HMS Victory by Kevin-the-lubber - Heller - 1:100 - PLASTIC - with 3D printed additions

[Bill97]

Yes Ian they are the plastic molded ones that came with the kit. That was before I learned to make my own. 

[Ian_Grant]

Sorry about that Kevin. The Victory is a big task for first build. I'm glad mine sat in the stash for years as I was able to find help on the Web when eventually I pulled it out.

 

To be perfectly candid, this site makes it very easy to say, "Oh, I'll do that too", to get the very best model. But a lot of the little details I did on Victory I did with magnifying lenses on, which means one would need the same to see them. With it sitting in the case you can hardly see the main deck guns, much less their train tackles. All this to say, you don't need to go as far as some of the builders here to get a very nice model out of it. I'm not going to sweat the Preussen near as much; in fact I've decided to omit the footropes on her 30 yards 😜 and I'm just adding etched eyebolts instead of blocks in some places. Good enough. No one in my probable audience will know the difference anyway.

 

[Bill97]

That is so true Ian. One of my disappointments with how I need to display mine is that a few of my cases are a bit above eye level. As such I am the only one who knows about the items on the decks (rigged cannons, detail painted crewmen, etc). My wife and I have a small house and she graciously tolerates my “ship room”. I am running out of wall space and may have to donate a couple to somebody or put them in dry dock like your Cutty Sark. When I started the Heller Victory I thought it would take a few years and I would be ready to hang up my modeling tools at completion. Even had the last piece of wall space designated for it. Obviously that is not going to be the case with my surprise Heller Soleli Royal under the Christmas tree. I may have to get rid of a few and just keep my most favorites which would probably be USS Constitution, Cutty Sark, HMS Victory, and the future Soleli Royal. That would mean ridding myself of the English Man O War, Trumpeter Mayflower, and Airfix’s Wasa ☹️

Would be a difficult task. 
Here are a few pictures around my ship room. 

[Kevin-the-lubber]

I think we're on the same page there, Ian. I can't see myself doing micro detail below decks nor going too far down that track on the outside - only that which is readily visible to the naked eye. I'm glad too that I haven't just barrelled ahead on the Victory, I'm learning constantly and the slow journey is giving me time to learn things the rest of you have known for years. By the way, for all I've said about the Victory instructions being poor, you should see those for the Bluenose, they make the former look worthy of a nobel prize. Maybe I will do the Cutty Sark now, especially if it's good out of the box. I feel a need to have a ship on my office windowsill sooner rather than later 🙂.

 

Meanwhile, a couple of pics of todays 'R&D' between weekend jobs. Staggered lap joints to simulate joining hull sections; glued together with CA and a little light sanding to blend the joints. Once painted the lines would be quite faint and of course wood graining is optional (probably skip that, not least because it would be unbelievably tedious to do in the software). If the section joints were strategically placed to make use of gunport edges and more randomly staggered, I think you would need to know they were there to spot them.   

 

 

[europapete]

Yep Kevin, the men in the white coats are getting their van ready. I gave them a false address but you had still better be quick about doing that hull. 

[Kevin-the-lubber]

Tell them they can come now. I have my pyjamas and slippers ready. It's all preparation now, a lot of setting up drawings and what-not, so it'll probably go quiet on here for a few months as this can be a bit boring, something to do bit by bit, and there's nothing to show until the end. 

[europapete]

Kk I will. While you are doing that think about how much you would like to sell the uprade kits for to the rest of us unskilled slobs. 

[europapete]

How far off is the kit hull? I haven't checked it yet against plans.

[Kevin-the-lubber]

That's a kind compliment but it's not quite fit for that yet, you wouldn't want to have to bash the bash, leastways I certainly wouldn't. The kit needs a few tweaks but, after working on this and nothing else for maybe 6 months, I need to take a break from it for a little while.

[Kevin-the-lubber]

13 minutes ago, europapete said:

How far off is the kit hull? I haven't checked it yet against plans

There's nothing wrong with the kit hull, it's pretty good out of the box, depending on how you see these things. The primary purpose of remaking it is that, if it works out, I can make my stern 'kit' fit the heller hull almost perfectly. Having gone this far I'm thinking, why not. Just not right now!

[europapete]

Can't argue with that. I need to switch subjects after a while too, helps stave off burnout which is never a good thing in this hobby. Am thinking of switching from a 1/32 SE5a (WW1 fighter biplane) back to my 1/200 HMS Hood. 

[europapete]

Or I could pull the Victory box off the shelf............

[Ian_Grant]

5 hours ago, europapete said:

Can't argue with that. I need to switch subjects after a while too, helps stave off burnout which is never a good thing in this hobby. Am thinking of switching from a 1/32 SE5a (WW1 fighter biplane) back to my 1/200 HMS Hood. 

SE5a - my favourite WWI fighter.............

[SteveLarsen]

Brilliant and truly inspirational.

[Kevin-the-lubber]

Thanks Steve. I may pick up on the Victory again in a few months time, once I've reached a natural break point on the Cutty Sark. I just hope I haven't forgotten too much!

[William-Victory]

Very impressive works!

[Kevin-the-lubber]

On 1/7/2024 at 5:00 AM, William-Victory said:

Very impressive works!

Thanks, like you I parked it for a while. In fact I just started looking at the Victory again about a week or two back, time will tell what comes of that.

