Hms Victory purchase made to improve the kit

Update on a few Purchase made and a few I plan to make shortly. 

A while back I bought these rolls of copper to place over the keel.

They are self adhesive and very very thin, they came in at about £9.00 a roll. I will detail how their application went in future posts.

I also got 100 tiny yellow LED lights to light up the inside of the ship (cost about £7.00 from ebay) I will experiment with painting them to appear like  the lamps used.

Here a close up to show just how small they are

Here a photo of the lamps  to copy

I haveI also come across some wonderful   paper thin wooden decks costing about £70.00 from 

scale decks.com

 Other extras for super detailing the cannons on the upper decks have been sourced, and will be ordered when required.

HMS Victory, Airfix 1/100 additional research

 The instructions that come with this kit need to be treated with a healthy sceptisim, had to call in some back up with this publication below

Loads of photos and information in this book that helps to cut through some of the contradictions and uncertainties  faced when building this kit.

For example the Airfix /Heller  instructions suggest that the internal  walls on the gun decks are painted red ?

 I know the gun deck walls on the ship today are white  but were they painted red in 1805 ?

Well apparently not, they were white washed according to this publication and as I plan on lighting the ship inside small amounts of the wall may be visible.

I have  also learnt that you can not take the ship as she is today as a completely accurate representation of how she looked in 1805.

For example the yellow ochre colour she is  currently painted is not correct,according to the latest research by Micheal Crick-Smith. The yellow should be a weaker paler colour than the present vivid shade.

Also  according to the Crick-Smith's analysis of the hull, In 1805 the Orlop deck was painted a pale stone/cream colour while the surgeon's and other small cabins were painted in two shades of blue.

HMS Victory, Airfix 1:100, painting the stern

Below the paintwork on the stern is all but complete

Some final tidying up maybe made when the ship is assembled and washes of acrylic will be added.

Above a detailed shot of the crest on stern, all painted with enamels. These paints are a little tricky to use for detailed work, and need to be thinned to just the right consistency to flow easily.

This photo shows  an earlier stage with the yellow and black nearly completed , just a little snagging required. I used the humrol enamels that came with the kit , spayed on the yellow over a natural wood colour undercoat.Then a diluted black enamel was hand painted over the yellow. It took me 10 hours to get to this stage.

Above shows a close up,it's really tricky getting the finish right on this part of the ship. It's got to be clean cut paintwork at this scale.

HMS VICTORY Airfix 1:100

I have started looking at the build of HMS Victory,  by Airfix,(ex Heller) 1:100 scale, both sides of the hull are crisply cast with good detail. In this scale the hull alone is about 2 feet long.
 One of the first jobs has been to get an estimate for a display case which will be essential to protect the model during and after construction.
For an oak framed case, with toughened safety glass, the cost including delivery is around the £800.00 .
I use Timbercraft Cabinet Displays of  Towcester for my work, although they are not the cheapest, they are good quality cases;  www.displaycases.co.uk

I feel this is an absolutely essential investment for a project of this size and quality.
 Secondly the plastic Vac form sails that come with this kit will be replaced with linen sails at a cost of about £100.00, as will some of the kits rope/thread for that of a superior quality.

One the most obvious flaws in this kit is the thickness of the injection moulded hull. When you look at the gun ports you can see the walls of the ship are not thick enough.

The Styrene strip below will be fixed around the inside of the gun ports,  making the walls of the ship look much thicker, the thickest strips are for the lower deck, the thinnest for the upper deck, the quarter decks are left as they are.