Soleil Royal - Heller 1/100 Back to work!

Dfolgado

Dfolgado

Joined
Apr 9, 2020
Messages
89
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Location
Lisbon, PT
Hello all, I would like to share my works on the Heller Soleil Royal.

I’m building this for several time now, after some time I get tired and need a break! Last stoppage was back in April 2020, I resumed it now in August 2021.

I correct some very well know aspects of the kit that were supposedly “wrong”, namely:

I open the stern side galleries
Relocate the water line 1cm above the kit mark, just touching the first wale, this way the hull proportions looks much better
I’m working now on the stem cathead support timbers, which are non existent in the kit…

FF1FE8B8-A134-49B9-BEF5-240799BF75B3.jpeg5B93060E-B31C-4B31-9BE5-AF798EBE6814.jpegCB2C21CA-2507-47B9-9B99-530ADC2F487C.jpegB79F7F52-A011-4BA2-A193-F904BE08481C.jpegBC000F81-FEBE-440C-8C8C-A464B7E4D104.jpeg
 
Beautiful work
Never seen before, such a large paint collection I


I'm curious, what colors of paint did you use for the bottom of the ship?

The decks also look good, how did you do this?

I'm going to follow you
 
WOW - the painting of the model is extremely realistic - Very good work
I will be very happy to see much more of your work so I am looking forward to see your next update

BTW: A warm welcome here on board of our forum
 
Thanks for your comments.
The base for the white coating under water was Vallejo Model Color 837 “Pale Sand”. After this I pre-shade it by airbrush with various greys, greens and brown s. The final step was done with oils, trying to simulate the patina that this white coating should develop very quickly being underwater.

Of course this is simply my interpretation, because I don’t know for sure how it should look like in real life.

I know that this white coating was obtained from a mixture of 8 parts dry pitch, 1 part tallow, and 1 part sulphur. (according to: The seventy-four gun ship Vol.2 by Jean Boudriot).

Because of this composition I believe the white will not be white for very long…

For the decks, the base color was Tamiya XF-78 “wood deck tan” followed by a mixture of Model Color creams, tans and browns, applied board by board, trying to create an used wood deck.
But again, this is only my interpretation of how this vessel could be painted on, there are absolutely no certainty whatsoever!
 
kirill4 said:
Do You plan to add some more decors to the model, to the beakhead bulkhead and to the railings on deck, or just follow kit design?
One more time - nice art work in painting!!!
Great!
Click to expand...
I’m not thinking of adding anything special to the breakhead bulkhead, I am following the Saint-Phillipe 1693, witch is a similar vessel of the same era, but smaller than the Soleil Royal.

Regarding the deck, I will add some missing furniture, and also stairs and more railings. I have more or less and idea already, but this subject needs more investigation anyhow.

66EBDC24-B957-40F2-B58E-6383D6490F79.jpeg99197DD9-2AA5-4B63-8708-584B87C16B2D.jpeg
 
Dfolgado said:
Hello all, I would like to share my works on the Heller Soleil Royal.

I’m building this for several time now, after some time I get tired and need a break! Last stoppage was back in April 2020, I resumed it now in August 2021.

I correct some very well know aspects of the kit that were supposedly “wrong”, namely:

I open the stern side galleries
Relocate the water line 1cm above the kit mark, just touching the first wale, this way the hull proportions looks much better
I’m working now on the stem cathead support timbers, which are non existent in the kit…

View attachment 250892View attachment 250893View attachment 250894View attachment 250895View attachment 250896
Click to expand...
Hi friend..look great. Good luck and i will follow your work
 
You are, indeed, a very skilled painter DFolgado, and you have made numerous additions and modifications that improve the kit tremendously. I very much agree with your shaded/patinated representation of her paintwork; even a capitol ship like Soleil Royal would not have been pristine.

It is perfectly sensible to me to show the ship with all of her lower ports closed. I wonder, though, whether your upper decks are fixed in place. Will you represent the upper deck guns in some state of readiness or reserve?

This all looks amazing, and I will follow along with great interest!

Kind Regards,

Marc
 
Hubac’s Historian said:
You are, indeed, a very skilled painter DFolgado, and you have made numerous additions and modifications that improve the kit tremendously. I very much agree with your shaded/patinated representation of her paintwork; even a capitol ship like Soleil Royal would not have been pristine.

