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| 1:96 HMS Victory Scratchbuild | ||
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| EdT |
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 Registered Member #963 Joined: Wed Jun 09 2010, 05:30pmPosts: 61 | HMS Victory 1:96 Sratchbuild Project Part 1 - Introduction  The above picture of the finished Victory model has a backdrop reminiscent of the Portsmouth sky as I remember it on my first visit back in 1970 – gray, cold and bleak. Hello everyone. I am new to the forum and so far have been impressed by its content and the work of so many modelers. In this build log I want to make some contribution in support of the goal of MSB to help preserve the art of Model Ship Building. This hobby has given me many happy hours and I hope others may benefit from some of what I have learned along the way. In this series I intend to retrace the progress of constructing Victory at a scale of 1:96 from scratch, a project that began in 1976 and reached completion at the end of 2009. The very long time to complete this project had many periods of inactivity, some measured in years. Family and career priorities came first. About half the work on the model was completed after my retirement in 2002, but even that stretch had breaks. This was my first “real” ship modeling project and I knew when I started that I was biting off a lot. The learning curve was steep. For me the learning process and the need to solve the many problems that arise in a project like this are primary factors in maintaining my interest and I am glad I started with something this challenging.  Victory from astern, flying the huge white ensign. This will not be a step by step “how to build Victory” practicum. I will try to walk the reader through the steps in the process that I followed, glossing over a lot of very well traveled ground. I will try to cover in detail processes that I developed and/or used to do specific challenging tasks, for example, building the 1:96 plank on frame ships boats, constructing the tiny ships wheel assembly to scale, making gun port door hinges, etc. I hope this approach will attract the interest of a range from novice to expert. I consider myself to be somewhere well in between these two extremes.  This picture shows the beauty of Victory’s lines, the complexity of her forward rigging, her graceful bow structure and her formidable armament. Victory was commissioned by Parliament in 1758. Her keel was laid at Chatham in 1759 and she was launched after some delay in her construction, in 1765. She was designed by Sir Thomas Slade, Surveyor of the Navy from 1755 to 1771 and is considered the masterpiece of his many designs. She was the fourth English ship of the line to bear this name. Her 100 guns on three decks designates her a “First Rate” ship of the line. She had a length of 186 feet on the lower gun deck, a breadth of 51 feet and had a displacement of 2142 tons. As a “ship of the line” her purpose was to bring maximum gunnery to bear against enemy ships in fleet action. The guns at the time were measured by the weight of projectile – usually iron round shot. Victory’s guns ranged from 12 to 32 pounds, plus two 68 pound, short range carronades, mounted on the forecastle. Her normal crew of over 800 men was needed to serve these guns – and of course, to sail the ship.  The complexity of Victory’s rigging even without staysail and studdingsail rigging is amazing. Several years ago, friends and relatives began to express interest in the Victory project and I began to circulate regular progress reports to them. These included pictures, descriptions of the work and often background information that would be appropriate to a group on interested non-modelers. I will use some of this material in this series, but the readers of this forum will, I hope, be interested in a lot more depth. I will do my best to meet these needs. In this first post I have interspersed pictures of the finished model with text covering introductory material and background. I will start in on the actual work in subsequent posts. Questions and comments are of course encouraged. If more detail on something is required let me know and I will try to respond.  