Soleil Royal by Heller - an Extensive Modification and Partial Scratch-Build by Hubac’s Historian

[Hubac’s Historian]

I absolutely agree with you, Schmidt. On Tanneron’s model, where the 5-light stern is significantly more narrow, this sense of crowding is even more pronounced:

This may be an example of what Andrew Peters meant when he commented to me that the Victorians (ie, Tanneron) sometimes missed in attempting to capture the style of the French baroque period.

While I do think I could make better figures from scratch, and I appreciate your vote of confidence, I am debating the significant investment of time involved in making that happen. As much as I enjoy this project, I would like to finish it, at some point, and I am fairly determined to bring it up to a certain stage of completion before the North East Joint Clubs meeting in October. And, so, while you are right to point this out, I think I will keep these figures.

 

[Hubac’s Historian]

Thank you very much Jimsky! I present for you now, The Four Seasons:


I attempted to modulate their complexion to reflect their time of year. I also wanted to incorporate silver gilt. Winter is a natural fit for this treatment. He has the same grey enamel wash coat that I used for the figurehead, and I then picked out the creases in his robe and his beard with silver.

I wanted, though, to experiment with silver gilt as a base-coat for red and green translucent washes. I did a little experimenting:

I thought the middle selections were pleasing colors that allowed the silver to peak through. The effect is similar to what you sometimes see with glass Christmas ornaments that are glazed with a metallic base color. I like this well enough that I will incorporate this treatment selectively into the amortisement, as well as between the main deck guns where there are acanthus branches flanking each royal monogram escutcheon.

I am also painting the open-walk bulwark pieces, but these are particularly slow to cut-in, right down to the ground.

As always, thank you for stopping by.

 

[Maarten]

Hi Marc,

I think I have to follow a trainings course painting from you, formidable work with paints and washes. It brings a lot of depht to your paint work.

 

[Jimsky]

Hi Marc,

I think I have to follow a trainings course painting from you, formidable work with paints and washes. It brings a lot of depht to your paint work.

Ha? You will be next, Mon Amie! The course already promised to me Anyways, you are busy with your kitchen now... Ha..ha..ha

 

[dockattner]

Hi Marc, I never posted before but I will now... Are you kidding me!?!? Your painting is incredible on these figures. You have managed to make a wash translucent! Mine always end up opaque. Pure magic.

 

[Hubac’s Historian]

I wish it were magical, Paul. Instead, it's Citadel; the red and green washes are just part of their Warhammer line. They make a clear medium that is specific to this type of wash, that you can use to modulate their depth. I thin out the color and then make a series of passes until I get the color saturation I am after. Wonderfully simple. Before this model, I had never played around with washes, but now I can't imagine not doing so. I grunge down the pure whites with dilute walnut ink, as I've done on all the red and yellow ocher. Autumn's late summer tan is the product of the brown enamel wash. These produce a similar effect to using Van Dyke Brown artist oil paint to grunge the Ventre-de-Biche of the hull deadworks; the difference is that you don't have as much open time to manipulate the enamel. The work-around for this is to saturate a small piece of cloth - I use old T-shirts cut into squares - with the enamel wash, and then you can wipe away most of the excess, leaving residual wash in the hollows.

 

[dockattner]

I wish it were magical, Paul. Instead, it's Citadel; the red and green washes are just part of their Warhammer line. They make a clear medium that is specific to this type of wash, that you can use to modulate their depth. I thin out the color and then make a series of passes until I get the color saturation I am after. Wonderfully simple. Before this model, I had never played around with washes, but now I can't imagine not doing so. I grunge down the pure whites with dilute walnut ink, as I've done on all the red and yellow ocher. Autumn's late summer tan is the product of the brown enamel wash. These produce a similar effect to using Van Dyke Brown artist oil paint to grunge the Ventre-de-Biche of the hull deadworks; the difference is that you don't have as much open time to manipulate the enamel. The work-around for this is to saturate a small piece of cloth - I use old T-shirts cut into squares - with the enamel wash, and then you can wipe away most of the excess, leaving residual wash in the hollows.

