HMS Victory by Bill97 - FINISHED - Heller - 1/100 - PLASTIC

[dafi]

The big beam is the slide for the beam of the gaff, the iron fitting can be seen on the starbord side. 

 

The handle of the pintle is special for those statenyacht. I sketched the hidden parts. The pintle (blue lines) passes unterneath the blue bulkhead that is not linked to the deck. The slot is covered with a cloth, green arrows. On the pintle is a column (red lines) to maneuver.

 

 

Even with right trimm the rudder has a tendency to pull on one side. This is facilitated with the tackle. If it needs to be corrected towards the other side, push with the foot - that is why my foot is on the pintle - or the hand. 

 

 

 

Here you can see that the column is not in touch with the big bar. This was while leaving the harbor under motor, so no tackles were used.

 

 

These are some pictures of the sailing day we had with our german modeling forum 🙂

25 German pirates invading the dutch harbor and cutting out the Utrecht 😉

 

The ransom was paid by the skipper with fennel soup.

 

XXXDAn

Edited December 3, 2021 by dafi

[Veszett Roka]

1 hour ago, dafi said:

The big beam is the slide for the beam of the gaff, the iron fitting can be seen on the starbord side. 

 

 

Here you can see that the column is not in touch with the big bar. This was while leaving the harbor under motor, so no tackles were used.

 

That big bar is the traveller of the main sail. Better not step on it when ship turns against the wind
I love the hidden engine controls in the drawer.

Edited December 3, 2021 by Veszett Roka
typo correction

[Ian_Grant]

Ah, now I understand. Thanks everyone!  I had thought the post was connected to the big bar, which I now know is the traveller. Guess I didn't look hard enough. 😉

[Veszett Roka]

On 11/28/2021 at 9:20 PM, Bill97 said:

I was thinking earlier today that there are several of us that communicate and comment frequently on this build blog. As an old school kind of guy I like to put a face with a name. Fun to see how the face compares to what I imagine.  I saw Daniel’s picture on his blog. I am attaching mine. If any of you other guys would want to post a photo it would be great. 

 

 

AH, and not to forget, since i commented here: it's me. Although the picture is not too fresh, its been taken a few years back. Now i have more grey hair, and a newer model of telephone   

 

[Ian_Grant]

15 hours ago, Bill97 said:

Ian I just noticed in my last post I said “Very obvious Ian”. I have absolutely no idea what I meant to say there 😀.  Must have been the influence of my Kentucky bourbon. The great experience part of that comment is accurate. 

LOL, I had wondered....😆

[Kevin-the-lubber]

... and this one's me, with what looks suspiciously like HMS Warrior in the background. Each time, as I walk towards Portsmouth dock after parking the car, I can see the masts and tops poking out above the buildings and get excited thinking 'they've put them back!'. And each time I forget that those are the Warrior's and that poor old Victory gets stripped ever more each year. At this rate I'll go there one day and just find a little plaque that says 'HMS Victory was once docked here'. All in a good cause I suppose.

 

 

[Bill97]

Great picture Kevin! Nice to put a face to our many conversations. 

[Bill97]

This is just slightly off the specific topic of this thread, but only a little. 
 

Do any of you know how to order something off the Heller web site?
 

https://www.heller.fr/en/

 

There are a number of items on the site that I find interesting. I try clicking on every spot I can find but nothing takes me any where to order. They show the price but that is all I can get. No shopping cart. No place or way to order that I can find. I emailed Heller the same question with no response yet. 

[Kevin-the-lubber]

I can't point you to the exact place but I know I've come across something, in my travels, about getting replacement parts and I think I remember the poster saying they never respond to emails, but do respond to fax and are very obliging if you ask nicely. I have no idea how you'd fax these days.

[Bill97]

Hello Veszett. Thanks for the photo. How goes he modeling world in Budapest?  I have been many places in Europe but not Budapest yet. My understanding is your city is beautiful. 

[Bill97]

Thanks Kevin. Seems odd they have an online catalog of many great items and models but no easy way, or way at all I can figure, to order them. Head scratcher. 🤔

[Kevin-the-lubber]

Maybe, like us, for them it's a hobby? 😁

[Ian_Grant]

46 minutes ago, Kevin-the-lubber said:

I can't point you to the exact place but I know I've come across something, in my travels, about getting replacement parts and I think I remember the poster saying they never respond to emails, but do respond to fax and are very obliging if you ask nicely. I have no idea how you'd fax these days.

