HMS Victory +++++ Finished +++++

[825]

In theory this will be a simple build from a gift set bought in Lidl for £4 earlier this year. It's only got 19 parts and has the paint needed, as well as a simple paint brush. 

 

 

 

There are only a few parts but there will be a bit of cleaning up done. 

 

 

Simple one page of instructions. And an absolutely georgeous transfer sheet including a multicoloured one for the transom. 

 

 

And a bag of paints and cement. 

 

 

All you need need to make an Airfix classic. So off we go. 

Edited June 7, 2020 by 825

[rob85]

Wow, it’s tiny! This should be fun!

 

Rob

[Jeepboy]

I have this and I'm painting it black then silver to make it look like  a silver centrepiece.  (I did similar with the Airfix WWI tank and it can be quite effective.

[825]

16 hours ago, rob85 said:

Wow, it’s tiny! This should be fun!

 

Rob

It is small and masking the yellow/black hull sides will be a challenge. But that's for later, there's a fair amount of cleaning up needed. It hails from 1956 so is a year younger than me but I have significantly less flash hanging off my bits than it does. I see filing and sanding in my future with a little bit of filling before any glue or paint is applied. 

 

14 hours ago, Jeepboy said:

I have this and I'm painting it black then silver to make it look like  a silver centrepiece.  (I did similar with the Airfix WWI tank and it can be quite effective.

Sounds a good approach but as I outline above I'll have a go at painting it in the livery on the box. It certainly looks how it currently is in the Royal Dockyard in Portsmouth, and there's a good walkround in the relevant BM section so handy resource easily accessed. 

Edited February 20, 2020 by 825

[Robert Stuart]

Going to watch this with interest.

Personally, I'd stick with the colours on the box - those were the traditional Royal Navy scheme by Nelson's era.

[825]

There's been a fair amount of cleaning up needed which has taken a bit of time. I have found scalpels and the IPMS seam cleaner really valuable. I am about 2/3rds of the way through. 

 

 

Though this mast will take a bit more than a bit of scraping and sanding!

 

 

Done enough to get the hull glued up. My initial thoughts and dry fitting that there shouldn't be too much of a problem hasn't really occurred once glue was applied. There's a bit of tidying going to be needed. But now it looks like a ship, albeit a hulk rather than a man of war. 

 

[Hewy]

The old mast seems to be going thorough a crisis, maybe a force 10 diorama is in order

[825]

Some paint on. I used the Airfix provided little pots and the paint brush. The brush isn't the most brilliant but it will suffice. Others have criticised the quality of the paints In thes starter kits but I found them OK though I did add a couple of drops of Flow Improver. In fact the Humbrol paints performed better than the Akan I used for the deck. 

 

I did my usual starting with the lighter colours but now the yellow yellow is on I think both hand painting and masking the black is going to be a major challenge so I'll have a think about how best to attack it. 

 

 

I noticed this on the pack. The moulding isn't that bad for a mould that is 64 years old. 

 

[PeterB]

Hi 825,

 

I suspect I have built this little kit a couple of times, together with the large version Airfix produced which was around 18" long excluding the bowsprit - I believe the Heller one was even bigger.

 

The underwater part of the hull would be covered in copper sheets, albeit tarnished/green verdigris colour for Victory I would imagine as the reason commonly given for Collingwood leading the leeward column in Royal Sovereign reaching the enemy well before the column led by Nelson in Victory was that Royal Sovereign had been recently re-coppered, unlike Victory. 

 

Unprotected wooden hulls were attacked in warmer waters by the Teredos or "ship" worm which bored into the planking causing it to rot and leak. They also attracted marine growth such as barnacles which caused disturbances to the flow of water and significantly slowed the ship down as they built up over time, requiring the ship to have its bottom "scraped" regularly. Previously a variety of noxious substances were painted on including white lead, to try and discourage the worms and barnacles, but by around 1790 the navy was using copper plates which both stopped the worm and also slowed down the build up of barnacles etc - this is the origin of the phrase "copper bottomed investment" I gather.

 

You may already know this, in which case my apologies.

