Ian_Grant

Thank you "Blue Ensign". You'll have noticed I copied your idea of having a little Nelson and Hardy, in addition to all the other inspiration I got from your build on Pete's website. 🙂

Rob, I love your Cutty Sark diorama with the famous jury rudder! And your "Great Republic" scratch build is incredible. I fear my efforts will seem simplistic to you, but here are some photos anyway. Hull plates I added below waterline: I taped the decks in place so we can see where we are going. That's my serving machine in the background (it makes a handy stand for the upside-down hull at this point): Deck close-ups. This is the first time I ever used a wash and I like how it turned out. But there are so many coats of paint and varnish I worry about gluing stuff down, especially the pin rails which will have stress on them when rigged. Haven't painted the inside bulwarks yet. I think I will paint a white "waterway" along the deck edges so I can glue in the decks then paint the bulwarks without fear of getting some paint on decks. They call for the cap rail to be painted Humbrol #63 (same as all spars) but I may leave it white just to make it easier. That's all for now.

Thanks everyone, I'm quite proud of it. Y.T. --- Plastic kits are all plastic, no wood. Where my topmasts and topgallant masts etc. were unpainted wood, I painted the plastic with a suitable light base coat colour (suitable for a pine spar) then dry-brushed sparingly with Humbrol matt khaki, then applied a coat of Humbrol satin varnish. This is one of the things I learned on Pete's web site and I was amazed at how easy it is to make plastic look like wood. I used wood dowels or bicycle spokes on the inside to stiffen them when gluing halves together. As for blocks, the Heller kit does indeed supply "blocks" but they bear little resemblance to blocks. Most people building this kit discard them and buy after-market wooden blocks. I recommend the beautiful ones from https://www.syrenshipmodelcompany.com/ Speaking of discarding, the Heller kit has many shortcomings which I will just mention now to forewarn potential builders: It comes with two odd colours of thread in a couple of sizes, and recommends dying in tea or coffee(!?). I discarded it and bought Amati rigging thread in about seven different diameters and two colours. I also learned about this thread on that website. Plastic deadeyes are hard to mold. To have the three holes, the mold must pull apart from the two faces of the deadeye, but then it is not possible to mold a groove around the circumference to encourage the shroud to stay in place. Heller did their best, adding a single ring around the circumference which prevents the thread from slipping off in one direction only. I found this impossible to rig and followed the advice on the website i.e. discard the deadeyes and buy wooden ones. I wish Heller had simply molded the deadeyes in two halves which we could glue together and save some money. The kit does not include the chains for the shrouds. They show a half-assed method involving loops of thread. The solution is to buy one of Daffy's brass etch sheets which provides beautiful chains and preventers as here: The kit lacks any means of attaching the yards to the masts. In the case of the lower yards, this is sort of ok because they were restrained by rope truss pendants which you can rig but you need to know where to add eyebolts to the deck to rig properly. For the other yards you need to make parrals of some form; see previous photos for one of mine made with small seed beads and small pieces of wood. Those are the major issues. There are others, like the difficulty painting the stern moldings and figurehead shield due to uncrisp molding, the plastic hammock stanchions with no holes which are best replaced with Daffy's etch, the complete lack of guide pins when gluing things like cannon barrels and spars, horrendously awful rigging notes in the instructions (buy a book), and for the completely detail-oriented the erroneous deck plank shift pattern. But for all that, it builds up into what is widely considered the finest and most accurate plastic ship model on the market.

