HMS Victory

Finally finished my first age-of-sail model kit - Revell’s 1:225 scale HMS Victory. I started this in 2011 originally intending it as a throwaway practice kit, but later decided to see how far I could take its accuracy and detail. I left it as a half-built hull for about 4 years, taking it with me through three moves, before picking it back up in mid-2015.

Although this was supposed to be the best plastic kit of Victory at this size, its parts were shot from an old 1959 mold. Many parts were ill-fitting, missing, or buried in so much flash that I had to fill them in or fabricate them anew with Magic Sculpt. The signal flags that came with the kit that were supposed to spell out Nelson’s famous signal “England expects that every man will do his duty” in Sir Popham’s naval code instead translated to “Caution before village because ??? place bend resist ??? P America O”. Yeah.. made no sense, so I excluded it.

I deviated from instructions when painting and rigging, using online and book references as much as I could. I did away with the included plastic shrouds and sails with ones I tied and made myself to make it look more realistic. I managed to include almost all of the standing rigging, but had to cut numerous corners with the running rigging due to scale limitations. I opted to go with furled sails because I wanted to display more of the rigging, but made the mistake of raising the yards, which should be lowered when sails are furled. The sails are made of facial tissue lightly soaked in diluted white glue, gathered, and tied.

On top of the new scale modeling skills I had intended to acquire with this kit, I learned a lot of maritime history, engineering, and jargon. I’m sure it’s not the best example build of this kit out there, but it’s a hell of a lot better than many I’ve seen during my research, so I'm pretty happy. A frustrating yet rewarding build - I may seek another challenge one day, perhaps a plank-on-frame kit, but not anytime soon!