Constructo HMS Victory

(I have removed the old post and started a fresh , apologies for not keeping some of the kind words already posted, thank you for them and i hope you will enjoy this thread a little more)


So this is my second build wooden boat build and probably a little too adventurous for this stage but I thought what the hell, what is the worst that can happen, actually lets not get into that  

Un-boxing.

A quick un-boxing, with not a huge amount of experience with wooden kits it might not be the best opinion but to me it looks okay, the metal cast pieces are nice with very little work required to paint and place, the laser cut pieces seems well…... cut, nothing missing nothing damaged. Plenty of extra planks and thread for the bits iam going to mess up is all good news! My biggest problem is the brass laser etched parts for the rear mouldings etc is A) tacky as hell and I I think I will try and remake these with 0.5mm balsa or similar. B) what comes in the kits was very bent and has taking a long time to get back into a shape if it was to be used.
The instructions are not the best, very brief descriptions and photos that are not always helpful, ill try and point these out when they crop up. The 1:1 scale plans on the other hand very nice, better than some other I’ve seen for much more expensive kits.

So it’s safe to say I am looking forward to this one. 

Okay so you might notices the bulk heads are already out, so i might of started the bulkheads the day i got it, could you really blame me?

Part 1:
So firstly putting up the bulkheads on the beam,  there is not many compared to some of the other  more expensive kits,  it think this will make it harder to get some smoother curves and promote some sharp direction changes for the planking.
I spent as much time as I could ensuring that the bulkheads are as square as possible to ensure less problems later, something I learned the hard way in my Albartoss model

So it did not take long till I broke something,  the most rear bulkheads slot came off in the gorilla like hand. Thanks fully the promise of the glue being stronger then wood is quite accurate!

Part 2:
So the next bits to go on are the side rails which are for the lower deck guns to be placed in, When I realised this was the arrangement for the lower guns and that I was not going to get make up and rig up 104 guns on this ship my heart sank a little, ill just have to wait for the next one kit….

During this process I decided that it would be good practice to read further in the instructions to ensure I don’t get caught out. Doing it at this point I checked all the side rails and found two to be too short! Annoying as they are meant to premade pieces but luckily the press out board they come in had plenty of room to make some new ones the correct length. Not sure how they messed this up. An email was sent to Constrcuto regarding this.

Part 3:

The jobs where the middle gun deck floors, they will not support any guns and are just there to show under the middle gun decks stairs. The longest deck floor will have the door entrance and I will see If I can hinge this door later, if not I the deck pretty much is pointless.

For all my decking iam using plain black thread to simulate corking and then using pencil to break up the plank lengths and to imitate nails deck nails. In this process I have carried on to do all the decks at the same time to get this part out the way. This included the middle gun deck, the top gun deck and the poop deck. All made the same laying 0.5 planks on to balsa cut outs.



 Iam quite happy with how they have turned out, I would of liked to try and simulate wood pins for the decking but at this scale would have been very impractical. I steered a little from the instructions at this point as it says to glue the balsa shapes on and then lay the deck. I did them all off and will glue them on as I go. For the middle gun deck it made it much easier to do the corking as the ends would be blocked to pull the thread tight. When I placed these two separate pieces in the hull and then glued the last adjoining deck plank in, the thread was glued in place before fitting for this one. Again very happy with the result.










It was at this point I noticed the middle gun deck was sticking out past the bulkheads, immediately it seemed that these are meant to be filed down to give a flush edge, but nerves set in as there was not mention of this in the description, It took about three hours to find another build log that showed the same over lapping edges and then the cut down edges. So panic over and I sand these down to give some nice clean lines for planking later.

And here are the rest of the decks

Part 4:
Next job are the middle gun deck hatches, ammo racks and stairs. Nice and simple, just practising getting straight edges on my cuts to give a sharper over all finish, the hatches work out nicely but the ammo racks are not perfect but thankfully some of this will be hidden when painted.










The stairs had no railings and I really wanted to get some more details, I tried a couple of times to make some nice wooden planks but at this scale I was struggling with the size and curves, I decided to use thread for some ‘rope’ banisters.  I made the uprights and tied the thread to lower upright glued to the bottom of the stairs; the top upright will be drilled into the top hatching. After tying off the top I’ve decided the angle is not great for the rope but as it going to be covered by another deck it will not be on prime display, I will remember this for any more stairs to come. 

Yeah its taken a while but i got round to it. I have just started painting the middle gun deck, i am looking at putting some more detail in here so i will be stopping the hull and build some masts and what not so i can plan some suitable stuff and things

Better blog bro, glad you got the hang of it now, looking forward to more and your rigging attempts!

As for your brass etchings try using a rolling pin on a flat surface ( not the kitchen cos that's bumpy as hell) and see if you can roll them back to flat, they may curl up a tad but that's easier to fit then creases and much easier then remaking them of balsa.

On another note did you take a look at the vosper kit I suggested a few weeks ago? I also have other suggestions if that ones a bit much, I'll give u a ring over weekend discuss some more.

Aron

  looking good. 

Yep she is looking good, nice work