Issue 148 - Contains assorted wooden strips, turned wooden columns, barrels, deadeyes, belaying pins, brass wire, wriggles, chain links and pins., and has instructions for adding the wales, adding buckets & barrels to the upper deck, making the quarter deck openings, planking the quarter deck & bulwarks, adding the mast collar and adding the cockpit framing and rail.Adding the wales - Make the main wales from 1x4mm strips, supplied in this issue and Issue 134. Use the 1x5mm strip from Issues 140 and 143 for the mid and upper wales, and the 1x3mm strip from Issue 143 for the channel wale.
For the main wales, cut ten strips of 1x4 mm wood slightly over length. Glue the first one 2mm below the lower gun port. Glue another four strips below the first one, making a total of five strips to build up the main wale.
Draw a pencil line 4mm above the lower gun ports, using a piece of 1x4mm strip as a gauge.
Fit a 1x5mm strip above the pencil line, and then add another strip above it, (the upper strip intentionally covers the bottom of the entry port).
Draw a pencil line 1.5mm above the entry port, and glue two 1x5mm strips above this pencil line.
Cut an 8mm wide strip of card, making notches to clear any projecting gun barrels. Rest the strip on the upper wale.
Draw a pencil line along the top of the strip, and glue a 1x3mm strip above the pencil line.
Repeat all the steps to add the wales on the other side of the model.
Cut and sand the parts of the wales that overhang the sides of the model, the entry ports and upper gun ports. Touch up any minor paint damage with wood stain and/or paint if necessary.
Adding the buckets and barrels to the upper deck - As on the lower deck, buckets and barrels are placed around the guns. The barrels are provided with this issue, and the buckets were provided with Issues 126 and 131.
Prepare one bucket and two barrels for each gun, following the instructions given in Issue 143. Then position the buckets and barrels according to your personal preference.
Making the quarter deck openings - The openings either side of the main mast on the real Victory currently have gratings fitted, but as period drawings of the ship show that there were open frames here, the magazine build has not fitted gratings. However, there should be enough strips of grating material left over to add these if you wish.
Using 2x3mm wood from Issue 147, cut three lengths 9mm long, and two lengths 45mm long to make the frame for each opening.
Glue a short piece to a long piece, using a construction brick or other improvised object as a square. Note that the short piece fits against the side of the long one.
Complete the rectangular frame with another short and long strip.
Glue the remaining strip inside the frame, 15mm from one end. Place the 3mm side flush with the bottom of the frame, so the top is recessed by 1mm.
Make a second identical frame and stain both frames dark oak.
Try the frames in position. The end with the 15mm gap goes forward, with the front edge of the frame 4mm behind the front edge of the cockpit opening. There needs to be enough room between the mast and frames to fit the mast collar leaving about 0.5mm gap.
Glue both frames to the deck beams.
Planking the quarter deck and bulwarks - The 1.5x4mm strips needed to plank these areas were supplied with Issue 147. The 1.5x5mm strips were supplied with earlier issues and you should have some left over from planking inside the hull.
Use 1.5x4mm planks for the deck. Chamfer the edge of thefirst plank to fit against the frames. ‘Caulk’ it with a black marker and glue it in place, holding it with pins if necessary.
Continue planking the deck until you reach the edge of the cockpit opening. You can use a 1.5x5mm strip to fill in the last plank if the remaining gap is between 4mm and 5mm. The wider plank will not be obvious on the finished deck.
Continue planking up to the last whole plank before the frames.
Carefully plank around the frames and round the mast, cutting the planks to it as necessary. and the edges smooth, including those around the cockpit opening.
Trim and sand the top of the hull planking until it is flush with the deck. Don’t sand the top of the bulwark planking just yet.
Plank the inside of the bulwark with 1.5x5mm strips. Cut the first plank to length and chamfer the bottom edge to fit against the deck.
Continue planking until the top strip overlaps the top of the frames, (If the planking ends up just short of the frames, glue a narrow strip on top of the last plank).
Sand the top of the bulwark planking flush with the top of the frames. Then stain the deck dark oak and touch up any minor damage to the white or yellow ochre paint. You can leave 2-3mm unpainted at the edge of the cockpit opening to provide a stronger glue joint for the cockpit edging.
Adding the mast collar - The laser-cut sections for the mast collar were supplied with Issue 144.
Stain the three sections of the mast collar walnut, then fit them around the mast, trimming them as necessary.
Adding the cockpit framing and rail - The wooden strips and columns used to make the rail are supplied with this issue. You will also need some of the 1x4mm wood supplied with Issue 147.
Take a piece of 1x5mm strip, and mark the width of the cockpit opening. Make sure that there is at least a 3mm overhang at each end.
Cut the strip 3mm beyond the pencil marks. Lay it across the cockpit opening, butted up against the ends of the frames. It will overhang the deck beam by a millimetre or so.
Cut a 1x4mm strip to fit alongside the cockpit opening, between the strip you just placed and the front of the model. Cut a matching piece for the other side of the model.
Paint all three strips black, or stain them a colour of your choice. Glue the 1x5 mm strip back in place. You will need to hold it with clamps while the glue dries.
Glue the shorter 1x4mm strips in place so that they overhang the sides of the opening by 1mm.
Using a piece of 1x5mm strip, cut two pieces 35mm long and one piece 20mm long. Cut eight short blocks 4mm long from the 3x3mm strip. Round the ends of the 1x5mm strips, then Glue the blocks of 3 x 3mm wood to the 1x5mm strips in the positions shown and allow the glue to fully dry, (make sure the bases of the columns are flat before gluing them).
Paint the three rail assemblies black.
Glue the longer rails to the cockpit frame with superglue. Line up the ends of the rails with the inside edge of the frame, (Prime the ends of the 3x3mm blocks with drops of superglue to fill the grain and allow to dry).
Glue the shorter rail centrally between the outer rails, then gently sand the tops of the pillars so that they form a smooth curve following the camber of the deck.
Cut another 1x5 mm strip the same length as the overall length of the cockpit rail, and radius its ends.
Glue the columns on the tops of the rails, directly over the 3x3mm blocks.
Mark the positions of each of the pillars on the strip. Then make a very shallow razor saw cut at each mark. Be careful not to cut too deeply – you need only a shallow groove to assist with fitting the hammock cranes. Paint the rail black, trying to keep paint out of the grooves, into which the cranes will go later.
Prime the tops of the pillars with superglue as before, then glue the rail in place with superglue.
Paint the beams around the cockpit opening black.
That's it for this stage, carefully store the remaining parts.
Future Issues:Issue 149 - Contains assorted wooden strips, brass wire, hammock cranes, wriggles, hammock netting, thread & die-cast hinges., and has instructions for finishing the bulwarks, making the timberheads, pinrails & kevels, adding the bulwark mouldings and making the main mast pin rails.
The final Issue 150 - Contains wooden strips, companionway strips, ballast, HMS Victory name plate and entry port canopy castings.
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