I originally planned.
Luckily I was able to retrieve the fret from the bin (my wife didn't emptied since yesterday) because I decided to use it for the extension rather than using small pieces of scrap planks.
So I cut the fret up and glued the opposite shapes to the end of the related beams, the three long cross beams, two medium and two short beams, all which are connected the the bulwark brackets.
Once the glue dried I carved off the excess to fill the gaps. The only thing that I had to be very cautious that the gaps filled evenly on both ends to ensure that the slots for the fore-aft beams remains aligned.
It took a while but finally managed to modify all parts. Then everything was painted and glued in place.

Then finishing details added the the upper gun deck:
- the deck support posts and bitts
- the shot garlands and shots
- four sets of gunner's tools
- barrels and buckets for the guns

Hello All,

Thanks for the kind comments, Trev.

This week's progress:
- Fitted the wales
- Made the frames for the quarter deck openings. I decided to add the gratings to it, first, because with this it will match with the large complete ship model, second, because if the gratings not fitted then the top of the beams are visible and they are not looking very good. Hence I fitted the middle cross frame not horizontal, as instructed but vertical, same as the outer frame. I left the gratings one notch short for the pinrail posts.
- Frames stained and glued to the deck beams.
- The quarter deck and the bulwark planked, the edges sanded smooth.
- Finally, the deck stained.
- Temporarily I slid the binding just above the deck a bit upwards to able to fit the mast collar.

One thing I found very odd, that compared to the complete ship model, the mast falls towards the front of the openings, while on the complete model it falls towards the rear of the opening. See last two photo.
It's weird that two models of the same ship has such difference, especially that both kits made by the same company.

Hi Laszlo,
As alway, brilliant skills. Words escape me.
Well done.
Chris

Hi Walter,
No, I didn't mean that it is leaning in different direction.
The overall position of the main mast is different. See photos below.
In the main model the mast is positioned towards the aft end of the gratings, while on the cross section it is positioned towards the fore end of the gratings.

Hello Everybody,

I hope you're all good during this self-isolating-kind-of-times.

My progress during this week:

- Second coat of copper applied.
- Hull painted yellow-black in multiple steps. It was two coat of yellow ochre required, however for the black one coat was sufficient.
- Deadeyes fitted to chainwales and painted them black.
- Entry port canopies fitted
- Chainwales fitted to the hull and added all the chains.

I used 0.5mm black coated copper wire rather than the provided brass wire, first, it was much easier to bend, second, does not required to paint after they were fitted, giving a much better look.

Hi All,

Thanks for your kind comment, Trev.

Today I managed to add some finishing details:

- Gun port lids made and fitted. I added a small chamfer on the inside edge of the lids to ease up the pointy edges.
I found it easier to add the ropes in this order:
* feed the thread through the holes on the hinges but do not tie the knot
* glue the lid in place
* glue the end of the threads into the holes on the hull
* pull the rope tight, tie it with a half-hitch and seal the knot... with two half-hitches the knot would be too big, hence I don't recommend it. You can put a clothing peg to the end of the thread hanging until the glue dries to maintain the tension, then snip off the excess thread.

- Corrected the outside faces of the beams with white, yellow and stain.
- Stained the front/rear faces of the hull. Unfortunately due to the different quality of wood strips the result is not fully satisfactory/even but because I can't imagine that it could be improved even if I would sand it back, I left it like this.
- Knee irons glued to the front/rear faces
- Pins glued into the pinrails
- Ladder made, stained and fitted

Almost finished, only the hammock cranes and the rest of barrels left to do.

Hi Laszlo,
I wonder if you could share something with me. I am building the full Victory model at the moment.
Although I am not at this stage yet, I am already wondering how to mask off the gun port openings when I spray the ochre and black bands on the hull.

OK thanks, Laszlo. I will probably consider doing the paintwork by hand as well, to be honest.
I haven't even started looking at buying a compressor/spray gun yet.
Actually, I would probably make a bit of a mess with a spray gun. At least I've used a paint brush before!

Hello All,

Thanks you for the nice comments, much appreciated.

Update from the last few days' work:

- All barrels stained in various colours: teak, walnut, jacobean oak, medium oak, black, rosewood. I had plenty pf barrels because I had double issues of the first issue of this kit and some leftover from the complete ship kit.
- Black bands painted to all barrels.
- When I started to fit the thinner tall barrels I realised that they are well oversized to add them to the decks. So I truncated few of them at both ends just under the outermost band. Although with the loss of this 2-3mm they still look oversized I believe, but much more acceptable to the scale. See photos below about the before/after state.
- Ballast added to the hold.
- Barrels fitted all around the hold and the decks.
- I added ballast to the front and rear of the model too. I stuck masking tape to the faces to keep the ballast in place until the diluted PVA glue dries.
- Started to fit the hammock cranes, the cranes for quarter deck opening is completed.
Hint: I left an approx 1mm tail from the fret at the bottom middle of the cranes, and drilled a 0.5mm hole into the top of the strip and the pillars. This was providing an extra support for the cranes.

Excellent work on this, you have really done it justice.

Mark