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Hi everybody! I have been looking for La Belle Poule from Heller in scale 1/200. This ship has been out of production for a while and is becoming very rare. There have been some for sale on a french website for a very good price (20-30 EUR) but the problem was that the seller was either not willing to ship it to Belgium or the item was already sold. So, my question for you, do any of you happen to have this kit or know anybody that wants to get it of their hands for a good price? There are some models out there but I'm not prepared to pay ā¬60 for a kit in that scale from the seventies... I can get a "Le superbe" or "Glorieux" kit for that kind of money with twice the amount of parts and in a bigger scale. So please, any tips are very welcome! Thank you Grtz, Lukas.
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Late summer 1805, the sun is burning inexorably from above, the wind is completely asleep, the sea is smooth as glass. The dispatches have already been exchanged. The master of the small cutter has just returned to his tiny vessel. Behind it there is towering the enormously massiv silhouette of the huge black and ocher striped three decker. Through the open gunports the lashed up guns can be seen. Also the officers' cabins ports are wide opened by the order of the Captain's to ensure an optimal ventilation of the hot and steamy lower decks. Clatter of activity on some guns being ran out cuts through the silence. The rumble of the heavy guns rolling over the decks and the trampling of countless bare feet and the short shouted commands supported by a multitude of hand signs originate from the ordered gundrill for new gun crews and their officers. In competition between the three decks they are fighting for the fastest rate of firing. The rest of the ships crew is occupied with cleaning and mending duties. The holystone are scratching on the decks. Above all the sails hang slack in their yards. No breath of wind moves them. They are nestled heavily over stays and fighting tops. The captain took advantage of the hot calm to put up all the canvas possible for airing. One of the studdingsails is taken in, the spar tied up with its inner end against the shrouds, in order to mend something on its fittings. Sitting on a swing seat pendent from the fore top, a crew member just is finishing painting over with ocher the originally black coloured mast loops. On the poop Captain Hardy monitors the young cadetsĀ“ training in navigation, supported by Lord Nelson, who uses the opportunity to entertain the cadets with stories of his actions and the ideas of his tactical concepts. But in the back of everybodys mind there is just one question - When will there be wind again ... -
Hello friends of the unusual today II start a short cut: SR2SP ! We all knoe HsH's enormous rebuild of the SR out of the box towards her real apearance. - and this remembered me on my mistake 40 years ago when I at adding the last flag torn my SR from the desk down on the floor accidentaly. I also read in Cederic L. rebuild to Le Rheyne and both together motivated me to plan a rebuild of SR as Sankt Philippe - short cut in here : SP- I'm still awaiting my Ancre monographie. It might be possible: -
Praefix: https://youtu.be/eduLvBaAbVs Dear friends of the re-use of the Heller SR kit! "OVER THE WAVES I AM EXCEPTIONAL" This writing was placed on the mizzen mast of her - and due to my honorable colleague @Hubac's Historian /Marc and it's distinguished work I am here with this second baroque project by pure curiosity to the overwhelming decor on the pick of the luxurious splendour - untill the laws of nature and naval arcitecture vetoingly entered the stage of history. Yours HdS, Berlin in spring 2019 The first ROYAL LOUIS we do know about with data giving us the oportunity for modelbuilding is usualy the RL-1692 - a less decorated ship than her predecessor from 1668. But our situation isn't as bad as we may think. This vessesl was called "Vaisseau du premier rang extraordinaire" designed and constructed by Rodolphe GĆ©dĆ©on and decorated by FranƧois Girardon at Toulon. Launched on the 1st Feb.1668 she was rebuilt in 1677, went out of service in Jan.1691, renamed ROYAL LOUIS VIEUX and was broken up in 1697 at Toulon. Measuring data: Length/pp: 163'0" p* (52,95m) L/keel: 135'0" p (43,85m) Breadth: 44'4" (14,40m) Draft: 21'0" (6,82m) Planed with 104 guns (1668): Lower Deck: 12 x 36pfd** 16 x 24pfd Middle Deck: 26 x 18pfd Upper Deck: 26 x 12pfd Quaterdeck: 12 x 6pfd F'r'c'stl: 8 x 6pfd Poop: 4 x 4pfd (There are some other data like length of gundeck etc.) Laid down in 1666 it was planed with the most possible amount of decor as Colbert ordered to praise the king by its ships. The propaganda machinery of the sun king's army of artist still influenced our point of view making us to belief in "royal blue" (sic!!!) painted plankings. But only the cartushes with the three fleur-de-lys were painted in the expensive lapis lazuli blue of milled semi-precious juwely stones coming to france over the silkroad. (This last two sentences are, what I want to show to why something is as it is andwhat is the historical od te hnical reason for this.) The RL-1668 is pictred on several prints,engravings or ink drawings. Herrich de or was a permanent source of trouble, as LeBrun was used to add a rich decor the shipwrights get paniced (knowing the VASA case) about the additive wight ant the high metrecentic point. So the figures were craved empty inside and so fixed. That the decor was cut down on the open sea to safe wigth (as Mondfeld told us) is not clear. But patrs of the decoation elements werde reused at the RL of 1692 - so we have to be aware of this fact not to confuse this both ships! Due to this I can use the SR hull as a basis and adding some fancy decor I might come towards my goal to build a ship of full french baroque decor. This before with the 1670th years a more unpretentious