And so I start my journey. I have always been interested in wooden model ships, and have always wanted to build one. The attention to detail, the research involved, the meticulousness of getting every detail right and accurate. However, age precludes some of that (at least for me). I attempted the Artesania Latina USS Constitution about 25 years ago. I had acquired the kit from a hobby store that was closing, and figured why not? I finished the 1st planking, and decided to put it down because at that time in my life and age, I didn't have the patience to do it proper justice. Unfortunately, years later, it was utterly destroyed in a move.
I always said I would build another ship, but not until I had the patience to build one accurately and with the attention to detail that was required. I am now ready to tackle that journey. I guess, for me, with age comes more patience. When it comes to doing something, I guess I have always been the kind of person to go big, or go home. I don't think I have seen a single post of someone choosing the Victory as their first model; definitely not to the level of the Caldercraft Victory. That is definitely not why I decided on the Caldercraft HMS Victory though. I did about a month worth of research, reading reviews, watching videos, etc before I decided on it. And although I have a little experience from attempting the Constitution so many years ago, I truly believe I can do this. I have done months of research on the Victory. I have Alan McGowan's HMS Victory and John McKay's The 100 Gun Ship Victory (2 books that I think are a must have for this endeavor). For me, my due diligence started way before I received the kit.
I started building back in early September. I photo-documented almost everything, but wanted to wait a little before posting a build log. Currently, I am getting ready to start the 2nd planking, and thought it would be a good time to begin posting my log. Comments, suggestions, and history are definitely welcome. Doing and re-doing things that aren't right doesn't scare me. I have been following many Victory build posts, obviously focusing on the Caldercraft model, and have learned so much, and have learned what to watch out for. I have been following TonyH's journey fixing the Victory he got half-built from Ebay. I can't tell you how much I learned from his going through everything that was wrong or misaligned.
Anyways, here is the start of my build log:
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And so to begin:
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As you can see, my workspace is getting more cluttered as the build goes on. I do need to work on keeping a cleaner workspace!
