mtdoramike

Fantastic work, this brings back some fond memories for me.

Absolutely stunning work on the Victory with only one criticism: Why have such a magnificent ship as the Victory with all those 100 plus cannon and not have them all showing loud and proud?  To me, that is the best part of building the victory. 

Gregory is right, I usually chunk the dowels from the kits because they are usually warped and go to Hobby Lobby and buy some cheap dowels and make my own.

Where are you located? This could have something to do with the tariffs between the EU and the U.S.

Thanks, I use 2oz cloth on all my RC boats, with three coats of resin. I sand between each coat with 120 grit, 220 grit finishing with 400 grit sand paper. I use a long curing resin, which takes 24 hours to cure, which allows the resin flow and flatten for little to no sanding on the final coat.    

Sorry, I throw those away after I build each kit.

I donated a built Victory to my local Library and also another large ship model to my local Hospital, which holds an auction once a year to raise funds. Now, my question to you is, is your Model Victory in a display case? If not, then most places will not accept it due to possible damage and becoming a giant dust collector. Both my model donations came with display cases.  

These kits are just beautiful just to sit in a corner and look pretty.

I see nothing wrong with the quality of this kit at least as far as the photos show. The build quality seems to be exceptional. Price is a might steep. No doubt in my mind once built, this model would appraise at better than $5000.00-$6000.00 depending on the quality of the build. 

I used a Harbor freight scroll saw for years, bought it new for $89.00 back then and sold it for $50.00 when I ran across a project that required a deep throat than the smaller Harbor Freight saw. I bought a Craftsman for $150.00. I never had an issue with the harbor Freight saw and never regretted buying it.

On 11/1/2024 at 12:27 PM, Michael Mash said:

Your question triggered some thoughts.

 

Why do I model?

 

It shows me that despite my age, I am really still a kid.

There is a thrill in inventing new ways of doing things.

It is gratifying to know, my current project is better than the last, but not as good as the next.

The struggle for perfection is motivating, though I will never get there.

 

Regards,

Mike

 

I tell myself that same thing every morning when I crawl out of bed "I'm really still a kid". But then as the day grows older, so do I, to the point I believe that being young and feeling like a kid is a figment of my imagination especially when my mind is saying go and my body is saying hell no.

14 hours ago, ClipperFan said:

Well, well, well that comments going to go a long way in helping this poor fellow write his thesis...  😉

Why do you think you are writing a thesis? To explain to old goats like us why we do what we do.

Well after building well over 100 models over the past 30 years, I still don't have a clue.

The Model Shipways Bluenose is a great kit, and a pretty easy build especially the planking of the hull. But to me, if you planked the Golden Hind, then you should be able to plank just about any model because planking is the hardest part of any ship model build. So if you can turn out a decent planking job then the sky is the limit for you are far as models to build. 

WOW, good luck with your search, that is a huge fitting package. When I aquired the kit close to 20 years ago, the kit came with the fitting package. Have you tried to contact Billings? I'm sure the fitting package will end up costing you more than the kit is worth.  

Mark is right, the older Billings kit didn't come with the fittings kits. They were sold separately and yes, it will be a very expensive option to buy separately probably twice what you paid for the kit. My opinion, dump the kit unless it has some special meaning to you.

Beautiful train layout, but there is no way I would have left that brown table top exposed.  would have covered it with green carpet or felt. Also beautiful work on the Vic as well.

Right now, your main goal should be to finish the build because one of these kits can take 1500-2000 hours to finish and that is without a lot of modifications. Good luck and enjoy the process. 

Welcome brother. Hope to see some of your builds. 

By the way, I could have just looked at the box and contents and never built it and I would have been happy, beautiful kit.

I know Trumpeter has it's fair share of issues, but it is one of the best companies out there for these types of kits. I understood this when I built the Trumpeter USS Missouri 1/200 and just went with it with a few modifications. Wood is very forgiveable where as plastic is not. You can spend hundreds of dollars on pontos upgrades, but I found most of the offerings in the kit to be satisfactory.

My main issue with the Missouri was it being a 4 screw, so I built it with four operational motors and props. But after running it a few times, the outer props will hit every little debris in the water and sheer off the outside props. Now after replacing those props twice at $30.00 each and waiting a month to receive them from China, I regret the 4 screw setup.   

Absolutely beautiful work!

I agree with Chris here. I used to do commission builds from boats to tall wooden ship models. A commissioned build even from a Dumas kit could take a minimum of 3 months and anywhere from 300-400 hours to complete. My commission rate was around $5.00 and hour 10-15 years ago. The best way to go would be to join RCgroups.com and post that you are looking for a Victory Tug already built. I build and sell boats all the time, a lot cheaper than my commission rate, but it's usually a kit or a project that I get pretty cheap and something I really wanted to build. 

No, it's more like stupid people on ebay bidding up an item and not know what it is, but they just have to have it.

Got the bottom of the hull planked.