HMS Victory 1:98

[SandiaPaul]

Does anyone have a link for where to buy that little sander? It looks like just the thing...

[WP Rayner]

If you ever finish that model, and if you are able to maintain your extremely high standards, it should go to a museum or other gallery where it is very well protected and people can admire it forever. -- Russ

Well, speed modelling is not my specialty, I enjoy the process too much, but once the scratched keel is complete, it's on to the plywood inner structure members of the kit which will be relatively quick. The pressure is on though, need to get this done before I'm too old, sick, or stupid to finish it! 

[WP Rayner]

Does anyone have a link for where to buy that little sander? It looks like just the thing...

Paul, this one came from Amazon Canada, so I expect it should be available from Amazon in the U.S. or elsewhere. Just search mini-belt sanders and it should come up.

[WP Rayner]

Plank-end rabbets are now cut in the bow timbers on both Port and Starboard sides. This completes work at this point on the bow timbers. The brass pattern and baseplate worked well. I trued up the rabbets using an angled dental burr in the flex shaft tool. Be a bit of a lull now in the model shop. There is a huge amount of chainsaw milling to be done, plus I'm expanding the workshop, bringing in my cabinet makers bench to make room for assembly of the Victory.

[SandiaPaul]

Paul,

I checked out a few of your youtube vids, nice, thanks for taking the time to make them for everyone.

[finescalerr]

Not bad. -- Russ

[WP Rayner]

Paul,

I checked out a few of your youtube vids, nice, thanks for taking the time to make them for everyone.

Thanks Paul. The YouTube channel is a fairly new venture, Mrs. R. being the primary motivator. Being such an esoteric subject, with no coverage of explosions or fires (hopefully), police pursuits, mine exploring, lawn mowing, pressure washing, or scantily clad women (more's the pity), I had little hope for the channel but have been pleasantly surprised by the amount of interest it has generated, at least among the ship modelling community.

[WP Rayner]

Spent the past couple of weeks rearranging the workshop to accommodate my cabinet-makers bench. The bench has lived in the garage for the past seven years which has limited its usability to six months of the year due to the garage not being climate-controlled. Now that it's in the modelshop in the house, it's in a stable environment and is available for year-round use, primarily to function as the dedicated "shipyard" for the construction of the Victory, though it will be pressed into service for some other woodworking projects on my to-do list. In the photo the Victory buildboard is in place with the keel set into the keel support.

I built the bench in 1989 from Maple and Cherry with Record vise hardware. It's been well-travelled over the past thirty-some years and has held up well considering the variety of environments it's lived in and the variety of work that's been done on it. At one point it was in our motorcycle shop and served as a bench for rebuilding engines and motorcycle frames! That was the darkest point in its history as it was stolen, fortunately recovered two years later. Before this latest move, I scraped, sanded, steel-wooled, and hard-waxed the top, and replaced the leather on the clamping surfaces of the tail vise, so it should be good for at least another thirty years. It's an absolute beast to move (the top does separate from the support frame) and I owe a massive thank-you to my friend Jeff who helped with schlepping this back-breaker from the garage to the shop.

[finescalerr]

All that history gives the bench great character ... not to mention the character who built it. -- Russ

[Barney]

Very Nice and a lovely finish to a good bit of workmanship
Barney

[Ray Dunakin]

How did you manage to recover it two years after it was stolen?

[WP Rayner]

Thanks guys. It does have a lovely patina to it now and plenty of honest scars from all the work done on it, which add to the character.

How did you manage to recover it two years after it was stolen?

It was relatively simple Ray because we knew who had the bench. One weekend when I wasn't able to be in the motorcycle shop, our corrupt S.O.B. business partner cleared everything out of the shop and moved it to his house, a process known as " direct conversion." It is, of course, illegal, and amounts to theft. His motivation appears to have been to extort money from us to cover his losses in the business. It took two years of legal wrangling to resolve the issue and have the bench plus several other significant items returned to us. We could have taken it to court, but our lawyer advised against that as it would just turn into a pissing contest and drag on forever. The bench suffered some as he left it standing on end in his garage! Fortunately, our lawyer was much better than his, plus we have good friends in the motorcycle community who assisted with karma. Of course, I know nothing about that.

[Lawton Maner]

I have a similar one in my shop that I made about 40 years ago.  Simpler design, but it takes also 3 men and a trip to my favorite BBQ restaurant to move.

Now that you have a shipway to build the model on, it needs to be inclined to about 1/2" to the foot so that when launched she will easily slide into the water.  Working on the USS California in the early 1970's it felt normal to work on an inclined hull and then when launched, working on it in the water felt strange for a couple of days. 

[WP Rayner]

I have a similar one in my shop that I made about 40 years ago.  Simpler design, but it takes also 3 men and a trip to my favorite BBQ restaurant to move.

Yes, they are a beast to move. The top on mine is about 250lbs. I lightened it a little by removing all the vise hardware and the tail vise before moving it, but it's still a backbreaker. Unfortunately though, we don't have the luxury of a BBQ restaurant here to restore our tissues. Ontario doesn't know what good BBQ is. One of the hardest things we've had to adjust to since moving here is the universal blandness of the food.

I can imagine it took some adjustment to switch from working on a rigid inclined deck to a floating, somewhat level deck. The keep strip on the buildboard should be tapered. I haven't done so yet, but will do so when it comes time to begin planking. I need to plane the underside of the keel strip with the jointer plane so that the aft end is approx. .125" thinner than the bow end. The ship drew about 1 ft. more aft than forward, and the tapered keel strip will help get the water lines horizontal.

[Lawton Maner]

Since I am left handed, the bench was made to be a mirror image of the usual ones.  The side vise is on the right end and when planing a board my left side is closest to the bench.  With its weight, there is never a "hold my beer moment" when working with it.  I have several add-ons which make common repetitive tasks easier to do as well as a cover to keep it clean when staining or gluing up work. 

Have you made a miniature sovereign yet to place in the keel for good luck and fair weather sailing?