"Davco 1:1200 HMS Agamemnon 64 Gun" Topic

I recently bought 12 Davco 1:1200 Napoleonic ships from a fellow shipmate on the SOG Anchorage. Having never built a Davco ship before I decided to start on one of the larger ships of the line rather than the smaller vessels. I picked the 64 gun HMS Agamemnon. The hull casting was almost as good as the Langton and GHQ ships and comes in two pieces, stern gallery and hull, like Langton and GHQ. The masts are also nicely cast, unfortunately they are softer than the GHQ masts and unusable in my opinion. The sails are also nicely cast but the spars are nonexistant.

So, although there is nowhere near as much scratchbuild and modification work required compared to the Navwar ship Revolutie, there was still a substatial amount that needed to be done. New masts, jib boom, and bowsprit had to be built, and spars cut and added to the sails.

Also there was a real surprize towards the end I hadn't counted on. I always build from the stern to the bow and rig as I go. When I got to the bow, after mounting the fore mast and jib assembly, I discovered the flying jib and fore topmast staysails were billowed the oposite direction from the driver?? Really?? I checked all of the Davco ships and they are all that way, just wrong. I find it difficult to believe the manufacturer and customers never noticed. I asked my friend about it and he looked at his Davco fleet that he has had for many years. He confirmed they are all backwards with the drivers billowed to port and the jib and fore staysails billowed to starboard. He says he and all the gamers he's played with over the years never noticed or never mentioned it if they did.

Here are a few photos of the finished ship. More photos on volsminiatures.blogspot.com

Vol, the ship looks fantastic, and is all the more impressive for the extensive scratch-building you did to improve the kit. Awesome work! It looks very crisp and neat.

I'd never seen a Davco 1:1200 ship before. How do they compare size-wise to GHQ ships?

About the same as GHQ, setting a little higher. Smaller than Langton. Actually I think they blend pretty well with the two. Like you, I have started building up the height of the GHQ's with card. The Navwar ships are the smallest, until you get to the 112 plus gun ships which are massive (larger than Langton's), and require more buildup with matboard.