Nwanda

After a long hiatus caused not least be having to shut down the company for the statutory break, and wrestling with the worst heat wave and drought in living memory - i have 14 acres and all the effort of the years gone by is dying in front of my eyes, I am finally back on this monster. I must admit to having had, and still have, major misgivings about this kit, but shoulder to the wheel etc. and hopefully I can get to where I want to be. Whilst having been distracted, I have still been planning how to enhance this kit - in particular the inner decorations, and found these :

Apparently used for scrap booking, with a bit of cutting and pasting, I can liven the inner bulwarks and bulkheads up. I was also looking for 1/100 figures, which seem rather rare - and whilst browsing the local model shops websites, found these

They are Imai figures for the Nippon Maru, and include a set for manning the yards and a general set of deck cleaners, rope pullers etc - in excess 0f 100 figures for the princely sum of ZAR300 - about 15 GBP. I also managed to source locally a bunch of Artesina Latina parts - blocks, parrels, capstans etc at a cost each of 2 GBP

So now to work .........

Progress is being made ......

Main deck in place and deck furniture being installed. A lot more will need to be done to get the deck fully populated. i have bought two capstans to replace the anaemic items provided by Heller, the gun tackles will also add a suitable business.

Meanwhile, the accommodation enjoys some attention.....

Chequered flooring - I have no idea what the interior of the officers quarters on such a ship would be, but it is startling how much can be seen through the stern windows so an effort must be made

Printed these down to provide some colour on the floor and some paintings on the bulkheads - a landscape of the Loire valley, a view of the French fleet leaving harbour and a portrait of the Sun King in all of his finery. At this point the better half accused me of finally losing the plot ....

New bulkhead installed, pictures hung and carpets down. Now to make some very small furniture for what is now officially the great cabin

Got more gilding done, touch ups to follow

Must give Kudos to the better half for allowing this to happen to our dining room .....

Made a bit more progress, made the bland focsle forward bulkhead loomk a bit more elaborate. To do so I had to force this down my throat:

The embossed lead cap was then sacrificed thus:

Definitely not true to the original but it is French :-) I also added doors to the two ports, and lead  on their 

 roofs. I have no idea why Heller thought that the focsle would be open to the elements.... I am going to add a stove, sick bay in accordance with plans I found for a slightly later French 2 decker. Possibly some cabins for non coms as well

Started on the gilding - I used a Sharpies gold pen rather than a hairy stick, and am rather pleased with the outcome

I also had that artistic licence run amok and had decals made of the royal arms of France for a variation on the ensign:

After the initial work, I really looked at the smaller parts. Oh Dear! The blocks are horrible, the dead eyes are sad and worst off all, the kit is warped and fit is iffy at best. The instructions are in French, which is a mystery to me, but even for French speakers I would venture that they are vague ....

And did I mention some fit issues?

In order to address the lack of ring bolts, I had to think out of the box. With the SA Rand being very weak, the option of buying custom mades from overseas was too expensive. Luckily my local haberdashery had these (I believe generally used for ladies unmentionables):

With the application of a pair of side cutters, I had 150 eyebolts at a cost of R6 - which I would have had to pay about R200 for if ordered off of the internet. The end result:

In a moment of over enthusiasm I bought and have started building Hellers huge 1/100 scale Soleil Royal. Internet reviews indicated that the kit may have a few problems - I can confirm that it has a myriad of issues. As I am building this for myself I am allowing a fair amount of artistic licence (In other words I have no better idea than anyone else of what the original really looked like)

First the obligatory box shot for those who have not seen the kit:

And contents:

Construction started with the hull - all the gun ports for the lower battery and battery decks are closed off:

Then prime and paint the hull:

Robin, thank you for your kind input. I will go with the plain white ensign - it has a certain elegance about it, doesn't it?

Dear Mike could you be exsact as to dait to help me I have some good ref but do not wont to mislead you robin b

Robin, circa 1690? I believe that the concept of national flags was more "flexible"then than what we understand national flags to be?

In preparation for the building of the Heller Soleil, I have been doing some research on the correct Ensign and rank flags for a French warship of the period. Heller indicates a white flag with numerous fleur de lis on it, but flags of the world indicate that the normal ensign would be a plain white flag, and the multiple fleur de lis flag would only be flown when the sovereign was on board or when the ship was an Admirals flagship. Which is right?

Mike

Betty, a word in support of the encouragement you have been receiving from others. Although the complications may seem insurmountable at the begining, when the penny drops, and it will, the sheer logic of wooden sailing ships will become evident, and the cleverness of so much op them

Enjoy the experience