Building The Jotika HMS Victory

At near enough £700 this kit is a large investment but there is several years work in it so across time it is a very cheap way of spending your time. A friend of mine name of Brian, asked if I could get him the HMS Victory kit when it came out. Brian had just finished his first rigged ship model and as luck would have it annual bonus payments made it a possibility. As always there was a slight snag - due to ever increasing research and information this kit has been a couple of years in the making and, on Bonus day, it still had not been issued, so we waited. Then waited some more. Finally the announcement came and went - and in due course the kit arrived.

We had arranged to meet and swap the kit over in Bristol - but when I tried to move it - it quickly became apparent that that was not a real option. So Brian arranged to come and collect it. Why? well the box is near 4 feet long by 1 foot square, and it is full to the brim with wood and metal parts. Any way Brian took the kit home and started to build. Hopefully we will follow the build on the site with a few pictures as we go along - and get the tru story behind building the kit.

The frst comment is that with the copious plans, build instructions and parts, and even at £700 this kit looks and feels like good value for money!! First is the keel and frames and then the first layer of planking. The planks are long and some require a fairly severe bend in them so they were soaked in hot water to make them plyable before shaping and fixing. Very straight forward except the only container large enogh was the bath! I think Brian has now invested in a plastic pipe. Any way he said that the build to and including the first layer of planking was straight forward but could only proceed relatively slowly - 4 planks an evening. He has also been looking at the remaining build trying to figure how he can interleave some of the more repetetive work (building canons) with the more interesting stuff!

Picture 1 - up to first planking!

64 hours - Starting the rear galleries The rear gallery has been started - as with all things at this stage it looks very messy, filling sanding and painting to do, so any errors will be covered up. The main hull of course has another layer of planks, and a layer of copper plates on most of it (paint on the rest) which will cover a multitude of sins - but you still need to take care as you will always know that they are there!! The nine forward facing windows in the quarter gallery are glazed, but it doesn't really show in this photo. The gallery is made of 3 ply, so the grain direction is quite critical. Bending parallel to the grain is easy, bending across the grain is almost impossible. The six layers in the quater gallery are alternating grain directions, so it is quite a job getting them aligned....

73 hours This is the middle deck planking. The lower gun deck is not visible at all and this deck is actually only visible at the bottom of a few stairwells. As most of this decking will not be seen, its a good opportunity to practice and perfect the techniques - felt pen around the edges of each plank is too thick and smudgy so I will not attempt this method again (I'll try the black paper method). The next photo (when I've taken it) will show the second hull planking progressing. I'm Currently on the 45th plank (90th if you count both sides!!), but there are about another about another 20 to go....

117 hours The second planking to the lower half of the hull is finished. The rear half of the keel and the stern post is finally glued on. With all the shaping and sanding I was worried they would not fit, but it was not too bad in the end. All of this nice planking will be painted or buried under copper plates, but after filling and sanding it will not look so nice anyway!

126 hours The camber beams to support the upper gun deck are now in place. One last chance to look at the middle gun deck planking as virtually none of this is visible after the upper gun deck is in place

128 hours The upper gun deck and the inner bulwark patters are in place. Although you can still see the middle gun deck, the grating will cover most of these holes. Quite a bit of shaping is required to ensure the inner and outer gun ports line up.

140 hours The upper gun deck and inner bulwarks are planked (still using the felt pen method as a) I’m getting better at it and b) most of this deck is also hidden. The inner bulwarks will be painted yellow ochre but I’m still deciding on the best shade to do. The recommended colour is very pale and washed out. Do I go for authenticity or something that looks more dramatic/pretty? (the latter I suspect).

165 hours 165 hours into the project and 16 of the gun ports are lined - very fiddly indeed, and these are the easy ones with inner and outer plates to glue onto - just wait until I get to the lower ones, where the lining is glued to just one 1mm edge.

