Kit review 1:84 HMS Victory Trafalgar 1805 – ANATOMY Version - Artesania Latina

[James H]

1:84 HMS Victory Trafalgar 1805 – ANATOMY Version
Artesania Latina
Catalogue # 22900-OP
Available from Artesania Latina for £1140

 

 

 

 

 

 

HMS Victory is a 104-gun first-rate wooden sailing ship of the line. With 246 years of service as of 2024, she is the world's oldest naval vessel still in commission. She was ordered for the Royal Navy in 1758, during the Seven Years' War and laid down in 1759. That year saw British victories at Quebec, Minden, Lagos and Quiberon Bay and these may have influenced the choice of name when it was selected in October the following year. In particular, the action in Quiberon Bay had a profound effect on the course of the war; severely weakening the French Navy and shifting its focus away from the sea. There was therefore no urgency to complete the ship and the signing of the Treaty of Paris in February 1763, meant that when Victory was finally floated out in 1765, she was placed in ordinary. Her construction had taken 6,000 trees, 90% of them oak.

 

Victory was first commissioned in March 1778 during the American Revolutionary War, seeing action at the First Battle of Ushant in 1778, shortly after France had openly declared her support for Britain's rebel colonies in North America, and the Second Battle of Ushant in 1781. After taking part in the relief of Gibraltar in 1782, Victory, and the fleet she was sailing with, encountered a combined Spanish and French force at the Battle of Cape Spartel. Much of the shot from the allied ships fell short and the British, with orders to return to the English Channel, did not bother to reply. This was her last action of the war; hostilities ended in 1783, and Victory was placed in ordinary once more.

 

In 1787, Victory was ordered to be fitted for sea following a revolt in the Netherlands, but the threat had subsided before the work had been completed. She was ready for the Nootka Crisis and Russian Armament in 1790 but both events were settled before she was called into action. During the French Revolutionary War, Victory served in the Mediterranean Fleet, co-operating in the occupation of Toulon in August and the Invasion of Corsica between February and August 1794. She was at the Battle of the Hyeres Islands in 1795 and the Battle of Cape St Vincent in 1797. When Admiral Horatio Nelson was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet in 1803, he hoisted his flag aboard Victory and in 1805 took her into action at the Battle of Trafalgar. After 1824, she was relegated to the role of harbour ship. In 1922, she was moved to a dry dock at Portsmouth, England, and preserved as a museum ship. She has been the flagship of the First Sea Lord since October 2012.
Abridged from Wikipedia

 

The kit

Well, we already had one Victory kit this year, from another Spanish manufacturer, with a skeletal theme, so we definitely weren’t expecting this ANATOMY version from Spanish company, Artesania Latina. Quite a few jaded modellers decried ‘yet another HMS Victory’, but this one promised to be different…by Artesania themselves. Working with a nod to Artesania’s old ‘Anatomy of HMS Bounty’ kit, revised around 10 or 11yrs ago, this kit was quite unexpected, but promised to offer the modeller a complete interior hull model, with every detail from the lowest ballast and orlop deck, through to the smallest details on the gun and upper decks.

 

The represented scale was a little unusual too, not being a run of the mill ‘72 or ’64. Artesania chose to release their kit in 1:84, which is a tad larger than the other release from this year. This kit is presented in a robust and glossy top-opening box which is specific to this release. The sides are adorned with images from the inside of the completed ship, and they do point to what appears to be a model with a very realistic interior. Artesania has also designed the model so that a complete lighting set can be installed, and indeed they have also released such a set of flickering lights to be fitted in this model. I have that set here and will post something about this later on. 

 

Now, instructions. This is quite early to touch on this subject, but at this point I will tell you that this kit has no paper instructions. The only paper aspects of this kit are a large and colour sheet showing the completed model, and a series of exploded maps and deck plans (there are some paper guilds and templates too). Artesania has instead created a series of videos which that have posted on their YouTube channel. As I write this, there are approaching THIRTY videos available, with a final number which is supposed to be around NINETY videos! I have watched all the videos so far, giving me an idea about how this model is to be built. A lot of effort has gone into showing the minutiae of the build, as it should, part by part. The videos are concise and easy to follow, but if you’re not used to building by video, it’ll have to be something you’d need to get used to. The interior aspect of the model does necessitate a different style of construction, right from the outset. 

 

At this point, I’ll give you some text from AL, explaining a little more about this kit. I’ve highlighted the completed dimensions: 

 

“The new Anatomy version of HMS Victory, the legendary 18th and 19th century British ship of the line, Lord Nelson's flagship and sailing's most celebrated ship, is an impressive and majestic wooden naval modelling kit for expert modellers. The model is completely faithful to the original ship as she fought at the Battle of Trafalgar and includes full interior detail on all decks, visible through the open right side of the hull. This model is officially licensed by the British National Museum of the Royal Navy.