That was me. I needed a replacement stern railing for my "Preussen". When I emailed the form, the message bounced and I received a complicated "server refused access from my domain" message. That's why I faxed and got an immediate response (I'm lucky that my wife is a vet; in Canada the medical community is the last segment clinging to FAX machines for some reason).

 

BIll if you didn't get a bounce message then the email was received.

 

Bottom line it looks like they don't take direct orders. You might be better to order from someone more local.

[Bill97]

You are probably right Ian. I did not get a bounce back email so I guess I will wait to see if I hear from them. 

[Kevin-the-lubber]

1 hour ago, Ian_Grant said:

Canada the medical community is the last segment clinging to FAX machines for some reason)

Same here. If you ever have to send a fax your local hospital is the place to go. Baffling, in this day and age.

 

Bill, I've also loitered on their site once or twice, just assumed that, as they don't seem to have a 'shop', this is just a catalogue of what you can buy from a Heller dealer. It'll be interesting to hear how you get on.

 

Is it just me or does everyone seem to be slowing down on their kits with Christmas approaching? 

[Bill97]

I have for sure slowed down with all the other Christmas prep things going on. I have started installing and rigging the cannon hatch doors. 

[dafi]

As you were already talking about the heller site: I was pointed out by Paul Bean at the new booklet of instructions for the Vic:

 

https://www.heller.fr/en/80897176-brochure-hms-victory-1080897176

 

XXXDAn

[Kevin-the-lubber]

27 minutes ago, dafi said:

new booklet of instructions for the Vic

An extra £40 for the assembly instructions? It would need to be pretty damn good at that price.

[Bill97]

Daniel that is exactly what I was wanting to order. I saw it was available and thought it would be a nice addition to my instructions. I saw in my wife’s secret hiding place that she has in fact got me the Heller 1/100 Soleli Royal!  I opened it to check the instruction book. Heller’s site says they have published the new instructions for it as well. There is in fact a very nice ringed booklet of instructions just like the one they now have for the Victory (the one you reference). I would gladly pay to buy it if I could find a source. 

[Bill97]

This site has it for 29 but does not ship to the US. 

https://www.besserepreise.com/index.php?page=cart&language=en

 
 

 

[Ian_Grant]

Maybe they finally wrote some decent rigging instructions. Other than that Bill I don't think you'd get much out of it at the stage you're at. Use Longridge to rig her.

 

So you opened something in your wife's "secret" stash?  How will that turn out?

 

The SR is a helluva kit. Many problems with Heller's hull, cannons, and spars, but the engraving and molding is first class for the time. I haven't started mine yet but from time to time I open it up to look at it 🙄.  I've dry fitted the stern and quarter galleries and they're amazingly accurately molded.

 

By the way I recommend R.C. Anderson's book for rigging SR.

[Kevin-the-lubber]

Yes, I saw that too Bill. I hope they have the good grace to at least put a crookedly stapled version in with the kit from here onwards. While it doesn’t really matter that much when you find sites like this, this is the haunt of those who are all about making the most of every kit, and I can’t help picturing someone like me at 12 or 13 years old getting this wonderful kit for Christmas but being  defeated by the abysmal instructions. For all that these big kits take most people years to complete, I think you could probably throw it together out of the box in two or three weeks of school holidays and enjoy every moment, with decent instructions. You shouldn’t have to pay extra for them! (I think I may be ranting, I shall stop).

 

On a side note, has anyone ever seen or heard of a Victory build out of the box, no bashing, plastic sails etc? I remember Pete Coleman was always hoping someone would just do that for a change, as a guide for others. It’s incredibly tempting at times to do just that with one of my kits, no painting, just cut and glue, cut and glue. That’s what I did with my Endeavour one Christmas 50 years ago and it really didn’t look that bad, sat on the windowsill for years.

 

 

[Bill97]

🤫Ian. Don’t tell her. She was out of the house at the time and I taped it back up as if never opened. Wanted to check the instructions. If I was going to order the new one for the Victory I thought I might as well get the new S.R. instructions as well. Thankfully it is already included. Now all I have to do is fake extreme excitement Christmas. 😊

Thanks for the advice I will need for the future. 
 

