HMS Victory (Repair)

I think I may have made a mistake of telling a friend I build model ships as a hobby. She promptly asked if I could also fix model ships. Her husband has a model of HMS Victory which has seen better days; basically what the ship may have looked like AFTER the Battle of Trafalgar. It had been sitting in a corner literally collecting dusk and requires quite a lot of repair work. However I am always up for a challenge !!

The original ship arrived in the following state ...




A myriad of issues to be addressed including dust engrained on all surfaces, a broken display stand, broken masts and spars, snapped rigging, many gun ports broken off, and a general appearance of being unloved.

I plan to progress the repair along side my ongoing build of Endurance.

First job was to build a new base as the original was made out of a very light balsa wood type timber and was broken up.
Using the original as a template I cut and built a more robust base

I hope you’re charging them a fair price for you repair work. A carpenter or a mechanic today gets around $30 to $50 per hour. Your work and skills should be worth at least that much.

FYI. This is from ChatGPT:

Ship Model Restorer (U.S.)
️ Independent / self-employed restorers

This is where it varies widely.

Common working rate: about $30–$75 per hour
High-end specialists: $75–$150+ per hour

But here’s the key:

• Many don’t charge strictly hourly
• Instead, they price per project

Example:

• Minor repair (rigging, cleaning): $100–$500
• Moderate restoration: $500–$2,000
• Full museum-quality restoration: $2,000–$10,000+

You'll read all this nonsense from the GPD chat, and then someone wants $25,000 for an Aretesania Latina Cutty Sark model because it's a high-quality museum piece. Keith should take responsibility for this work, and be happy that he saved a unique model, regardless of the cost of making it.

This looks like it was a pretty “basic” model of Victory even when new. Restoring it will hopefully make someone happy. I suspect that he’s not doing it to get rich.

Roger

It is a favour for a friend and yes it is a very basic model of Victory so not planning to charge … never even crossed my mind. Could be different if it was for a commercial organisation. Definitely not in it for the money.