kind of decoration took place as SOLEIL ROYAL shows to us. There are some pictures, but no technical drawing. So here we have got the possibility to reconstruct the ship - it is clear to me this is the hard road to travel. But an less boring one than the typical o.o.b. builds. I really dpn't know where my journey will end - at the moment I hope to be able to use the Heller hull as a basis for the rebuild; but it may also be my purpose and my fate to end up with the transoms glory only as one a part model. As the basis is allways the Heller SR kit so it is a kit bashing how much may even be in there at the end. The lowest battery own 14 openings as the Heller hullSR - but the drawings of the galion are not very easy to decipher. It will only be a hull model scaled in the 1/90th. B.t.w. the MONARQUE is in the row of pictures due to her equal structure and the clearness of the drawing. She also is a contemporary example of the optical ligthness of these tons of white oak, colour and leaf gold. (I have to take any possibility to give my strange beliefs some historical footnotes.) This project isn't made as a rush in you workshop with an arm full of rolled plans and wood, entering the branch and after being disappeared in a holy cloud of lightning covered sawdust you'll leave it with a shipmodel in your hand. It is a arthistorical trial to reconstruct a beloved period of shipbuilding killed by strange-minded pennypinchers and small-minded safty fanatics... š Have fun and take care. _______ *p = pieds 324,8mm (106,5% of a GB-foot) ** pfd\Ā£[ivre] is 489,5g
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Some background: I started this build a year and two months ago. I did some modeling when I was a kid, but discovered other joys of life when I reached puberty :-) In the meantime I settled down and decided to take it up again (I'm 30 years old). I decided to go for a challenge and went for the Heller Victory. I wanted to try all the new and exciting tools & techniques I did not have the money for when I was a kid. I started out using acrylics by brush, but invested in a good compressor and airbrush a couple of months ago. Too bad I did not have this at the start of my build! The finish is so much nicer! The goal is not to make a true to life representation of the actual ship, but a nice looking model in warm colours with lot's of detail that looks good under glass in the living room. Enough background, here are the pictures: You can clearly see half of the hull bee lines haven't received the sepia wash yet I use to give it more depth and a warmer tone. I also need to rework the figurehead a little bit. The white crown is a bit to big and the white horse needs some TLC as well. Otherwise, I'm very happy with the look of the ship! I used some styrene sheet to make the gun port thicker. I like that look even though it's out of scale. After a lot of trial and error, I finally settled on a style of gun carriage lashing. I used 2mm single blocks and Morope rigging chords. The most difficult part was making the two holes in the top blocks. I ruined quite a lot of blocks just to get these guns finished :-) Will need to order lot's more! I was not completely happy with my decks. The colour was a bit to pale, it missed some 'life', and some parts were damaged a bit. So, in a moment of temporary insanity, I went out and got a second Heller Victory kit. Maybe a bit drastic, but now I have spare parts for everything and this allows me to experiment a bit more. I tore out the old deck. This meant I also had to take out the four guns I tackled already, unfortunately. I redid the decks using the same technique, but this time I added two coats of MIG brown filter. This added a nice weathered wood tone. I'm very happy with the result, but judge for yourselves (the foto does not do it justice, though): The stanchions were made using 2mm eyelets and 0.1mm Morope rigging chord. -
I've finally found the time to reconstruct my build log after the great crash of 2013 Some of the pictures are lost so the log does not start at the beginning. This is my first serious foray into ship modeling. I say first serious attempt because 30+ years ago I built a Revell USS Constitution. But I was still in High School and not very concerned with accuracy or craftsmanship. I just wanted to finish the kit and display it. This kit of Soleil Royal was given to me as a gift way back then and I am just getting around to continuing building it. I am very much looking forward to a build that I can be proud of. Even though I know that my skills are not up to par with some of you I am trying to incorporate as much research and accuracy as I can muster in a plastic kit. Here are some of the pictures of what has been done. I'll try to summarize what I've done so far to catch everyone up. I decided to display the ship with all gunports closed to starboard and opened on the port side. Eventually I plan on setting just the fighting sails (topsails, mizzen, and perhaps the spritsail topsail) with the courses clewed up. I did not like the look of the eyebolts supplied with the kit so I replaced them with brass. The holes for them were drilled and the eyebolts pass completely through the upper wale. The ends will be trimmed and bent over to lay alongside the inner bulkhead. The ends will lay inside the gap between the hull and the upper bulwarks, in an area that needs to be filled anyway. Doing the eyebolts this way should also prevent any pullout cause by strain from rigging. I am leaving the lower hull unpainted for now until a proper cradle/base is finished. I don't want to ruin the paint job. It will be painted a dirty white to represent white stuff. I also drilled a hole through the bottom of the keel, roughly amidships, and fastened a threaded nut inside the hull over it prior to fitting the decks. This will take a bolt from the base to fasten the model down to it. I don't know how other people secure their models to the display bases