chris watton

The bulkheads would have had to be removed before action, as the firing of the cannons would have made them recoil through the side screen bulkheads - that's for sure. On one side, I put one cannon sideways and the other next to it inside the gun port, and on the other side they are run out as normal. I would assume they would have been secured inside the side bulkheads in normal conditions (no action), and only run out when action was imminent and the screen bulkheads cleared away. I simply chose to show three different ways of placing the cannon. ETA - I also added the gun port 'window' frames and glazing to the starboard poop ports, the side which has the cannon run in, rather than out, but left the port side without the frames and cannon are shown run out. I did this because I am not 100% sure if these 'windows' were present at the time of Trafalgar, and are perhaps something added more recently. But again, it's the modellers' choice to fit them or not - but if I include them, then I have to show them, albeit on one side only..

They may well be correct - or both versions correct, I don't know. I would assume that they would have taken quite a battering in battle if they were just left hanging from the underside of the poop. They could have been remade many times, perhaps with slightly different openings.. I did want the parts to look the same as in the photographs I had taken, so I can add the pictures to the construction manual. Oh yes - the upper poop rail (that has the fire bucket brackets) is photo etched, 3 layers of 0.4mm with the brackets on the uppermost rail - there is a slight lip above and below, with the middle being smaller, so photo etching the parts would look more to scale, which is what I did - plus of course you don't have to mark out and glue the 21 brackets in place, as they're already on there... With the mizzen boom and bowsprit now gammoned in place, it really has taken over our dining room table..!

Hiya! I was waiting for the new parts I changed, but now I have added them. I have completed the hull but, frustratingly, I am still waiting for the figurehead, which will hamper rigging the underside of the bowsprit. While I waited, I made up all of the yards, so now masts and yards are all 'blocked up'. Today, I stepped the masts and bowsprit into their permanent positions, after I finally completed the poop screen bulkheads, and the poop itself. Here is why I waited for the new poop screen bulkhead parts - the one on the left is new and follows what's on the actual Victory now, and the one on the right is the old version, as seen in the John McKay books: I added the escutcheons for the new doors, as I noticed them on the original Victory when studying the pictures I had taken, and the hinges as they actually appear for the side bulkheads - they were/are left in brass. And soon to be hidden.. Poop almost complete: The photo etched assemblies for the flag lockers seemed to work quite well - and plenty of space above for the small cleats (The ones in the kit will be slightly larger than the ones shown and will be photo etched - I erred too much on the side of caution when drawing them and are just a tad small - but perfectly useable. One thing I don't like is using 'one size fits all' fittings, so cleats come in a few shapes and sizes with the smaller ones being photo etched and the larger ones laser cut. And with a couple of bits added to the poop, the whole hull is now complete: I was waiting for my anchor designs, too, which I have now made up - they are quite large...: And that's it - masts stepped and boarding pikes added to the fore and main and I now have the boring task of shrouds and ratlines to look forward to, which I'll start very soon... I don't really take a great many pics at the rigging stage, as I still think that good line drawings are better for the modeller to follow.. Cheers, Chris

I think that your question is far from off topic - it just seems that Victory has taken over the thread.. I have little to no involvement in release dates - I am almost 1000 miles away from the Amati premises. However, I do know that I have been receiving a lot of Revenge files for final checking, so I can only assume it will be released very soon, as the files I look over are the completed booklets and plans with Italian translations added.

The thing about kit price is that, most of the time, you get what you pay for. I remember paying almost £600 for my Sovereign of the Seas 20 years ago. The cost didn't end there, though: I bought new and better wood, had to change the model beyond original recognition to get it took even vaguely correct (even deck heights and bulwark lines and curves), new blocks, thread, fittings etc. The model, in reality ended up costing closer to £800. However, if made well enough, they can be sold for a lot more than the original cost of the kit and materials. For me personally, I want to design stuff so that people like me do not have to throw out half the kit contents and buy better quality fittings/materials to make a half decent job of the finished project - it should all be there in the kit without me having to spend an extra dime, aside from paints/glues and tools - and most important of all, the kit I make, when complete has more than a passing resemblance to the vessel it purports to be - not 'It looks about right if you squint and ignore the oversized turned columns, and don't look at the bow and stern too closely...' No kit will ever be perfect due to production and material constraints, but that doesn't stop you trying to get close.. I have to admit that one of my pet hates are the sea of kits that, although cheap, are no more than caricatures of the original vessels (and that's even if the vessel that the model is based upon existed at all!) - when I see them made 'out of the box', they remind me the cheap and cheerful made up 'models' you see in every seaside shop. No matter how good a builder you are, they always end up looking like a cheap piece of Chinese furniture - it can be a 16th Century galleon or a 19th Century three decker, they all share the same fittings - and, speaking as a modeller, I do not like them. If you don't want your cheap kit to look like a piece of seaside tat, you will have to spend the equivalent of the original cost of the kit again. These were my thoughts from over 20 years ago, when in my early 20's, and my views haven't really changed that much since - but at least I can act upon them

Thank you! However, I would very much doubt if the kit went on for sale for that much. I suspect something between £750-900 - but that's nothing more than a gut feeling.

