|
|||
| I looked around for 1/700 scale Napoleonic warships for quite a while before I stumbled across the Skytrex site www.skytrex.com. I would have preferred either plastic or resin, but the Skytrex miniatures manage to fit the bill. These are metal miniatures rather than plastic or resin models. While the finished miniatures are reasonably nice, you don’t want to look too closely at the detail. If you’ve never worked with miniatures before, you’re likely to be appalled at the way detail seems to wander about in wavy lines, fades in and out, or disappears altogether for noticeable stretches. Fortunately, much of this can be corrected or at least minimized with the usual modeling tools and a bit of careful work. If you have experience with miniatures, you know what I mean and these kits won’t offer many surprises. Skytrex has the assembly instructions on line at their site so you can take a look at them before you order. | |||
| Sails and shrouds are included as slightly heavy photo-etched brass. The photo-etched brass sheet is apparently a standard “one size fits all” part for the Meridian line of miniatures, although in my case the brass included with Bucentaure was much better than Victory’s. Mast and bowsprit components are cast in the same typical miniature metal as the ships’ hulls. Masts include mast hoops and other detail, so they are worth using. The yards don’t offer much detail, and I replaced them with brass wire. The sails are attached to the yards, and if your fingers are as clumsy as mine you’re likely to thump the yards a few times during assembly. Brass offers quite a bit more strength than the soft metal parts included with the kit. |
to enlarge  |
||
| Before beginning assembly, I attached threaded mounts to the underside of each hull. This is critical. Remember that these things are essentially made of lead. You do not want them rolling and flopping about as you work on them unless you really enjoy touchup work. Most of the time you are working on them, they should be screwed down tightly onto some kind of work surface. Once the sails and rigging are attached, the ships must be solidly mounted at all times. Rigging isn’t bad, but attaching the sails and shrouds (especially the “futtock shrouds”) is an exercise in patience. If that half pound chunk of lead that makes up the hull rolls over once you’ve done the rigging, well, you can’t say you weren’t warned. | |||
|
|||
| Painting isn’t all that unusual. Decks should be natural
wood. Hulls are black with “yellow ochre” stripes over the gunports. If
you are using an airbrush, paint the black, then mask for the yellow stripes
and prepare to do a bit of touchup. It’s not easy to get a clean line due
to all the gunport doors and guns. The gunport doors themselves are black
outside and “red ochre” inside. While frequently called the “Nelson checker”,
this paint scheme was actually in general use by most fleets of the period.
Variations between these two particular ships are surprisingly minor. Well,
it surprised me. HMS Victory used a bit more yellow ocher for things like
gun carriages and mast hoops. Bucentaure had red ochre gun carriages and
the more traditional black mast hoops. Other than that, about the only
differences are in the flags and the detail work at the bow. HMS Victory
is well documented on the web. Bucentaure is a bit trickier. I never was
able to find good information on the bow detail of Bucentaure.
The included instructions do a thorough job of walking you through the rigging so you can go into as much detail as you like. I decided to draw the line at the fore and aft stays, but there’s nothing to keep you from stringing enough thread to make a spider proud. The information is there. |
 |
||
 |
|||
| If you are interested in extending your 1/700 collection
back to 1805, these are the kits to do it with. Around here they make a
very nice contrast to Russo-Japanese war ships (1905) and a 2002 vintage
USN Arliegh Burke. Keeping in mind the caveats regarding miniatures vs.
models, you’ll probably be pleased with the results if you decide on the
Skytrex miniatures. Finding them can be a bit of a problem. I ended up
ordering my kits direct from Skytrex and they aren’t particularly fast.
If you’re ordering from the American side of the pond, it’s worth taking
the time to find someone in the US who has the kits in stock.
Skytrex Meridian Trafalgar MT1 HMS Victory
Links: |
|||
