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HMS Victorious (1961) in 1/200


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  • 1 month later...

Thought I should briefly stick my nose in here and say hi !

As I touched on in an earlier post, life has been a bit complicated recently, as part of the general trend of "de-globalisation" the little design operation in Barcelona that I have been involved with for the last 22 years all told, has been closed down by our Chinese lords and masters, and I have found myself retired, a little earlier that anticipated, but what the hell, I`m not complaining (though inevitably there is sadness bearing in mind the excellent team that has been disbanded, actually if you see an electric London black cab (LEVC TX) that is one of ours)!!

Anyway, the upshot is that Victorious is on a shelf while I run around covered in emulsion paint, with a plan to get the house on the market asap, and relocate to somewhere where I can devote myself to all of the modelling projects that are buzzing around between my ears  !!

So cheers me hearties, hopefully it wont be too long until the big Vic is back on the slipway !!

 

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How`s that for an irresistible tipple, chin chin !!!!

 

and Cheers

 

David

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Gidday Dan I was made redundant from a company I worked for for 25 years. But at 45 at the time I was too young to retire. But I think as they say, "Every cloud has a silver lining." 20 years on and I retired this year, more time for models. 🙂

     Good luck with the house move, and I'm looking forward to seeing Vicky back on the go. And your other projects buzzing around in your head. 🙂

Regards, Jeff.

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Good to hear from you again David and welcome to retired life!

 

Looking forward to seeing the big Vic back at some point, meanwhile good luck with all the inevitable transition stuff retirement often brings.

 

Terry

 

P.S. The tipple looks great, and the Sea Fury awesome!

 

 

 

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Hi David.  Sorry to hear about about your design operation being closed down.  I ended my working career with early retirement under similar circumstances 15 years ago.  It takes a while to get accustomed to retirement life (about 6 months for me).  But, I hope once once you've settled into the retirement regime, you have as much fun as I have.

 

Good luck for the future & looking forward to your next HMS Victorious update.

 

John

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Hi David,

 

Great to hear from you, just a shame about the circumstances. I hope you settle into and enjoy your retirement, and I'm sure Victorious will keep calling you from her shelf.

 

Beautiful looking Sea Fury too, judging the size against the bottle, I presume it's the Fisher Models kit?

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Your absence had been noted :fight:

I guess your note gives you an excuse 😉

 

Shame about the job but I'm sure your next adventure will turn out well.

You say  about relocating, to the UK?

 

In the mean time we'll be here when you're ready :cheers:

 

Take care 

 

Kev

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 09/08/2022 at 12:29, ArnoldAmbrose said:

Good luck with the house move, and I'm looking forward to seeing Vicky back on the go.

Thanks Jeff, I must admit I loathe DIY, and inevitably everything takes longer than anticipated, so I really am looking forward to getting through all this and get back on with the fun stuff !

On 09/08/2022 at 14:48, Terry1954 said:

The tipple looks great, and the Sea Fury awesome!

Ta Terry, its actually Spanish (very good actually) from Burgos, I was obviously attracted by the label !!!

On 09/08/2022 at 15:08, JohnWS said:

It takes a while to get accustomed to retirement life (about 6 months for me).  But, I hope once once you've settled into the retirement regime, you have as much fun as I have.

It is a little strange, and I seem to be extremely busy with the house still, but I am looking forward to getting on with life immensely.

On 09/08/2022 at 15:33, AntPhillips said:

Beautiful looking Sea Fury too, judging the size against the bottle, I presume it's the Fisher Models kit?

Hi Ant, yes its the Fisher one, lovely kit, if a little intimidating, but it has to be the beautiful beast ever to fly, so it had to bee done !!

On 09/08/2022 at 17:01, longshanks said:

Shame about the job but I'm sure your next adventure will turn out well.

You say  about relocating, to the UK?

Thanks Kev, funnily enough, no, I don't seem to recognise the country I left many years ago, I'm going to bugger off to Menorca 😀

 

Cheers Gents

 

David

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Sorry to hear about the job David not a good time around the motor industry at the minute but I will be joining the retired ranks soon myself next April after 33 years of building them in the North East

 

Best Wishes for the future.  :drink:

 

Keith

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David - I clearly missed your thread in early August.  sorry to hear about the circumstances but welcome to the Big R which I've embraced for the last 2 months..."like walking through a door into the light".

And selfishly, I'll be looking forwards to more frequent build updates!

Regards

Rob

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15 hours ago, robgizlu said:

welcome to the Big R

Gidday I can highly recommend it. I joined the club at Easter this year after I'd used all my accumulated leave. I miss getting up at 5.00am though. (Yeah, right!😁)

       Yes, welcome to the club. Regards, Jeff.

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On 07/09/2022 at 14:34, robgizlu said:

."like walking through a door into the light"

It does feel a bit like that, I must confess, but I am very much looking forward to finishing off the house and getting on with the fun stuff, i.e. my four ft long aircraft carrier, hopefully not long now !

16 hours ago, ArnoldAmbrose said:

I miss getting up at 5.00am though.

😂😂😂 Yeah right Jeff

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David,

 

I've been watching these replies and for some reason thought I had already commented on your (early) retirement, seems I hadn't

 

I retired late due to the need to sell the business and am still finding my way around having no fixed schedule or the need to get up at 6am (though to my wife's annoyance, I still do, those habits are very tough to break)

 

I also did a year of DIY on the new house which was more physical work than I'd done in many years, kept my waistline trim though

 

I hope it all goes well for you and I very much look forward to your getting back to the big Vic

 

Cheers

 

Steve

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

I have spent the past few months covered in emulsion paint, but now finally the house is on the market, unfortunately the big Vic has had to go into storage (it has been explained to me slowly and in words of one syllable that having a 4ft long aircraft carrier on your dining room table is not considered normal behaviour and could deter potential buyers).........but in an attempt to retain what little sanity I have left (and do it with a small "footprint") I have started playing with small aeroplanes.

