Another

No matter how many times i look at this wonderful piece of art, it still takes my breath away.
Great work John, looking forward to seeing more of this.
Andy

Hi John. Eventhough aircraft and ships are not my main interest area, you never fail to amaze, with all you do. Ive enjoyed your aircraft dio and as good as it is, this actually tops it. Magnificent work. The rigging is a treat. All that natural wood ... perfection.
We deserve more photos . Theres so much detail, its frustrating with only 2 pics!
What scale is this?

Wow - another stunning piece of work from you. I echo what Frank said, fantastic work to see.

Hi John,

I have walked upon the decks of the actual ship many times, I used to make a pilgrimage to Portsmouth regularly when I lived on the South Coast. Just treading the decks where those famous feet had walked and men had fought so bravely, used to evoke a real sense of pride in that period of history.

Your model is wonderful, it is hard to imagine the countless hours that must have been given to this project. I cant wait to see more.

John

Thanks guys! story to follow.

Over a 25 year period and about 6,000 hours shoptime I built an HMS Victory shipmodel.Nothing really unique there but I did do something a little different in that I turned it into a diorama about a specific event that happened in the ships history.I call my Victory diorama "Drumming Daybreak".
Over the next little while I would like to tell you the story of how I built her and why......to be continued.
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A few years back I wrote a short article on this build.See:
http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gal...user-index.html
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As you can see by the article I wrote above I am now getting on in years (66).
I have been modeling on and off for the last 35 years or so. I say on and off because during during that time I also became interested in woodcarving which I taught myself from books(in the days before the internet) and later taught it to adults for 11 years. Why am I mentioning all this ? Because although it took me nearly 25 years to build Victory I took lots of time off for other things including working for a living. I generally put in about 700-800 hours a year into my various hobbies and Victory took about 6,000 hours from beginning to end.
Modeling shipbuilding is the only hobby were I kept an actual log of the build and I am now glad that I did. I would recommend others do the same as it is a really nice way to recover your shipbuilding memories.
Life most kids of my era I had build a few plastic ship and airplane models in my youth and made one half-hearted attempt to build a Bluenose solid hull model in my 20's but for some reason I lost interest again.
Then one day back in the early 70's i passed a hobby store window and saw a Sergal Victory sitting in the window.I stood for the longest time looking at that wonderful ship.I had never seen anything like it before. I fell in love right there and promised myself to build one just like it one day.
Other things were more pressing at the time(like finishing university)but I never forgot my encounter with HMS Victory. to be cont......
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University finished,I now hard some extra time on my hands and then I remembered Victory.(goodbye to extra time ever since).I set off for the hobby store and plunked down the money for Victory.The store owner kindly interceded and suggested that I start with something a little smaller.He finally convinced me that this was the proper way to go.(thank god)
I started with a plank- on -bulkhead Santa Maria(217 hours) followed by a Aeropicello Bounty(808 hours).Now with a 1,000 hours of model shipbuilding behind me ,I re-planked down my money and bought the Sergal Victory.I soon found out that I would need all that experience and could have used a lot more to avoid some of the mistakes I made early on. to be cont.....
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John,

Your link is broken. Here is a corrected one:

http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery/misc/sail/victory-72-mr/victory-index.html

Sorry to interrupt, please continue your story....

I arrived home with my long anticipated purchase and opened up the box.What a disappointment,the plans and booklet were producted in barely readable english.Maybe it has changed today,I don't know.Luckily I had seen a copy of "The Anatomy of Nelsons Ship "at the hobby store ,so I rushed back and immediately bought it.Right away,information overload! so I rushed back out and bought a nautical dictionary.
After comparing the Sergal and "The Anatomy..." plans I realized that I would have to redraw them.I checked the scale of some of the various fittings and found that the scale was all over the place.So I decided to change the scale of the new plans from 1/78 to 1/72 and deal with the fittings later.
At this point I had no idea of what a diorama even was ,so I planned to build it pretty much as your standard Victory like I saw in the hobby shop window.
to be cont......
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Hi guys! Me again.
I don't remember having any major problems with getting the basic hull put together.I doubleplanked it using basswood and then walnut strips.It seems to me that after practising on the Santa Maria and the Bounty I was ready for Victory.One interesting thing I did that you may be interested in ,is after putting on the basswood strips up to the waterline I took some fiberglass material and lined the inside of the hull ,and then covered it with about a 1/4 inch of epoxy glue.
This made for a very solid structure as well as a good base for the copper nails to come later.Parts of the rest of the interior of the hull was also epoxied to provide for the bamboo trunnels.It has been about 30 years now and nothing has moved. I will keep it short and sweet tonite as it is getting late and past this old guys bedtime. to be cont....... Wink
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Hi guys! Please note : a lot of the photos of Victory that I will be posting here have never been published before.I hope that you guys enjoy them as they will probably be the last ones.The ship has been in her case since I finished it in 2000.
The last time that I took the top off, to clean a few spots on the inside of the case, I accidently broke off the flying jib boom and I don't want a repeat of that experience.Up until now nothing has moved or fallen off so these pics will probably be the last taken with the top of the display case removed.

This is a tremendous work and i anticipate to learn a lot from your building experience.
The model is outstanding.

Cheers
Claude

Thanks Claude! It is a stricly decorative diorama piece.Something a little different.Glad that you enjoy it.Cheers! John.

Another

Dig that 60's wallpaper,man!
These last few pics were taken in 1978(only 22 years left to go!)
At this stage I had just finished the copper plate sheathing which took about 300 hours to do.The individual plates were cut ,then they were heated with a butane lighter till red hot and then quickly dunked in cold water.The irregular crazed pattern was the result.For a decorative type model I liked it the way it turned out but for a more realistic look it probably should have a green tinge.
The plates were attached to the hull using contact cement in a patten like the real ship.
After they were all glued on I nailed on each individual plate using copper wire ,cut to length ,with the ends sanded flatA hole a little smaller than the wire nails' diameter was drilled into the hull for each nail.I hammered in each one after laying out the pattern on the copper plate with a small pin.This is where using an epoxyied interior really paid off ,as it provded a very firm seat for the copper nails.I did not use any type of sealer over the completed hull and their has been no discoloration over the years.If anything the copper has developed a little deeper,richer patina that really compliments the colors found in the wood base.Total time in the project after finishing the sheathing about 1,200. to be cont........
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This is where I first got the idea to do the Victory as a diorama.This is an 18th century ship model from Buckler's Hard shipyard in Hampshire England.This ship diorama is an early example of the practical uses of modelmaking.I don't know what scale it is,probably around 1/48 which was a popular scale in those days for Admiralty type models,I believe.
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