[Kevin-the-lubber]

She’ll know, you know, they always do. My dear old mum used to make us stand in a line and stick our tongues out to see if we were lying. She’d say she could see a black spot if we were. How she convinced 6 kids to believe that for about 10 years, lord knows. Even by the age of 3, when I tried the same, mine would look at me as though I was some kind of half-wit.

 

Did the SR instructions look good?

[Veszett Roka]

19 hours ago, Bill97 said:

Hello Veszett. Thanks for the photo. How goes he modeling world in Budapest?  I have been many places in Europe but not Budapest yet. My understanding is your city is beautiful. 

Thank you Bill, indeed it is a beautiful city. Pity the actual government goes mad and care nothing, thus the beauty slowly fades away. Not alone in the world i think. Just drop me a mail once you come here, surely we would pop a few (or more) beers together. Or bourbon if you prefer KY drinks

Shipmodelers here considered like "holy fools", the main community thinks we are sick because the tiny scales (their favorite is 1:48 because the planes and armories) and due the exhaustive works of rigging etc. However the finished shipmodels are very well appreciated, and the wow factor is high.

Anyhow, my name Veszett Roka means rabid fox in hungarian (veszett=rabid, roka=fox), i got this nickname when started racing. I love it!

[Bill97]

That is a funny story about your mum. I will need to check my tongue for black spots! 🤪

Yes the SR instructions looked very good. Especially the rigging section. Multi colored lines representing ropes. Sequential according to Heller. Don’t know if historically accurate or not. Instructions are very Revell like. Almost 90 pages. Part of reason I wanted to get the Victory addition. Once I officially open my SR I will attach a couple pics. 

 

As as far as out of the box builds, my current Victory build is my first to bash to the extent you guys have encouraged me. Up until this build all my previous have been out of the box except for paint and making my own sails. My very first model the Revell USS Constitution was strictly out of the box with no sails added. As I pan around my “ship room” looking at the 6 cases I can easily see how my skills have grown. It was not until the 4th model, Trumpeter Mayflower, that I learned to use dead eyes and make my own shrouds and ratlines instead of those black plastic one piece sections that come in the box. 

 

Thanks for the invite “rabid fox”  Veszett!  Will definitely drop a line if ever heading that way. Have watched numerous international travel shows. Have found it interesting about Budapest how it is divided Buda part and the Pest part, if I understand correctly. Each side different from the other? Is that correct?

[Veszett Roka]

24 minutes ago, Bill97 said:

Thanks for the invite “rabid fox”  Veszett!  Will definitely drop a line if ever heading that way. Have watched numerous international travel shows. Have found it interesting about Budapest how it is divided Buda part and the Pest part, if I understand correctly. Each side different from the other? Is that correct?

 

Yes, you are correct. Buda is built on hills, Pest is flat. Although its a slope, and far points of Pest is higher than the Buda hills. Pest residents says that Pest is better because the skyline of Buda hills, but from Buda you can see the flat Pest only  

[Kevin-the-lubber]

That's good that they're in the box. Once you're 'officially' allowed to see them it would be good to hear what you think of them compared to what we all got with the Victory, aside from the rigging. Despite my rantings, because I am at a far, far earlier stage than you (and heading backwards I think) I might overcome my objections and buy them anyway. 

 

[Bill97]

Kevin these are a few pictures from the Heller web site for the SR instructions. As you can see the example of rigging is more detailed than the old Heller. Living in the UK you might be able to get it easier than I can. 

[Ian_Grant]

Actually the old SR instructions are much better than were those for the Victory, to be devil's advocate for Heller.  The rigging is mostly shown in a few diagrams at the end instead of being scattered throughout as a bunch of loose ends disappearing off page. In fact, that mainmast diagram in your first pic is given on pg 23 of the old instructions, although not in colour and showing only the port side since it's symmetrical.  A similar diagram of the stern statuary is on pg 17, again not in colour, as well as a beautiful rendering of the fully assembled stern on pg 16.

 

Having said that, who knows about their accuracy?  I can tell you that those for the Preussen have errors. 

 

As always, reference books are de rigueur.