Jamesaw's Victorious**Launched sans Air Group**

[gnomemeansgnome]

Got things Victorious on the brain now. There's someone in the local craig's liszt that has among other things, an Aoshima 700th scale Vicky for about 15 Canuckistani bucks.....verrry tempting. Keep up the awesome work!

[jamesaw]

Got things Victorious on the brain now. There's someone in the local craig's liszt that has among other things, an Aoshima 700th scale Vicky for about 15 Canuckistani bucks.....verrry tempting. Keep up the awesome work!

Pretty good price. I think I may have it in the stash.

[jamesaw]

Etch is just about done. I used all the 3 bar railings from set 2 of the White Ensign modern RN. There was actually just enough to finish with very little left for the ones that get stuck to your fingers with Cyan and end up being unusable. I decided in for a penny in for a pound and decided to use as much etch as I could identify as needed. I also decided to cap the funnel. Blank is in place and ready for drilling and finishing. Straightening of some of the railings once again required.

Remember when taking photos at home to make sure the burners are cold. BTW, does anyone know what colour the gun decks are? Various sources show them as Deck Green, Grey Green like the flight deck or the same grey as the hull. Barring any definitive answer, I was planning on going with the flight deck colour.

[DavidWomby]

Amazing how much that etch improves the overall appearance. Is your sanity recovering now that sticking all that in place is over?

David

[Dazzled]

True, the etch makes a heck of a difference.

I can't help you with the deck colour I'm afraid as I'm rather a long way from home at the moment. What I would suggest though is to look at standard RN deck colour from the period, perhaps on different ship classes. The Navy was a stickler for standardisation so it's a pretty good bet that the same colour would have been used throughout the fleet. A good source is other model instruction sheets that an online search should be able to locate.

[jamesaw]

Hi guys:

Sanity recovered sufficiently to finish off the mast (3 yards still to finish). Darryl, one of the drawings I did see had the gun decks as the standard RN Deck Green (Humbrol style) and the flight deck in grey-green (I'm thinking Humbrol 102). I think the chap who did the drawing was ex RN so he may be the one to go with. Light grey just doesn't seem to sit right for decks. In the 1966 versions, I've also seen dark grey and light grey used depending on who's doing the drawing.

[Dazzled]

You could try this site for pointers to the standard deck colour for other ships. It has instruction sheets for Devonshire and Amazon that might help.

http://www.vintage-airfix.com/instructions.php

[jamesaw]

Cheers Darryl. I have all the modernish Airfix RN ships in the stash so I can crack them for a look. I'm making up the decal sheet for the '58 Vicky with deck stripes, ship titles, distance markers and aircraft serials (where I can find historically accurate ones I'm using-where I can't, I'm guessing using Serials UK as my source). I would be more than happy to send the Excel sheet (once I finish it!) to anyone who is interested.

[Dazzled]

Cheers Darryl. I have all the modernish Airfix RN ships in the stash so I can crack them for a look. I'm making up the decal sheet for the '58 Vicky with deck stripes, ship titles, distance markers and aircraft serials (where I can find historically accurate ones I'm using-where I can't, I'm guessing using Serials UK as my source). I would be more than happy to send the Excel sheet (once I finish it!) to anyone who is interested.

I'd definitely be interested. I can tuck it away until I'm ready to tackle my own Vicky

[splash]

My experience in the RN was that up to the mid 70's most ships had green decks with grey flight decks, the paint used on the flight decks was a special paint that had a high sand/grit content that was a sod to paint as you had to keep mixing it, as the sand kept sinking to the bottom of the container. The green paint was supposed to be non slip but was smooth.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=112_1307792008

[jamesaw]

Thanks Splash! Nothing like an eye witness. Your account tallies with what I've read of the US Navy's carriers. They didn't always paint the whole deck at the same time presumably because of the same issues with the non-slip and apparently, it left a patchwork-quilt like effect of varying shades of grey (but not 50). I've done the Victorious as you related with a grey landing area and green flight deck as opposed to Airfix's instructions to paint it all the same colour green.

[jamesaw]

Pictures tonight, but we're almost there. Did the deck in Humbrol 78 after all. Printing the yellow lines didn't work (ink not opaque enough) so I sprayed Trainer Yellow on clear decal sheet. Same approach for the V (gotta love it when it's a nice simple letter to cut out). I cut out white decal sheet for the other lines and will be trying the same approach for the elevators. No way I'll have the full air group done for Sunday, but the ship will be in the water and I will have some representative aircraft. Fortunately Father's Day gave me most of Sunday to work on it.

[Dazzled]

Great stuff. Looking forward to seeing the photos.

[jamesaw]

Most of the decals are done, except for the elevators and finishing off the distance indicators (the little numbers on the flight deck from 50-750 feet. Unfortunately my attempt to print these failed miserably so I'm cutting these out one digit at a time from the Starfighter sheet (my wife is seeking psychiatric help for me as I write, but I know they're closed after 5PM). Hope to have the mast finished and installed by Friday leaving a few hours on the weekend for a couple of aircraft. The oerlikons I asked about are actually bofors. Not seeing anywhere else to mount them, I made the assumption that the odd turret with two barrels (the one closest to the crane) was actually a six barreled bofors mount (apparently they did have them). I added four barrels using modellers licence. Does anyone know for sure as despite the references I did find, I couldn't find a clear shot of this)

[gnomemeansgnome]

This is plowing along brilliantly, sir! Nearly there!