Building The Jotika HMS Victory (Page 3)

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