Warlord Games Black Seas HMS Victory Build

[Ray Rivers]

Thanks, Richard!

Hey folks, have a problem and maybe someone can give me some advice and or recommendations.

Here is a photo of the masts:



On the bottom right you see a red circle and that is part of the lower original mast which has metal supports running around the mast. Now I am trying to figure out how to duplicate that... but I'm not sure... they are about half a millimeter in width.

1. Green stuff - mighty thin so could be quite difficult to replicate.
2. Nylon wrap - a couple wraps would do it, but I would end up with a knot somewhere.
3. Thin wire - this comes from those things you twist around to close bags. The width is right.

I'm leaning towards the thin wire. What do you all think?

[DintheDin]

Thin wire or some fitting plastic tube you could cut to slices/rings.

[Ray Rivers]

Thin wire or some fitting plastic tube you could cut to slices/rings.

Ah! I tried to find some plastic tube but was unable to find any that fit. Nothing even close.

So I'm using the wire, which is very fiddly and requires that I use needle nose pliers with some very small pieces. They appear to be coming out okay, but I have difficulty cutting the wire to match tip to tip. So... as I normally do in such cases, I bath it in super glue and will hope for the best.

[Ray Rivers]

Here are the modified masts complete with some running rigging added (as usually it is a pretty crappy photo from my workstation which I figure folks should be pretty used to by now  ):



For those interested, the lower mast supports were made with metal wire. It took awhile to figure out how to do this but in the end what I did was grab the end of the wire with a pair of needle nose pliers, then wrap the wire around the tip of the pliers. This gave me a slightly larger than needed wire circle. I then used the pliers to squish the wire together a bit and then cut the circle off with some clippers. I attached them with super glue and when they were dry I went back and used a file to take away any edges that were awkwardly sticking out. Once I figured out how to do it, it went very rapidly.

As a side note, for the spars, once I cut them off the old masts, I cut into them to give me a notch to attach to the metal masts. Once I attached them, I then also reinforced them with a bit of thread. I drenched them with super glue and hoped that they were strong enough to allow me to add running rigging to them, as you have to put quite a bit of force if you want the rigging to be tense. I wasn't so sure about how it would turn out, but luckily everything came out fine and I had no problem with the spars.

Now to undercoat and paint the masts. When I am finished I'll post a photo of the L'Orient's masts and the Victory's masts for comparison.

Cheers!

[syrinx0]

Great attention to detail Ray.  I probably would have phoned it in with some masking and glue.    The rigging looks nice and tight.

[Ray Rivers]

Thanks, Syrinx!

The masts are now complete and painted. So let's first take a look at how they came out for the L'Orient using their metal masts):



And here is how they came out for the Victory (the bowsprit has already been attached to the hull) with their steel masts:



I think the only really obvious difference is that the Victory's masts are straight and true. The painting and so forth is more of less the same.

Now the experiment will begin. Has modifying the metal masts with steel given them sufficient rigidity to make rigging the ship not only easier... but ascetically more attractive.

Next update will show the ship with all masts and standard rigging in place. Might be some time though, because this is a fairly long process.

[gamer Mac]

A lot of extra work but well worth it the steel ones are much better

[Ray Rivers]

A lot of extra work but well worth it the steel ones are much better

Actually making the new masts didn't take all that much time. It will probably end up as a time saver as with the other masts on the L'Orient I was constantly readjusting them to keep the lines taught. That was very frustrating.

Well see if it makes a difference or not. My feeling is that it will make rigging the ship a whole lot easier.

[Ray Rivers]

So I had a bit of a problem this week.

Around 6 or 7 days ago I started having excess mucus/phlegm, sore throat, upset stomach (from all that mucus) and a bit of a body ache. I began chilling out on the couch in the evenings and started to feel like I might have a bit of a temperature as well. My wife put her cheek to my forehead and said I was okay. Body ache increased, starting coughing, and headache. Went to bed on Friday, I believe, and had an attack of chills with me shivering  uncontrollably and my teeth chattering like crazy. Woke up totally drenched in sweat. The next day I felt like shit and my wife took my temperature... 37.8 (below 37 is normal). Spent the entire day on the couch, coughing uncontrollably. Another temperature check clocked out 38.5. Paracetamol had absolutely no effect. My wife and kid wanted me to be go to the hospital and be tested and I refused. She called a couple doctors we knew and one said to have a test while the other said a test would not be given unless I experienced difficulty breathing or tightness in the chest. I had neither of those and was the reason I resisted going to the hospital.

Woke up this morning. No headache. A lot less phlegm, sore throat better, stomach better, no body aches. Temperature was 36.6.

Pretty darn sure I had a bout of the Wuhan Virus. But at 66 I'm still alive and kicking.

 

[DintheDin]

Please, take care!
Our best wishes for quick recovery!

[gamer Mac]

yes take care

[Ray Rivers]

Thanks!

I thought I was clear. Today my fever spiked at 38,7 with eventually coughing as well. Overall I'm feeling pretty well, but looks like thisn't is going away after one week.

Going back into hiding.

[DintheDin]

I think that all fellow forumers who admire your work send you waves of positive energy with the hope and wish that you will be back at your post soon!

[Captain Blood]

Yikes 
Sounds like you’ve got it. Hang on in there Ray. It affects everyone differently from what I’ve heard.
Wishing you all the very best for a safe recovery.

[Ray Rivers]

Thank ya'll!

If I do have it I think, at least to this point, it has been pretty mild. My temperature is back to normal again this morning and I'm feeling okay.

You know since the day I got back to Spain since last week I had a pretty good head cold with lots of snot and sore throat. Got that on the airplane. So almost like 9 weeks. FINALLY I got rid of the head cold and the next thing was flu like symptoms. Haven't been sick like this for years. Since turning around 60 I have been a "social distancer" because folks just don't have any problem dragging their colds and flu into the public and then sneezing all over you.

I am going to go with worse case and suppose I have COVID. With luck I'll shake this soon!