173hours 173 hours and the wales are in place. They are a bit difficult to see in this photo, but look for the planks that go at a different angle to the main area (bending up towards the stern). Lots of filling and sanding done, so things looking a little tatty. I’ve just started the main lot of gun port linings - 72 to do, that’s nearly 300 fiddly bits of wood to glue on (the next photo may be some time away….)

191 hours Happy Christmas / Happy New Year - and another picture!! Gun port linings finished much sooner than I was expecting (18 hours work). 72 gun ports lined in all (4 per hour). After a while it becomes easy. Initial fears of balancing a thin sliver of wood on a 1mm vertical edge soon faded when I discovered the three tricks - cut the wood a tiny fraction too big and then you can wedge it into position. Don’t use superglue, as you need to adjust each piece to ensure they are sunk in to the right depth and run parallel around all sides. Do the two vertical edges, let the glue dry, then do the top and bottom. If you try to do all sides at once while the glue is still wet, you end up knocking bits out of position (I still ended up with quite a few parts that dropped inside the hull never to see the light of day again…)

222-269 hours 222 hours, (31 hours of painting later), the Victory looks quite colourful. Me and masking tape don’t get on well and in the end all the painting was done freehand. A wee bit wobbly in places but they didn’t have masking tape in Nelson’s day after all. The yellow I chose was a little deeper than that recommended, but I took a bit of artistic licence… Another 36 hours on (258 hours into the build) and the two and a half thousand copper plates are in place. Just like laying bricks. A few tips (the second side when on much easier than the first noting these) – When gluing the first row take extra care to line then up perfectly – subsequent layers will line up much easier. If you make a mistake and stick one on slightly out of place – rip it off, it’s very difficult to work around a wonky one (don't do this too many times though, I'm not sure how many spare plates there are - I still have to do the rudder) 269 (and a half) hours in, and some detailed work at last. Gratings and stairways, plus loads and loads of little canon balls. Most of this upper gun deck will be covered by the quarterdeck, but this deck will be far more visible than the poor middle gun deck (you can just see a bit at the bottom of the stairway, lower left of the photo. The loose threads are the companionway guard rails and will be fixed to stanchions and pillars at a much later date. Next job is the 30 canons on the upper gun deck... 316 hours (47 hours since the last photo) and all 30 of the upper gun deck canons are complete. Each one is built in 18 stages over eight days, so quite a lengthy conveyer belt going most of the time. Lots of tiny pieces (especially those little rings) so heavy use was made of the old magnifying glass. Next set of work is rigging the canons – more work under a magnifying glass, and my fingers are just that little bit too big. I’ve decided that the rigging is so fiddly, I will not be doing the canons that are completely hidden under the quarter deck (about half of them)

347 hours

347 hours in, now passed the six months elapsed time (7 months 25 days). The cannons on the upper gun deck are finished and I think I could make one blindfolded. Four additional stages to the rigging meant an elapsed time of 12 days to make a cannon (had I done all 30, one at a time, it would have taken a year!). Rigging was a bit fiddly, but got the hang of it near the end – hopefully the quarterdeck cannons will be neater. I only rigged 14 in the end, as the other 16 are well and truly hidden. Now its on with more pillars and stairs up to the quarterdeck…

361 hours

8 months (less one day) elapsed, and 361 hours in. The quarterdeck is on, and having spent just over 100 hours on the upper gun deck, this is all you can see!! What makes matters worse is that later on (next year probably), the four ship’s boats will be placed on top of this area. Still, I know all the detail is there, and the ship’s boats will cover up some of my awful knot tying (I must get a book or something to help). The stairway rigging and pillars all had to be done after the skid beams were put on. This makes it a bit like keyhole surgery, and most of this work has to be done with tweezers. There were a couple of heart stopping moments when I dropped two of the pillars – yes, they bounced down the stairways into the middle gun deck. I managed to get one back up the stairs and the other out through a gun port (phew)

421 hours.

