In my opinion,HMS Victory,by Noel CL Hackney is the best by far as a guide to the step by step rigging of this ship and other English ships-of-the-line.It was written by a modeler for other modelers .I have all the other books on modeling Victory but this little book, that I paid $1.98 for new in a hobby store 35 years ago ,is the best.Unfortunately they now only come up on the secondary market and only occasionally and they want up to $150.00 bucks for it.There are only 7 libraries in the world that stock it and there was only one printing made in the English language in 1970,the others are in German.If anyone knows how to put a little pressure on the owners of the rights to this book,please do so. Mr Hackney was foremost a modeler and he went to a lot of effort to make sure this information was available to modelers.I am sure that he would be very unhappy today to see the price that modelers have to pay and to whom the money is going.I am sure that in his lifetime it wasn't him.
Check it out on the web ISBN 0 85059 053 1.

I personally used his book over a 30 year period when building my own Victory and I don't think that I would have finished it as easily or as accurately as I did without it.It is a real shame that it will not be available to future modelers.And no I am not selling mine.Thanks Noel!

Please note: the decision to use harbour,furled or full sail rig has to be made very early in the process .I plan to discuss some of the full sail rigging options later.

Please feel free to post questions or comments to this thread at any time.The booklet pages will all be numbered.

Now,on to the rigging.(Sequence based upon Hackney's book.)
The first items of standing rigging to go on are the pendants.
1-Pendants-see TANS(The Anatomy of Nelson's Ships) plan #8,text P228

2-Shrouds-see TANS plan#8,text P219-33 (please note that there is a definite sequence in rigging the shrouds,

3-Bobstays-see TANS plan#6,text P226

Masthead pendants.

Single masthead pendant.Usually found on the mizzen and topmast.

Sorry about all the different size texts.I will try to fix it.

This is the best pic that I can come up with right now.I took the pic years ago before I was ever contemplating a step-by-step. I will try to get a take a better pic and post it.Too bad this build was done before the digital camera era .I didn't take many pics except of the finished model with my old camera as it was such a hassle then and way too expensive.

Shrouds at masthead.

Please note: that this is a real time build booklet so if you would like me to take a pic of a specific area that we are dealing with at the time,just ask.If you have a Victory in plastic or wood that you would like to finish why not drag it out of the closet and do it now.I know that a lot of guys just give up when they get to the rigging stage,I almost did.This online booklet is meant mostly for beginners rigging their first large ship, like I was
at the time of my 1/72 scale Victory build.

Foremast shrouds

Re: Riggin'...Online Booklet
Revised format
One of the problems in doing a real time online information booklet is that you kind to have to learn as you go along.I didn't like the format up until now as it is too confusing.If this is going to be a step by step method the following format should better reflect what I am trying to do here.



STEP 3-Bobstays

Longridge-Text page 226,Plan 6.

Hackney-Text page 61,figure 13.

Three bobstays are fitted between the head and the bowsprit.They are of 8" rope each one doubled and rigged by hearts and lanyards.The hearts are 14" long and the lanyards are of 4" rope.Two hearts are required for each bobstay.

Note: I will revise steps 1 and 2 to conform to this new format.Thank you for your patience.

Each step will be followed by a picture from my model if I have access to it.That unfortunately is the limitations in working with an already completed model sitting in a case.In most cases Longridge and Hackney cover all the details with their plans,figures,and text. The pictures are there to give you an idea of how it looks when finished.