Crew and furled sails for Heller Victory

Revell's 1:96 Constitution comes with 20 to 30 crew members. They are dressed in period clothing. Granted, for the American Navy but at that scale the difference in dress would be hardly a factor. So, the 5' 6" sailor on the Consitution would appear as if he is 5' 9" on the Victory. Not really much of a difference.

Now, how to get Revell to part with a set of their figures for a model of the Victory? I don't know. Perhaps you could give the a call on their 800 number.

This might not be worth much but it is a thought.

In addition to the Revell Constitution, the same company's Cutty Sark, Thermopylae, United States, Alabama, and Kearsarge come with sets of twenty 1/96-scale crew figures. Those in the United States are identical to the Constitution set; the others are civilians. Given the casual approach to naval uniforms in 1805, though, they can easily be pressed into service. Several European companies make lines of figures for HO model railroads. Those by the German firm Preiser are especially nice. They're advertised as being on 1/90 scale, but they actually vary somewhat in height; some of them are, in fact, just about six feet tall on 1/100 scale. If you have a well-stocked model railroad-oriented hobby shop in your neighborhood, it's worth checking out. It sticks in my mind that somebody in this Forum linked us, a year or so ago, to a series of soft-plastic European figures (made in either France or Belgium, I think) that actually did represent sailors and marines from the Napoleonic Wars. I'm not sure of the scale; it may have been the traditional wargamers' 1/76, which would be noticeably too big. Can any European members jog my memory? I don't recommend trying to make furled sails (or any other kind of sails on 1/100 scale) out of cloth. It's physically impossible to find cloth that's the right thickness and consistancy; if such a material could be located, it would be transparent. We took up the topic of furled sails some time ago here in the Forum. Here's a link: /forums/350916/ShowPost.aspx Hope that helps a little. Good luck.

I see the Walthers MRR catalog has a lot of figures of men climbing on to railcars,which gives them the proper poses. However the scale is 1:87. Maybe a bit too large though.

jtilley wrote:

I don't recommend trying to make furled sails (or any other kind of sails on 1/100 scale) out of cloth. It's physically impossible to find cloth that's the right thickness and consistancy; if such a material could be located, it would be transparent. We took up the topic of furled sails some time ago here in the Forum. Here's a link: /forums/350916/ShowPost.aspx Hope that helps a little. Good luck.

 I am going to try spray painting clear plastic food wrap to represent sail cloth, drawing on the seams between the bolts of cloth using an artist's marker, and using thin copper wire represent bolt rope so that it possible to attach bowlines.   Not sure how I will attach the reeflines yet.   I am not after the billowing effect of a sail drawing well, just sails hanging limply as if the ship is becalmed.    I'll let you know how that turns out.