by Stephen Allen
1/400 HMS Victorious (Heller)
This model depicts the Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Victorious in May 1941 at the time of the famous hunt for the German Battleship Bismark. The aircraft ranged on deck are the nine Swordfish torpedo strike aircraft from 825 Naval Air Squadron that attacked the Bismarck on 24 May 1941, scoring one torpedo hit against the battleship, along with three Fairey Fulmar Fighter Reconnaissance aircraft, the other operational aircraft type carried by Victorious at this time. This represents nearly the entire FAA air group carried for the operation – not a lot of planes!
Victorious is painted in an Admiralty disruptive camouflage scheme of White, Admiralty Dark Grey AP507A and the greenish-toned MS3.
The Heller kit, probably originally released sometime in the 1960s, is reasonably accurate in outline. The kit is however poorly detailed and compromised by poor research by the manufacturer. What detail is included is poorly depicted, reflecting the moulding limitations of the age when the kit was designed.
Corrections/Additions:
While okay in outline and form, comparison against plans of Victorious showed that almost all of the hull openings, except for the quarter deck, required modification to either resize them, resite them at correct locations, or remove them. A basic error of the kit is that almost all of the detail, with the exception of the sponsoned island support and hawsepipes, is incorrectly mirror-imaged port and starboard. In reality the hull openings and scuttles, and other details were quite different and distinct on each side of the ship.
Correction consisted of resizing and resiting of hull openings, filling and/or opening up of scuttles, and extension of the island sponson in preparation for the flight deck extension required to starboard.
Searchlight platforms forward were rebuilt to properly depict separate platform supports (not built in to the hull as depicted in the kit).
Internal changes included the extension of quarter deck and forecastle decks across the width of the ship, internal detailing of fittings etc to all hull openings, and the thinning of the overly thick hull sides so that hull thickness surrounding these openings is more scale-like in appearance.
Rigols (rain gutters) were added from stretched plastic sprue for all scuttles.
The flight deck was modified in planform to better represent the prototype. Deck edge sites for directors and close range armament were resited in correct positions (most were displaced either fore or aft from the positions shown on plans) and re-profiled – many are half-hexagonal not round in plan shape as depicted in the kit. All such platforms were deepened to the correct deck level, as all were far too shallow.
A large section outboard of the island was added from plastic card to support the starboard deck edge pom pom positions and the protected passageway outboard of the island. All detail was removed from the deck and new arrestor gear, crash barriers and the accelerator ramp and wind breaks forward were added from both plastic sheet and brass.
The kit island/funnel/mast assembly is completely inaccurate for any of the 1936 design armoured carriers. A scratch built island, funnel and mast assembly was constructed from plastic card and sheet, working from the plans in Ross Watton’s Anatomy of the Ship: Carrier Victorious.
An extensive array of fittings was scratch built to depict detail in the hull gallery openings, including paravanes, winches, bitts and cleats, lockers and ventilating trunks. As supplied in the kit these hull openings are completely bereft of detail.
Kit boats were extensively modified and detailed with new cabins, interiors and fittings. Additional boats and floats were added, cannibalised from other kits or (16ft fast motor dinghy, painting catamaran) scratch built. Oars and thwarts and rudders from the White Ensign etched sheet for this kit were used on 27 foot whaleboats and oars added to the 32 foot cutters. Cutters were ‘clinker’ planked using Tamiya masking tape.
Carley Floats are White Ensign metal 1/600 scale ‘large’ floats, which just happen to be the right size and proportions for the 1/400 scale small Carley Floats carried on Victorious. The plain metal floats were detailed with masking tape lashings and plastic rod ‘bundles’ of oars.
The kit HADCT Mk IV director towers were used suitably modified. The HADCT on the island carries etched radar aerials from the White Ensign Models (WEM) Illustrious set, while all others have ‘pram’ type canvas covers added from plastic card and putty. In May 1941 only the island director carried radar.
The kit’s 4.5 inch upper deck mountings were extensively modified to better depict the forward section of the mount and add additional detail.
Pom Pom directors are scratch built.
The 2pdr pom pom mounts are a combination of the kit gun barrels and bodies with mounts, ammunition trays and other details from the WEM etched set. Flash suppressors are blobs of super glue sanded flat at the muzzle.
The small railed platforms at the sides of the flight deck are all scratch built.
Boat cranes are from the WEM etched set, detailed with plastic sprue and strip.
Radar and mast details are from the WEM etched sheet. WT doors, railings, ladders etc are a combination of WEM and other 1/400 etched accessories.
The folding WT masts are from the WEM etched set.
The WEM 1/400 Fairey Fulmars are OOB but with the addition of photo-etch propeller blades and a WT aerial.
The L’Arsenal Swordfish have additional struts added to the undercarriage and are rigged using bristles from monofilament paint brushes.
Victorious is largely painted using White Ensign Colourcoat paints, the major exception being the White for the camouflage scheme which is mostly Floquil Reefer White. The camouflage scheme was adjusted from published diagrams (eg – Raven, A; Camouflage Vol 1: Royal Navy 1939-1941) using photographs of the ship to get the side and deck schemes as close as I could to the locations and appearance shown in photos. I don’t make any claims to the absolute perfection of the scheme, it’s just the best I could do with the references at hand.
