Search the Community
Showing results for tags 'le superbe'.
Found 7 results
-
Some time ago I received the Le Superbe kit in 1:150 scale from Heller. Since shipbuilding modeling has always intrigued me a lot, I decided to take a shot and assemble this model as best I could. While I have some experience with plastic models, I've never built a sailing ship, so I don't plan on doing a lot of modifications. This will be a very long report, assuming I have enough persistence to complete the build. As someone who lives a busy life and always in a hurry, I try to build slowly and carefully, getting as much enjoyment as possible from the process itself. Since I only build when the family is already asleep, I have a lot of quiet 🙂 However, this also causes a difficulty: I can't afford to tinker with the model as often as I would like. The man who writes the instructions for Heller should probably change profession, although just deciphering the diagrams is fun in itself. So far I'm terrified of the rigging stage, but I'm trying to solve one problem at a time. Wish me luck and persistence. I also thank you in advance for all your advice and tips. Regards, Piotr
- 26 replies
-
- 2
-
-
- Le Superbe
- Heller
- (and 1 more)
-
Having completed my first model ship (Airfix's HMS Victory) in 2013 I was eager to build a second, 74 gun ship as they were the mainstay of the Royal Navy. However it soon became apparent that none are available in the form of a plastic kit. But, after a bit of digging around i discovered that Heller do two versions of the French 74 gun ship, quite a few of which were captured in battle and re-commissioned into the Royal Navy. This meant i could build a British 74, but i would have to do quite a bit of kit bashing. Now all i had to do was decide what ship to base my model on. THE SHIP Launched at Rochefort on 29 April 1794 Lion was a 74-gun, third rate ship of the line -a member of the Téméraire class designed for the French Navy by Jacques-Noël Sané. In May 1795 the ship was renamed Formidable. Captained by Charles Alexandre Linois Formidable sailed as part of the fleet commanded by Admiral Villaret Joyeuse that fought against the British at the Battle of Groix on 3 June 1795. During the battle Formidable came under the sustained fire of two British ships. Her hull, masts, sails and rigging were badly cut up and a fire soon broke out on her poop. When her mizen mast fell over the side Linois finally hauled down his colours. Over 320 of his crew of 700 had either been killed or wounded in the action. Linois had lost an eye and all his lieutenants had been injured. The ship was taken to Portsmouth where Linois was exchanged. The Royal Navy already had a 90 gun second rate named Formidable and as it was mistakenly believed that the ship had been captured off Belle Ile, rather than the Ile de Groix, she was renamed Belleisle. In August 1798 Belleisle began fitting out at Portsmouth. Her hull was strengthened and much of her internal layout was altered to suit British tastes. The refit took fourteen months and cost £35842.0.0d (roughly two million pounds in todays money) In February 1803 she sailed for the Mediterranean, joining a fleet that would soon fall under the command of Admiral Horatio Nelson. Captained by William Hargood, (her longest serving captain) she was the second ship in the British lee column at Trafalgar, sailing into battle astern of Collingwood’s flag-ship Royal Sovereign. She soon lost all her masts, her bowsprit, her anchors, even her figurehead in her bruising encounter with Fougueux and eight other ships of the combined fleet. The only place left to raise her ensign was at the end of a pike which she managed to keep flying until the ships following behind her in the British line finally came to her rescue. By the end of the battle thirty-three of her people had been killed and a further ninety-four injured. The next day the battered British ships and their French and Spanish prizes were hit by a terrifying storm which did not let go for four whole days. Sails were shredded, fragile masts brought crashing down. When the storm hit Belleisle was under the tow of the frigate Naiad. The tow had broken and as desperate attempts were made to reconnect the line in the heaving swells the two ships crashed into one another, staving in Naiad’s stern. Moments later Naiad’s topsail ripped apart in the howling wind and had to be hacked free; then she lost one of her staysails. By the time Naiad’s sails had been sorted out Belleisle had disappeared from view in the heaving seas and driving rain. Left to fend for themselves Hargood now