Airfix HMS Victory 1:180 (A09252V)

If one sailing ship deserves a place on a British modeller's shelf it is Nelson's flagship, and this 1:180 Vintage Classic shows her as she was at Trafalgar in 1805. At 353 parts it is a proper project rather than a weekend kit, though the Skill Level 3 rating is fair: the challenge is patience with rigging and painting the gun decks, not complicated engineering. Old tooling means some clean-up on the hull halves and fiddly small parts, so a sharp knife and sanding sticks earn their keep. Like the Golden Hind it drops in and out of stock.