I'm using Citadel and Game Color washes as well but what is the clear medium you are using? I modulate the density with water (or add paint). Or simply mix my own wash using a (much) darker color within the same spectrum.

I have also used artist oil followed by a wipe but at my small scale the tonal effect is better with layered washes. I apply a wash to almost everything now as I lack the skill to paint in the shadows (might not even be possible at 1:65).

Some dry-brushing would pop the folds but you will lose the luminescence...

Again, inspiring work Marc!

 

[Hubac’s Historian]

The clear medium is called Citadel Lahmian Medium. It's basically their paint without pigment. Most Citadel colors can be thinned with water, as I understand it, but these translucent washes - I was told by the Warhammer salesman - have to be thinned using this medium, only. Of course, I've not yet tried to break the "rules" to see what might happen...

 

[Hubac’s Historian]

From the very beginning, this project has been an effort to apply context to the fragmentary imagery of Soleil Royal. One thing that has puzzled me from the moment that I came into possession of Lemineur’s Vaisseaux Du Roi Soleil, is the cover art illustration of Soleil Royal. Was the ship actually ever painted all blue?


As is well established for this project, by now, you all know that I believe this structural representation is of the refit of Soleil Royal in 1689.

I also make a strong argument for the likelihood of red vermillion and yellow ocher being prominent features of the refit color palette. So, then, why might this refit representation be colored all blue?

I believe a strong clue may be found in Hyatt’s description of the Royal Louis, in 1677. Therein, he describes the deadworks, above the waterline, as being painted all white, as a backdrop to the richly gilded ornamentation.

If one were to simply see a ship portrait or model of a French ship from this time, painted all white, but without understanding of that historic context (Hyatt’s description), then that might seem very strange.

But, then, here’s Soleil Royal, in gouache, represented as all blue. What are we to make of that? Well, I have a theory:

Perhaps, after Berain created the pen and ink drafts of the stern, quarters and bow - at the time of the refit - Pierre Vary was commissioned to put these drawings into color, according to the original color scheme of the ship between 1670-85.

My theory is that, as beacons of the Ponant and Levant fleets, respectively, Sr and the RL were originally painted in representative colors; blue for the Ponant fleet and white for the Levant fleet. I am searching for a more concrete confirmation of that notion, in the historical record, but I have yet to find it.

Whether or not the refit SR was actually painted all blue above the lower main wales, remains an open question. I suspect that ventre-de-biche had become a fixture on the lower two gun decks by the late 1680’s. Perhaps in her original incarnation, though, SR really was painted all blue above the lower main wales.

It certainly makes for a striking presentation, as evidenced by a modeler calling himself Grymm on FineScale Modeler:

A link to the page:
http://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/7/t/68572.aspx

Maybe that is what this vaguely blue seeming portrait of a ship, pierced for 16 on the lower gun deck, is actually all about:


And, although this thumbnail, below, is black and white, the original is almost certainly a full-color portrait.

Also of interest, between these two portraits, is the marked similarity in the style of the wave painting. Are both of these portraits by the same hand? Is the color palette of the above portrait representative of the portrait, below? Are they both portraits of the same subject?

As my theory currently stands, I believe the subject is either Soleil Royal or the Royal Louis. So, which is it? Well, if the actual portrait shows a blue ship or a white ship, we may just have an answer.

 

[Hubac’s Historian]

There is often a temptation to rush things along, a little, here and there. I am always happy when I manage to resist.

The Four Seasons are secure now, and re-touched. I used styrene cement, first, for a welded-bond, and then later allowed capillary action to draw-in thin CA for a little added insurance. As compared with Berain’s drawing - absolutely, these figures are a little too broad. The overall impression, though, is good and I think the adjusted posture of these figures conforms nicely with the new architecture:



Part of me wishes I had thought of the stylized false-window treatment earlier. If I had, I probably would have done that throughout, as I like the way it looks, and it would have eliminated any concern for dust accumulating on the inside window surfaces. Anyway - c’est la vie! I can still get canned air in there to blow away most of the plastic particles.

