Hi shipmates,

Well, here is the start of my build log for HMS Victory. Any hints, tips or pearls of wisdom are greatly appreciated. All are welcome here! Hope you like?

Welcome aboard silent_running.

Regards tf64.

Hi shipmates,

As you can see the bow formers went together really well. After a very light sanding, just to make sure that there were no rough edges, everything went by the numbers if you'll pardon the pun. I did have bit of a scare a bit later on because I had not used a set square to make sure the formers were at a perfect right angle. Talk about a newbie mistake . It all turned out alight in the end though phew!!! They were dead on thank goodness!

I intend to add balsa fillets a bit later on, before I start the planking. I noticed that some of you guys are doing it and I think its a good idea, and also I think it will add a larger surface area to glue the planking strips on. I'm going to use PVA glue to fix the planking strips and not contact adhesive, because I have decided to paint Victory in the Trafalgar finish. So any residual glue marks will not be noticed, after the sanding and paint has been applied.

I have another HMS Victory in the pipeline with a natural finish, so will have to reconsider my options for that one. I also have two other Victory hulls ready laid but not planked, making a grand total of four in total more on the other three later.

Just had a look at the photo and noticed two things 1. the two bow formers on ether side of the central one look a bit squint at the top, is this normal? A natural curve or do I need to adjust them. 2. I have set the photo size to 640 x 480 in Photobucket is this too large or do I need to reduce the size further before my next post? I would appreciate any advice you might have?

Kind Regards

Welcome Hope you enjoy it as much as I do. Feel free to ask questions and take any advice from these experienced crew man on this forum.

Hi John,

Thanks for the info on the fillets, and the welcome looks like I was worrying about nothing. About the photo, I think your right on that one. I will re-check the settings. I had a gut feeling it was wrong when I posted it I will resize and re-post this pic me thinks. Nice to meet you too as well.

Regards

Hi MWG,

Thanks for the welcome and the compliment. I'm way behind the rest of you guys regarding the build. That's a good thing for me though I think! It gives me a chance to have a look at other peoples build diaries, and also to take note of any issues they might have had. One of the biggest things though is that it gives me inspiration for my own model. Another thing I quickly realised is that everyone has their own style of building. No two people approach building say HMS Victory in the same way, even though they are building the same model. It has become a source of fascination for me, or am I just a bit sad? Wouldn't be the first time

Regards

Quite true John, full accuracy for each period of Victory's life simply does not exist, where the main period's depicted for models are 1765, 1805 Trafalgar and current day, all three guises are very different, where to some extent accurate info for what actually was is ongoing research.
A very good example being the Prince of Wales plume of feather's which adorm's the taff rail at the stern, this did not in fact appear on Victory until 1837, and was salvaged from another ship (HMS Prince also at Trafalgar), yet all kits represent the 1805 Trafalgar Victory as having the plume of feathers, which has been adopted from how Victory is seen today, yet is totally incorrect for the 1805 Victory.

What was actually in place is still to be confirmed, and may never be confirmed, but it has been narrowed down, and thought to have been either King George III's coat of Arms or a medallion featuring a bust of the King.

Basically, todays Trafalgar guise Victory differs in many ways to that seen in 1805.

By the way welcome to the forum Silent

Considering the defence cuts and the fact she is still a commissioned ship
she could well find herself putting to sea again if needed.

John

Hi Tomick,

Thanks for the welcome, pleased to meet you. What you said about different Victory's, reminded me about an article that I read regarding the fate of the fourth version of Victory. She was shipwrecked and sank due to her high sides and narrow draught. As you will already know, whilst the narrow draught was great for speed it led to problems when manoeuvring, and the high sides of the fourth Victory meant that in gale force winds she couldn't tack to get her out of difficulty.

It made me think that perhaps the design flaws of the Galleon influence took a long time to be purged from warship design, and that ship designers were heavily reliant on it. Perhaps the design of Nelsons Victory, marked a radical departure in design for a first rate. What do you think?

Hello Glen,

Nice to meet you, us Glens do get around a bit