It is perfectly sensible to me to show the ship with all of her lower ports closed. I wonder, though, whether your upper decks are fixed in place. Will you represent the upper deck guns in some state of readiness or reserve?

This all looks amazing, and I will follow along with great interest!

Kind Regards,

Marc
Click to expand...
Thanks for your kind words Marc!

Firstly let me tell you that your work on your Soleil Royal is outstanding, and a source of inspiration for everybody. Congratulations!

My idea is to represent the ship in port, not in action or even at sea not in action.

In port, I imagine it with all ports closed, all guns secured and of course, all sails furled. This is how I see it…

This is how I’m planing to secure the upper decks guns:

482CFAD9-21D5-47FA-ACA9-1F230BCC91A3.jpeg
DB5641BE-CA5B-441C-ADAA-D6508B9CDBCC.jpeg

Still working in the guns tackles, quite a challenge in 1/100th scale:

9AE7D12D-5100-496A-B0E5-E5790F626E8A.jpeg
 
Much appreciated, Dfolgado!

I like your ideas for showing her at port. Similarly, since I am doing a diorama, I will show the ship getting underway to leave Brest harbor for Barfleur.

You are doing a great hob with those carriage tackles. I will, first, try to cheat a bit with some PE tackles that my friend Dan gave me. If the scale works, I will use them. If not, I will have to go the more labor intensive route, as you are doing now.

By the way - I appreciate that you scratched-in the forward hunting port on the lower battery, next to the hawse holes.
 
Good day Marc!
I thought You had it already long time ago... :)))
I think in most respects this book more usefull for SR building that book about SPh.. and combination both of them + reprint alboom the Colbert - even best solution! :)))
I like very much rigging section in this book , but other articles about riggs , decor ,hull construction are not less interesting- this all in part II,
part I - devoted to historic background shipbuilding of Sun King era...
I have this book complete but only in russian translation\ in english - scans of drawings only? https://cloud.mail.ru/public/XDX3/iAJaKhmKb
I left there all I have...
You could download it just for looking trough and imagine what content is in...
and Alboom the Colbert https://cloud.mail.ru/public/uWWg/HusZ566VN
, just for case...
 
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I have both those monographies, the Three-Decker and the Saint-Philippe, and I use them both, the rigging instructions for example is much better on the Three-Decker. But Saint-Philippe is also a very interesting vessel for someone who are working in the Soleil Royal.

Marc, I did not even remember that I have scratch built that hunting port in the front… I really started this a long time ago!

BTW, can you show me how those PE tackles looks like?
 
Kirill, thank you for uploading these scans. I will definitely be taking a look - particularly as it relates to the rigging. Lemineur's belay point depiction with may lines running through a sheaved block, close to the belay cleat/pin/kevels. I'm not sure what to make of that, although I can see the practical mechanical advantage of having the line run through a block first. It would be nice to have some corroboration, on these matters. For their part, Heller has included a cluster of single post, sheaved belay points in clusters around each mast; these seem like obstacles, at best, but maybe they are appropriate for a French ship of this period? In any case, it won't be long before I have to decide where to drill through my deck for additional attachment points.

At some point today, I'll fish out those PE tackles and take a picture of them, with some sort of scale reference. If you like what you see, I can ask my friend where he got them from.
 
It looks like we have same opinion about these books!:)
What size of the blocks did You used for gun tackles?
> 2.0mm ; 2 .0mm; or < than 2 .0mm?
Are they self made?
Looks a little bit too big / slightly out of scale on the picture for this size of gun carriage....but I could easy be mistaken!
I didn't see conventional blocks smaller than 2.0 mm which could be purchased on the market...
 
Dear Marc,
I have strong believe Heller 's rigging arrangements couldn't be considered as usefull at all, whatever they want to show in the kit manual and kit's spars...
The most briliant value in this kit - it is the hull and decorations!!! :)))
...but masts, mast heads,their tops/ fiting platforms, spars and riggings entirely ,all need to be reculculated and made correctly and accurately ...
or at least close to the proportions and sizes given in mentioned above books and historic pictures.
This is my personal opinion of couse, just I don't like this part of the kit at all...especialy proportion of the masts and construction of the mast tops ,etc...which looks a lttle bit ugly in my eyes, when they assembled straight from the kit with fitted shrouds - mostly wrong top masts ...
 
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