I had a build log on the now apparently defunct "HMS Victory Modeller's Knowledge Repository..." by Pete Coleman, but all this is gone now. I thought I'd just show a handful of progress shots, and the completed project. I never could have built her like she came out without that web site; it's a shame about it. For any readers contemplating a build, know that there are now available seven sheets of brass etch to enhance the kit. Everything from accurate shroud chains to nice stanchions to trigger locks for the cannon. They are superlative, although I only ordered two as this was my first model in decades and I had never seen brass etch to that point in time. You can find the brass etch here: http://www.dafinismus.de/plates_en#anker2 Never served thread before. After reading about serving machines I made one out of my old meccano. Here are the first served shrouds around the foremast head. The deadeye strops are brass etch. I later changed the jeer block lashings to natural colour, just to make them jump. My serving machine. I bought this kit in the early 80's. The decals crumbled to bits when I wet them, so I ordered adhesive vinyl lettering for the figurehead. I painted the false panels blue instead of black because I liked the look with all the other blue trim. The brass etch binnacle, with (barely visible) lantern and compasses. Home-made post and rails at the poop deck ladders. Syren 2mm blocks on the cannon tackle. Larger brass rod belaying pins so my big clumsy hands could tie off to them. Notice the brass etch boarding pikes on the mainmast. Hammock netting from HobbyLobby, on brass etch stanchions. Added brass handrails down the main companionway ladder. Ready to proceed with rigging. First look at masts plunked in dry assembled. Looking like a ship! Lower shrouds complete. Psychedelic mizzen ratline guide from cereal box. Why not the blank side, you ask? I have no idea now. Home-made topsail yard parral. The main top. A good look at the futtock shrouds, the mainyard sling, and the jeers timber hitched to the yard. Catharpins visible aft of the mast. Also seen are the foreyard braces and blocks. The mainstay and preventer mice were made by gluing beads to the stays then wrapping in thread. I did not attempt to actually stitch the cross threads on the mice. Note also the serving on both stays around the mast. The bullseye pairs lashing the ends of the topgallant shrouds are just inboard of the topmast shroud deadeyes. As I mentioned before the jeer block lashings are natural to enhance the aesthetic, at least in my eye. Amusing story - when I ordered the large wood blocks for the fore and main jeers, and the cat blocks, I ordered six from the supplier. Unfortunately I did not read closely enough and received six packs of multiple blocks which I am unlikely to ever need in the future. It wasn't worth the postage to send them back to the UK and pay their restock fee. 🙄 After-market stream anchor lashed to port sheet anchor. Anchor buoys, one of which is attached to the port bower anchor, lashed to shrouds. Brass etch chains replace Heller's ridiculous proposed scheme using thread and over-sized strops on the lower deadeyes. Note the evergreen lining inside the gunports to give the plastic hull a more realistic thickness. Each gunport lid received four brass etch eyes, one pair inside and one outside for the lanyards. A good look at the brass etch futtock hooks. I cheated on the futtocks/catharpins by forming each set from one continuous thread running from hook to hook. Tying the true-to-life knots was just beyond necessary, for me. The stern. What a pain to paint the not-very-precisely-defined decorative elements especially the ballusters (and those lanterns) ! Decided to use evergreen strips to enhance the ships boats, whose hulls are rather bare as supplied. For example the launch. Speaking of which, Heller supplies fewer boats than she had, mostly at wrong lengths. I shortened one of the supplied hulls and augmented the set with others from my parts shoebox. The set. The pinnace and Admiral's barge are painted according to the whims of the officers and the Admiral respectively. Other "working" boats are all the same colours. The blue pinnace was fun to do with its additional trim at bow and stern. Nearly there! Decided to rig bowlines too, hitched to yards. Copied Blue Ensign's idea to make little Lord Nelson and Captain Hardy figures. Faces aren't very good but ok to naked eye. Nelson's legs were broken and a slice removed at the knees since he was a relatively short man whereas Hardy was tall. Hats fashioned from Evergreen. The donor figures, again out of the old shoebox, were left over from the Revell Constitution I made in the 70's. Had a cast acrylic case made for her, atop a cherry cabinet I made for the purpose. Sat three of the boats on the shelf to allow viewer to see down to the upper deck through the skid beams, but really you cannot see even the cannon rigging on quarterdeck. At least my eyes cannot. Print hung above is Geoff Hunt's "England Expects", depicting "Victory" among the British fleet approaching the combined fleet, at walking pace on a near windless day, on the morning of Trafalgar.

