Excellent fairing and a great idea using brass treenails

after two years I forgot how I prepared my photos for the upload

Bare with me...

As for the gun ports, I drilled small holes (about 4 or 5 each side) about 1mm from the edge of the port, cut the excess wood with a modelling knife as close to the edge as possible before filing the square to the required 12x12mm.

To achieve the exact measurement across the 86 gun ports, I used a 10x10mm balsa piece on which I glued some 150 grid emery paper on just one side achieving straight edges as well as maintaining the right angles since the plain remaining three surfaces of the balsa wood would not ruin the already filed sides.

I did not use the pins to hold the planks in place and used the method with the clamps instead.

I planked and varnished the visible rib wall inside the entry ports to see how it looks but I'll probably change it later and make the entry ports look like they do on the real Victory as the rib wall is too recessed.

The bow planking...

It's not textbook and not as it looks in the instructions. Maybe I did not fare the frames enough and/or tapered the planks incorrectly, but this is how the planks wanted to naturally follow the shape of my faring.

Also, I used the hot plank bending tool initially, but quickly stopped using it as I found it too cumbersome to work with and did not manage to get a smooth bend over the whole length of the planks.

What worked for me, was to taper and chamfer the plank first to make them fit perfectly on to the previous plank and then to soak it for 5-10 min (never longer) in water. The water temperature didn't matter (I had a bottle full of water for days on my desk and changed the water infrequently).

After the soaking, I placed and bent the plank on the frame itself fixing it with clamps or with other cut off pieces of plank wood nailed to the frame. I left it like that until the plank had dried the next evening. After removing the clamps, the plank stayed perfectly in shape with the frame and I could glue it in place very easily.

I guess this is why it also took me two years to finish the hull planking, as this is a very slow process and I only did one or two planks very day I worked on the hull.

The sharp bent on the stern caused the most casualties. I used plank bending pliers to pinch the planks alternately straight and diagonally.

in case of a straight bend I sometimes sawed the planks about 2/3rds deep. Unfortunately, this left 'stress marks' on a couple of planks, but I hope it'll go under and unnoticed. Too bad I know that they're there and I'll always notice them them...

Thanks Chris!

The satisfaction of success outweighs the frustrations. Especially, if it takes you ages to find 3 in width matching planks, getting them all chamfered and tapered nicely, then break at least one of them during the process of fitting, finding another matching plank, chamfering it...

I'm sure every modeller here has been there too, but as you said, we do it for our own enjoyment and satisfaction as well as for the enjoyment of fellow modellers! Before I even bought this kit, I browsed this forum for hours on end admiring all the other builds and not just the ones of the Victory.

Cheers,
Odo