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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.

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Drumming Daybreak Storyline.
The red coated Royal Marine is actually holding a drum.He has just finished being part of the dawn "drumming daybreak" ceremony.In the Royal Navy a drummer at first daybreak would start drumming and continue his drumming until as the saying goes "you could see a gray goose at a mile."Immediately after stopping the drumming a cannon would be fired and the royal ensign raised and the stern.
The diorama itself is named for this ceremony.

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The last few pics give you guys an idea of the overall look of the ship.This is a decorative type model and not meant to be exactly like the real thing.I wanted it to have the wood/brass look rather than be painted.Why? I love the beauty of the lines of the ship (the run of the wales)and to paint it Nelson fashion with the lines parallel to the waterline only spoils the shipwrights original design.
You will notice that some gunports actually cut through the wales at some points .I believe that here the shipwright was sacrificing a little strength for beauty.Why else would he do this?

 

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Hi John, thanks for posting those great pictures of Victory. I had some questions about how to hang the ship's flags on my model, and your photo answered them. I also used Longridge's book for the rigging, and have only the topgallant clues and sheets left. How did you connect your sheets and clues at the topmast? I'm having trouble with this last rigging detail. Longridge suggests a snatch block, through which the sheet is reeved, but I'm stuck when I try to figure how the end of the sheet then connects to the end of the clue.

Thanks again for the photos. Great job!

Swanny

 

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Gun crew firing the cannon as part of the "Drumming Daybreak" ceremony.There was no standard issue uniform in those days for the ordinary seaman ,so you can get a little creative here.I decided to paint my figures fairly colorfully as I wanted to add a little life to the brass/wood look.The orange background is the gun flash at the moment of firing.

 

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This is the final part of the ceremony,the raising of the flag at the stern.Notice one of the ship boats at the stern is being hauled up on the davits, while the other is still battened down.I show only two men hauling on the davits' ropes but of course there would be many more in real life.I have taken a little artistic license when telling this story when I thought it appropriate to do so ,however the overall story is based in fact.

 

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Sub-storyline.
In addition to the main storyline there are other stories going on here.
The officer sitting under the flag at the bowsprit cap has a telescope in his hand.He is actually scouring the horizon looking for enemy ships.
When in harbor at dawn and especially when under bare poles,the ship would be extremely vulnerable to enemy attack ,sneaking up under the cover of darkness. The ships crew would all be on alert and all guns would be run out prepared to fire.When the all clear was given normal ships routine could begin again.

 

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Besides the obvious activity on board, this picture represents so much more.
The black sailor dressed in white hauling on the rope at the extreme left of the picture represents Victory's varied crew at the time of Trafalgar.Besides a mixed racial group ,there were also French deserters and many other nationalities,willing participants and press-ganged individuals.

 

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Storyboard Dioramas long history.
Storyboard ship dioramas have as long a history as any other type of modeling.Sailing vessels with figures aboard have been found by many archeologists digging around in our human past.A more recent example would be this model from the time when Admiralty Board models were popular.
Made in the late 18th century in Buckler's Hard shipyard in Hampshire U.K. ,where this type of ship was actually built,this cut-away type example shows on board activity using scale figures on all decks.
This model inspired my Victory but I opted not to do it as a cut-away.

 

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