If, dear reader, you are trying to decide between this kit and "Passat", be aware that the "Passat" kit provides both blocks and plastic shroud/backstay turnbuckles but no sails i.e. the exact opposite of this kit. Further, the yard trusses are much more detailed (and fragile) on "Passat" than the simple trapezoidal blobs provided on "Preussen". But there was only one ship like "Preussen". You can read about the "Passat" kit here: https://modelingmadness.com/review/misc/ships/ger/komapassat.htm If you elect to build "Preussen" then surf on over to the site below for very detailed rigging inventory and an extremely helpful and detailed belaying diagram you can download: http://jans-sajt.se/contents/Navigation/Modelling/R_Preussen.htm I highly recommend Harold A. Underhill's book "Masting and Rigging: the Clipper Ship and Ocean Carrier" to aid in rigging "Preussen" (or "Passat" for that matter). One last note: I just returned from a week's cruise on "Royal Clipper" which is a 440ft five-masted square rigger inspired by "Preussen" which carries 226 passengers and 106 crew. It's an awesome ship to sail on; I've never had any interest in a trip on one of those "excessively excessive" cruise ships but THIS is a different world. I never got tired of watching them make sail, or of coming up on deck in the middle watch to see the stars and the sails drawing. Here is the ship: And here I am steering all 5000 tons of her (still in my bathing suit from snorkelling just before we set sail again). The fore lower topsail was damaged in a strong wind and was sewn by the bosun on deck the next day. Sorry, no front views for reasons of internet privacy: If you are interested in sail, and I guess you are if you're on this site, consider a cruise in Med or Caribbean, or better yet a transatlantic crossing on this ship (disclaimer: I have no connection to the ship or company). You can read about "Royal Clipper" and the company's other sailing ships here: https://www.starclippers.com/en/

Just recently started this kit after finally finishing Heller 1/100 Victory. What a change from 18th century rig and cannons. Long narrow all iron hull with midship bridge. Five iron masts. The decks are crammed with machinery such as manual brace & halyard winches and several capstans.. Kit Summary: Hull halves were crammed across the kit box diagonal; I think they must have wanted to use the same box size as the Passat kit. The stem and lowermost rudder mount were bent because the diagonal really is slightly too small. Kit includes thermoplastic sails. Kit does not include blocks, or any representation of turnbuckles for shrouds and backstays. Aside from sprues holding the 5 decks (foc'sle deck, fwd well deck, bridge deck, aft well deck, poop deck) and some hatch covers, there are only six parts sprues four of which are identical - a very tiny pile compared to the ~21 unique sprues for Victory. The instructions are good for assembly, with many fine diagrams showing what goes where, but rigging details are sparse. The good news is that Heller did not scatter the rigging instructions all through the assembly drawings but instead devote several drawings at the end to rigging: stays; shrouds and backstays; lifts and braces; buntlines and halyards. The bad news is that belaying points are in Heller's patented microprint. Also the proper connection of Jarvis brace winches is not shown i.e. leading blocks. At this point I must mention that Heller's engravers depicted the steel hull plates nicely, but they mysteriously disappear below the waterline. It bothered me enough that I bought Evergreen 0.005" sheet and cut it into plates which I glued on individually, in a double layer every 2nd row to simulate the riveting overlaps. It looked like hell at first, but after some caulking (acrylic painter's caulk squeezed out of the tube via a very small hole drilled in the cap end to provide a very small bead) and painting it actually turned out pretty well. I have joined the hull halves and painted the black/white/red colour scheme. I have painted and washed and varnished the decks and I am busy painting various bits of deck machinery and steel bulkheads. I need to attach it to a stand before gluing in the decks, though. One question for anyone who may have built this kit: there is a little auxiliary bridge on the after storm gangway with a second binnacle. Around two sides of this bridge there are rows of something similar to plant pots (?!) outside the railings. They are hollowed out. They do not appear to be for something to glue into as far as I can see in the instructions. Anyone know what they might be? The only thing I can think of is, possibly, fire buckets? I will try to figure out how to attach some pictures later; it's late now.