 

Assemble your 1:84 scale wooden model of the Anatomy of the HMS Victory, our extraordinary model of the 18th and 19th century English ship of the line. Its construction system using false keel and frames brings the assembly of the miniature closer to the construction of the real ship. Once built, it measures 1,202 mm long, 470 mm wide and 805 mm high -875 mm with the base.

 

This Anatomy will allow you, while assembling the model, to examine in depth the construction and structure of the ship, as well as the very high level of detail. The model kit contains thousands of pieces of high-precision laser-cut board, hardwoods, brass and cast iron. As well as copper lining for the hull, cotton sails sewn and ready to be placed and a wood working base. Not forgetting the beautiful methacrylate base with the name in gold to display the model once finished.

 

In order for this fantastic Anatomy of HMS Victory to be a completely faithful model of the original replica, we recommend... First, paint it with your Specific Set of Water Based Acrylic Paints (277PACK11) sold separately. Secondly, to add your two 1:84 scale figurine sets, also sold separately, which will be available soon: Royal Navy (22900F1) y Sailors 1700-1815 (22900F2). And finally, illuminate the ship for even more realism with the 122 sail effect lights of the HMS Victory Model Ship LED Lighting Set (22900-LED).”

 

As I’ve already said, this kit is very heavy. The shipping weight to the UK was around 10kg, albeit some extras were added, but it does give an idea of the weight of the product. Artesania put the parts count of this kit at around 10,000, so there's plenty enough to satisfy a modeller who likes a long term project.

 

 

As it would be beneficial to show you the contents of the printed material before the actual timber, this is what we'll look at right now. 

 

Instructions
As I've already said, Artesania are providing the actual instructions as a series of videos. You can find those HERE. However, you will need a series of profiles and maps which show the layout of the decks etc. These are provided in the kit, as well as those card templates you'll need for installing the wales etc. 

 

 

Plans are included for the masting and sails too. 

 

 

To be continued....

 

 

[James H]

Dowel and strip stock

There is a hell of a lot of strip material supplied in this new release. However, the packs are physically short, with the strip wood being long enough to satisfy half a hull's length, due to the method of planking. The majority of planking is 1.5 x 4mm and there are SEVEN packets of this. As with all strip bundles, these come laced up in elastic and then cellophane wrapped. The quality of the strip wood is clearly evident, with sharp edges and clean cutting. the material quality is also excellent. See that for yourself, here:

 

 

A pack of dowel is included, with lengths of brass rod within the pack. Again, please check out the quality for yourself:

 

 

More soon.....

 

 

[RossR]

Really excited to follow along on this one.   Thanks.   

[James H]

Sheet materials (Part 1)

 

There are a LOT of laster cut sheets...around THIRTY-FOUR in total, made up from ply, birch and beech, with some of these sheets being veneers. All sheets are initials packed into a cellophane wrap. As you will imagine, the construction of the hull will be different to a regular model, simply due to the fact that the entire interior will be fitted out as per the actual ship. The decks themselves are all laser engraved, and these tend to interlock. I think that you'd need to be careful how you execute that so that you hide as much of the connection as is possible. Please look through these sheets as that is what's necessary to gain an insight to how Artesania have broken down the vessel so that you can reproduce it as easily as possible. 

 

 

 

More soon...

 

[James H]

Sheet materials (Part 2)

 

 

More soon...

[James H]

There are FOUR boxes of fittings in this kit release, with one of them in particular being quite heavy. The rigging blocks are quite generic Tamil-type, and there are a hell of a lot, as you'd expect with Victory. A lot of barrels are also included for you to sit around the various decks, to make them look a little busy.

 

Here you see the various pillars and ornamentation for the stern etc. as well as parts for the lanterns. Note also the figurehead crest and other castings that are used for the ship's wheel and the underside of the quarter galleries. The bag on the left is gravel, for the hold.

This box contains wire, anchors, hawse rope and cannon. The cannon are very nicely cast with only minimal seam lines to remove, plus they do carry the royal crest too. There is a packet of clear parts here, and these are either the fire buckets or the lantern exteriors. There is another pack of slightly larger, similar parts which would be whatever these parts are not (either lanterns or buckets).

 

Lastly, another box containing rope and various turned and cast parts. There aren't too many brass pins included here, so you will need to pull and re-use them as you go. They aren't aren't very fine, and I would perhaps opt to use those from Amati as you work. 