At last, all the outer hull planking is on and painted. The inner lining and gun ports are also finished apart from the poop deck. This is now the start of the sticky-up bits on the deck such as the galley stove chimney – they all look very nice but will be prone to knocks (fingers crossed!)

438 hours.

More sticky-up bits to accidentally knock off. The belfry, the quarterdeck barricade, waist ladders down to the gun deck, the main companionway staircase and balusters and the companionway to the admirals dining cabin are now in place. One calamity occurred doing this. The main companionway ladder is the only one without rope handrails, which are very handy for lowering the ladders into place. This last ladder is the only one that is fully visible and I dropped it into the stair well. Not only did it slip down to the upper gun deck, but it also slid down the next staircase to the middle gun deck – completely out of reach and in total darkness. D’oh! As Homer would say. After much fiddling with tweezers and a torch, I had to bight the bullet and remove the other ladder to the middle gun deck so I could retrieve the missing ladder (successfully) .

I also tripped over and nearly dropped the model, so I’m stopping for today…

498 hours.

things are starting to look pretty at last. 14 more cannons completed and I’m finally getting the hang of the rigging. I used a little jig rather than tying all the lines in situ – a vast improvement. The screens behind the wheel maybe should have been just plain wood finish (as on the current Victory décor), but I couldn’t resist the yellow and black panelling (as in the old Victory guide books), which I think looks so much more interesting (if less historically accurate). The windows are glazed but it doesn’t show up in the photo. Next photo (in a week or so) will be the beakhead which is nearing the completion of the first stage (blue paint make such a change from yellow and black)

518 hours

(I’ve past the historic 500 hour mark) and the beakhead is started. Relatively simple stage (especially compared to the next bit). My first taste of gun port lids, not too bad but still around a hundred left to do. Bending the mouldings to fit around the roundhouses was a bit tricky, but nothing that a little trial and error wouldn’t cure. The two large cannons were the very last two to be done. You can just see the ship’s bell at the top of the picture.

560 hours

..... and the bow is just about finished (just a little touching up here and there). Lots of curvy bits that were very tricky to line up – all the curves are three dimensional so while it’s easy to align things up-down and left-right, you have to keep checking the in-out curve as well. Not too many photos showing how the bows should look and they all seem to differ a little, but hopefully it’s about right. Notice there are lots of sticking-out bits now (the yellow cat-heads and the black boomkins) – great care will be needed taking the model in and out of the cabinet now! (yes, I’ve knocked one already). The figurehead was hard on the eyes – I needed a very large magnifying glass and a very very small brush (00). The actual figurehead has huge amounts of detail that is just not possible in a casting this size, so some “approximation” has to be done. From a distance however, it does not look too bad.

594 hours

....... and more importantly, I’ve just past the first anniversary of starting – its been one year and three days since I glued the keel together. The poop deck is just about finished, the deck planking went really well and looks much better than previous attempts. Unfortunately, looking much better means it does not match the other decks so well – D’oh!

Lots of fiddly work on the poop deck – 52 little windows in the skylight and 21 little buckets to fix handles to.

Next step – the stern – lots more detailed painting – time to get a new brush and visit the opticians…

630 hours

.. and the stern gallery is nearly finished. This stage was probably the most satisfying so far. Although it looks very fiddly to do it was not too bad. The etched brass fittings are very detailed and because they can be all painted separately there is very little to paint in situ. The most difficult bit was actually mitring the brass mouldings that go around the base, which has to be bent and bowed in all sorts of directions. These moulding have to be joined at a little less than 90 degrees, and the whole thing slopes backwards as well. Good old milliput filled the gaps though! The crisp finish to the castings helps with the painting as well and I think the end result looks rather good (if I do say so myself). I’m still looking for a good reference picture of the stern trophy of arms before painting, I may go down to Portsmouth soon….