Under the foretop during the build. HMS Victory is perhaps the most famous warship in British History. She was the flagship of Lord Horatio Nelson at the battle off Cape Trafalgar in 1805, which was the decisive battle of the Napoleonic Wars. Following the French Revolution, these wars raged across Europe as the hereditary monarchies (Britain, Russia, Austria, Prussia) fought the French to restore the Bourbon throne. They also feared the spread of liberalism ushered in by the French Revolution and the ambitions of its heir, Napoleon Bonaparte. Although Trafalgar ended the threat to Britain of a French invasion by confining Napoleon to the continent and putting a stranglehold his trade, ten more years would pass before he would be finally defeated at Waterloo in 1815. Throughout 20 years of war, the Royal Navy maintained a constant blockade of Napoleon’s Continental Ports, a demanding task for men and ships. Victory was one of these ships. Fleet actions were rare, so most of the life of seamen consisted of make-work drudgery and boredom, except for those who actually sailed the ship. Blockade service demanded that men be constantly aloft or on deck in all weather to adjust sails and maneuver the ship against the Atlantic or Mediterranean tides and winds. The least inattention could lose the ship against the coastline. Victory engaged in a few major fleet actions during her career including the action off Ushant in 1778, the Siege of Toulon in 1793, the action off Hyeres in 1795, the Battle of Cape St Vincent in 1797 and Trafalgar in 1805. The most famous of all British seamen, Lord Nelson, was struck down on her quarterdeck during Trafalgar and died below decks with the knowledge that he had defeated the French. Nelson lies in St Paul’s Cathedral in London. Victory stands in drydock today at the Portsmouth Navy Yard on the south coast of England.  The head structure showing the figurehead, main rails and the port boomkin, which carried the fore course tack. Background to the Model Project As a young child of 8 or 9, my interest in ship models was ignited by a model of the whaling bark Wanderer, which was built by my uncle, Emidio Tosti. This was one of several ships he had built by that time and throughout his long life he built many, all with consummate skill and meticulous attention to detail. He loved building these ships and was devoted to this work for more than 75 years. He finished his 1:48 scale model of the Victory at the age of 96 and completed another before retirement from the hobby at 98. He passed away in 2008 approaching the age of 102. Although I had built some small crude models as a child, my interest lay mostly dormant. In the late 60’s I started a model of USS Constitution, but lacking skills, tools, time, and good historical data, abandoned the project. On a cold day in 1970, while living in England, my wife Dottie and I visited the Victory at Portsmouth, the first of a number of such visits I would make in later years. Then, in 1975, I came across a book entitled Anatomy of Nelson’s Ships by Dr C. Nepean Longridge. Dr. Longridge had been a physician in the British merchant marine until his retirement around 1929, at which time he began construction of his now famous model of HMS Victory. He worked diligently on this 1:48 scale model until 1940, when the beginning of World War II caused him to return to sea. In 1945 he resumed work on the model and completed it in the early 1950’s. His book, written at that time, describes the construction of actual ships of this period and the detailed process of building his beautiful model. This model is on permanent exhibit at the Science Museum in London. I have been fortunate enough to visit this model many times over the years – with my little notebook.  Dottie at Portsmouth 1970 The work of Dr. Longridge was beyond anything I had seen before in ship modeling. The attention to detail and the authenticity of every aspect of the model was impressive and inspiring. I immediately began planning my own model. I decided to work at a smaller scale, 1/8 inch to 1 foot or 1:96. This would yield a model of manageable size with overall dimensions of about 40 inches long by 16 inches wide by 32 inches high. Based on the information in the book and some other limited sources I began to prepare drawings for the model in early 1976 and began work on the hull later that year. The structure of the hull and below waterline planking was finished by the late 1970’s. During the 1980’s work progressed only intermittently on the topside planking and the stern of the ship. Starting in 1995, I began to work intensively on the model during Christmas Vacation breaks. It became an annual ritual. By the time of my retirement in 2002, the model was about 50% complete. In late 2005, work to finish the model began in earnest - an effort averaging about 10 to15 hours per week.  The waist, boats, belfry, spare anchors, etc. My goals for the model were historical accuracy, precision in details and clear representation of the ships beautiful lines. I am not a perfectionist by nature, but I tied, not always successfully, to follow the rule: Good enough, isn’t. The model is constructed from scratch of various hardwoods, brass and copper sheet and wire and thread of Irish linen and cotton polyester. Aside from two or three small brass screws and a number of brass belaying pins, there are no purchased parts, fastenings or commercially cut wood in the model.  