Actually, as you did bring it up, I have designed special copper plating for awkward areas, which does include the leading edge of the bow and stem (in one whole strip each with different 'nail' patterns) - for the latter, the strip is pre-tapered, as is the strip for the back edge of the rudder. As for the rudder itself, there is one piece to add either side: Ha!

Adding sail material is of little cost to the overall costing of the kit, so material will be included. Some countries like sails more than others (especially Germany, it seems). Sail plans will be included. After Victory is delivered, I still have much to do - sorting the thousands of construction photographs, adding them to a manual using Quark Xpress, finalising all the construction drawings in CAD to make the plan sheets..it goes on. I anticipate another 6 months of solid PC work to finalise the plans/instructions aspect so that most modeller's can make sense of all the parts. usually, I do all the designs and plans/instructions before I even see any tangible prototype parts, but I had to make sure that what I designed for Victory actually worked (as it's so different to the standard stuff), otherwise that's 6 months work wasted if I had made a catastrophic error - and end up spending yet another 6 months re working the plans. Time frame - I simply don't know - I would hope that perhaps Summer 2014 may be a good bet. I know that Vanguard was 6 months from start to finish, but that's a 'traditional' kit. Victory will take at least twice as long, but as most of the problems (by problems, I mean sorting out certain aspects that were initially difficult for the end user, but re-worked so they're not) have been ironed out, the next will be quicker.

Hi Peter, The plates can be overlapping or not, the point is that you don't have to overlap them to give the illusion of overlap. We studied quite a few photographs of real copper plating to get them right, and what we did was the best solution. I for one was not going to argue with how they seemed to be attached on the real thing - so I simulated what I seen from the sources I used. On the Victory, some are overlapping but most are not. As for cost, it makes zero difference, the cost goes into the etching process and the materials used and has little to do with what's etched. If they were all the same, the same amount of material is still used.

All of the new kits (after Pegasus, I think) have sail material and plans. Sails aren't really my thing, so I cannot give any real pointers on how make them look authentic, have only ever added sails on a customer's request - a Krick Alert, Gorch Fock and a Japanese sail training ship - and that's it! I have seen the signal flags on the Victory at Portsmouth, without sails, so it should work with the model, perhaps...

The kit will have sail material and a full set of sail plans for those mad enough to add them, and I suppose you can't add the sails without adding the flags, too..

It is not having a case. I usually have a wooden crate made and have the finished model couriered to Italy, but this one is too big - if it were to be placed in a crate, the dimensions would be silly. Therefore, we will be hiring a van and driving it from the UK to Italy ourselves when complete in September/October time. I am thinking of including a full flag set, complete with signal flags for the 'England Expects' and 'Engage the enemy more closely' - what do you think?

Yes, they are in the Vanguard and Pegasus kits, too.

Thank you! I know your work so that's quite a compliment!

Not really, it is photo etched 0.10mm copper - the thinnest material we could get away with.

Thank you, Greg! I always thought that the pressed copper tiles never looked quite right, as the simulated nail heads are shown much too proud of the surface, when in fact they were nearer to flush with the surface. Also, due to the pressing out process, the edges on some are wavy or curled up slightly, so the slightest brush against them can snag and pull them off. They look OK from a distance, but do not stand up so well to close scrutiny - I have always thought; what is the point of adding super detail parts for a model when other aspects let it down - it has to be all or nothing. It is no good having, say, super detailed window frames, but when looking at them, your eye is instead immediately drawn to the oversized clumps of poorly cast blobs of metal that is meant to be the stern carvings - or even worse, changing the shape of the actual main stern pattern to accommodate the oversize parts!. This I think, is the big difference between beautifully scratch built models and the majority of commercial kits. I prefer kits that, when built, people cannot tell the difference between kit and scratch, or at least blur the lines between them - if it is as true a scale model as you can possibly make it, then there should be little difference (especially in the bow and stern areas) - except you don't need a fully kitted out workshop complete with expensive machine tools to make the kit..(although a small lathe would help for those pesky masts and yards..)

She is a Dachshund, or Sausage dog and her name is Mrs Miggins. We bought a long haired Dachshund just before we moved to Italy, and a female standard Dachshund from Pisa when we moved. Not long after they got together we had this: And here is the culprit: Mrs Miggins is the one on the right: We kept 3 of the 5 pups, letting them go was so difficult. Mrs Miggins was to go to my friend, but she didn't like it and was so happy to see me when we came to take her back home that she made sure I didn't put her down until we were in the car! This is her now, on Christmas day, working out a way to get that turkey on the table (which I have since commandeered for Victory..)

