1/192 HMS Victoria (scratchbuilt )
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by Gordon Brownell |
1/192 HMS Victoria (scratchbuilt )
HMS Victoria was laid down in 1885 and launched in 1887. Named in honor of Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee, she was one of the largest and fastest ironclads of her day. She was the first battleship to have triple expansion steam engines which reduced her coal consumption by 50 percent. Besides the two 16 inch guns in the forward turret her armament included a 10 inch gun on the stern, a broadside battery of 12 six inch guns and seven 3 pound quick fire guns and 3 torpedo tubes. She was heavily armored with 18 inches at the waterline, 17 inches on the turret and 6 inches on the battery.Victoria was commissioned in 1890 and went directly to the Mediterranean to become flagship of the Mediterranean fleet. On June 22nd. 1893 eleven ships of the fleet in two columns were conducting exercises off Beirut, Lebanon under the command of Admiral Sir George Tyron in HMS Victoria. Tyron was apparently a brilliant but difficult man who continually exercised his fleet and sometimes called for risky maneuvers. This day he called for the two columns to change formation by passing through each other. The maneuver set Victoria in the port column and HMS Camperdown in the starboard column on a collision course. Camperdown struck Victoria on her starboard bow. Twelve minutes later Victoria sank. Half the crew (358) were lost, 357 were saved including John Jellicoe who would later command the British fleet at Jutland.
In 2004 Victoria was found by divers in 450 feet of water. She is a vertical wreck with her forward 90 feet buried in the mud.
THE MODEL
I started the model in 2007. I had wanted to build it after seeing an article by Brian King on his build of the ship in Ships In Scale magazine. I ordered John Robert’s 1/16” to the foot plans from England and used King’s “Modeling Late Victorian Battleships” as a reference. The hull is 1/4 inch basswood lifts with centers cut out to lighten the model and epoxied together bread and butter style. Most of the superstructure is styrene. Most round or conical parts were done on my lathe: the larger guns and capstans from brass or aluminum rod, the funnels and fighting tops from an old lucite walking cane. I photo etched many parts using Micro Mark photo etch products after drawing them on a 2D cad program. Among them: the grating and rail on the “admiral’s walk”, all the ladders, skylight window frames, rudders and propellers for the ships boats and fasteners for the torpedo net booms. The ships boats are all basswood hollowed out with a Dremel tool and finished with wood or styrene strip. The gun barrels for the 3 and 6 pound quick fire guns are hypodermic needles.
The only purchased parts are the propellers, anchor chains and two bar railings on the fore and after bridges.
