JohnReid
11-08-2008, 02:06 PM
There are a lot of models of HMS Victory around but I do not know of another that has been done as a storyboard diorama.What is a storyboard diorama? Simply it is a diorama that tells a story.It is a diorama whereby the story is the most important element.It can contain figures or not ,however my dioramas always contain figures.Victory is the first diorama that I had ever done and it didn't even start out that way.
Back in 1976 ,when I started Victory,I had been back into modeling for only a couple of years after a long absence dating back to childhood.I passed a hobby shop window one day and saw a model of HMS Victory and fell in love.I was set to buy a kit right there but the shop owner wisely pointed me in the direction of something a little easier.After strong resistance on my part ,I left the shop with a Santa Maria kit feeling I was only wasting my time.However I did put my best effort into it and it turned out OK.( I still have it somewhere around here).
The thing I remember most about this kit was making the top ,a basket like affair on the main mast.I got a little creative when making mine and to my surprise it was more than just a top but seemed to me quite artsy-fartsy for something I designed myself.This is the first time that I remember having stepped outside the box and I really liked it.The rest of the kit I build per the instructions but I always loved that little top.
That creative spark really got me going but I was a trained aviator not a sailor so I hit the books.I bought a Bounty and built it out of the box and continued to study.It too turned out OK and I even got a little creative with the stern decorations.
Well the big day arrived and I finally felt that I was ready to tackle the Victory. I arrived home with my Sergal kit ,opened it up and was immediately disappointed.The plans and instruction booklet was useless and written in engitalian which for the life of me I couldn't understand.I rushed back to the hobby store and immediately picked up a book that I had seen there "The Anatomy of Nelsons Ships".
After reading it cover to cover and pouring over the plans I realized that what I had bought was nothing like I had seen in the window a few years previously. So it was back to the books and an even better nautical dictionary this time.
I finally decided that I would use the wood strips and some of the brass fittings that were in scale from the kit and scratchbuild the rest which I thought at the time would probably take me a couple of years. Wrong!!!
I decided to stay with the double plank-on-bulkhead method but I made my own plywood bulkheads using Longridges plans from the Anatomy of... book. More on this later.....
What you see in the above picture is the finished storyboard diorama.It is a little unusual in that I have had to link up a usually unseen fanciful below the waterline, with a more realistic above the waterline type model.Usually when modeling storyboard dioramas you try to make everything as realistic as possible.As you can see from the picture the ship rests on a couple of dolphins I carved from cherrywood,which you would usually only see on admiralty type models.
Speaking of admiralty models,I decided early on ,even before it became a storyboard diorama ,that this was to become a decorative type model that would appeal to kids and the young at heart.As a modeler I admire these models but I had noticed that in the museums or at exhibitions the models that told a story were really the most popular with the kids.I love to tell stories with my models and maybe also sneak in a little education for the kids as well.My Victory is really about depicting a sailors life aboard one of these magnificent ships,these ships that are at the end of a long evolution of just how big you can get just using only wood and rope.
Back in 1976 ,when I started Victory,I had been back into modeling for only a couple of years after a long absence dating back to childhood.I passed a hobby shop window one day and saw a model of HMS Victory and fell in love.I was set to buy a kit right there but the shop owner wisely pointed me in the direction of something a little easier.After strong resistance on my part ,I left the shop with a Santa Maria kit feeling I was only wasting my time.However I did put my best effort into it and it turned out OK.( I still have it somewhere around here).
The thing I remember most about this kit was making the top ,a basket like affair on the main mast.I got a little creative when making mine and to my surprise it was more than just a top but seemed to me quite artsy-fartsy for something I designed myself.This is the first time that I remember having stepped outside the box and I really liked it.The rest of the kit I build per the instructions but I always loved that little top.
That creative spark really got me going but I was a trained aviator not a sailor so I hit the books.I bought a Bounty and built it out of the box and continued to study.It too turned out OK and I even got a little creative with the stern decorations.
Well the big day arrived and I finally felt that I was ready to tackle the Victory. I arrived home with my Sergal kit ,opened it up and was immediately disappointed.The plans and instruction booklet was useless and written in engitalian which for the life of me I couldn't understand.I rushed back to the hobby store and immediately picked up a book that I had seen there "The Anatomy of Nelsons Ships".
After reading it cover to cover and pouring over the plans I realized that what I had bought was nothing like I had seen in the window a few years previously. So it was back to the books and an even better nautical dictionary this time.
I finally decided that I would use the wood strips and some of the brass fittings that were in scale from the kit and scratchbuild the rest which I thought at the time would probably take me a couple of years. Wrong!!!
I decided to stay with the double plank-on-bulkhead method but I made my own plywood bulkheads using Longridges plans from the Anatomy of... book. More on this later.....
What you see in the above picture is the finished storyboard diorama.It is a little unusual in that I have had to link up a usually unseen fanciful below the waterline, with a more realistic above the waterline type model.Usually when modeling storyboard dioramas you try to make everything as realistic as possible.As you can see from the picture the ship rests on a couple of dolphins I carved from cherrywood,which you would usually only see on admiralty type models.
Speaking of admiralty models,I decided early on ,even before it became a storyboard diorama ,that this was to become a decorative type model that would appeal to kids and the young at heart.As a modeler I admire these models but I had noticed that in the museums or at exhibitions the models that told a story were really the most popular with the kids.I love to tell stories with my models and maybe also sneak in a little education for the kids as well.My Victory is really about depicting a sailors life aboard one of these magnificent ships,these ships that are at the end of a long evolution of just how big you can get just using only wood and rope.