The area around the main mast The framing material of the model consists of mahogany, maple and cherry, fastened by hundreds of small wooden pegs or “tree nails” and Titebond Wood Glue. Exterior planking below the waterline is cherry, fastened with glue and nails made from copper wire. The underwater hull is sheathed with 3700 embossed copper plates fastened with contact cement. Upper planking is of cherry and European Boxwood, fastened with glue and small diameter boxwood pegs. Lower decks are of maple planks and visible decks are of European Boxwood. Masts are of boxwood and Yards are of Gabon Ebony. Rigging lines down to about 4 inches actual circumference were spun into the correct size using Linen thread on a specially made rope machine. Smaller lines are mostly mercerized cotton polyester thread in various sizes. Wooden rigging parts like blocks and deadeyes are made from boxwood. Deadeyes and standing rigging lines are blackened using acrylic ink. In the interest of showing off the sheer lines and graceful woodwork, there is (almost) no paint on the model.  The foot of the mizzen mast on the poop deck with flemished lines. Tools and Resources Machinery and tools are required to build a model of this type. Normal woodworking tools (table saw, bandsaw, jigsaw, planes, etc.) are needed to reduce large sized wood slabs to small-scale shipyard timber. A small table saw (2”diameter) was used to cut parts and planks to size. Small-scale machine tools included an old Unimat SL Lathe/Milling Machine and a Sherline Vertical Milling Machine. Specially built machines include the rope machine and a machine to “serve”, that is, to wrap lines with fine thread. Many small hand tools are needed – too numerous to mention.  Another view of the foretop. Good modeling information for Victory was scarce in 1976 but since then a lot more reference material has become available, which I used to supplement Longridge book. A book by John McKay called The 100 Gun Ship Victory features many excellent detailed drawings of all parts of the ship and it’s rigging. In addition, I have acquired and used a number of contemporary books, which became available in reprint, which give actual Admiralty Specifications of the time. These include The Shipbuilders Repository, 1788, Steel’s Mastmaking, Sailmaking and Rigging, 1794, and The Young Sea Officers Sheet Anchor, 1819. Other key references include James Lee’s Masting and Rigging of English Ships of War, Peter Goodwin’s Construction and Fitting of English Ships of War 1650-1850, and Brian Lavery’s Arming and Fitting of English Ships of War 1600-1815.  Below the main channel. In the next post I will describe the drafting of plans from the Longridge book drawings and focus in detail on a few drafting techniques that may be of interest Please stay tuned. Ed Tosti 2010 Copyright Edward J Tosti | ||
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| Gene Bodnar |
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  Registered Member #126 Joined: Tue Jul 21 2009, 11:20amPosts: 1782 | Ed, Superb narrative and photos. I have many questions about how you built various structures, but I'll wait until a more appropriate time. I assume you'll be describing a bit at a time. You've certainly got my attention with your superlatively interesting post. Thanks for taking the time. Gene | ||
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| EdT |
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| Registered Member #963 Joined: Wed Jun 09 2010, 05:30pmPosts: 61 | Gene, Life is short. Fire away. I have written most of part 2, which will deal with some drafting tecniques that may be of interest to newer modelers. Part three will deal with the hull framing and probably the underwater planking, then into the 1980's and on to the topsides. As I said I will not describe everything, but focus on what I found interesting, challenging, or useful to others, so if there's something particular. let me know. Thanks for your generous comments. Ed | ||
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| Gene Bodnar |
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| Registered Member #126 Joined: Tue Jul 21 2009, 11:20amPosts: 1782 | Ed, One thing that piqued my curiosity is that you sheathed your ship with "3700 embossed copper plates." I'd appreciate it if you'd describe your technique for embossing copper plates. Gene | ||
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| EdT |
