Robert Taylor

After 2 1/2 years some a lot of which I had to deal with heartbreaking circumstances my Soleil Royal is finally  finished. Originally the Heller kit but I heavily  improvised  her giving her wooden decks, masts, yards, Deadeyes, rigging blocks etc.. while adding a lot more deck detail rigging  up all 104 Cannons, 1,864 clove hitches, approx 500 reef points, 520 Cannon balls as well as Barrels and rope hanks not to mention  miles of Amati rigging thread in various  sizes.

Without  the personal circumstances I've had to endure she has been  a labour of Love. 

I'm  not a craftsman by any manner of means and don't have any ambitions to be one either. I just build these ships for the Beauty and historical aspect that each one has. 

Some of the photos you will see were taken at a recent Model Show in Scotland i was asked to display at.

I hope you like it as much as I enjoyed building her. 

All the best 

Robert 

(ART's Model Dockyard) 

1 hour ago, mrcc said:

Hey Robert…

 

Awesome job on this kit!

 

You are a real master!

Thank you very much mate, I don't  know about being a master lol.. nowhere near a professional, then again it's not something  I am overly bothered  about i just build my ships the way anyone else does to their own capabilities and own pleasure.

On 8/29/2025 at 9:29 AM, phoscar said:

A superb achievement. Thank you for your photographs, they are a great help to me in understanding some of the subtleties of the rigging.

Thank you very much, the ship will be finally finished in the next couple of days, just some small bits of rigging and flags  to finish and mounting her on her stand. All the sails have been  rigged up as well as adding in the black n tackle for lifting and lowering the lifeboats. 

On 8/15/2025 at 11:01 PM, mrcc said:

 

Had to cut back some of the side gallery planking profiles in order to accommodate the side gallery ornamentation and then I focused on some of the stern decorations... she is surely starting to look pretty!

 

Lots of reading ahead, looking at other peoples build logs on MSW and some dutch forums.

 

A person always has to pay attention to the fittings, the corners of the fittings, as future fittings of these ornaments are sometimes laid on top of each other. Luckily these pot metal ornaments are easy to bend and mold with reason into the spaces they are required to go into.

 

The color scheme I used is of course personal but I am always looking at historical accuracy.

Beautiful work 👍🏼❤️🤺⚓️

It's been a long time since my last ship building  post on here due other good but necessary conflicting circumstances.
All the Soleil Royal sails have been hand sewn, now in the process of rigging them up, a bit of tight time schedule due to the the fact that the model show exhibition I've been asked to display at is in just under 3 weeks time, still confident enough this ship and other stuff will be ready for her maiden voyage.

Small update on my SOLEIL ROYAL

Nothing much to right up about apart from I have now completed hand sewing 4 of the 14 sails I intend my ship.
Updates now will be few and far between as it's pretty pointless putting sail completion updates everytime one is finished. Hopefully I can get these done and rigged up before the start of September in time for the Model/show exhibition I've been invited to display at, if the ship isn't finished it can still go on display as a Work in Progress.
Hope everyone is OK, have a great time all with your builds.
A few photos below...

Well that's the 14 Sails measured, drawn up and cut out next step is the long process of Hand sewing all the detailed lines etc.. I've also made the flagstaff out of wood with only a little aid of the plastic support, as well as 2 brass halves of Fleur de lys bonded together, next will be a little paint and weather for the support and staining of the wood.

Fore Top gallant mast, Fore Top mast, Fore main mast sails drawn up and cut out from cloth.

Its been a while since my last update due to other circumstances. All the Futtock Shrouds and Ratlines are now complete as is all the backstays on my Soleil Royal and the rigging to a point. Next up is measuring and drawing the sails on to cloth, after which is hand sewing all the detail on to them. Roughly 14 sails to do as I won't be adding the studding sails as this would make the width too much for where I want to display the ship when finished.
Still a good 3-4 months work involved in hand sewing the sails as well as adding reef points.

Just rigging up the deadeyes for the Fore topmost Shrouds in my usual unorthodox way. The modelling wire on the lower deadeye will go through the hole on the crowsnest then I will bend it up into a loop, where I can then tie the Futtock Shrouds from, this is the same way I rigged the futtock Shrouds on my Occre Endeavour build.
The 2nd pic below is for information only as to what I mean, not taken from my Endeavour build.

SOLEIL ROYAL UPDATE : 

the Lower ratlines are now complete from the Spritsail, Foremast, Main and Mizzen mast, with 942 clove hitches being tied in the process.
Now moving on to rig the deadeyes/shrouds for Top masts of the Fore, Main & Mizzen.

On 12/17/2024 at 8:36 PM, yvesvidal said:

Incredible model and assembly. You are turning this Plastic kit into a little marvel: Pimping it up, should I say !

 

I remember assembling the Heller Royal Louis some fifty years ago, but it was far from your level of expertise.

 

Looking at the stern of that vessel, one can see the differences of richness and decorations between the French and British vessels. The French builders were definitely putting more emphasis into the glamor and opulence. That "Chateau Arriere" is absolutely amazing.