attempted to take his ship around Cape Trafalgar and into the Straits of Gibraltar under a hastily lashed together jury rig. Around midnight Hargood summoned his officers and told them the ship was about to be wrecked and that they should prepare for the worst. Belleisle’s people, cold and exhausted, waited through the night for the end, but thankfully it never came. By the next morning, using the smallest scrap of sail, they had managed to turn the ship away from the dangerous shore. Naiad returned and as the wind eased was finally able to get a line across to Belleisle and tow her into Gibraltar. Belleisle returned to Portsmouth for a refit which took four months and cost £16384.0.0d. In September 1806 she took part in the capture and destruction of a crippled French 74, Impetueux. After almost four years in command Hargood left the ship a year later. Belleisle was present at the capture of Martinique in January 1809 and later that year she took part in expeditions to the Scheldt and Walcheren. She was finally laid up in ordinary in September 1809. In July 1814 she began a large repair at Portsmouth but a month later the decision was taken to have her broken up instead. THE KIT Copyright Heller The donor kit for this conversion will be Heller’s Le Superbe (80895), a Téméraire class 74 launched in 1784 but wrecked in a storm eleven years later. Here are some sprue shots. These white sprues are the fixtures and fittings for Superbe. Heller's other 74, Glorieux, has a different set of sprues The sprues on the right are for the long guns and carriages. There are five of each provided in the kit The kit also comes with three sheets of vacuformed sails, a chain for the rudder and a rigging machine. No rigging thread though (any provided with the kit would probably have needed replacing anyway.) The instructions are all in French but a page of translations is provided. Parts are both numbered and given a description i.e. 77 bowsprit cap THE BUILD I started things off by sanding down the hull and decks which all have a quite pronounced wood grain effect. I then attached the parts containing the hawse holes to the hull, filling and sanding the gap. As you can see the copper plates continue up to the lower wale rather than finishing at the waterline. This will need to be sorted out. Another area requiring attention are the rather poorly moulded gratings. These need tackling anyway as British and French 74's had different deck layouts.
- 23 replies
-
- 7
-
-
- le superbe
- heller
- (and 1 more)
-
Hello fellow builders and lurkers, Though not quite new in modelbuilding, this is my first ever 18th century sailing ship. I am using Boudriot's 74 gunship as reference but I mainly try to get a feeling for the technics used for the scale and what I can and can't do. The build will be slow because I will try to not burn myself out on it. First of all, I used to colours that Heller suggested, but I am open to suggestions! The carriages are in the red that Heller sugests I cleaned the gunbarrels after I painted them, Maybe next time I'll do it before. I decided to divert from Heller's sugestion and painted the guns black and add a bit of gunmetal with drybrushing, still not sure if it looks okay Guns, Guns, Guns And Carriages The guns completed, only the small caliber has no drybrush In Boudriot's work I found the way the cannons are rigged. I think that on this scale the small blocks, tacks and cables are maybe not realy necessary but I did try to do some fitting for the heavy ropes. Not sure if this is the way to go. Again I am open to suggestion Cannon with rigging Next, I tried my hand on etching some planks in the lower deck. I am thinking of adding some interior instead of only the heavy guns. It is absolutly not my best work, but it was my first try on a place that is not clearly visible in my final work. I also braided the cables for the anchors, just to do something different. Etched deck and dryfit So, this is all I did last month, just to give you an idea about how slowly I am going . Tips and sugestions are more than welcome! Kind regards
- 3 replies
-
- 4
-
-
- Le Superbe
- Heller
- (and 1 more)
-
From Le Superbe to Le Praetorian – A Heller Seventy-four, after Boudriot This is a summarised record of my attempt to modify a small scale plastic kit by reference to the works of Jean Boudriot. Very few of the original kit fittings were used in the build. This was to be a first attempt at fully detailing a model of this scale, adding sails and displaying in a waterline setting. Early progress Lower deck detail. Upperdeck showing Galley and Pastry oven. One unfortunate fellow is spending time in the bilboes, for swearing on a Sunday. Restyling the Foc’sle rail. Modified waist railings using brass strip.- 126 replies