The open-walk bulwarks took a while to paint because I insist on not simply dry-brushing the top surface of the frieze elements, but cutting-in to the ground. One realization was that I did not need to thin the Vallejo artist acrylic yellow quite so much because I wasn’t painting broad surfaces; so, instead of a 5:2 ratio of paint to water, I could get away with 5:1, or even 6:1.

Painting yellow over red is particularly difficult for achieving good color saturation. Nevertheless, by not thinning the paint so much, I was able to get there in two passes, as opposed to five.

I discovered, on Kirill’s Spanish Galleon build, a very clever little hack for adding depth to the gold brightwork; He uses two different shades of gold paint. Once I had that in my head, I couldn’t get it out, so I went to the Warhammer shop over the weekend, and picked up their bright gold. This gives an idea of the contrast:

In practice, the effect is much more subtle. Here, the lower bulwark piece has had the highs and edges of the ornaments brightened:

The yellow ocher has a way of muting the gold effect, a little, so whatever enhancements one can make are helpful. I will gradually go back and add these highlights to all of the other gold ornaments.

I decided to leave the nameplates untouched by the walnut ink wash because I wanted them to really pop. The lattice, here, gives a good impression of what the main frieze will look like. As I did with the bellflowers flanking the name plate, I will continue to search for opportunities to incorporate silver gilt.

Once these bulwark pieces were finally painted, I could do a final fitting and secure them in-place. It was necessary to pre-bend these bulwark pieces so that they would conform easily to the curve of the gallery. I found it was easiest and safest to induce these reverse curves with my fingers. The heat experiments I tried with a hair dryer and open flame on scrap sheet plastic were way too difficult to control.

Fingers are also, often, the best glueing clamps. The forward edge/pilaster is CA-glued to the wooden return, while the bottom edge is weld-bonded with liquid styrene cement. Inevitably, there will be touchups, but at this stage I declare these quarter galleries a successful marriage to the amortisement:









Next, I will pattern the back bulwark, in cardboard so that I can design an exact layout of all of the ornamental elements. I won’t be able to install this back bulwark until after the main deck level of stern lights is in-place and painted, but making this part is a good small-work project.

I will probably do a short series on its creation because it will be made from several layers and the process of getting where I want to is a little more involved than other parts I’ve made so far. I can also make up the bulwark cap railing that will finish this structure, while simultanously re-enforcing the corner join of the bulwark pieces.

In the evenings, I will begin finalizing the upper bulwarks and preparing them for paint. I have to drill new fairleads for the sheets and tacks, and secure all the kevel pieces. Without the stock stern plate to anchor the aft bulwarks to, construction of the upper stern takes on a few shades of complexity. I have some ideas for a work-around, there, that should provide for a much more robust construction.

She’s a BBG (big beautiful girl) - Soleil Royal! Little by little, we are getting there. As always, thank you for your likes, your comments and for looking in.

 

[dockattner]

Breathtaking Marc!

 

[Gennaro]

Piece of art. Stunning!

 

[Uwek]

a BBG - I have to keep this abbreviation in mind
Beautiful work on this beauty

 

[Hubac’s Historian]

Thank you all very much!

I want to use this post to explore the more artistic considerations of this kind of kit-bash because this particular piece is literally a mid-point in the stern decor, and it ties together everything below to everything above.

Berain’s intent:

Tanneron’s adaptation:


Heller follows Tanneron fairly exactly. For reasons that became clearer, as I attempted to draw this, Tanneron simplified Berain’s design. While I understand that I will not be able to copy Berain’s design, exactly, my goal was to arrive at something a little closer than what Tanneron achieved.

The first step is to make a cardboard template that exactly fits the opening, while accounting for stern round-up and camber:

From there, I could exactly mark centers for continuation of the ‘tween window pilasters, along the bottom edge of the bulwark piece.