[DanBArt]

The stern plate looks incredible,  but I am wondering if painting it all yellow in acrylic and then dabbing in a few layers of enamel blackwash to darken the relief areas will work?   

[Kevin-the-lubber]

1 hour ago, DanBArt said:

The stern plate looks incredible,  but I am wondering if painting it all yellow in acrylic and then dabbing in a few layers of enamel blackwash to darken the relief areas will work?   

To tell the truth, I was happy enough just to get away with airbrushing the yellow ochre and parked the project as soon as that was done. I’ve been airbrushing gun carriages yellow recently which has served as a reminder that yellow ochre is definitely the devils spawn of model paints, dreadful for clogging. Anyway, sooner or later I’ll pick up on the stern again and will probably experiment with some shading. Not too much around the stern, it just needs knocking back a little.

[Mexspur]

The devils spawn.

an accurate description.

[Wacom]

A question thats a bit off topic but when searching for this kit they seem to refer to it as a starter kit.

could someone explain why this is?

thanks

[Kevin-the-lubber]

4 minutes ago, nzreg said:

starter kit.

I’m not really sure. From what I can see, the kit on retail today is basically identical to both of mine except that they’ve added the new, apparently much better, instructions and three pots of paint. Maybe they’re reflecting that it’s very common for people to modify, reinterpret, add aftermarket parts and so on.

 

I guess it’s self-fulfilling, by virtue of being here on this forum, that I’ve never seen a simple out-of-the-box build. The irony is that I only ended up on the forums, about 10 years ago, because I bought the kit on impulse having not touched a model for 40-odd years and I couldn’t make head or tail of the instructions.
 

Anyway, the bottom line is that I don’t think you forego anything important by getting the starter kit.

[Wacom]

Thank you.👍

[dafi]

16 hours ago, Kevin-the-lubber said:

To tell the truth, I was happy enough just to get away with airbrushing the yellow ochre and parked the project as soon as that was done. ... Anyway, sooner or later I’ll pick up on the stern again and will probably experiment with some shading.

Just go for it it really is worth a try, adds enormous for the appearence and is not too difficult!

Here are the test shots from my build, first the ink to create deapth, then a bit of white brush and the things are alive 🙂

XXXDAn

 

 

 

[Ian_Grant]

19 hours ago, nzreg said:

A question thats a bit off topic but when searching for this kit they seem to refer to it as a starter kit.

could someone explain why this is?

thanks

This kit is the opposite of a starter kit ..... along with the Soleil Royale it is one of the most complex plastic sailing ships on the market.

At least they claim to have improved the instructions; not sure if they're better or just separated out a bit onto glossy paper.

Edited January 26 by Ian_Grant

[Hubac's Historian]

Yeah, I have to agree with Ian, here.  Straight out of the box, the Heller Victory is a significant undertaking.  I have a pressing from the mid-90’s.  Plastic quality is high, and the hull does not seem to suffer from the same warping issues as with the Soleil Royal.  There are a TON of parts to deal with, though.  As others have said, the sky is the limit when it comes to modifying and adding to the kit.  Doing a creditable job on this kit definitely requires some advanced skill and even more patience.

[Kevin-the-lubber]

I'd agree with you both, it's a BIG kit in every sense, but all the same, I don't really subscribe to the sage's that say it's a bad place to start, as many do. Bearing in mind I just wanted something to do rather than sit in front of the TV one dark, boring winter, I think if I'd bought something smaller and easier I wouldn't have needed to get googling for advice, would have done a rudimentary OOTB build in 2 or 3 weeks, probably treated the itch as scratched and moved on. As it is, it's led me to explore and experiment with branches of making and modelling which has been largely enjoyable and, who knows, maybe one day I'll finish it. 

 

[Kevin-the-lubber]

2 hours ago, dafi said:

Just go for it it really is worth a try, adds enormous for the appearence and is not too difficult!

Here are the test shots from my build, first the ink to create deapth, then a bit of white brush and the things are alive 🙂

Oh, that's an interesting approach, I wouldn't have thought of using white, but I will now. I'm very deliberately not even looking at the stern right now as I know it will be another mammoth undertaking to finish that off. I'm currently on cannons (done) and carriages (half done). They take hours, don't they. No pics yet as this is a very ordinary thing with nothing of real interest to others.

[Kevin-the-lubber]

39 minutes ago, Hubac's Historian said:

There are a TON of parts to deal with, though.

That's another thing. There are a ton of parts that bulk it out, many of which most people are going to discard. Hundreds of blocks, deadeyes etc. Maybe 600 - 700 pieces for the cannons. It goes without saying that I'll make my own blocks, in fact I did those ages ago, and I've also done my own cannons and carriages, largely to minimise the repetition. Once you set aside all that lot, you're left with a beautiful, hugely interesting set of challenges or mini-kits. When I parked it a couple of years back I literally put it all in a big box and stuck it away in a cupboard (much as I've now done with my cutty sark) and when I re-opened the box three or four weeks back, I was once again struck by the quality.

[Ian_Grant]

5 hours ago, Kevin-the-lubber said:

  <snip...snip>  ..... and when I re-opened the box three or four weeks back, I was once again struck by the quality.

Yes, I recall going to the hobby shop in 1982 and asking the guy if I could see inside the "Victory" box before buying. He was excited to comply and we both gazed reverently at the fantastic hull engraving and sprue after sprue of multi-colored parts. Fond memories. 😉