A Trio Of Tiny Airfix Sailing Ships Pt I (HMS Victory)

[BluesModeller]

Finally completed a little ship i've been chipping away at between other projects.  This is the Airfix Victory Starter Set purchased for about a fiver from Aldi or Lidl along with a few other small kits.  Mostly military aircraft but I also picked up the Cutty Sark and Mary Rose.  They are both at various stages of completion but will, I hope, become part of a little trio of roughly 1/600 ships.

 

This is an ancient kit dating back to the 50's I believe.  The fit is ok when you consider the age but the sails took a long time to clean up.  Other than that it didn't present too many issues other than being very fiddly due to it's tiny size.

 

I've not gone for accuracy with this kit.  Instead I wanted this to be a fun little build that looks like the Victory to the casual observer.  I also wanted to experiment a little with creating water effects but went with a hybrid look of still having it on it's stand with the water lapping around it.  I have a little Revell Ferry that I will turn into a Diorama in the next few weeks.

 

All OOB except the addition of some simplified rigging just to give an extra bit of detail to the model.

 

Thanks for looking!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mdesaxe]

That is really interesting - I did not realise that Airfix had modified the moulds to make it into a full-hull model. I had dozens of these at one point, all waterline and fitting into a seascape base, because I used them for wargaming. Remarkably nice result, too!

 

Maurice

[dnl42]

Wow, that looks great! 

[Adm Lord De Univers]

Looking very good, especially considering how old the kit is. I particularly like the idea of a seascape around the base/nameplate and is definitely something I am going to 'borrow'.

 

David

[ArnoldAmbrose]

6 hours ago, mdesaxe said:

all waterline and fitting into a seascape base

Gidday, I had one of these as a kid too, waterlined and with a plastic sea.

     Although a rather simple build I think what you've done here is rather eye-catching, and the rigging improves it. As for your sea base, I think if the white froth hugs the bow a bit closer and the wake extends further aft to the edge of the board what you've done would look very good (says me who's never done one! 😁).

     Looking forward to seeing your others. Regards, Jeff.

[Alpha Juliet]

Nice one!  You are right, not bad for a 60+ year old kit!

[BluesModeller]

11 hours ago, mdesaxe said:

That is really interesting - I did not realise that Airfix had modified the moulds to make it into a full-hull model. I had dozens of these at one point, all waterline and fitting into a seascape base, because I used them for wargaming. Remarkably nice result, too!

 

Maurice

Thank you Maurice!  
 

I have read about people building waterlines versions of these models in the past.  Shame they don’t still do those versions.

 

9 hours ago, dnl42 said:

Wow, that looks great! 

 

Thank you dnl42!

 

5 hours ago, Adm Lord De Univers said:

Looking very good, especially considering how old the kit is. I particularly like the idea of a seascape around the base/nameplate and is definitely something I am going to 'borrow'.

 

David

 

Borrow away!  It wasn’t something I was planning on right at the start other than to put it on a base made from a box frame.  In fact I probably would have thought ‘why?’ to start with!  But I think it livens up these little models.

 

4 hours ago, ArnoldAmbrose said:

Gidday, I had one of these as a kid too, waterlined and with a plastic sea.

     Although a rather simple build I think what you've done here is rather eye-catching, and the rigging improves it. As for your sea base, I think if the white froth hugs the bow a bit closer and the wake extends further aft to the edge of the board what you've done would look very good (says me who's never done one! 😁).

     Looking forward to seeing your others. Regards, Jeff.

 

Thank you Arnold!  I did think about making the waves hit the hull using some clay and tissue paper but decided to play it safe in that regard.  Might try it on the Cutty Sark one which has a smaller base.  Or that may be properly waterlined as it’s tiny and would fit the box frame a little better.  The wake did extend outwards a lot more but it didn’t look quite right so I tamed it down.  My skills are lacking in this department but I’ve got a few small kits to practice on.

 

31 minutes ago, Alpha Juliet said:

Nice one!  You are right, not bad for a 60+ year old kit!

 

Thank you!
 

I’ve seen worse kits a fraction of the age!
 

The Cutty is similar and I’m slowly cleaning up the sails.  The Mary Rose is still pretty new and is excellent.

 

Now on the lookout for other ultra small (ship based) kits of any description...

[thorfinn]

I have always loved these tiny ship models -- for all their inaccuracies -- and yours is an absolute cracker! Kudos also for a great job on the sails and rigging; to me, a 'sailing ship' without sails is like a plane without wings.

Great work on the base as well!

I look forward to seeing the rest of the 'squadron.'

Cheers

[BluesModeller]

36 minutes ago, thorfinn said:

I have always loved these tiny ship models -- for all their inaccuracies -- and yours is an absolute cracker! Kudos also for a great job on the sails and rigging; to me, a 'sailing ship' without sails is like a plane without wings.

Great work on the base as well!

I look forward to seeing the rest of the 'squadron.'

Cheers

Cheers Thorfinn!
 

They’re great aren’t they?!  The inaccuracies and lack of detail can be part of their charm I think.