From there, I could flesh-out the pilasters and just go ahead and make the styrene foundation for this part:

I made the part a little oversize to account for the back-raking angle that needs to be sanded into the top and bottom edges of this part.

Besides the pilaster locations, the other constraining factor is my intense desire to recycle the name plate and the monogram escutcheons from the stock balcony.

The stock escutcheons have fleur-de-lis, in relief:

I decided, though, to shave these away and incise the crossed-L monogram emblem:

Because these were so small, it was much easier to do this while they were still attached to the balcony piece.

Layout for this bulwark piece necessarily begins at its center. The main artistic conceit, here, is that I am trying to strike the balance between faithful detail and the interplay between positive and negative space. This translates to much erasing and redrawing; this is why I love vellum so much.

The nameplate and monogram escutcheons were removed, shaped, and then traced to the drawing; these parts really define exactly the parameters of everything happening around them. Of course, they restrict the available space in ways that are less than desirable, but I think I am on-track to a reasonable compromise:



At this point, in a perfect world, I could stop drawing and just make a mirror photocopy for the port side. This is not a perfect world, though.

The depth of the quarter gallery segments differs from port to starboard. I’ve drawn the less-deep starboard side. That won’t, nearly enough, correspond with what’s needed for the port side. At the least, I’ll have to draw that port QG segment, as well.

So, that’s where things stand for now. I can’t do perfect, but I can do plenty well-enough.

 

[Uwek]

I love your addiction to all details - and many thanks for explaining (and showing) us these details (and thoughts)

 

[Hubac’s Historian]

The pleasure is all mine, Uwek.

Work on the open-walk aft bulwark, continues at a steady pace. The piercings are too narrow to work with files, so the entirety is cut to the line with a No. 11 blade:


It is an easy thing to extract these panels, all around their perimeter, but I will leave them intact for the time being. Next, I will cut the pilasters and the projecting center portion. Then, assembly can begin from the center, outwards.

As I mentioned, prep of the upper bulwarks is proving to be quite intensive. I decided the best approach for building up the hull was to begin with the forward bulwark pieces. To that end, I installed the beakhead bulkhead, and glued-in a strip of re-enforcement, where the bulkhead meets the main deck.

What immediately became apparent, once this piece was secure is that the bulkhead is not square with the centerline:

This mirrors the same problem that I have noticed at the stern. Essentially, my ship is a parallelogram:

Obviously, this is not ideal. It is hard to say with any certainty, at this point, but the error must have been introduced at the very earliest stages, when I glued the lower hull halves to the plinth-base; I must have induced the port side to slide aft, somewhat, or perhaps didn’t realize the geometry that I was creating through some other error or oversight:




This second stern picture seems to show the problem, but this is really a perspective problem of the photograph. I know that my rounded stern counter started as a squared layout with the centerline. Whatever the case may be, now the job is to make it all look okay.

Among the myriad tasks for the upper bulwark prep, I glued-in the kevels, scraped away the forward-most monogram escutcheon (because there will be a robed figure just aft of the headrails), filled all of the remaining holes and low fairleads for the sheets and tacks.

One error of the Heller kit is that the entry points for these lines are all low, where they would run a-foul of the gun carriages. To correct these errors, I recycled one of the Four Winds carvings to make chess-trees for the fore and main tacks. I then decided to make a housed double sheave for the fore and spritsail sheet lines:

I based the decision to do this on Puget’s drawing of the Royal Louis, following her refit in 1677:

Frolich’s L’Ambiteaux of 1680 is also a solid reference for this detail.

One other unintended consequence of my hull-widening modifications is that the extreme ends of the beakhead bulkhead now sit about a 1/16” below the top sheer of the forward upper bulwark piece:

This was perplexing to me until it dawned on me that the beakhead bulkhead side-extensions follow the top-rail camber, so that now that arc extends further outboard and intersects with the bulwarks (which are still the same height, naturally) at a lower point.

