Cpt Kangaroo
08-11-2013, 19:56
To make a short story long...
I was was passing a hobby shop and had to check it out. This was one of those dusty old establishments with a dusty old owner behind the counter. I am sure if you looked hard enough you could just about find any model you were looking for.
One item stood out and took my interest. It was a 1/450 scale Constitution Frigate. (It was probably sitting on the shelf since Moses was a little boy) I liked the look of it but didn't purchase it as it was an odd scale.
On the way home, I got to thinking about the scale of the old Airfix Victory and Shannon models, and began to wonder about their scale.
I decided to dig out some old old gear stashed away for years, and measure the Victory to try to work out the scale. This began a little trip down nostalgia lane, and a bunch of ships I forgot I had.
Over 40 years ago, when WS&IM was new from Avalon Hill, one of the first things we tried to do was convert it to figures. The quest to satisfy the need for a fleet began then and has haunted me my whole life.
I thought it would be fun to share some of what we did then when there was not a lot available and we had to improvise a lot.
Every one of these ships started as a Victory...
Please don't look too closely at the paint work, I was just beginning in those days. I am very surprised they were still in good shape.
Unfortunately, I do not have any of the Shannon's I worked on, though I know there was a Thread started last year where one of the members found a couple on line. (I will try to find the link.)
After all this, I am still at a loss as to the actual scale of the Victory.6187
This is what my British and French paint jobs were like. (Told you not to look at the paint jobs :happy:)
I was was passing a hobby shop and had to check it out. This was one of those dusty old establishments with a dusty old owner behind the counter. I am sure if you looked hard enough you could just about find any model you were looking for.
One item stood out and took my interest. It was a 1/450 scale Constitution Frigate. (It was probably sitting on the shelf since Moses was a little boy) I liked the look of it but didn't purchase it as it was an odd scale.
On the way home, I got to thinking about the scale of the old Airfix Victory and Shannon models, and began to wonder about their scale.
I decided to dig out some old old gear stashed away for years, and measure the Victory to try to work out the scale. This began a little trip down nostalgia lane, and a bunch of ships I forgot I had.
Over 40 years ago, when WS&IM was new from Avalon Hill, one of the first things we tried to do was convert it to figures. The quest to satisfy the need for a fleet began then and has haunted me my whole life.
I thought it would be fun to share some of what we did then when there was not a lot available and we had to improvise a lot.
Every one of these ships started as a Victory...
Please don't look too closely at the paint work, I was just beginning in those days. I am very surprised they were still in good shape.
Unfortunately, I do not have any of the Shannon's I worked on, though I know there was a Thread started last year where one of the members found a couple on line. (I will try to find the link.)
After all this, I am still at a loss as to the actual scale of the Victory.6187
This is what my British and French paint jobs were like. (Told you not to look at the paint jobs :happy:)