B ob. I think its an urban myth that the decks were painted red. The HMS Victory site certainly says some bits of deck here and there were red, but not decks in general.

The sailors are made by a firm called "toyway", and come ready painted at about 70mm high. Theyt are to stop production soon so get some if fancied pronto. There is a cannon included with the gunner. I made this to sit the chaps on, as its a bit silly having such great figures and no boat to put them on. trouble is a boat their size would be about six feet long and so i made the deck section. If i say so myself it looks great when fully manned, having just enough detail to be convincing but without too much to detract from the figures. (but thats just my opinion). It captures the feel of a wooden warship perfectly (my opinion again) . The curved side was made by setting the bandsaw table at a small angle- as found by trial and error- and cutting a sufficient number of pieces and glueing them together. cunningly the size of "planks" were chosen such  that three together made a decent size opening for the gun ports, and so no cutting out afterwards was needed, just allowing for the openings when cutting up all the lengths. Artists Acrylic paint was used, the Ochre being a spiffing buff colour and almost exactly right. The front is plain, barring the gun hatches and the blocks and tayckle and is buff/black stripes.

Perhaps i ought to take orders for christmas….???? Ashley