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life rafts for victory

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  • Member since
    July 2013
life rafts for victory
Posted by steve5 on Thursday, June 5, 2014 11:11 PM
I need a little help please., I have decided to add a few more than the allotted 3 life rafts to my victory 1:100, does anyone know of a good site that sells quality scale sized life rafts,, thanks steve.

 

  • Member since
    May 2003
  • From: Greenville, NC
Posted by jtilley on Friday, June 6, 2014 12:40 AM

I'm not sure I understand the question. The Heller Victory doesn't come with any life RAFTS. (Please pardon the caps; I can't use italics on this phone.) It does include several BOATS. Many people think any boat carried by a ship is a "lifeboat." Not so. The word "lifeboat" became common in the late nineteenth century, with the rise of big passenger steamships. An eighteenth-century ship of the line carried lots of boats, in several sizes. They had names like barge, pinnace, launch, cutter, jollyboat, etc., depending on design, size, and function.

Plenty of research has been done on the Victory's boats. I don't remember off the top of my head just what her boat complement was, but you can find out in any of the books I recommended earlier. My guess is that she clusually carried six or seven, or maybe more.

One of my criticisms of the Heller kit is the way it handles the boats. They're empty shells, with no detail inside. They should have floorboards, thwarts, oars, and all sorts of other parts. The old Revell and Airfix kits, which are much smaller, actually have better detailed boats.

Unfortunately the aftermarket for such things isn't great. Model Expo and Bluejacket do sell cast metal boats, but they're pretty, well, basic. ME also sells some in "kit" form - precut basswood lifts and strips. The modeler glues the lifts together and carves them to shape, then makes the floorboards, thwarts, etc. out of the strips.

I'm afraid I haven't helped much. Maybe you could get hold of a Revell 1/96 Constitution and steal the boats from it; they probably would look ok, and they're much better than the Heller ones. That's the best suggestion I can offer.

Good luck.

Youth, talent, hard work, and enthusiasm are no match for old age and treachery.

  • Member since
    July 2013
Posted by steve5 on Friday, June 6, 2014 12:55 AM

sorry about my terminology, been a landlubber all my life., thanks for the lesson though., the conny would be good , but at $140 the life boats would be a bit steep for me.

 

  • Member since
    May 2003
  • From: Greenville, NC
Posted by jtilley on Friday, June 6, 2014 1:03 AM

You might ask the hobby shop owner if any of its customers has bought a Constitution and given up on it. (Unfortunately that's what happens to most of those kits.) The owner of the kit probably would be happy to sell you the boats cheap - or give them to you. Lots of those kits are lying around in attics and basements.

That word "landlubber" makes me nervous. If it applies to anybody it applies to me.

Youth, talent, hard work, and enthusiasm are no match for old age and treachery.

  • Member since
    July 2013
Posted by steve5 on Friday, June 6, 2014 1:08 AM

thanks for the thought jtilley., I really should bone up on my nautical terms.,

 

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