 

Cheers

 

Pete

[825]

Thanks @PeterB  I did know most of this but it's always good to be reminded, and it's useful for others reading the thread too. Airfix give a little pot of Humbrol 110 which is 'Natural wood' and will be good for the deck fittings but not the hull. I don't think I've got any useable copper paint in the stash. There may be an ancient tinlet of Humbrol enamel somewhere but I suspect it's long gone solid. Normally I would have popped into Games Workshop and seen what they've got but that's not currently possible.  And you can't just order a single pot of paint online. Although I almost exclusively use acrylics these days there are some enamels in a box on top of shelves so I'll have a look tomorrow. 

[Robert Stuart]

The copper wouldn't be bright metal, but as PeterB suggests red/brown or blue/green.
Modern copper pipe contains a small quantity of phosphorus to preserve the copper (phosphorus deoxidized copper) so is not a good guide to colour.

 

The patina on the Statue of Liberty may be a better guide to colour?  Or google "copper roof" and look for the greenish roofs.
The top painting on this link shows what I'd expect https://www.hms-victory.com/content/history/battles

 

[Ray S]

Great work on this @825, I built this in 1970, little did I know it was older than me even then (and obviously still is!). I thought the details on it were pretty cool then, and your photographs still show that!

 

Looking forward to seeing more!

 

All the best, Ray

[825]

9 hours ago, Robert Stuart said:

The copper wouldn't be bright metal, but as PeterB suggests red/brown or blue/green.
Modern copper pipe contains a small quantity of phosphorus to preserve the copper (phosphorus deoxidized copper) so is not a good guide to colour.

 

The patina on the Statue of Liberty may be a better guide to colour?  Or google "copper roof" and look for the greenish roofs.
The top painting on this link shows what I'd expect https://www.hms-victory.com/content/history/battles

 

Thanks Robert, I also think I've got some photos of the current HMS Victory taken when visiting the Royal Dockyard in Portsmouth. You'll see below how my saga on the copper is going. I had already thought about using a metallic copper if I could find one and then matting it down with some dry brushing, probably a combination of rust and leather brown colours, then perhaps a black wash. But it all depends on getting some copper. 

 

13 minutes ago, Ray S said:

Great work on this @825, I built this in 1970, little did I know it was older than me even then (and obviously still is!). I thought the details on it were pretty cool then, and your photographs still show that!

 

Looking forward to seeing more!

 

All the best, Ray

 Thanks Ray, it actually has a lot of detail on it which is surprising considering it's age. I've made a few 50s/early 60s Frog aircraft of late and although good in shape the level of detail, and in particular the intricacy is nowhere near Airfix's Victory. 

 

Anyway onto today's progress. Or more correctly, lack of progress. I found this pot of Revell Kupfer in the stash of paint pots and thought, excellent.

 

 

However, on opening it was this purple cover. More appropriate for WW1 Albatrosses rather than 18/19th century man o war hulls. At first I thought perhaps this is base carrier colour and there will be some metal flecks in it once I give it a bit of a stir. This is what it looks like 30 minutes later, thoroughly stirred, thinned a little and some Flow Improver added. There was some caked sediment at the bottom of the pot and I scraped it off and stirred it in till it's smooth and it's  still purple or mauve or heather but certainly not copper. Either the metal flakes have toatally coalesced and stuck to the bottom or it's the wrong paint colour. I did put some on the hull just in case (glass half full person) but you can see that it's purple. 

 

 

Anyway another solution required 

 

[Robert Stuart]

Your Kuper looks like an iridescent colour. 

Try an experiment (off the model),  by painting it over black - see what happens.

[825]

I though that this was the answer. 

 

 

But, unfortunately 

 

 

Back to the drawing board. 

[825]

I've done bits and pieces on HMS Victory but nothing dramatic or worthy of photographing. However, a lot of sanding and filing has been done so some paint as gone on. The masts and sails have had an initial coat and will receive some more later. Also the hull has some brown on and the yellow touched up somewhat. The mainmast has been straightened a bit but till some to go. 

 

 

 

I still have a couple of quandaries, how to paint the black lines on the hull sides. It's not really possible to mask the yellow due to the cannon barrels. I thought about painting black and then masking it. But it takes at least 3 coats of yellow to cover over the black. I'm toying with the idea of using transfer strips at the moment. The second is the lower hull colour. I've started off with the supplied Brown but it  little glossy and not really coppery in any way.  But it's a start. 

