Soleil Royal- Re-engineering Artesania Latina's New Kit by NMBROOK

Thanks everyone

I have now replaced the centre sections with a nice piece of English boxwood I had kicking around in my stash.I have notched these in to the fore and aft sections rather than attempting to marry the ends up with the rather sloppy dovetails of the original.All the skeleton is laser cut 3mm ply and the boxwood was exactly the same thickness.
You will notice the deck lines on my drawing, these are actually the underside of the internal decks which will be 2mm thick (plywood + veneer planks). Yes, this model is getting an interior gunlock upwards.
You will also see the cut off line of the deck at either end of the assembly. Well it isn't simply a case of cutting these sections off, more on that later.Next step is to notch the false keel to take the kit bulkheads in their new positions.

Kind Regards

Nigel

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Hello Nigel- this is a massive project and I will definitely be the student in the class observing this build. Good luck. Cheers Grant
 
Hi All

I was determined not to buy any more kits as I have enough projects and pastimes to keep me going beyond retirement. However this release changed all that, I simply HAD to build it. Not because it is an amazing model straight out of the box but more a case that I realised the potential of the kit.

The kit supplied decoration has far more than a passing resemblance to the late Michel Saunier's model.His build is shown on MSW and Gerard Delecroix's forum.The quality of the castings is far greater than the one's you get in a current Mantua group model.It also includes some very fine photo etch details for bow and stern.

The biggest issue is that whilst the bow and stern are done well, everything in-between needs a redesign if you want a model that follow's French practice of the period. The gunport spacings are wrong, the deck Sheer is wrong and all the decks are enclosed on their ends, these would have most likely been open.

When the marketing video first appeared it stated 1/65, now the box and catalogue state 1/72?? So which is it? Working from the height between decks, this works out at 1/65.You cannot work from the model's length, the design for some reason has been shortened and the model is far too short for either scale.Given that the original is stated as having a length (gun deck) of 160 French feet, this model is at least 100mm too short.

It is my intention to redesign the kit's false keel to make the model the correct length and space out the kit bulkheads to compensate.The last few bulkheads at bow and stern will remain stock spacing as not to interfere with the kit decor.I am hoping that this "stretch" shall maintain the hull profile and just make the transition of curves a little more gradual.

I have already started to draw out the revised side view of the ship and have enough information established to start on the keel.The picture below shows the kit keel dry assembled on top of my work in progress drawing.In the next post I will show the extended version

Kind Regards

Nigel

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Good day; if you can easily read French, here is a document I made that can give you some tips on the ship's history and overall look of the before and after the refit....Let me know if there are details you would like some explanation on:)
 

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Merci:) je crois qu'il ne manque pas grand chose....Je détiens toutes les références mentionnées à la fin, donc si vous désirez une informatin, je peux tenter de la trouver....Mais après avoir lu tous ces livres, du moins les parties qui s'appliquent, je crois pas qu'il y ait quelque chose qui manque...et je ne trouve plus d'autres références pertinentes sur le sujet....
 
Good day; if you can easily read French, here is a document I made that can give you some tips on the ship's history and overall look of the before and after the refit....Let me know if there are details you would like some explanation on:)
Bonjour, Guy! Nice to see you here. I have taken the liberty to share your research with a number of builders on this site, Nigel included. Is your own model of SR now on this site?
 
Hi; yes, by all means, share it with as many interested people as you can:)
I am making one, but I have modified it quite a bit, being a Heller kit, to match what I found; I choosed that one because the stern is the closest in the dimensions and preciseness to the Tanneron model, which is probably the closest one can get to the very first iteration of the ship; it will be a ''waterline'' model since the hull isn't to the dimensions of the original one at the bottom end; one small detail I found is if one considers the kit as a 1/95 kit, all the dimensions start to come together....The document needs to be read carefully as there are a lot of small details to understand and I did write it as I found information, so there is some repetition in the text structure...
 
Well, Nigel, as you well know - you have your work ahead of you! It will be fun and fascinating to watch this model take shape. Your revised gun layout already is a massive improvement. You will have some interesting choices to make, with regard to the ornamental upper bulwark frieze.

I will be happily following along through the entire process.
 
So far as the Heller kit is concerned, I do all my scratch-work in 1/96, for the reason you mention, and also because 1/8”:1’ is a very simple calculation to keep in mind.
 
So far as the Heller kit is concerned, I do all my scratch-work in 1/96, for the reason you mention, and also because 1/8”:1’ is a very simple calculation to keep in mind.
Yes; butI have been at this kit on-and-off, because searching and writing this document has somewhat saturated me with the subject:))
I did however added the extra gun ports on the rear quarterdeck and poopdeck by moving the side window just a tiny bit back in order to ad the fifth round gunport with the right measurement; as for the poopdeck, I forwarded the gun port a bit to have decent space for the extra one behind it; the galeries are opened and the inner decoration is done....I will post a pic of what modifications I did, but I'm nowhere close to finishing it:))
 
I would love to see your progress. In order to avoid hijacking Nigel’s log, you should consider opening a build-page for your model. I will happily join on to that as well.
 
Good day; if you can easily read French, here is a document I made that can give you some tips on the ship's history and overall look of the before and after the refit....Let me know if there are details you would like some explanation on:)
Guy, this is an outstanding document.

I am currently building le Soleil Royal (see https://shipsofscale.com/sosforums/threads/1669-soleil-royal-zhl.6332/) and I am currently installing the sails
I have hard time finding a plan on rigging the various sails
Would you have a recommendation?
 
I have a book with an extensive part on rigging in general for English, French and some other navies; it is in the references at the end of the document and is called ''Encyclopédie Navale des Modèles réduits'' from Wolfram zu Mondfeld; my version is in French but you can find it in English language
 
I have a book with an extensive part on rigging in general for English, French and some other navies; it is in the references at the end of the document and is called ''Encyclopédie Navale des Modèles réduits'' from Wolfram zu Mondfeld; my version is in French but you can find it in English language
Super,
merci beaucoup
 
I have a book with an extensive part on rigging in general for English, French and some other navies; it is in the references at the end of the document and is called ''Encyclopédie Navale des Modèles réduits'' from Wolfram zu Mondfeld; my version is in French but you can find it in English language
J'ai aussi ce bouquin en anglais. Il est excellent.

I have this book too... and it is excellent for the newbies like me. And a must, it is a pleasure to read too, not only watch th figures LOL.
 
Thanks Everyone,feel like all eyes on meSpeechlessGood job I had a productive dayROTF

Well my plans are to trim 2mm off the edges of all bulkheads for the stringer that supports the lower gun deck.The idea being is that a layer of 2mm planking will be applied taking the surface level with the lower section of bulkheads.This will NOT be glued to the bulkheads. The idea being is that the upper section of bulkheads will be removed giving me an open hull which will have three layers of planking topsides for strength. I thought I had better explain now then all subsequent updates will make more sense.

Back to the keel.The kit parts are in the last picture for reference. Firstly I milled notches for the bulkheads in their new positions. I have made new stem pieces and keel from 6mm English Boxwood (stash again ) and fitted these to the kit false keel after first cutting a rabbet.Only one scarph out of necessity.As I said I am painting the model so I am not wasting time replicating multiple joints to be covered by paint.The section of the false keel has been cut back level with the underside of the lower gun deck and the bowsprit notch lengthened to below the level of this deck.

Kind Regards

Nigel
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