 

Yves

Thank you very much for your kind words Yves. I have also built the Heller Royal Louis a few years back to which I improvised on that kit too when still finding my feet bk in modelling after a 40yr absence. I didn't  improvise as much as on this Soleil Royal kit obviously because of the scale difference. Here is some photos  of my Royal  Louis 1/200 Heller kit finished.

Ratlines started on the Lower Shrouds...
Foremast Lower ratlines completed now with 288 clove hitches tied, on the Mainmast Lower ratlines.

The Lower Shrouds are finished now to start the ratlines...🤺🤺⚓⚓

Heller Soleil Royal 1/100 
Wood Improvised kit update.

Most of the standing rigging done now, just a couple of bits I'll need to improvise on regards to the poor Heller instructions where there is no exact tie off point for these.
I have also improvised on the double blocks adding hooks at the end which was a little tricky even using my dremel drilling between the 2 hole small holes with about 1mm to spare.
Lifts and most of interior running rigging done, just really the running rigging for the bowlines of the sails, but obviously this will be done at a later date when I've made the sails.
The pegs are merely to stop the thread tangling until they are ready to be tied off to the sails.
Just started rigging the wooden 7mm triangular deadeyes I bought in to improvise the kit sometime ago.
Slowly coming together the way I usually work from inside to out.

On 10/27/2024 at 6:36 PM, Kelp said:

Robert,  your model looks fantastic!  I especially like the gold painting on the quarter galleries and stern.  The wood deck also looks great and was worth doing.  
 

I have a couple of questions:  

 

What type of glue did you use to attach the decking to the plastic?  What size paintbrush did you use to paint the gold?

 

Looking forward to seeing your next build update.

 

Don

Hi Don 

Thank you very much for your kind words. To affix the wooden planks to the plastic decks(taking care to file/sand down  the recesses for the Cannons first) I always  use Expo PVA or Expo Fast setting PVA wood glue both of which set to the plastic excellently as if it was wood.  

Secondly the Brush size I use for the very fine detail painting is size 000. 

They are called "Major Brushes" where I bought them on ebay. I bought quite a few of this size(finest) and even trimmed a couple to a more fine point with my Expo micro snips I usually use for my rigging thread. 

Hope this helps Don 

All the best 

Robert 👍🏼 🤺 ⚓ 

These Crowsfeet are going to take a bit of Improvisation. These are supposed to be 12 individual holes, but with shorts in the plastic, they more or less ended up with 4 x 3 large holes both for the Foremast and Mainmast.

Just touching base again after an absence of 5-6months due to personal family reasons. 
Just finding my feet again... 

My Heller Soleil Royal bk in progress albeit small steps at a time. 
All the masts and yards are finished with appropriate rigging blocks and foot ropes.

I have now started the Standing rigging and certain other running rigging particularly for the Bowsprit. Just about to start scratch building the collars for the Crowsfeet. 

A long way to go, the Heller plans aren't  great so I am researching other ships and from that time period as well as  trying to improvise  along the way.

SOLEIL ROYAL 1669 update...

Hull construction work has now finished.
Stern is finished along with all architectural features including the lanterns and some added ones. Boats and cradle are finished as well as the channels and rigging eyepins for the start of the rigging.
I am pretty pleased they way she has turned out, considering I didn't really have a vision of how it would go.

Next up will be working the wood to make the masts and yards so it will stand up to the rigging tension.

On 4/7/2024 at 3:47 PM, Late to Soleil said:

Beautiful work! I do have a question, though. Did you position the bowsprit halyard guide as per some instructions, or were you self-guided? I can find no solid instructions as to the positioning

of the guide. and will glue really hold under the tension of the rigging?

  Ed K.

Hi Ed 

Yes I positioned the Bowsprit as per instructions which are pretty much self explanatory in the plans.  

The thing is with Heller's instructions and plans they are a bit all over the place so sometimes you need to look further in the plans for something that should be nearer the beginning if that makes sense.

Failing that having built sailing ships for a long time I can work things out before hand if the plans are poor.

Regards

Robert 👍🏼 

SOLEIL ROYAL - 1/100 Heller update... 

Forecastle deck, Waist balconies, quarter decks, poop deck, Officer's quarters and Captain's cabin all finished.

Now starting on the Stern balconies and boats.

Main deck now finished, Cannons rigged, deck detail added regards to Cannon balls/carriage, barrels/kegs spare wood for yards etc.. stairwell rigged and eyepins added to gratings. 6 running rigging lines attached as per instructions 2 of which get rigged to the Main sail as far as I can make out, will obviously have to double check the poor rigging plans just to be sure.
The Hull architectural sides are all permanently fixed.
Slowly coming together

SOLEIL ROYAL 1669 The most intricate Painting process, its great to get back on her after the festive period 👍🤺⚓

2 hours ago, Baker said:

Nice work 

Thank you very much 👍 

Lower Deck detail finished on the SR even though this deck won't be visible.

26x24pdrs & 6x18pdrs rigged.
32x Cannon ball carriages(stained in Walnut) with 160 Cannon balls, 4x14mm Barrels & 8x10mm barrels.

Next stage fitting the 2nd deck.