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Thread: Victory Conversions from way back

  1. #1

    Default Victory Conversions from way back

    To make a short story long...

    I was was passing a hobby shop and had to check it out. This was one of those dusty old establishments with a dusty old owner behind the counter. I am sure if you looked hard enough you could just about find any model you were looking for.
    One item stood out and took my interest. It was a 1/450 scale Constitution Frigate. (It was probably sitting on the shelf since Moses was a little boy) I liked the look of it but didn't purchase it as it was an odd scale.
    On the way home, I got to thinking about the scale of the old Airfix Victory and Shannon models, and began to wonder about their scale.
    I decided to dig out some old old gear stashed away for years, and measure the Victory to try to work out the scale. This began a little trip down nostalgia lane, and a bunch of ships I forgot I had.
    Over 40 years ago, when WS&IM was new from Avalon Hill, one of the first things we tried to do was convert it to figures. The quest to satisfy the need for a fleet began then and has haunted me my whole life.
    I thought it would be fun to share some of what we did then when there was not a lot available and we had to improvise a lot.
    Every one of these ships started as a Victory...
    Please don't look too closely at the paint work, I was just beginning in those days. I am very surprised they were still in good shape.
    Unfortunately, I do not have any of the Shannon's I worked on, though I know there was a Thread started last year where one of the members found a couple on line. (I will try to find the link.)
    After all this, I am still at a loss as to the actual scale of the Victory.Name:  image.jpg
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    This is what my British and French paint jobs were like. (Told you not to look at the paint jobs )

  2. #2

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    Here we have a 120 (bottom), 74 (upper left) and 64 (upper right). The 120 was from a cutting of 2 Victory's, gaining some length from a long bow section and stern section. Then the two shorter sections are joined for the 64 version. The 74 is the same length but one less deck.

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    I had also developed a way to open the hull hatchway.

  3. #3

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    Here is a closeup of the cut lines, notice my cut was at an angle, which makes it hard to see when looking at the finished model.

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  4. #4

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    Here is another of a Spanish 130, though it is the same as the French 120. (c'mon, you can only do so much...) Plus the resulting 64.

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  5. #5

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    This is a failed casting of the French 74. Very rough. I did improve the castings immensely. If I recall correctly, I cast some of each conversion until we had over 20 of each nation to run games with. It was a lot better than using cardboard chips, but it really was rough. The masts were of Skewer sticks and paper sails. Still, many battles were fought with those fleets.

    Except for this slug, when I travelled to America, none of the lead came with me and I don't think I ever took any photos. (Kicking myself now) I donated them to the club I belonged to so they could continue the tradition.

    I wonder if any of them still exist or if they eventually got scrapped for the lead.

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  6. #6

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    I also found some Armada ships which we were planning to get into, but didn't do much with them. I was surprised to see I even had them.

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    Thought I would include them just for fun. There are no conversions on these.

  7. #7
    Master & Commander
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    You're just full of surprises Capt.

  8. #8

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    Very clever conversions Erin, a lot of variety from a single model, I'm impressed!

  9. #9

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    I found the link to the Shannon's, it was one of David's posts.

    http://www.sailsofglory.org/showthre...-1-1200-Airfix

    AND... I got my answer. The Victory is 1/600 scale and the Shannon is 1/450.
    Last edited by Cpt Kangaroo; 08-12-2013 at 05:26.

  10. #10
    Admiral of the White
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    Very cool! I wonder if anyone will do kitbashing with the Ares models once they're available? They seem a bit pricey to be chopping apart, etc.?

    Thanks also for the link to David's post. Being a relative newbie here I've not had a chance to see everything that's been posted some time back. Impressive stuff.

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