-
- 9
-
-
-
- le superbe
- heller
- (and 2 more)
-
Hi everyone, In this log you'll be able to follow my built of the beautiful french tallship LE SUPERBE. Like my other finish builts, i'm not looking for a period exact ship and try to do my best with the plans that come in the kit. I suppose i'm a layback builder looking to make a stunning result that i'm gonna be proud. The colors i choose for this buit are black and gold. I hope you'll enjoy it as much as i am. I have already begin the build some time ago and taken pictures during the process. I'll post those pictures with minimal explanations and concentrate writing my thought on the part i'm now building. If you have any comment or question on those first posts, i'll be glad to anwser you. Keven Deschenes -kedes1- -
Hello everyone! I have been stalking this site for a while now (when one looks at every post every day you can begin to call it stalking I guess) and I actually fell in love with sailingships, especially naval vessels from mid 18th to late 18th century. I'm currently building (as the title of this topic already says it:) Le superbe from heller. The instructions are pretty unclear and in french so for my first ship of this kind, that's quite a setback. But nothing is forlorn! My deepest grattitude is extended to Blue Ensign for letting me base my model on his Le Praetorian. When I'm stuck with my model I spy a little bit off his buildlog since there are no buildlogs of this ship that has that level of detail and extensiveness. So more about the build itself. I started the build in march 2013, almost a year further and not that much progression, because of a very big learning curve to overcome. I take my time to do and redo things when necessary. And a building break of 5 months also has something to do with it. Too much schoolwork and so on. I have added some detail to the longboat because I don't like the look of an empty boat, and the setting of the shipsboats doesn't satisfy me. Other boats will be built later on to be incorporated in a diorama. I will try to add as much detail to the cannons as possible, which in this scale is pretty hard. I painted the cannons flat black but I also overdrawn them with pencil to add a metallic look. At the moment only the 30 32pndrs are painted and eyeletes have been attached to the trucks. As you will notice in my pictures, the ship is seaworthy, at least it can float like a real ship. I also built my previous models, Bismarck and Prinz Eugen this way, because it adds some realism. Nothing worse like a ship on dry land in my opinion... But with models it's harder said than done of course. The foremast is a bit warped but this is already fixed. I am planning to pick up the build again starting from june, because school will be over and I have a whole summerholiday to get some work done. I know that I will never reach the quality and finesse all the models on this forum have but I am passionate about it and my goal is to make a ship that I like/love and will be proud of. My deepest respect for all you experienced shipbuilders on this forum, wood and plastic. Every time I look at a build I am symply awe-struck! Enjoy and any comment/help is welcome! greetings.
- 110 replies
-
- 15
-
-
- heller
- le superbe
- (and 2 more)
-
Hi one and all. This post was originally written on 26th December 2020. For a build thread on another forum, but I have decided to move it all to here. First a back story: I bought this particular kit after exhibiting at the first London Model Engineering Exhibition held at The Alexandra Palace in 1996, yes almost 25 years ago! At that time I was building and showing RC boats and racing Tamiya1/10 off road cars whilst assisting at the Chesham Model Shop in Buckinghamshire, who were the UK importer of Wedico boat and truck kits. They had a stand at the Model Engineers Exhibition and I was able to attend every day so had lots of time to browse around. One divorce and five homes later I think that I should at least start it and hopefully see it through to completion. This kit is fairly straightforward plank on frame construction with just a few fiddly bits. The most obvious change in this kit since I bought it is that now wooden parts in kits are laser cut whereas this kit has all the frames and other ply parts either partway machine cut with a router or just printed on solid wood that will need to be cut out with a fretsaw. The next post will be the build start. Colin.
Our Emblem ®
