Sailing Ship Kit-Bashing

It's been quite a few years since I laid eyes on that old Aurora Bonhomme Richard kit.  My recollection, though, is that it represented a considerably larger ship than either the Surprise or the Rose.  (Some modelers get enthusiastic over those old Aurora kits - and make pretty impressive models out of them.  Frankly the injection-molded sails, with the integrally-molded yards, turn me off - as do the prices one has to pay to get hold of the kits these days.)

I wouldn't want to assert that nobody has converted a plastic Victory kit to the ship's 1765 configuration - but I've never encountered such a model.  (I know of three that represent the ship as built:  the big "Board Room" model in the National Maritime Museum,the beautiful "scenic model" by Harold Wyllie at Portsmouth, and the exquisite small-scale one by Donald McNarry.)  Such a conversion would be a  huge project that, frankly, I wouldn't want to undertake.  To reproduce all that wonderful carved work on the bow and the stern, and the fretwork of the stern gallery rails, would be quite a challenge for carving skills far greater than mine.

I have 2 Heller Victory kits.  One is being built (its 4th year on the stocks) to something like the generally accepted Trafalgar configuration, the other was acquired as a spar parts provider.    It has crossed my mind that the second can eventually be converted to something else.   Some of the ideas that I toyed with includes: 

1. Victory in the Battle of Cape Saint Vincent (1797) configuration.  This configuration is generally well known, but must involve large amounts of intricate scratch building to reflect the elborate open stern and massive original figurehead sculpture.

2. Victory in an alternative Traflagar configuration.  This configuration is represented by a contemporay model in Greenwich NMM.    It is very significantly different from the commonly accepted configuration shown by the restored Victory in Portsmouth so that if you see it, you might at first not recognize her as the Victory.   But it would not be hugely difficult to convert the Heller Victory to this configuration.

3. Another English 1st rate built between 1765 and 1790.

4. A notable non-English first rate of similar dimensions.

Thanks.   I am leaning towards a conversion to 1797 Victory, although a conversion to NMM Victory would be easier and much less work.

I would think that it would be fairly easy to 'kit-bash' some interesting variations on a number of standard models produced today.

   Pick a model, pick a prototype, bash away, and post some photos.You will find, however, that in some cases, kitbashing is far harder than scratchbuilding. Think about it, kitbash?, carefully remove the nonvalid parts, and scratchbuild the correct ones. Scratchbuilt?, just build the parts. In my Surprise, there is little of the original kit being used. I'll use what I can, the rest......is work!