On Quite another tack - Dave Bevan has told us of his efforts with another makers kit and particularly the copper plateing. After trying for some time with the supplied plates he saw some copper tape for sale in varying sizes. The tape and some wheels from a cheap Argos alarm clock have proved to give him the answer to the plates and the nail impressions. Dave did supply pictures but some cameras just cannot cope with real close up work and they were a bit blurred to reproduce. Thanks Dave and perhaps we can have a picture of the whole model sometime.

690 hours

I finally visited the Victory at Portsmouth to get some photos. There was scaffolding and plastic sheeting over the stern, but luckily the trophy of arms was still visible. The 105 photos I took was probably a little bit over the top, but the trophy of arms at the stern is now in place (690 hours into the build). I’ve also started the channels, gun hatch lids and mouldings (the blurry bits to the right). A new (sharper) photo will be posted soon (of the full side view).

716 hours

This stage should be channels, and then gun hatches, followed by the mouldings but I found it easier to do all three at once, as hinted at in the instructions. After 72 hours (two months) I’ve done about 1/2 of the work (one side), so at this rate I won’t start the rudder until the New Year. This part is very fiddly (especially the chain plates) but the end result is very effective, with so much fine detail. Photos are a bit of a problem as most of the detail is black on black. I’ve temporarily removed the boomkins in the bow (see 560 hour photo), as they were rather delicate And no matter how careful I was taking the Victory in and out of the display case, they kept hitting the sides and one even snapped in half (nothing a bit of super glue couldn’t fix). I’m not even thinking about putting the stern lanterns on until I get a bigger display case (if I ever find one that’s 5 foot wide!!)

779 hours

The second side of gun port lids, channels and chain plates and mouldings are all finished. The rudder is also in place and I was very pleased to find I had enough copper plates! It only took me ten hours of work after finishing all the gun port lids before I knocked one out of position. It only bent a bit, as they are all secured with two brass rods but the ropes had to be re-done. I guess this won’t be the last one.

811 hours....

.......and I’ve reached the momentous position of having finished the first part of the construction - the first of the two instruction manuals. The hull is completely done, and it’s on with the masts next. The final part of the construction was all the ropes across the hammock cranes, handrails, and the poop deck barricade (plus the four anchors which are attached much later). Actually, I’ve started the ship’s boats next, as they will fit in the display case – unlike the masts!!

896 hours....

The instructions say the ship’s boats will take about two weeks of evening work. Well, I guess I must be a bit slow as it took me about 85 hours (that’s about 6 hours per evening over two weeks) It actually took just over two months, but it was fun. Each boat is a little miniature double planked creation. Apart from the size, the main difference between them and the full sized ship is that the bulkheads have to be removed and your handiwork is “exposed” on the inside. The instructions show the boats with just a few oars inside, then they tell you they actually had 4, 8, 14 and 16 oars altogether so it ends up looking very crowded. I think I could have arranged them a little better though. You need to make sure make sure you keep the planks tight into the bulkheads as there is a tendency for them to splay out a little. The boats are a very tight fit when placed in position, with less than a millimetre to spare, so it’s no good having them too big.

There is disappointingly little of the upper gun deck visible once the boats are in place - perhaps I’ll do a diorama with the boats at sea! Plenty of time to make up my mind - they don't get secured in place until after the rigging (a very long time away!)

910 hours

The masts are started (well the bowsprit anyway). I think this is the first time when carpentry skills (or lack of them) become more important than model making skills. The angled joint to fit the cap on was a real challenge and I got it perfect first time – just a pity it was a mirror image of what it should have been. The second attempt was not quite so good unfortunately, but I couldn’t face making a third one and it was to be painted black anyway. It became obvious during the bowsprit construction that just sanding and filing would not be good enough and a lathe was going to be worth investing in. I’ve now got a miniature one for doing all the masts and yards and it’s so much easier (although lathing an 8” length of 6mm dowel down to 2mm one end is a bit hair raising!). ( you can do this in an electric drill - it's what I used for a number of years. Allan)

