mtdoramike

Here is a little update picture. I finally have her mounted to her display board and secured. I figured better to do it now before I get to much further along.
 
 
Mike

I used some of the HMS Victory wood from the real ship that I received from England to fashion the bitts and the anchor davits from. These will be left natural to show the beauty of the wood. I hope to use more of the wood from the real Victory ship on other parts of the model, but it is VERY brittle and dry.

I used some of the HMS Victory wood from the real ship that I received from England to fashion the bitts and the anchor davits from. These will be left natural to show the beauty of the wood. I hope to use more of the wood from the real Victory ship on other parts of the model, but it is VERY brittle and dry.

Thank you Boyd for your kind words. 

Hi Mike,
 
Really beautiful build so far.  The HMS Victory is one of my favorite ships. I'll be following this build with great interest.
 
Thanks for taking the time to document the effort.
 
Boyd

I used some of the HMS Victory wood from the real ship that I received from England to fashion the bitts and the anchor davits from. These will be left natural to show the beauty of the wood. I hope to use more of the wood from the real Victory ship on other parts of the model, but it is VERY brittle and dry.

Yep, I can tell it's a thrill a minute, especially with Constructo. But they do finish off to be a beautiful model. It's looking great so far.
 
 
Mike

Here is an updated picture of my progress on the Vic. Please excuse the mess. I try and clean up the work area once every couple of weeks. But when I do, I can't find anything for days afterward. I like to call my work area structured chaos.
 
Mike

Here is an updated picture of my progress on the Vic. Please excuse the mess. I try and clean up the work area once every couple of weeks. But when I do, I can't find anything for days afterward. I like to call my work area structured chaos.
 
Mike

I happily await pictures. If your Ana was anything like my AL Victory, you will have to shim numerous frames in order to get the planking to lay properly.

Very nice planking job, I can't wait to see how the build goes.
 
 
Mike

commercial@artesanialatina.com addressed to Ana . No, Latina kits don't supply the copper sheeting. This is something you have to buy separately. I used 1/4 inch copper foil tape cut into 3/4 inch lengths.
 
Mike

Ron, I cut my Strips at 3/4 inch long and the tape is 1/4 inch wide. Laying the tape makes quick work of the coppering, I can usually copper a ship in a couple of evenings. 

I recently ordered the Artesania Latina HMS Victory 1:84 scale from Plastic-Model-kits.com for the price of $567.00 with free shipping. They basically only sold Latina kits. They are a sub of Oakridge Hobbies, who actually shipped my kit. It took 10 days from the date of order to receive this massive kit. The invoice claimed 21 pounds shipping weight and I believe every bit of it. Upon receiving the kit, I opened the box and did an inspection of the contents. I was quite pleased with the woods chosen for the model and the fit and finish materials supplied. But they included an adendum to the instructions due to a sheet of the laser cut bulkheads were mislabeled and giving the correct sequence in the adendum. 
 
Observations so far:
 
LIKES: The building materials are outstanding, the instruction book is quite thick and very detailed with color pictures to follow as well as written instructions.
 
Definitely the price point for a kit of this magnitude.
 
The false keel and bulkheads are cut from some thick plywood, so no worries about breaking anything.
 
As usual with Latina, they include some very nice containers with actual lids to keep all the parts in one bin. They are a lot nicer than those egg carton still containers that are shrink wrapped but the small pieces still find their way into other bins.
 
Dislikes: A major dislike for me is NO PRINTED PLANS, What???, no, you heard right, I can't believe AL cheaped out on a kit this expensive and sent a CD with plans on it rather than printed plans. This is a problem for me, because I build by plans, not by instructions or a CD. So now, I have to locate someplace to get the plans printed off of the CD and bare that added expense and living in my neck of the woods, it's not that easy. We don't have a Kinko's/Fedex or anything like that. The best I can do is Office Depot, so I'll have to check them out. Now, can the model be built with the CD plans? YES, it can and has been and there's a build log on it. But, I'm old school I guess.
 
I could be wrong, but I didn't see a second layer of hull planking, which was Always supplied with AL kits in the past just in case you messed up on the first layer.
 
One of the bulkheads was quite warped, so I had to wet it down and then took a hot air paint remover gun and with enough heat and a bit of cursing, it flattened out fairly well enough for government work anyway.
 
The fit of the bulkheads to the false keel is quite sloppy and some with gaps up to 1/16". This makes plumbing up and squaring the bulkheads quite difficult. Also, you MUST lay the first false layer of decking BEFORE gluing the bulkheads to the keel or you will have a devil of a time getting the deck to fit properly. They floppy bulkheads do help in this instance though. So it may have been planned. 
 
They also included a cheap cradle style display board for this grade of s ship model, something besides plywood will be in order to compliment her beauty.
 
With all this being said, so far I like the kit and I have always like Artesania Latina kits for fit and finish and it's nice to see they are still kicking. Will this kit make into a fine model? the answer is yes, with a little hard work and determination. I know there are doubters about Latina kits, but as long as you remember, kits are not Museum quality models, they make into fine ship models but they aren't unique. If someone is looking for museum quality then they should scratch build, which would be unique. I'm not a scratch builder, I'm a kit basher. I have a lot of respect for scratch builders willing to devote the time, patience and money into a single project. I know a few near me and applaud their efforts, but I was more into building and selling my models at the time. So build time was a premium.
 
But this particular project will be my last model. This model (the HMS Victory) will be donated upon it's completion. So no hurries mates as long as my health holds out and my eye site holds on. 
 
