Hi All, I've been reading through your diary's as I've been getting Ye Olde Shipyard restarted to continue working on my Victory. I had started it a few years ago and then we moved and life has interfered with the process. I've now got a fairly functional work area and have restarted.

When I left off, I had all the ribs installed and the lower deck. I'm at the point of getting ready to start fairing the hull. Before I do it, I have some basswood pieces that I'm going to glue into the voids between the bow formers and between the last 2 ribs at the stern. I'd read an article on fairing that suggested it and it makes sense to me!

Before I start the fairing and planking, I decided to build the 4 small boats. I've finished the launch (pictures attached) and am priming the cutter, it's thwart supports, floorboards and thwarts---it's almost done. Once I've finished that I'll do the pinnace and barge. I figured these would give me a good introduction to planking. I'm not sure how much I've gleaned on planking with the small boats. I think planking them is a fairly different animal than planking the Victory!

For now, I have a few questions as I restart and continue on the small boats:

1. How do you paint the brass floorboards in the boats? I wasn't happy with whatever I did on the launch but it won't be seen when finished. For the other boats I'm thinking of trying to scuff up the brass with a sanding stick, then very lightly prime it with my airbrush. After that I'm on the fence about trying to brush paint them or airbrush them. My ears are open for suggestions!

2. Now that the launch is finished, and will sit with it's 3 brothers for quite a while, should I lacquer or varnish it? I'm also wondering about spraying them with Future floor polish. It's used quite often by plastic modelers to protect their finished work

3. What do you think of the Victory add ons from Woody's Modelworks
https://www.woodysmodelworks.co.uk ? Some of them have my interest including the Gallery, Bow Detail, Beakhead enhancement, Entry Ports, Cabins, buckets and Water Level markers (I'm going to tile my hull) kits

4. I've been using an electric plank bender for the small boats. I burnt myself once and found that I almost need 3 hands to use it with the form! Part of the solution may just be to put the form in a vice. I'm going to give that a try on the next boat. What has been your experience with the electric plank bender vs. the crimper with the razor blade?

5. Can you also please point me to any good discussions about the use of planking clamps, pins, binder clips etc. when doing the hull planking? I'm leaning towards binder clips and limited use of pins.

That's it for now, hopefully I can finish the cutter soon and get on to the other 2 boats. I actually think I might do an assembly line for the cannons and the anchors before heading over to the ship

Regards

When building the 18' Cutter I came across a problem in the instructions. Under the Pack 12, Stage 118 instructions under the heading "Fitting out the 18 foot Cutter you are told to cut two (2) 105 mm strips for the thwarts. Before I cut these, I checked the measurement (I'm more used to inches than mm).

Turns out my Cutter is only just over 65 mm in length. 105 mm was going to be just a bit to long! After trimming and testing, my thwarts ended up being just under 60 mm. For those who've reached the Cutter, which is more of a bear to plank than the Launch, I suggest start your thwarts at 61 - 61.5 mm and trim down from there

Hope this helps at least one person trying to build the Cutter with sausage fingers like me!

--John

Thank you Alan for taking the time to answer my questions, of course, I have a follow up or 2!

How long did you soak your planks for? On the boats I found that just running them under the tap for a few seconds did the job but am sure that won’t work for the ship’s planks!

Can you attach more than one row of planks at a time using the map pins? Won’t they introduce e a gap, though very small between the rows?

Can you think of any major gotchas that you or others have come across during your build? I’m thinking of things like the cannons on the upper deck and their gun ports not lining up vertically? Or doing certain tasks earlier than what the manual says due to easier access?

I think the first few lessons I’ve learnt is that the plank bender will burn you, don’t scrimp on a cheap set of calipers, manicure sticks are awesome, get a good set of micro drill bits, and making a drawing of where the thwarts and oar cutouts go relative to the ribs really helps and the Dremel tool used in moderation is your friend!

—John

It's great to hear this news, we can't wait to see more pics from your build.

Of course we will be happy to help if you get stuck.

Happy building

Tom

Hi John,

Unfortunately I can`t help with your questions as not built to where you are at, but its good to see you back with your Victory Build. Good Luck going forward.




Regards
delboy271155
(Derek)

Hi all,

I've once again restarted working on my HMS Victory. I rearranged my office making it more conducive to having a shipyard and am now working on the ship regularly.

I've done the first six (6) rows of planks. I made a few discoveries along the way (described below) but am now on rows 7 and 8. In the manuals and Tomick's notes I saw:

Fit the first plank in layer 7 between frames 24 and 17, then fit the aft plank (but do not secure in place), and put the template against the hull, making sure it lines up with the bottom plank and the front of frame 27, mark the end of the plank and cut to length. This plank will also need to be tapered by about 1mm along its length, which is to keep the line of planks parallel to the deck line rather than rising upwards towards the stern, sand the taper and glue/pin the plank into position.

I have a question about the tapering, when they say "This plank will also need to be tapered by about 1 mm along its length" do they mean that I should remove 1 mm of material from the top of the entire plank or that I should start at the end that butts up to frame 24 and taper it 1 mm gradually from there to the end? I've tried it the first way and it looks like it will leave a gap when I glue the row 8 plank on top of it.

My next question is about the tapering of the bow planks for rows 7 to 11. The instructions say to taper the part of the planks that wrap around the bow to keep them from rising too far around frames 12 to 14 (I'm not even sure where frame 12 is!). I took five (5) pieces of unbent scrap plank and taped them together then laid them on the bow on top of the first 6 planks. The top of these ended flush with the bow formers. Since they appear like they will lie "correctly" do I need to taper them at all? I'm considering bending the bow planks for 7 to 11 and rough placing them before tapering. Bottom line, do I need to taper at all?

As mentioned, here are a few things I have discovered or figured out having done the first six (6) rows of planks:
1. Soaking the planks in hot water for 15 - 30 minutes and then bending them with the soldering iron bender on the bending form works best for me. I tried the dab a little water on the plank then bend the plank over the bender, the heat gun routine, etc. None of these worked save for the soaking method!
2. I tried map pins to hold the planks but found them too hard to push in. I'm using the binder clip trick where I can get them in. I got the Pin pushing tool from Micromark and with predrilled holes in the planks, it works great! When I use the binder clips, I still pin the front and back of the plank.
3. I found cutting the gun ports to not be too bad. I drilled the initial hole then used a Dremel cutting bit (which look like a drill bit) and that worked wonderfully! I was able to rough cut each gun port in less than a minute!

I will send pictures in the next few weeks. Once again, I appreciate everyone's help, support and kind words as I once again try to get this thing finished!

Regards,

--John