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Posted

In the Markan format

 

kit manufacturer, Life-Like hobby Kits (originally Pyro)

reference code, 09369

scale, 1/500 (allegedly)

subject, HMS Victory

year of kit's first release,1972 (1967 with Pyro)

 

Finally we get a floaty-boaty-thing in this GB

 

PXL-20250726-135924061.jpg 

 

A charity shop find, overpriced tbh but I always figure that it's for charity. Also cheaper and easier than bidding for a lot which I then unbundle and move along.

 

PXL-20250726-140045043.jpg 

 

Reboxed by Lingberg in 2009- if I'd brought in it's shiny new box then I'd have been mightily disappointed at what I got, even if it does have ''billowing moulded sails'

 

And instructions

 

PXL-20250726-135950013.jpg 

 

Confident it's all there because the original polythene bag was.

 

Safe to say that Life-Like is the brand name and not to be taken too seriously. Never built a Victory- far too mainstream for my iconoclastic leanings! Some space will be needed on the workbench before we set sail.

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Posted

With those sails, I'm thinking she needs to be sailing large!

Points-Of-Sailing-small.jpg

 

 

The prototype might be less than 200 miles from you. Just sayin...

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Posted
4 minutes ago, dnl42 said:

The prototype might be less than 200 miles from you. Just sayin...

I have been round it, and the submarine museum there- which I found terrifying and definitely have claustrophobia. not the below deck on Victory was spacious.

 

I can hear the wailing and nashing of teeth already, but there will be NO RIGGING; seems out of keeping with the spirit of the kit. Well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

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Posted
1 hour ago, Mjwomack said:

I have been round it, and the submarine museum there- which I found terrifying and definitely have claustrophobia. not the below deck on Victory was spacious.

Victory does indeed have tight quarters below deck.

 

 

1 hour ago, Mjwomack said:

I can hear the wailing and nashing of teeth already, but there will be NO RIGGING; seems out of keeping with the spirit of the kit. Well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

What, you're not going to install ~84 meters of rigging?!

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Posted

Delighted to see Victory going the GB

 

I went round it as a nipper on "Navy Days" and loved it

 

Good luck, despite the disappointment that it isn't going to be fully rigged :wink:

 

Cheers Pat 

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Posted

Glad to see a nautical subject here, MJ!   

 

I built several of the little Pyro sailing ship  kits as a kid - I think I added one or maybe  two pieces of rigging at most. Like you said, they really aren’t meant to be rigged.

 

Never built that Victory-  but I think masking and painting all those little yellow stripes will be a challenge…!

 

 

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Posted
6 hours ago, RC Boater Bill said:

Like you said, they really aren’t meant to be rigged.

Vindicated in my approach to Victory by the Master Mariner👍

 

6 hours ago, RC Boater Bill said:

I think masking and painting all those little yellow stripes will be a challenge…!

 

In the modern parlance I think they use the word, 'interesting'😱. But yes! My current thinking is paint the yellow and then 'line' the black with a paint pen; paint pens are my new discovery.

 

Who knows when that'll be- there's not even a target date for laying the keel yet; once the De Lorean (something completely different) is out of the way in the Eighties GB this could be next. Also discovered that Post War Twins is about to start🤪

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Posted

Ahoy, there! Great to see such an iconic vessel sailing into the GB, Michael :) Looking forward to the ceremonial launching!

 

Cheers,

Mark

 

P.S.

7 hours ago, Mjwomack said:

Also discovered that Post War Twins is about to start🤪

Oh, botheration, I'd forgotten that! More bench clutter :( 

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  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

Nowadays, firms (in all sectors) seem in quite the hurry to delete the imprint of their predecessors, but Life Like were happy to acknowledge Pyro's part in this...

 

PXL-20250808-201243253-MP.jpg 

 

Or maybe they were disowning it from the 'Get-Go'! And yes, this does mean that I've glued the two parts of the display stand (and that's progress).

 

Pigs ear or silk purse? AKA why do we bother?

 

PXL-20250809-100936069.jpg 

 

Two shades of teak brown used to try and give some texture and relief.

 

There aren't many parts to this kit so the instructions are optional, actually they're a hindrance because they'd have you cement the hull before inserting the deck, except that test runs have shown that the curvature of the hull is so severe that this isn't possible. So yet again, cue Frank- "I did it my way"

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Posted

A dry fit in the dry dock

 

PXL-20250813-200635204.jpg 

 

Main problem is the 'drunken sailor' angle of the bow-sprit- that's going to need a lot of attention.

 

The detail on the hull is very over-done, but that's the vintage of the kit and I'll not be toning it down.

 

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Posted

I like the subliminal marketing of the 

 

in your photo's. 

 

Yes folks only 44 days to go, plenty of time to purchase those last minute models or hunt through the statsh.

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Posted

I was not expecting this....

 

PXL-20250816-145810961.jpg 

 

Having said that the detail on the hull sides was overdone, I work round to the stern and find... absolutely none just planking straight across! Good old Scalemates for the Revell paint guide from their instructions so I can see what's missing 😱, as for how to solve it😬

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Posted (edited)
On 8/16/2025 at 11:44 AM, Mjwomack said:

 

Having said that the detail on the hull sides was overdone, I work round to the stern and find... absolutely none just planking straight across! Good old Scalemates for the Revell paint guide from their instructions so I can see what's missing 😱, as for how to solve it😬

MJ,

 

A trio of ideas…..