Thank you! Although you'd better off with the kit, as I have changed a lot during the build: stern and quarter gallery balustrades, stern counter, better gun port lids to name but a few. Anyway, judging by some of the works of art that others are capable of, they'll put my effort to shame. I guess I only have the new poop screen bulkheads and poop deck area to finish off, and the figurehead and anchors for new interesting pics - after this it is just the boring stuff, yards and rigging. I find this area a bit of a chore now, as I enjoy building the designs, and seeing how well (or not) things work out. But with the masting and rigging you know exactly what to do and how long it will take so I end up 'sleepwalking' through it - not as much fun.... Having so many parts pre cut can make you lazy, I have found. I was convinced I had drawn a dolphin striker for laser cutting, and looked everywhere on my mass of laser cut prototype sheets - but nothing. I then looked at my own plans and realised I have had to make it myself from dowel! I may complain.. I may make just the hull without the masts for myself in the future, as I have enjoyed building this one. I think I may be doing Prince next. Oh yes - I haven't glued the flying jibboom in place, as that's guaranteed to be broken off at some point...

OK, Just tried to take some pics outside, as it's so sunny (still!). I have completed the mast assemblies (less blocks), and it has definitely taken over our large dining room table. With the bowsprit in place, it is near to 1.5 metres in length, going up to 1.6 when the mizzen gaff/boom is in place. Not the easiest thing to manoeuvre... The poop deck is not yet fixed in place, only dry-fitted so not sitting fully into position. The flag lockers are a combination of 0.4mm photo etched parts for the flag compartments and 0.8mm ply for the outer shell. I see flag lockers on other kits and they always look way too thick - even in 0.4mm they are slightly oversize! They will also sit lower once the poop is finally glued down, giving enough room the cleats above, which are fixed to the inner stern board. The skylight is 0.8 plywood and looks quite good, scale-wise, with the window frames being very thin. I realised another advantage of the MDF frames - because of the very low tolerances I can design into the structure, the masts and bowsprit fit perfectly and are exactly 90 degrees to the keel when looking fore or aft. ETA - When it is sitting on our dining table, the main topmast cross trees are at eye level!

@chris watton I do know that, while researching and designing the Endeavour (13 years ago now, cripes!), it did state in the Anatomy of the Ship book that the hull colour was in fact nearer to brown (I think I even wrote this in the instructions, if memory serves - but that's 18th Century). So I guess it can vary - although off-white is by far the safest bet if no sources tell you otherwise.

LOL, but for us Brits, I felt I was in the process of photosynthesis it has been so bright! Three days of hot weather so far this year - things are looking up...!

LOL, Cheers I will have anything laser cut or photo etched I can possibly think of to make my, and the modeller's life as simple as it can be. Essentially, anything I can get away with. (I had a good moan about the tab positions on my prototype parts - been a nightmare releasing some of the parts..) I do wish we could find a company to make the masts and yards pre-shaped, as you really do need a lathe to make them properly..

Have started on the masts while I wait for the new poop parts. Initially, I tried to rush this as I went into auto-pilot - and made some stupid mistakes (bowsprit gammoning cleats in the wrong place due to me not pushing the bowsprit in right to the end - so had to remove and start over - no extended cheeks on the mizzen, when it clearly has them - what an idiot!). I decided to slow down and complete the mast plans before going any further, which I have now done. The lower mast are almost complete and have been primed: (My wife is re-decorating around me!) I did make sure I had laser cut mast and yard cleats in various shapes and sizes - saves a little time... (Pity I couldn't have had the gammoning cleats laser cut...) And that's where I am right now - I spent all of yesterday (Sunday, in the sweltering heat) turning the upper masts.

Hi Daniel, Thank you! I am not sure at all regarding the history of that particular model (I assume you mean the one with one too many gun ports on the quarterdeck and the odd stern)? Perhaps it was a model made by a builder and submitted to the Admiralty for approval, for how she should look after the 'great repair', I don't know. I do know that when studying both models and paintings can throw up massive discrepancies between them. Prince for example. The beautiful model in the Science Museum is definitely of Prince, but when looking at the Van De Velde drawings (These are almost as good as photographs for the Restoration period, IMOHO), they show a small open stern gallery on the real thing, and this seems quite consistent with other contemporary drawings, and some paintings - but it is not there on the actual model. I assume it was added during the build and after the model was made. For Victory, being 'only' a couple of hundred years old since the rebuild, you'd have thought there would be pliantly of correlating material relating to how she looked - but this hasn't been the case, I have found... Chris

The lighter the model, the less damage it will take if dropped, it could be argued. Dropping a heavily laden model with 2kg worth of needless material could spell catastrophe, as opposed to a few things to repair and touch up. The only concessions I make it to do with the rigging, and none of it is glued/fixed permanently in place (from experience..)