This is the other packet of clear parts which do appear to be the lantern covers which you can use to sheath the optional LED parts you can install across the various deck interiors. 

These sheets contain parts for Victory's various glazed areas.

 

And now, the rigging pack. This is quite generic rope, but is of very reasonable quality. This could be improved further with a block of wax to kill any potential fuzz that this can entail. 

 

More soon.

 

 

[James H]

Decoration

 

There are NINE sheets of photo-etch parts....or at first glance there appears to be. One of these looks to be moulded plastic, but plastic in a gold colour. The colour is quite academic though, as all ornamentation would be in the same ochre colour as the hull paint. All sheets are fixed to a large black card sheet, and then wrapped in cellophane to further protect them. A look through these sheets can clearly identify other parts such as those to finish off the ship's boats etc. Also note the strops and chainplates, ship's stove, cabin furniture, quarter gallery sides, lantern bodies, etc. All PE is very nicely etched and is very much of the quality we now normally see on other contemporary kits. 

 

 

 

Display stand
Suppliers usually add some sort of stand, usually in ply. Very few companies offer acetate stands, such as those that VM include. With this kit, Artesania have also opted to include an acrylic stand. This is quite a simple but attractive stand, made from black acrylic sheet, and to be adorned with photo etc lettering which names the ship, so the effect will be in black and gold. Note also some wire and switches, plus cutouts in one stand part so these can be wired. This obviously pertains to the optional lighting set that you can install as you build the kit. 

 

 

This pack contains hammock material as well as copper tape for the hull, flags, and a complete set of pre-cut and sewn sails. 

 

 

Lastly, these are photos of those printed materials I mentioned already, plus a set of parts maps you can see here on the last image.

 

More soon...

 

[James H]

Conclusion

 

This would always be an ambitious project and I think Artesania have pulled it off quite well. They certainly have reproduced pretty much the entire interior of Victory in a way that no other company has yet attempted to do so. The detail levels are quite extraordinary and will certainly add up to be one seriously long and rewarding project. This is by no means a project that I could consider for a newcomer, no matter how tempting the subject is, and the experience of building that interior. The hull on this kit is single planked, so you will need to take that into account when you consider your own abilities. The videos are wonderful at showing how the hull is planked, but you will need to be attentive to them and be confident in your approach to replicating what you are shown. With some experience, this model will doubtless build up into a masterpiece. There aren't the same generic fittings on this kit as you would see on some contemporaries, and even others from AL's own range, and the finesse in detail throughout is at another level. This isn't a cheap kit, but £/$ per hour, then as a long term project, you will definitely get your money's worth on getting yourself one of these kits. Of course, there's always the voyeuristic side of modellers who like to see the interior stuff, and this kit satisfies that need in bucketloads!

 

I do have a few extras for this kit and I will review them shortly. 

 

My sincere thanks to Artesania Latina for sending this kit for the purpose of review here on Model Ship World. To buy this kit directly, click the link at the top of this article. 

 

 

[Artesania Latina]

Thanks for your help transmitting the work we have put into this project. Great review!

 

Just one comment: 

"One of these looks to be moulded plastic, but plastic in a gold colour."

We're sorry it's not plastic, it's 1 mm thickness photoetched brass sheet.

[James H]

3 minutes ago, Artesania Latina said:

Thanks for your help transmitting the work we have put into this project. Great review!

 

Just one comment: 

"One of these looks to be moulded plastic, but plastic in a gold colour."

We're sorry it's not plastic, it's 1 mm thickness photoetched brass sheet.

Ah! It does look very nice indeed. 

[vossiewulf]

37 minutes ago, Artesania Latina said:

Thanks for your help transmitting the work we have put into this project. Great review!

 

Just one comment: 

"One of these looks to be moulded plastic, but plastic in a gold colour."

We're sorry it's not plastic, it's 1 mm thickness photoetched brass sheet.

Congratulations on shipping an impressive kit! That really will build up into a masterpiece in the right hands.

[Ouija2006]

Thank you so much for reviewing this one. I was hoping to read your opinion about this kit. The attention to detail is amazing. Thank you, AL for going all out on this new release.

 

Happy Holidays!

 

[woodartist]

5 hours ago, James H said:

h! It does look very nice indeed. 

OMG if I was 10 years younger, I may have been interested 😊 , however it is a huge commitment, you better be in love with it!!

[catopower]

An amazing looking kit! Thanks for the look inside James!

 

For those that are interested, Ages of Sail just got these in stock on Friday, and they are shipping them out as of today.