This creates something of an interesting dilemma. For the time being, I have decided to take a little authorial license, here. Although I can find no pictorial evidence for this on contemporary models from the 17th C., I have fashioned an entry-point for the cathead line, along the top of this beakhead railing:



I have subsequently filled that small forward gap and refined the shape of this cleat(?), a little. My argument for plausible deniability, here, is that the intersection of the cathead timber with the beakhead bulkhead is now closed-in with plank, yet the cathead line needs a working contact point for sweating onto the small kevel.

In the end, there will also be a horsehead sculpture that rests on top of the bulwark top sheer. Even if this detail isn’t correct for the period, it’s presence will be minimized from the outside looking-in.

The other major consideration for these forward bulwark pieces is that the joint to the lower hull is just garbage. I had to do quite a lot of fairing to close the gaps along the outside of the joint, and there remains some significant tension as one flexes the part into its place.

I may, ultimately, induce a bit of a bend into the part by clamping it into a form and leaving it like that for a few weeks. That should take tension out of the piece and ease the assembly process. Regardless, though, I wanted some added insurance, and so I glued an additional re-enforcing strip that will bridge the joint and increase glue surface-area.

Just fore and aft of this strip, I will fashion gusset pieces that lend additional strength, while also providing deck beam mounts for the forecastle deck. Above, I am fitting card templates that I will use to pattern the 1/16” styrene sheet gussets. All of this structure will not be visible from the waist, nor will it interfere with the ship’s stoves.

In the waist, where this joint would be visible, I will cover the joint with spirketting. Just as before, the added glue-surface will really solidify the construction.

Before I can paint these bulwark pieces, I still need to fashion a supporting knee that will be visible from the waist overhang of the forecastle deck.

In a departure from my usual, I will be airbrushing the primary ground colors, as there is too much fine detail that might be obscured by brush-painting.

All of this will, of course, take time. Thank you for stopping-in!

 

[dockattner]

As always, stunning work and narrative. When I grow up I want to be as smart and talented as you.

 

[Uwek]

Very interesting work - many thanks for showing us these details

 

[Hubac’s Historian]

Thank you, very much Paul and Uwek!

Considering the troublesome upper bulwark joint - the lapping-lip of the port side bulwark piece is significantly thicker than the rebate it fits into on the hull. This creates an awkward landing for my waist spirketting/joint re-enforcement. In order to create a flush landing, I furred-out the hull side of the joint with .030 styrene strip:

I then sanded away any high spots for a flush mating surface, while protecting the painted deck with painters’ tape. Weirdly, this problem does not exist on the starboard side.

I’ve also been making a pair of hanging knees for each side, that will be visible beneath the break of the forecastle deck:

The top edge of these knees doesn’t have to reflect the deck camber because they will be situated behind the deck beams which are cambered. In order to include this aft-most knee, without placing it beneath the beam, I am increasing the length of the forecastle deck so that it comes to within about an 1/8” of the waist timberhead railing.

This small increase in deck length (say that three times fast ) will help with the layout of the forecastle; I need room for the deck railing supporting knees, the stove chimneys, and the capstan drum. There must be enough clearance for the capstan bars to travel without interfering with the fore bitts. There is some debate as to whether a forecastle capstan would really have been a feature of a First-Rate from this time, however the Louis Quinze model features a vacant space where the drum should be:

Above, you can see the locking pawls and the hole for the drum barrel. I have found other evidence on contemporary and near contemporary models to support this detail. I’m excited about that because I really wanted to scratch-build a capstan.

I knew before I started that the rear gallery bulwark would be a tremendous amount of work, but it was time well-spent. As is my practice, I like to build-up a part like this as a series of layers of varying thicknesses, which results in a part that has depth and enhanced detail. Here is a montage of the progression:

Necessarily, this process begins from the center, and proceeds out, towards the ends. The critical consideration is that both the bottom and top edges of this railing are beveled to account for the railings back-raking angle. Each layer has to be optimally placed so that not too much material is removed from the lower edge. This is especially important for the lattice pieces. Before moving-on to the next element layer, I make sure to fair these top and bottom bevels, so that I have a reliable reference for placing the next layer.







