by Dr. Kerry Jang
1/300 HMS Victory (Rod Langton Miniatures)
This is Rod Langton’s 1/300 wargame model of HMS Victory is resin, photoetched brass, and white metal.
The ship is actually shown in her guise at Portsmouth today. In 1805 at the Battle of Trafalgar, new research indicates she looked a little different with bulwarks on the forecastle and quarterdecks, and no Prince of Wales feathers at the stern.
The model is largely out of the box except for the sails which are paper, replacing the brass etched versions. I refined some parts as they are on the “chunky” side given they are wargame items and I wanted to build the model a little more to scale. Rigging was quite fiddly and only a few lines are shown – the main stays and just a representation of running rigging. All lines are either fine sewing thread run through beeswax, painted tinned copper wire, or painted fly tying thread. I used whatever worked best! Hull was painted in acrylic paints called “Admiralty Paints” made by Jotika Ltd for their wooden ship kit line who matched the colours to Victory today. The hull was weathered using techniques armour modelers use.
Rod Langton Miniatures also produce sets of figures to go with the model, as well as Royal Marines and landing parties for wargaming, but they are nicely cast and detailed.
I set the model in a seascape and made the base for the case out of scrap pine found at a worksite.