Now, I'm not sure whether I should just continue this thread, as in all fairness, they do have wings but are in effect the primary weapons system for the ship I am modelling, ......or start a new thread in the aircraft section, my preference would be to keep it all in this forum, but if in doing so, I will cause offense I will move it. 

I acquired a box of 1/200 aircraft from a very nice gentleman by the name of Wotjek Benzinski of Cloudbreak Models, (thanks also to Les (Gunzo) for pointing me in that direction), and have now started fettling my air wing.

 

I am trying to put together at least one of each type to figure out how to do it, though as my airbrush is in storage it will have to be to the stage of white primer for now. The models are all in cast white metal with varying degrees of clean up required, they all feature solid cockpit canopies and have no wingfold provision, the Seavixen FAW 1 is a beautiful casting of a very complex shape, the Scimitar and Gannet are more basic but the overall shape and proportion is good.

So I've been amputating wings, grinding off canopies, drilling out cockpits, making tiny ejection seats, plunge moulding canopies and trying to sort out wing folds, the Vixen is just about there apart from a bit of tickling, as is the Scimitar, the Gannet is just starting its brutal abuse poor thing !!

 

52534058789_e74f753612_b.jpg 52533776436_84104f92b6_b.jpg

This is (obviously) the Vixen prior to losing its solid cockpit, with the primitive tooling for the clear one.

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Getting there, at least it fits !!

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And after a bit of excavation and the addition of the seat

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I think that I will probably open the canopy on some of them, may even try to open up the observers "coal hole" if I am feeling brave !

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And the Scimitar, still needs a bit of love and a final coat of primer, but nearly there

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And this is where we are at the moment, got another Scimitar on the go, plus the poor unfortunate Gannet (AEW 3).

 

Anyway, I'm back in the playground, and thanks for looking fellow travellers !!

 

Cheers

 

David

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14 minutes ago, Dancona said:

Now, I'm not sure whether I should just continue this thread, as in all fairness, they do have wings but are in effect the primary weapons system for the ship I am modelling, ......or start a new thread in the aircraft section, my preference would be to keep it all in this forum, but if in doing so, I will cause offense I will move it. 

Gidday David, if you built these simply because you like small aero planes then yes, you might be in the wrong section. But as you pointed out, these are your ship's primary weapon system. Others have posted builds of naval weapon systems here too so I think you can stay if you wish. 🙂 Either way, you certainly wouldn't cause offense. 

 

14 minutes ago, Dancona said:

it has been explained to me slowly and in words of one syllable that having a 4ft long aircraft carrier on your dining room table is not considered normal behaviour

I think it would be, among a community of 4ft long model ship builders. 🙂   And anyway, when have ANY of us claimed to be "Normal". 😁

Glad to have you back.       Regards, Jeff.

 

P.S.  -  those aircraft look great, as do your mods of them. 👍

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Hi David,

 

keep it all together,  carrier and aircraft; so that we can go to one thread and continue following this glorious (actually Victorious :giggle:  ) build.

 

All the best,

Mike

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Yes, definitely keep it all here!

 

What a magnificent start on the Air wing. Little masterpieces in their own right.

 

Good luck with the house sale. Been through all that (several times) but post retirement, everything does settle down to a rather nice pace, I can assure you!

 

Terry

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Welcome back David.  :welcome:

 

 Awesome detail work on those aircraft.  :clap2:

 

7 hours ago, bootneck said:

keep it all together,  carrier and aircraft; so that we can go to one thread and continue following this glorious (actually Victorious :giggle:  ) build.

:ditto:

 

John

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I agree with the brethren - the work belongs here with their mother-craft.   Nice job on the canopies - that all looks very hard work.

Nice to have you back and good luck with the (ongoing?) move

Rob

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On 01/12/2022 at 10:41, ArnoldAmbrose said:

you certainly wouldn't cause offense. 

Thank you Jeff, though that's probably because you don't know me very well 🤣, but its nice to be back Brother Arnold !!

On 01/12/2022 at 11:00, bootneck said:

keep it all together,  carrier and aircraft; so that we can go to one thread and continue following this glorious (actually Victorious :giggle:  ) build.

I saw what you did there Mike !!  OK it shall be so !!

On 01/12/2022 at 11:06, Steve D said:

Good to see you back modelling David

Its very nice to be back, I hate DIY, much prefer making things !!

On 01/12/2022 at 11:52, Terry1954 said:

What a magnificent start on the Air wing. Little masterpieces in their own right.

Thanks Terry, the little blighters do tend to take a lot of time though, but at least I can do something constructive at the moment

19 hours ago, JohnWS said:

Awesome detail work on those aircraft

Thanks John, particularly coming from Mr awesome detail himself 😁

14 hours ago, robgizlu said:

Nice to have you back and good luck with the (ongoing?) move

Thanks Rob, I notice that you have been rather busy in my absence, HMS Surf is a delight !!

14 hours ago, longshanks said:

Good to see you've not forgotten us.....

Kev  !! how could I forget you 😘

 

What a lovely bunch you all are !!

 

Cheers

 

David

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