H.M.S.Victory

April 2002 - June 2004

Kit :	COREL (Italy)
Scale :	1 : 98 (Length : 1035mm, Height : 715mm, Width : 325mm)
Drawing :	14 beautiful drawings
Manual :	A booklet written in six languages (English, Germany, French etc.)
Others :	Several molding parts, i.e. gallery, ornaments, and rails, are made of "pressed wood" not metal. I think the "pressed wood" may be made by pressing the mixed materials of wood powder and organic resin.

Related Home Page: http://www.microcraftworld.com/main.html
"Wooden kits shop MicroCraft"(in Japanese) : This kit has been bought from here.

June 3rd 2004

Completed

Summary of the Construction Process

This kit was bought from "Wooden kits shop MicroCraft" through the internet in April 2002.
The first planking was finished in June and the second planking was completed in July.
The upper deck was finished in August.

The guns on the upper deck were fixed in September.
In order to solve the problem described at Memo3), I used the guns on carriages for all of the guns on the upper deck.

As described at Memo1), I decided to change the gallery from "pressed wood" to metal. The metal stern gallery plate was painted in black and gold using acrylic paints for plasitic models.
Transparent plastic sheets instead of panes of glass were glued behind the lattices.

In January 2003, I started the construction of the superstructures. The skylight was constructed by using beech and paper for the mullions and transparent plastic for the panes of glass.
The steering wheel and the binnacle were modified as described at Memo4) and Memo7).

The boats were made in March.
I made the four boats ie., 34ft launch, 32ft barge, 28ft pinnace, and 18ft cutter.

The chainplates, the hammock nettings, and the gunport lids were attached from April to May. The enlarged photograph of the metallic gunport lids are shown in Memo8).

All of the lower masts were fixed in May.
The shrouds and forestays for the lower masts were completed from July to June.

All of the topmasts were fitted in August.
The top gallant masts and the flying jibboom were fitted in Sptember and all of the stays were fitted in October.

The main yard and the fore yard were fitted in November.
Then, the spritsail yard and the spritsail topsail yard were fitted in December.
I found that the fixing points of running rigging in this kit manual are different from "The 100 Gun-Ship Victory". The fixing points indicated in the kit manual seem not to be rational. I modified these referring to "The 100 Gun-Ship Victory".

The crossjack yard, the driver boom and the driver gaff were fitted in January 2004.
Then, the fore topsail yard and the fore top gallant yard were lifted in February.
The main topsail yard and main top gallant yard were fitted in March and the mizzen topsail yard and mizzen top gallant yard were attached in April.
Since I made all of the braces slack in order to make these ropes "catenary shape", the fixation of the yards became loose. I have no solution in this matter.

The anchors (Bower and Sheet anchors) were attached in May. The anchors in the kit are smaller than originals as shown in Memo10). I made the anchors of wood by myself.

The flags were fitted in June. Then completed.

Memo

1)	I thought that the moulding parts made of "pressed wood" did not have enough strength. Therefore I asked people who had built this ship for their advices and got the metal mouldings, which are for the Amati's Victory, from "Wooden kits shop MicroCraft". The left is the metal moulding and the right is of pressed wood in the kit.
2)	This model ship has three decks. In the manual of the kit, the lowest one is named "Lower deck" and the middle one is "Upper deck". However, according to "The 100-Gun Ship Victory", these decks are named "Upper deck" and "Quarterdeck" respectively. I follow the naming of "The 100-Gun Ship Victory" to avoid the confusion.
3)	According to "The 100-Gun Ship Victory", all of the guns arranged on the upper deck are 12 lb cannons. But there are two types of the guns, i.e. the guns on carriages and the half-guns, on the upper deck in this kit. All of half-guns have the same size and these are used on the upper deck, the middle deck and the lower deck. But the guns on the middle deck are 24 lb cannons and the guns on the lower deck are 32 lb cannons. On the other hand, the guns on the carriages are much smaller than the half-guns. The mixing of these guns on one deck is conspicuous.
4)	In the plan of the kit, the binnacle and the steering wheel are placed in front of the poop deck. However, these in the original ship are under the poop deck. Nevertheless, the steering wheel in the kit is too big to set it there. I made a smaller one by the combination of an iron ring and the beech as shown in the photograph compared with the steering wheel in the kit.
5)	The pressed wood moldings are very fragile. These can be bent by the heating with a soldering iron. But the temperature control is not easy because overheated pressed wood moldings become limp. I found that the pressed wood became flexible after coating with acrylic paints for plastic models. This might be caused by a chemical reaction between the acrylic paints and the organic resin in the pressed wood.
6)	There are two carronades on the forecastle deck. All of the metal moldings parts for these are provided in the kit. After assembly of these, I noticed that the carriages are different from these on the original ship. The trucks which should be under the sliding bed are in the sides of that. The breech which should be on the triangular chock is not on that. I decided to make the wood carriage instead of this metal carriage. Two types of the carriages are shown in the photograph. The right one is the metal molding carronade and the left one is the remade carronade.
7)	The binnacle was modified to show a lamp and two compasses. The mullions were made of paper. A chimney was added on the roof.
8)	The gunports made with mtallic parts in this kit are shown. It was difficult to attach the ropes to these metallic gunport lids. So, the port tackle could not be fitted.
9)	The arrangement of the jibboom in the kit plan is different from the original ship as shown in the figure. I do not understand the reason of this modification.
10)	When I fitted the anchors in the kit to the hull, I found that these are smaller than originals. I decided to discard these and make the anchors of wood by myself. The right one is the anchor in the kit and the center one is my own work. The left one is before painting. The iron bands were made of paper.
11)	I made the name plate. I cut out the characters from a card and pasted these characters on another card. Then I painted this plate with acrylic paints for plastic models.

Details of Construction Process :

	From April 2002 to May 2003
	From June 2003

Close-up Photographs : Close-up photographs of each section are shown in this page.

Painting : An oil painting of H.M.S. Victory in the Battle of Trafalgar.