 

1.   Paint the stern a “glass” color- maybe off-white or light blue.   The print out that image of from the Revell sheet, and scale it to match the kit’s part size.  Then use it to cut some trapezoid shaped little masks from tape.  Put them in place and then airbrush the rest of the transom the hull color.  Use a pen or very fine brush to add some window frames.

 

2.  Paint the transom hull color, the cut little bits of lighter decal to apply represent the windows.  Do one row at a time, it will be easier to align them that way.

 

3.  Ignore the problem completely, and keep the model on the shelf in a way that the you can’t see the stern…

 

 

Edited by RC Boater Bill
“can’t see the stern”…
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Posted
On 16/08/2025 at 16:44, Mjwomack said:

as for how to solve it😬

 

Any mileage (nautical, of course), in just printing off the Revell image and gluing it on to the stern?  Maybe with some IT flexing of the image and touching up around the edges with black paint?

 

Memories of old Airfix IPs :).

 

Cheers

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Posted

@RC Boater Bill I am thinking along those lines. I often use light grey for cabin windows on small scale airliners so this is my probable approach.

option 3 is very tempting- this model will have a vey short 'shelf' life partly because we're meant to be moving house but also because I have no emotional attachment to it and it's just to make sure we had a maritime presence in this GB.

 

@CliffB Crumbs! Airifx black and white IPs, I'd forgotten all about those. Very innovative, or maybe I mean retro or old school. Seems appropriate for a Classics GB to have a modern twist on an old technique.

 

That gives me a plan B. I'll start trying the approach I'd been thinking of, now endorsed by Bill and have the IP method as backup- I could even sand the face smooth for better adhesion. Now to find the time to do it😱

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Posted

The more I played around, the more Plan B became attractive...

 

PXL-20250822-102545929-MP.jpg 

 

Effective and quite probably the most detailed part of the model!

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Posted
On 22/08/2025 at 12:23, Mjwomack said:

The more I played around, the more Plan B became attractive...

 

Effective and quite probably the most detailed part of the model!

That's looking great, @Mjwomack. I'm using this type of Plan B more on even 1/72 kits and I think it is very effective. I looking forward to how you go about the black striping - surely decal lines (like aircraft walkway's) are the only option? I'm enjoying this one. All the best. Mike.

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Posted
1 hour ago, Ventora3300 said:

surely decal lines (like aircraft walkway's) are the only option? I

 

I hadn't thought of that, but I do have some rub-down black railway lining. Problem is I don't have enough and it's pretty degraded. What I'm going with is a Sharpie and no wine😱 (how we suffer for our hobbies), looks like this so far

 

PXL-20250827-100233395-MP.jpg 

 

 

The tricky bit is how to remove mistakes, scribing tool seems best without too much damage to the yellow base.

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Posted
11 hours ago, Mjwomack said:

tricky bit is how to remove mistakes

 

Alcohol (ipa for it, IPA for you!)

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  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

One side coming along nicely

 

PXL-20250908-110507681.jpg 

 

I'll be doing the larger parts in anthracite- I know it should be matt, but the Sharpie has a slight sheen to it, so the anthracite will give a better match for this highly accurate😂 model. And I bet loads of them were full gloss back in the day..

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Posted

Good luck with the ‘black lining’! There are a few interesting articles on the colour schemes of the ships of that era - looks like there was an attempt by the Navy to standardise but adherence was patchy! Apparently, Nelson tried to introduce the yellow/black scheme so that if gun ports (on the yellow strips) were open then you got a chequer effect and your intention (to open fire?) was clear to anyone you were approaching. Anyway, we all recognise the Victory when we see it and feel privileged to receive maximum broadside! All the best, Mike.

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  • 4 weeks later...
Posted

Spurred on by my wife asking what the sticky up bits on a ship are called, I'm back

 

PXL-20251003-103053579-MP.jpg 

 

And anyhow the Tamiya build is so easy that I felt obliged to do some 'pins in eyes' modelling! 

The shrouds, or are they ratlines? Are described is slightly over length so they can trimmed for precision; they're 'generously' over length and anyhow wy should they be more precise than the rest of the kit?!

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Posted

On the right way to "Victory"(*).

Looking real good Michael @Mjwomack.

 

 

Cheers.

Pat.

 

 

(*) Victory also being a music piece by Two Steps from Hell, my favourite epic music "band", I can't resist mentioning it here. As I saw them with the composers in 2022. 

Would fit with a video of your finished build, don't you think?

 

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Posted
On 05/10/2025 at 22:25, PattheCat said:

On the right way to "Victory"(*).

Looking real good Michael @Mjwomack.

 

 

Cheers.

Pat.

 

 

(*) Victory also being a music piece by Two Steps from Hell, my favourite epic music "band", I can't resist mentioning it here. As I saw them with the composers in 2022. 

Would fit with a video of your finished build, don't you think?

 

Inspirational, Not exactly what shall we do with the drunken sailor, is it!

 

Inspired I had a go at getting the Victory into port, but the sails don't want to connect to the masts so if anything I seem to be getting carried on the rip tide rather than making safe haven at the moment

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