I will continue to add to this review as I go along. I was also able to obtain a small piece of wood from the actual Victory ship, which I will incorporate into the Victory model such as anchor collars or something like that.             
Attached Thumbnails  

I just received the piece of HMS Victory wood from England that came off the Victory during one of her recent refits. I will use some of the wood to make various pieces of the model and then will include what ever is left of the wood in the display case which will be included in the donation to the library along with the model.
Attached Thumbnails

It looks very good. If you aren't happy with the final result, you can always paint the hull. If I were building it I would most likely paint it anyway. I was unaware that Constructo made a Robert E Lee paddle wheeler kit. I'm glad to see it. Thanks.
 
 
Mike

Ooooops, let me make sure I try and answer your question. I have seen the instructions for both kits and can tell you that DeAgostini's instructions are a bit more detailed and suited for a modeler with less experience. They actually show you how to achieve certain things where as AL instruction just says do this or that. Now as far as the plans go, the AL Victory comes with the plans downloaded onto a CD. So you will have to have a computer or take them to a printing place and have them printed out for you for about $20.00-$30.00. I guess it would be nice if you need that extra help, but you will end up paying about 3 times what you can get that same kit for else where. f I were going to pay over $1200.00 for a Victory kit, I would opt for the caldercraft version.
 
BUt all in all, it comes down to how much you are willing to spend because both kits are still considered advanced level kits.  

Jay,
 
I see it as a toss-up question.  One of "what works for you may not work for me".  I use mostly PVA for some applications, CA is the ticket.  I've tried the Locktite Gel Control and like it as well as the LHS branded CA (the same stuff ME sells) in various viscosities for various jobs.   They all seem to work well.  However, I'm just not a fan of CA due to the fumes.
 
On the other hand, I'm still wrestling with epoxies to find something I can work with.  But.. what works for you..etc... etc... 

If I may interject.
I had no idea that this would result in a nice 'conversation' about CA, but it is good to know that some (like Mike above) have had positive results and are not too concerned with the durability of CA in the long-run. After all, I don't think our usage involves high stresses (or do they?).
 
By the same token, I am not surprised about having several who like Locktite adhesives, but I am wondering about Zap-A-Gap. I should not a proponent of either of them, but I did return a container of Locktite's marked 'Professional' that showed a model ship on its cover. At the time I decided that was for me???? Wrong!! As far as I am concerned it was the same very low viscosity stuff I can get at half the price.
But I have had a learning and good experience with the green bottle of Zap stuff. So be it.
 
Is price a object? Not in mine opinion. I think we spend a lot more on new tools and other materials than we do on glue!! How much CA do you use on a model? Let's experimentation be separate for this comparison.
Is it true that many of the cheap 'Super Glues' work just as well as those sold by our hobby suppliers. In fact, I will do some more research with your help, please. But again we should be careful about what 'works well for us'.
 
Here I my take.
If you like what you are working with, fine.
If you want to experiment with others, good.
If you want some advise from others on this forum, better. The more the better.
Either way, the application, more than the product, should be the guiding factor in the selection.

I've built over 20 ship models in the past 15 years and still own the original first model that I ever built (HMS Bounty) and used strictly CA and white wood glue and have never had an issue with failure that you speak of. Now once a model gets 30 years old and older, most any glue will fail. I have repaired models built back in the 40's and 50's for people and yes there were some issues with glue failure, but that was well before CA glues were invented or used. But I used CA glues on the repaired parts and well over 10 years and they are still in great condition without failure.
 
All models that I have repaired or built and sold have a lifetime repair policy offered by me and as yet, I have never had an issue where I needed to honor that policy. But glue is like the use of tools, wood and anything else, it's a matter of preference.
 
Mike    

I've built over 20 ship models in the past 15 years and still own the original first model that I ever built (HMS Bounty) and used strictly CA and white wood glue and have never had an issue with failure that you speak of. Now once a model gets 30 years old and older, most any glue will fail. I have repaired models built back in the 40's and 50's for people and yes there were some issues with glue failure, but that was well before CA glues were invented or used. But I used CA glues on the repaired parts and well over 10 years and they are still in great condition without failure.
 
All models that I have repaired or built and sold have a lifetime repair policy offered by me and as yet, I have never had an issue where I needed to honor that policy. But glue is like the use of tools, wood and anything else, it's a matter of preference.
 
Mike    

I use the cheapest old crap I can find, both liquid and gel control. I usually use off name brands sold by Walmart. Now, my favorite is the Loctite Gel control that you have pictured. I really like the new packaging on this rather than the old tube style. You can run through better than $100.00 just in glue on a model. I have found that the name brands don't really out perform the no name brands.
 
Mike  

I use the cheapest old crap I can find, both liquid and gel control. I usually use off name brands sold by Walmart. Now, my favorite is the Loctite Gel control that you have pictured. I really like the new packaging on this rather than the old tube style. You can run through better than $100.00 just in glue on a model. I have found that the name brands don't really out perform the no name brands.
 
Mike  

I use the cheapest old crap I can find, both liquid and gel control. I usually use off name brands sold by Walmart. Now, my favorite is the Loctite Gel control that you have pictured. I really like the new packaging on this rather than the old tube style. You can run through better than $100.00 just in glue on a model. I have found that the name brands don't really out perform the no name brands.
 
Mike  

I use the cheapest old crap I can find, both liquid and gel control. I usually use off name brands sold by Walmart. Now, my favorite is the Loctite Gel control that you have pictured. I really like the new packaging on this rather than the old tube style. You can run through better than $100.00 just in glue on a model. I have found that the name brands don't really out perform the no name brands.
 
Mike