 

I did some more painting this afternoon but sitting sitting outdoors in the sun wasn't 100% successful as the paint tended to dry as quick as I got it on the brush. Also the brush from the set, which I'd hope  to use throughout is starting to splay and is of limited use for any detail work. And my favourite current quality brush is doing likewise. Time for a visit to the paint brush stash. 

[PeterB]

Probably not possible in this scale but the inside of the gun port lids should be red but doesn't look like they project enough anyway so I would not bother. I guess you are going to pick out the actual openings in a dark colour to give a bit of depth, but even with a good fine brush it is going to be hard work and as you say masking is virtually impossible - one disadvantage of the scale of this kit. - my "big" Airfix one was around 18" long so it was a lot easier. On this kit the lack of size is perhaps a disadvantage in some respects - ok when I was young and my hands did not shake but I would struggle now. Anyway, I doubt I have ever produced a 100% accurate build - probably not even 90% so what the heck. Just have fun.

 

Pete 

[AdrianMF]

Silver and red and dark earth for copper?

 

I also tried silver and red and yellow, but it looked about the same.

 

It's a bit like the "Bristol Engine Exhaust Ring" challenge in reverse.

 

(and yes that's a Cutty Sark hull. Technically it should be on my Shelf of Doom list, but it's a ship so it doesn't count )

 

Regards,

Adrian

[825]

Thanks @PeterB and @AdrianMF for your suggestions. I'd never thought about trying to mix up a copper colour. It doesn't come to mind really so great for the out of the box thinking Adrian. The size is tiny Pete and I'm thinking that the guns can be highlighted with either a wash or dry brushing. I think the red edges to the gun doors will go by the by. Too big are my fingers and my eye sight is no longer as good as it was. Also after my hour of trying to mix the Kupfer I don't need to waste too much more time. And I value my sanity. 

 

Ive been working on the main mast and it's not there yet but is a lot straighter than it was, a bit more to go. Dipping in boiling water to soften and then gently massaging it straighter bit by bit. 

 

Edited April 13, 2020 by 825

[PeterB]

Assuming I am correct about the copper being old, a streaky brown/green mix would probably do, but if you had some bronze paint perhaps adding red and or brown would work? I am no expert on mixing paints though I do seem to recall running out of brown when I was in my teens and mixing some from red and green I think - best avoided whenever possible!

 

Pete 

[825]

4 minutes ago, PeterB said:

Assuming I am correct about the copper being old, a streaky brown/green mix would probably do, but if you had some bronze paint perhaps adding red and or brown would work? I am no expert on mixing paints though I do seem to recall running out of brown when I was in my teens and mixing some from red and green I think - best avoided whenever possible!

 

Pete 

I've never been that successful mixing paints to be honest, though I recall making olive drab from black and yellow when a kid. My big challenge is although I've dug out two pots of Copper one was rock solid and the other was vivid purple. And at the moment getting a replacement is nigh on impossible. I do have a very nice Citadel brass in the stash and I'm wondering if it would dry brush to give sufficient metallic sheen over the brown once it's matted down. Or would it be too yellow. The challenge with mixing acrylics is they dry so quickly. Mind you although I've looked through all my paints, acrylic and enamel so far, I haven't checked the small box of oil paints so there's another option. 

[Heather Kay]

2 minutes ago, 825 said:

other was vivid purple

My guess is it probably just needs a good stirring to mix the pigment into the medium again. 

[825]

14 minutes ago, Heather Kay said:

My guess is it probably just needs a good stirring to mix the pigment into the medium again. 

I would have loved that to be the case Heather. And it was what I thought at first, but nearly an hour of mstirring, scraping every bit of sediment up and more stirring left it purple. It was either wrong or the metallic flakes had coalesced and solidified in the pot somewhere. 

[Heather Kay]

Ah, fair play. You hadn’t mentioned stirring, but that does sound like it’s for the bin.  

[825]

I've put a second coat of the brown on the hull and it's looking good. I've also found a bottle of Tamiya Bronze which looks a very murky metallic shade so I'll look and see how that is. I'll try it dry brushed onto a corner to start with. The sails and spars are now cleaned up and painted. And the hull looks much more like a demasted man of war rather than a hulk. 

 

 

I had put a layer of Tamiya Clear Orange onto parts of the deck to give a wood effect as I've done on some biplanes but it wasn't a success. I'll repaint  it with the light wood shade.