937 hours

I’m nearly finished on the foremast. The photo shows two stages, the one after painting is difficult to photograph (all the detail being black), and so the left hand one is before painting. I chose to do the banding in plastic-card rather than paper. The card is stronger and (more importantly) comes pre cut in perfect strips (Ok, cheating a bit). If you’re making the Victory, and haven’t got to this stage yet, I found the topmast caps (fore and main) needed splitting to fit over the topmasts (the mizzen topmast cap comes pre split). The caps split very easily as they are solid wood not ply. They glue back together again with no join showing at all.

1000 hours

At 11:00am on Saturday the 25th June I completed my 1,000th hour on the Victory, nearly 2 years after starting – quite a moment. The picture here shows progress at around 990 hours (I’ve started on the yards since then). The masts are just placed in their holes, so not fully aligned in the photo. With the masts in place, the scale and size of the ship really comes home and I realise carrying it to and from a cabinet for the final stages of the build will be fun – you have to bend quite low to get under the door frame for example! Guess I will have to think about a dedicated room (I’m sure my wife would like to get me out of the kitchen!!)

1044 hours

, and I’m putting the finishing touches to the yards. This is the main yard and is surprisingly complex to make – there are some 69 parts making up just this one yard – not including all the threads. The lathe has proved invaluable.

1054 hours

I’ve finished all the yards. Here they are, laid out in all their glory, alongside the masts, bowsprit, booms, gaff and other nautical bits and bobs. The next step is the glue the masts in place. Oh dear, now I really will have to look for a new home for the Victory, as it’s about to outgrow its current display case...

1055 hours

Work has finally started again. After the long delay looking for a new cabinet to keep the Victory in (the old one wasn’t big enough for the masts) I built one. A 5 sided glass case will be the final choice, but totally impractical during the build phase. Display cabinets were too expensive, so I’ve gone for a temporary DIY job – Four bits of contiboard, a big bit of hardboard, and three pieces of Perspex to keep the dust out. Its nearly 5 foot by 4 foot by 2 foot – a bit unwieldy getting it up the stairs, but I now have a Victory room (or is it the Trafalgar room?) to work in. The masts are glued in place and I’m now adding the pendants. Next photo will be the start of the shrouds…

1065 hours

.... another momentous point - the start of the rigging - first two shrouds in place on the foremast - quite tricky, as there are so many things to catch your fingers on - better get used to it though. I used a jig (of bent brass wire) to get the spacing right between the dead-eyes - much easier now.

1111 hours

I’m well into the rigging. The shrouds are almost finished, and this shot shows the main mast lower shrouds, lower futtock shrouds, carthapins, topmast shrouds, lanyards etc. If you’re making this model (and haven’t got to this bit yet) pay attention to the instructions for the carthapins (I didn’t, and they are not quite right – they shouldn’t all line up with the futtock shrouds. Its quite tricky getting all the tensions to all balance up, but the secret seems to be - don’t over tighten any of the ropes. I did over tighten one, and the deadeye snapped off and shot across the room into the landing (the rest were a lot better!)

1120 hours

1120 hours and all the shrouds are done. Next it’s on to the ratlines. Several thousand knots to do and my eyes and fingers will only allow about one hour at a time (about 100 knots). The picture shows work-in-progress – the loose ends are trimmed when the glue has dried

1126 hours

Not long since the last update. This photo shows one side of one mast. The biggest problem is avoiding the rest of the model while my fingers are concentrating on tying the knots. A few close encounters with the gun ports and fences, but no serious damage. I’ve made a little ruler showing the distance between ratlines on a piece of plastic-card – essential when gauging the last six ratlines which have to be shorter than the rest. I’m currently at 1148 hours (but the rigging is just more of the same) – Next photo will be when all the ratlines are done – hopefully before Christmas (I'm around 5/6 of the way through)

