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Soleil Royal by Artesania Latina

I love this ship. I'm drawn to it and the San Felipe because of the small mast and "crow's nest) on the bow sprit. (I'm sure I've misnamed something in that sentence, maybe a record number of misnomers in a single sentence? :))
 
After the summer, it’s time to pick up the thread again in my attic workshop. The Soleil Royal has been patiently waiting for months, and with the cooler days returning, so does my motivation to continue building. During summer I barely touched the workbench — too many things going on outside. Did some work on the main deck ...


Day 175.jpg
 
Hey Koedec,

I think it's really great how you're building the SR. Your planking looks really awesome. Well done. The Soleil Royal from AL is a really great ship and definitely a very good kit. There are much worse kits out there. Simply beautiful... I'll continue to follow your progress, as I'll be building a Soleil Royal at some point. Either the one from AL or my own build... :D
 
I’ve added new gunports for the chase guns. The original Artesania Latina design wasn’t very convincing—just black paint—so I decided to build them from scratch. Using my CNC with a 30-degree V-bit, I engraved a small fleur-de-lis motif on each port for extra detail. For the hinges, I repurposed leftover pieces from the photo-etch set, which turned out to work perfectly.


Day 316a.jpeg. IMG_5656.jpeg
 
koedec said:
I’ve added new gunports for the chase guns. The original Artesania Latina design wasn’t very convincing—just black paint—so I decided to build them from scratch. Using my CNC with a 30-degree V-bit, I engraved a small fleur-de-lis motif on each port for extra detail. For the hinges, I repurposed leftover pieces from the photo-etch set, which turned out to work perfectly.


View attachment 555609. View attachment 555610
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This looks nice, but why did you engrave them inside instead outside?


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I painted the upper part of the hull in blue, but with a bit of green mixed in. Historically, deep blue pigments were made by grinding lapis lazuli into a fine powder—a process so costly that the color was as expensive as gold in 14th–15th century Europe. For the exact shade, I took inspiration from John Ott’s superb Heller build. His interpretation of the Soleil Royal’s colors feels both realistic and well-researched, and his build log is an excellent reference for anyone tackling this ship. (See his build here: https://modelshipworld.com/topic/35119-soleil-royal-1693-by-john-ott-finished-heller-1100-plastic/)

Day 317.jpeg
WojtasS said:
This looks nice, but why did you engrave them inside instead outside?


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Maybe not the most historically profound answer, but… I modified the chase-gun ports simply to make them look a bit better than the original Artesanía Latina design (see picture). I didn’t overthink it, and the change is quite minor — just enough to improve the visual effect. I also remember reading that the Soleil Royal may not have carried chase guns at all, or that they were left out because of weight concerns. So the ports might have been there without any real functional purpose…

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koedec said:
I didn’t overthink it, and the change is quite minor — just enough to improve the visual effect. I also remember reading that the Soleil Royal may not have carried chase guns at all, or that they were left out because of weight concerns. So the ports might have been there without any real functional purpose…
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You're the captain, we're just observers and can only comment. As I said, it looks nice from an upgrade kit perspective, from an authenticity perspective, so-so.
 
DARIVS ARCHITECTVS said:
Artesania Latina's Soleil Royal is indeed a great kit, but there are many things you can do to make it better. If you are new to ship building, building a kit straight out of the box is very important in order to learn the basics in construction, but research and study will show you how to change things to make the model more historically correct and add detail which are often missing in kits. Just gathering books and research material to learn in detail the construction features of Soleil Royal is a hobby itself. Other modeler's build logs are the easiest way of learning ways of making the kit more detailed. You can ask the builder about details and why they were added. All of the forum members here are very helpful in this regard.

Happy Building!
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fully agree.
 
DARIVS ARCHITECTVS said:
Artesania Latina's Soleil Royal is indeed a great kit, but there are many things you can do to make it better. If you are new to ship building, building a kit straight out of the box is very important in order to learn the basics in construction, but research and study will show you how to change things to make the model more historically correct and add detail which are often missing in kits. Just gathering books and research material to learn in detail the construction features of Soleil Royal is a hobby itself. Other modeler's build logs are the easiest way of learning ways of making the kit more detailed. You can ask the builder about details and why they were added. All of the forum members here are very helpful in this regard.

Happy Building!
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Yes. There are fauilers from the beginning. I have over 30 years of building experience. In the kit manufacturers in their manuals, all cannot wait to insert the decks as early as possible, which gives many problems later on. My comments are all from the beginning, so there may be many moe later on.
 
koedec said:
I’ve made some solid progress on planking the hull of the Soleil Royal. The upper part is now complete, which feels like a great milestone! However, I’m not entirely satisfied with the section around the aftercastle—it didn’t turn out as smooth as I’d hoped. Thankfully, I think a good round of sanding will address most of the issues, and the second layer of planking should hide any remaining imperfections.

As for the lower part of the hull, it looks like it will be more challenging. After some consideration, I’ve decided to deviate from the kit instructions and take a more standard approach to ensure better results. It’s always a bit of a leap to stray from the manual, but I feel confident this will work out for the bestView attachment 487006
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I do not like you planking/ sorry. You should read the article > Planking for beginners. Genera,l one starts inserting the first plank into the gardboard/then the next 1/2 mm below the main deck. a third one is general insserted in the Middle as it run/ do not twist it . Iti only a helping plank
 
DARIVS ARCHITECTVS said:
As long as the first planks are thick enough, sanding the ridges and waves out of the stern castle should not prove to be a problem. The first layer of planking is where you can make repairs and modifications with very little consequences. So, sand, fill, and sand the first layer until it is appears smooth when looking along the surface, removing all flat spots, hard linear bends, and bumps in the hull. The more work you do here, the better hull shape after final planking will appear.

You may want to use balse filler blocks at the bow to provide more area for the planks to grip to with glue. Securely anchoring the plank ends on a filler block near the stem, then bending and gluing the plank around the bow toward midships will make planking much easier. They don't teach you that trick in the instructions.
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Darvis is usually right. Before starting, measure the distance from the Keel up to the main Deck on the main bulkhead. Count how many planks needed. now you do the same, let's every two bulkheads. You will now see it does not fit if you do not cut each plank according to to the mes
 
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