At work, thankfully, things have also calmed down and a few big projects have been closed. There are still plenty of projects, however, they are small and I can get old with that. So I have time for Vic again.

 

Last Saturday, I cleaned up the workshop, removed all the spiders and webs, sanded machines and re-oiled them. Lastly, I took the sheet off Vic again and removed all the dust. As an interim project, I put a new handle on my daughter's favourite cheese slicer. Don't think there are many cheese slicers with an Ebony 

 

 

I finally started yesterday with fitting the extra beams between the upper cheek and under cheek. These will be 4 beams where later the anchor ropes will also run. The first one is now on and number 2 is currently being adjusted.

____________________

Greetings,

Henk

 

30 april 2023

Last weekend I just cleaned up the workshop, removed spiders, cleaned machines and we started up again. Indeed, I haven't done anything to Vic for 1 year and 2 months. Last year, due to a rearrangement, the garden furniture had to be stored in the workshop for a few weeks. After that, I just didn't feel like starting up. We have since started up again in a clean workshop.

 

 

I had already started on the bow last year, with the Upper Cheeks being placed first. Due to their three-dimensional shape, they are not the easiest parts to make, a lot of wood is lost in this process. First, I roughly milled and sawed the wood into the required shapes

 

 

After that, it was a matter of refining and sanding more and more. Finally, the Upper Cheek was fitted with the necessary grooves on the closed hull side. Meanwhile, they have been placed on the bow and we are quietly moving on again.

___________________

Regards,

Henk

 

23 january 2022

 

Today I am exactly 7 years into the production of Vic. People often ask how many years I have left to work on this ship. According to my planning I am now halfway the production.

 

In the past weeks I have been busy with the further finishing of the rails. A lot of time went into making the square holes and I was honestly afraid that this method would not work. In the end, after a lot of fitting and measuring, I am very satisfied with the result.

 

 

I don't know the Dutch name in the book 'The Anatomy of Nelson's Ships' they are called "Kevels". I have chosen to glue a piece of Ebony to a piece of round Pearwood. This way, I can use the divider to mill the shapes into it.

 

 

After installing the railings, I had to conclude that the current method of furnishing 'The Quarter Deck' does not work well in terms of keeping the lower decks clean. You change work too much and therefore dust falls down all the time. I have therefore decided to start working from the front to the back of the ship and to furnish 'The Quarter Deck' as well as finishing the outside of the hull. 

 

This will mean that the anchors and the 'Carronade Gun' will be produced earlier. I will show the production of these in separate reports. Because of this change I started with the mouldings on 'The Beakhead/ Bulkhead. I had already bought 2 different kinds of wood for these mouldings, namely 'Yellow Cedar' and 'Osage Orange'. So I had another building consultation with the boss of this house and we finally chose 'Osage Orange'. 

 

I make the frames as much as possible on the milling machine. In many cases, I make a sliding mould. This keeps the milling cutter on one point and I pull/push the wood through the mould. I also glued another piece to a round wood so that I could mill all the figures in the frame for "The Roundhouse". 

I will now start finishing the bow, The Beakhead and the Gangboards. 

___________________

Regards,

Henk

 

19 december 2021

After finishing the Gunholes, it was time to raise the hull of the Fore Castle. On my drawings this hull is very different from all the photos in the various books and as Vic is now in England. I decided earlier to build Vic entirely according to the drawings. I came across a small error but after some searching I was able to find the final measurements. The hull of the "Fore Castle" is closed at the bottom. A number of trusses do run through, so that the upper part is open. 

 

The result was that I had to saw off quite a bit of the frames. Before I could continue with this hull, the "Catheads" had to be placed. These "Catheads" have blue surfaces in real life. I have inlaid them with Ebony. As with the Bulkhead, the blue areas are black.

 

After that, the rafters, which do run through, were extended with Ebony to give them the right colour. The top of the closed hull is covered with a rail. I made this in two pieces so that the frames, which continue through, are immediately well enclosed.

 

On the outside of the fuselage is an extra rail, intended for the "Hammock Nettting". The work is just a lot slower at the moment because I am also working directly on the outside of the hull.

___________________

Regards,

Henk

 

28 november 2021

 

It took a while, but the deck is planked and sanded. In the meantime, the rear side of the hull has also been planked. Photo 5 shows the layout of the spaces for the Captain, Master and Secretary.  As I am building Vic in the combat situation I will not build these walls. I am only going to lay the tiled floor in the Captain's quarters, on which the Guns will be placed.

 

The deck beams for "The Poop Deck" will soon be placed above these spaces, so the inner wall is planked all the way up. From the steering wheel to the Boom Deck the hull is a little lower. I had already planked the hull to the right height on the outside, but I still measured everything just to be sure. 

 

After having taped off the outside with plastic, I made the Gunholes to size and shortened the frames. I will now finish the "Gunholes" and, where necessary, add hatches. After that, the hull at "the Fore Castle" will be finished and the deck will be laid out from front to back.

____________________

Regards,

Henk

 

12 september 2021

 

As with the start of the previous decks, I started by getting a good supply of wood.  Once this was in order, I could finally start fitting out "The Quarter Deck". Personally, I think this deck is the most beautiful deck of all and I already know that it will take me quite a long time to decorate it. As an extra, 'The Belfry', the rudder and 'The Binacle' have to be made. These I will show in separate blogs in the "Building Projects HMS Victory". In addition, the "Boom Deck" has to be fitted out and the frames are immediately raised to the correct height.

 

So the first job was to saw off the frames of the "Boom Deck". These have to be level with the deck beams after which they are covered with a "Sheer rail".  I made these from Ebony. Then I started to apply the grating beams. I deliberately deviated from the drawings for some of the beams. We decided to let the planking of this deck run to exactly the middle. The drawings indicate that some of the grating beams are on top of the deck planks and not on top of the deck beams. So I deliberately let everything rest on the deck beams now.

 

So last week I finally started planking the deck. This job will take a few more weeks, so I will report as soon as the deck has been planked.

____________________

Regards,

Henk