1153 hours

..................and as predicted, I’ve finished the ratlines before Christmas (on Christmas Eve!). It only took just over 37 hours, which for 2,777 knots is around 74 per hour. The more observant of you will notice 2,777 knots does not divide by 2. Either I’ve miscounted, or the port side does not match the starboard (I suspect the latter). Looking forward now to adding the bowsprit – although once added, the model will be much less easy to move in and out of the cabinet…

1172 hours

– about 20 hours work over the Christmas holiday. The bowsprit is on, the mizzen mast stays are done and the fiddliest bit – the main stay, complete with snaking was finished tonight (the end of the holiday). Tying the snaking onto the main stays, in-between the foremast shrouds was very fiddly – my hands are too big! The hardest part of the rigging seems to be avoiding hitting other bits off the model – the jack staff was the main casualty today – I knocked it off twice (I’m leaving it off for a while now...)

1195 hours

... and well into the stays. Photo shows the stays and preventer stays going from mast to mast and the backstays going from the masts to the channels at the base of the shrouds. It’s starting to get a bit like a spider’s web. Had another major catastrophe during this stage – snapped the end of the bowsprit off while moving the ship around to get to the other side. Managed to repair the damage without needing to go back and replace/redo bits (hope it holds). Many people have already asked to see the photo of the damage – and the answer was no, I didn’t take a photo...

1211 hours

All the stays are finished (and no more casualties!). I’ve just started putting the first of the yards on – these will make the model a lot deeper and hence harder to move around (... I'm preparing for another calamity). The next photo will however, start to look close to the final thing…

1223 hours

...... and the first set of yards is in place on the foremast. I have now actually fitted all nine yards, but until the next stage of the rigging, many of them hang at odd angles and look somewhat silly (hence no photo for that stage!). The more observant among you will notice the lack of the jack staff. It made a brief appearance in the last photo, but got knocked off yet again and lost in the dark recesses of the Victory room. Making a new one will be easy, but I really am going to delay the fitting until the last possible moment this time!

1256 hours

(Sorry - I have been very tardy in putting this update from Brian up. )

More and more and more threads. All the yards are in place, and held by the lifts (diagonal threads). It is getting more and more difficult to get to various pats of the ship to do the rigging (eg the base of the mast) and I am only about half way through the rigging - I'll have to go on a diet to get my fingers thinner. Two pairs of tweezers are essential, as are very slow movements...(So time to introduce the push and pull hooks. I used to use these when I worked on adding machines in order to pet springs in place. We used to make them from silver steel ground to a long point then bent carefully bent into a hook shape for pulling with or a half hook and then bent back on itself so that there is a dip for pushing with. Then heat to red and quench with water to harden. Clean it up and heat again away from the tip until the colour runs down and the tip is light straw going to blue - then quench - this makes it springy. You can just about make something out of brass wire but not terribly good though effective)

1294 hours

and the stern is complete. In fact I realise that there are only three more pages left in the instruction manual and the whole project is only weeks (if not days) away from being finished – scary! Only a couple of major calamites in this session, including a snapped piece of rigging (after I accidentally knocked the main yard). It was a very odd breakage, much of the rigging went slack and it took me several minutes of puzzlement before I spotted the offending break. Luckily it was in an accessible area and repair was quite easy (phew)

1321 hours

On Sunday April 30th 2006, at 8:35am I glued on the jack staff again (for about the fourth time). That was it, the final piece – HMS Victory is finished ! 1321 hours in total, spread over 2 years, 8 months and 25 days – that’s 999 days (I should have stretched it out for one more day!). I have to say a big thank-you to JoTiKa for making an absolutely fantastic kit, which was a joy to make (all 79,260 minutes of it ....or 55 days 4 hours accumulated work ...ed). Also, thanks to Allan for posting the photos here, and my wife for putting up with the mess ! Now what will my next ship model be?……Brian - it has been an absolute pleasure - we would love to follow your next build