This fairing step was critically important for these scroll brackets that flank the nameplate.



Another consideration is that the outermost pair of pilaster mouldings is just slightly wider than the innermost pair. They all had to be individually fit.

Just before modeling of the scrolls and central lattice:

Afterwards:

There is still some modeling to do yet, and ai still need to add tiny scroll ornaments around the nameplate, but here is the part taped in-place to give an overall impression:

I didn’t set out to make this bulwark railing wider at the center, and more narrow at the corner joint, but it was necessary to taper the ends, in order to come down flush with the side bulwark pieces.

I probably won’t focus on painting this part until I am closer to actually installing it, but I am satisfied with what I think is a rather stark improvement over the stock kit railing:

As ever, thank you for your likes, comments and looking-in!

 

[Stevedownunder]

Thank you, very much Paul and Uwek!

Considering the troublesome upper bulwark joint - the lapping-lip of the port side bulwark piece is significantly thicker than the rebate it fits into on the hull. This creates an awkward landing for my waist spirketting/joint re-enforcement. In order to create a flush landing, I furred-out the hull side of the joint with .030 styrene strip:
View attachment 238495
I then sanded away any high spots for a flush mating surface, while protecting the painted deck with painters’ tape. Weirdly, this problem does not exist on the starboard side.

I’ve also been making a pair of hanging knees for each side, that will be visible beneath the break of the forecastle deck:
View attachment 238499
The top edge of these knees doesn’t have to reflect the deck camber because they will be situated behind the deck beams which are cambered. In order to include this aft-most knee, without placing it beneath the beam, I am increasing the length of the forecastle deck so that it comes to within about an 1/8” of the waist timberhead railing.

This small increase in deck length (say that three times fast ) will help with the layout of the forecastle; I need room for the deck railing supporting knees, the stove chimneys, and the capstan drum. There must be enough clearance for the capstan bars to travel without interfering with the fore bitts. There is some debate as to whether a forecastle capstan would really have been a feature of a First-Rate from this time, however the Louis Quinze model features a vacant space where the drum should be:
View attachment 238508
Above, you can see the locking pawls and the hole for the drum barrel. I have found other evidence on contemporary and near contemporary models to support this detail. I’m excited about that because I really wanted to scratch-build a capstan.

I knew before I started that the rear gallery bulwark would be a tremendous amount of work, but it was time well-spent. As is my practice, I like to build-up a part like this as a series of layers of varying thicknesses, which results in a part that has depth and enhanced detail. Here is a montage of the progression:
View attachment 238506
Necessarily, this process begins from the center, and proceeds out, towards the ends. The critical consideration is that both the bottom and top edges of this railing are beveled to account for the railings back-raking angle. Each layer has to be optimally placed so that not too much material is removed from the lower edge. This is especially important for the lattice pieces. Before moving-on to the next element layer, I make sure to fair these top and bottom bevels, so that I have a reliable reference for placing the next layer.
View attachment 238505

View attachment 238503

View attachment 238507

View attachment 238502
This fairing step was critically important for these scroll brackets that flank the nameplate.
View attachment 238501

View attachment 238500
Another consideration is that the outermost pair of pilaster mouldings is just slightly wider than the innermost pair. They all had to be individually fit.
View attachment 238498
Just before modeling of the scrolls and central lattice:
View attachment 238497
Afterwards:
View attachment 238496
There is still some modeling to do yet, and ai still need to add tiny scroll ornaments around the nameplate, but here is the part taped in-place to give an overall impression:
View attachment 238493
I didn’t set out to make this bulwark railing wider at the center, and more narrow at the corner joint, but it was necessary to taper the ends, in order to come down flush with the side bulwark pieces.
View attachment 238494
I probably won’t focus on painting this part until I am closer to actually installing it, but I am satisfied with what I think is a rather stark improvement over the stock kit railing:
View attachment 238504
As ever, thank you for your likes, comments and looking-

Amazing work Marc,

I am always impressed with your knowledge and ability.

Cheers,
Stephen.