Heller 1/100 Victory build

Sorry about the lack of updates lately. I haven't had time to work on the model lately, nor anything else. But two weeks of vacation starting tomorrow should provide enough time to make some progress. 

I still haven't received replacement cherubs from Heller and last time I had to order spare parts they arrived within two weeks, so I'm starting to get worried. If anyone has them spare, I'd pay shipping!

After soaking for two weeks.

House move completed. Damage report: one of the forecastle timberheads on the port side snapped and got lost. Not hard to replace with a new one made from styrene.

The finished Santa Maria suffered a bit more, with two forecastle shields lost, and a snapped boom (the one that protrudes from the stern and takes a backwards stay, don't know how it's called). Thankfully the boom snapped just astern of the stay and thus the rigging was undamaged. It even tightened up from the heat of the van, as it had become loose lately, due to winter chill.

The half-finished Revell "quick build" Constitution suffered no damage at all.

IMO the best choice would be to sand it a little, and be careful to mask the copper detail, etc. I don't think replanking is possible.

I think your ship looks grand so far! Love the clean lines on the paint job, and without the weathering, the ship looks fresh and new. I'm struggling with the wood grain on my Constitution build too - I'm debating whether to sand it off completely and rescribe the planking or just sand it down a bit to tone down the wood grain effect. A third option would be to plank over the exterior. All of these are scary propositions to me, as I have never rescribed a model before, and as Professor Tilley has pointed out, the planking patterns on both the Heller Victory and Revell Constitution are more accurate than any wooden models out there.

I have been following your post with interest. I wish more pictures could be provided.

Happy modeling  Crackers  

I'm hoping 0.6mm won't be that noticeable on the guns, but if it is, I'd sand down the plastic decks themselves. I will just plank the spar deck and the weather decks so guns will be visible and sanding down the trucks wouldn't be a good idea. Another option is to just sand the planks once applied, until they are almost paper thin.

Also, speaking of guns, I just read at the Pete Coleman forum that the Victory had quite a short distance between the lower gun ports and the waterline (much less than what was designed originally), and thus the lower gun ports were tightly shut in all but the calmest weather. So I might leave those ports shut even though I spent quite some time building them up...

Right now I'm struggling with hull weathering. I want to get the outer hull 100% finished and sealed before proceeding with the decks. I darkened the bee lines a bit too much with sepia wash, consequences of using acrylic washes over a matt finish...  so I had to add a new diluted layer of ochre, and I'm thinking of ways to weather it in a more subtle way. Maybe just pinwash the planking joints then add some drybrush highlights and vertical streaks (stains) as seen on pics of the Surprise in San Diego. But no overall wash. I'm even starting to hate the molded wood grain and wondering if I should have just sanded it away. 

This is where I came to a stop.

Ditto on Longridge being a good source. The reason for the plank pattern is so well explained that I've used it on a couple of other models since, and a 1:1 redwood deck as well.

The first problem is that the added thickness raises the guns perceptably in the ports. Different modeler a have tried different approaches. One way is to lower the plastic deck 0.6 mm. I did that on my America where guns weren't a concern, it worked pretty well but took a lot of planning. Another is to cut off the bottoms of the trucks. Acceptable on the upper gun deck perhaps but not the forecastle or quarter deck.

Eager to see what you do.

When I started this thread I mentioned I wouldn't be using any wood decking, but I changed my mind. I will be using basswood for the weather deck, the poop deck and the visible parts of the spar deck. Reasong being the looks, not the incorrect planking scheme on the kit's decks. Longridge's book provides enough information for accurate planking.

Will 6mm (around 1/32) thick basswood strips do the job, or should I look for even thinner strips? Not easy to find...

I think that is the first real look , I have had of one of your model's prof. just so beautiful.it's only half the size of my S R ,sort of make's you feel inadequate , with the amount of detail you put into it .

Your Bounty has always impressed me. Such a fine model at such a small scale, puts much larger models to shame.

I like how you actually added some verdigris to the hull, but in a quite subtle way, instead of having the whole thing look greenish as it hadn't been active for decades. That's a nice route to go, and quite consistent with the way I think the bottom of a ship on blockade duty should look.