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| Registered Member #963 Joined: Wed Jun 09 2010, 05:30pmPosts: 61 | Gene, A verygood question and an issue I struggled with for awhile. I intend to cover this interesting problem in part 3 or 4, but here's a preview. The plates on Victory are 1' X 4' with the top edge slightly overlapping the bottom edge of the next row above which means they are put on starting at the top (unlike house shingles). Apparently they concurrently started the lower half at the same time because in the middle there is a row that overlaps both its neighboring rows. Longridge used copper nails to fasten his plates I'm guessing on about 4" centers, but his plates were 1/4" X 1" which put his nails on about .06" centers. This was an amazing modeling feat, and no way could I do 100,000 nails on .03" centers on 1/8" X 1/2" plates. The first picture shows some of my plates just below the main wale.  I cut my plates, 1/4" X 1/2" from .003" copper shim stock with a razor blade on glass. At this size I would have a half plate overlap. I decided to emboss my plates on their top half with a simple stamping device made from a piece of maple and some small nails. Here is a picture of the device.  Here is a picture of the device with a just stamped plate and below that is a picture of the device with a plate ready to tapped with a hammer to emboss it.   The next picture is a closeup of the stamp face and the next a picture of the back of the stamp. The stamp is made using a piece of maple with a thickness just under the lentgh of the steel nails, about 1/4". Holes were centered using the xy feeds on the Unimat set up as a drill press moved across then down on about .03" centers. Drill size was just under the nail size. Nails were tapped into the holes from the bottom protruding just above the top of the wood face. Strips were put on to position the plate and a test plate stamped using a piece of hard boxwood. If the plate is penetrated just file down the nails slightly. I made an extra grid of holes just in case, but it was never needed. Close to 4000 plates were embossed including the one I did today in the picture. Its not too bad but the first 3700 were better. The plates were fastened with contact cement. If I were doing this again, and I don't intend to, I would sand the back of the copper before cutting with maybe 220 grit paper in the hope that adhesion with the contact cement would be better. I will discuss this in more detail in the build log but you get the idea.   Cheers, Ed | ||
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| Dinny Cole |
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 Registered Member #161 Joined: Tue Jul 28 2009, 01:08amPosts: 6 | Dear EDT Have you thought of using a dress makers wheel looks like a cowboy's spur. Comes out great. Dinny Cole | ||
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| DeaD_Peter |
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 Registered Member #565 Joined: Sat Dec 26 2009, 03:12amPosts: 32 | Very nice indeed. I like the all natural wood over painted kits any day (mostly), and this is a very fine example. All that trim and railing is really nice, how about doing it again in 1/48 ? I wish there was a kit of the Victory in that scale, allthough it would be expensive, I think it would sell. Anyways, great job, and explanations so far. | ||
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| Gene Bodnar |
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| Registered Member #126 Joined: Tue Jul 21 2009, 11:20amPosts: 1782 | Ed, Thanks for answering my question. That was quite an interesting approach, which is similar to a method I tried unsuccessfully some years ago. The problem I had was aligning the nails properly, which you solved with the Unimat drill press. Gene | ||
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| EdT |
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| Registered Member #963 Joined: Wed Jun 09 2010, 05:30pmPosts: 61 | Dinny, Thanks for your suggestion. My Uncle used a dressmaker's wheel on many models and I did consider it. One issue was the spacing of the indentations, but I thought that might be resolved in my case by using a gear wheel from a clock if I could find one with the right tooth spacing. The approach above seemed more precise and once the device was made, stamping was very fast and almost foolproof, the drilling operation does require some precision equipment, however. EdT | ||
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| EdT |
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| Registered Member #963 Joined: Wed Jun 09 2010, 05:30pmPosts: 61 | DI_Peter Thanks for your comments. I would love to do this at 1/48, there is so much more opportunity to accurately portray detail, but of course more detail means years more time. Longridge took twenty 20 years, my uncle did it in about 18 if I remember correctly. Both put sheaves and pins in all but their smallest blocks, for example, and Longridge nailed all that copper and even went so far a to sweat a stamping of the royal coat of arms on his guns. I few months ago I started on a 1:60 model of HMS Naiad, 38, 1797, which is more than halfway to 1/48 from 1/96. If you can't find a kit, why not jump into the deep end and scratchbuild it? EdT | ||
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