Schmidt

Hello George,

First of all thank you very much for this construction report. I have this kit in my stash since many years. In fact I bought it bevore I returned to my old love: plastic model kits of old sailing ships. I loved it then and love it even more after seeing your built. You made something very convincing out of this little old treasure.

Have you ever researched what role model the Pyro designers had in 1966? Komb ketches were buit for about 150 years until 1830, the later ones having 3 masts. The pyro model still has a latin sail on the mizzen mast, which points to the time around 1700, while the design of the stern (Bounty style), in my opinion, points more to the middle of the 18th century.

And one more note: I am biased because I build waterline models myself. So I think the last pictures with the ship "in the water" are particulary good. Only the harbour wall to me seems a little to neat and clean.

Schmidt

In fact there are two major manipulations on the deck. The first one:

The aft deck of the Heller galley is very simply designed with transverse planks.

The original occupies a kind of chess pattern parquet here. The cover for access to the lower deck was let into it. I tried to recreate this with strips of polystyrene. I muliplied the completed puzzled part several times with silicone and resin in order to be able to do several color tests on them.

Here is the winner. Cut into pieces and relocated, the parquet part also forms the floor inside the pergola. 

I know the original deck shows an even more complicated pattern, but I was so far content with my work.

Schmidt

Yaers ago, while building my Reale for the first time, I converted one of the upper parts of the original oars and made a silicone mold of it. Then I connected the casted parts to the lower part of the Heller oars with a brass pin.

Schmidt

The first change is that I put self-made windows in the structure at the rear. There are models for this in historical illustrations and plans. In my eyes, the structure looks more closed and somehow more "homely".

In addition to the windows in the rear, I covered the "pergola" above with a cloth in the same red. The same I did with the small open rear platform. I built a rack to hold the covers. The golden fringes create a special effect and harmonize with the colour style of the hull.

Schmidt

And here are two pictures that show a so-called Galley Festival (Fête de Galeres). That was certainly not an amusement for the poor galley convicts, but partys for an aristocratic audience. In fact, around 1700 the galleys were less of an effective weapon and more of a kind of royal yacht fleet, which is especially true for the "Real" as their flagship, whose ornaments were designed by a famous sculpturer. From these illustrations and further research I have drawn some suggestions that I would now like to implement.

Schmidt

@safemaster Thank you for your comment. While reading your built log I learned a lot about further possibilities to upgrade my model. I will refer to that later.

And now for the results of my internet research. Here are two contemporary images showing comparable galleys in port or in rest. They have put up “sunsails” or “nightsails” , which I find highly decorative, especially on the second image.

Schmidt

I have just discovered the excellent and highly informative construction report from safemaster about the "Real" from Heller. Since I am currently working on the same model but have quite a different display intent, it might be interesting for some if I post a construction report here.

I built the model about ten years ago, and since then I have actually managed to save the extremely fragile ship undamaged through several moves. In the meantime, however, I've seen myself a little fed up with it, and while researching the Internet, I had an idea for a far-reaching modification. Here are some pictures of the model as I built it ten years ago.

This is great work! For a long time, I have dreamed of building this model so that all the beauty of the original ship comes into its own. Will this built log be continued soon? Or will it continue in another forum? I mean to have seen photos of the model in a later state of construction elsewhere in the internet.

Schmidt