Victory hammock colours

I agree Chuck, Heller's hammock mouldings do little in my opinion to add to the model, and I think Gordon's feelings are right about the colour; White just does look too stark on this model.

The same goes for the netting, the actual netting currently on Victory is nearly white, but replicate this on the model and it does not look good. Using white line for the running rigging is another no, no, as far as I am concerned.

If I wished to demonstrate on a model open netting, with hammocks, I think I would try to make replacements using another medium.

1.   While many models display either empty or full hammock nets, you would find few period illustrations actually show any uncovered hammock nets, full or empty.

This is because the hammock nets are usually be covered by a canvas hammock cloth to keep the worst the spray and damp off the hammocks.   They crew would have to sleep in them, afterall.  

2.  Heller's rendition of hammocks look to me more like giant lice eggs than rolled hammocks.   If you scale the rolled hammocks Heller offers, some of the rolls would be 3 feet long.    I am not sure exactly how big the rolled hammocks should be, but RN had strict regulations concerning how hammocks are to be rolled, and how large they can be when rolled up.   Officers had iron hoops designed for the sole purpose of measuring whether the hammocks were rolled to the right dimensions.  I somehow don't think a rolled hammock would be 3 feet long.

The hammocks presumably would be made of fairly heavy, undyed canvas.  As that material ages (and gets soaked with salt water, rain water, and heaven only knows what else, and dried again) it does take on a dull, greyish, beige-ish color that, as you've noted, does not bang the viewer on the back of the eyeballs like white paint does. 

There are a couple of other options.  You could leave the hammock nettings empty; lots of models are shown that way.  Or you could fit the hammock cloths.  Those were heavy pieces of canvas, frequently painted black, that were cut to fit over the stowed hammocks and laced in place each morning when the hammocks were stowed.  This is one of the many cases where the approach is up to the individual modeler.

Good luck.

Try...

http://www.hms-victory-build.co.uk/ 

Rigging....Deck Fittings....D

Sorry I cant' direct link....This site also has a forum!....And is "Chock full of Pic's!"

Jeff 

Soeck Fittings specifically required for rigging.