so I just improvised with what I had on hand. The head grating in the bow has been noted by others to be a problem with this kit. It has no supporting structure to it and seems to be just floating there. I do not know how this would have looked with respect to ornamentations and design, so I have not decided what to do with this area yet. [/size] The decks went in easily. The kit has a series of stanchions along the centerline of the first battery deck to support the 2nd battery deck. There are none for between the 2nd and 3rd battery. As a result there is a lot of flex in the 3rd battery deck. Since there will be quite a bit of rigging fastened here that will produce an upward strain on the deck I added some extra support. I trimmed some sprue to length to make stanchions for the centerline to hold the deck up. And I added a boot (coat?) to the base of the mainmast to hold the deck down. The mast coat was fashioned from sheet styrene and quarter round molding. The masts are dry fit at this point. I do not think I will cement them to the step. I'm going to let the rigging hold them in. I added some shims beneath the hatch gratings to raise the gratings above the deck level to give the appearance of a coaming. All of the eyebolts for the decks were replaced with brass. . -
I am currently searching for these kits. Heller no longer makes the Sinagot or š»šš Cotre Kurun. I can find them in the US, but the postage is more than the cost of the kits. Seems a bit excessive for a cardboard box and plastic bits. I am in France. Any info would be much appreciated.
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I recently found a complete Heller Drakkar "Osberg" plastic model kit at a vide grenier. It's the version with the lighter yellow Heller panel on the top left of the box, so from about 1971! 5ā¬ seems like a bargain. As was standard, glue and rigging and paint are not part of the kit. l have three questions:- 1.) What glue, other than that currently sold by Heller online is appropriate for this kit? 2.) The notes say use Number 16 thread for the rigging. The inevitable Google search identifies how complex thread description can be. The only ā16ā I can find is a weight of 16, the equivalent of Tex of 105, denier 950, cotton count of 5 and a metric number 9. Is there a more suitable alternative ? 3.) The major pieces look very shiny. Is there any prep required before painting, other than a light sanding ? 4.) What paint is appropriate for a plastic model of this sort ? Many thanks in advance for your help.
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ANOTHER H.M.S. Victory build log! But this one will be different. Iām going to skip all the hull construction and shroud installation and climb right up into the rigging. I havenāt any choice really since there are no photos of that part of this build. I started this model in 1997 or so, it was my first ship model. Iām starting this build log January 10, 2015. H.M.S. Victory needs no introduction but I would like to place this model into the context of my personal background. In the 1990ās I was not even vaguely interested in ships, I was an aircraft nerd and I built 1/48 scale plastic aircraft kits. One day I bought a copy of The Price of Admiralty by John Keegan, a popular history book containing essays on different aspects of naval warfare illustrated with historical battles as examples. I got the book for the Battle of Midway content but upon reading the rest of the book I read about the Battle of Trafalgar for the first time and I was fascinated. Around the same time New York City hosted Op Sail again and I saw many traditionally rigged ships for the first time and this helped the fascination deepen. Finally, I had been reading Fine Scale Modeler since I was a kid and for a certain period in the 90ās they used to run this full page ad on the back page of every issue. Maybe you remember it. Another year went by and I couldn't shake the idea that I wanted to build this large daunting complex plastic kit. I finally got the kit and started building it. -
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. -
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 TĆ©mĆ©raire class designed for the French Navy by Jacques-NoĆ«l SanĆ©. 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 Ā£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 Collingwoodās 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 Naiadās stern. Moments later Naiadās topsail ripped apart in the howling wind and had to be hacked free; then she lost one of her staysails. By the time Naiadās 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. Belleisleās 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 Ā£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 Hellerās Le Superbe (80895), a TĆ©mĆ©raire 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. -
Hi, Im what I describe as a Re-Newbie, as it's been so long since my last kit model. I'm about to start on the Heller 1/100 HMS Victory. While this is plastic I'd like to add a set of wood decks. Simply because. Working with wood is no problem as I've been making scratch models of furniture for years. Usually 1/1 scale :-). I was a cabinetmaker until illness. But enough of that. I'm struggling to find any idea of how the planks were laid out, what size they should be, width and length, how far the treenails should be placed. Anything really. I'm not after Ć¼ber accurate just looks good. Can anyone help, with anything even just a link or decent image. Thanks Izzy
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Hello to everyone!!! my name is Matias, and I write from Buenos Aires, Argentina. yes that country, with so many political and financials problems right now! without importations, what make realy realy dificult, find tools and materials, not to mention models, no production, dollar very high, 10 to 1, so, do not want to bore you more, but I needed to put some background. This is my first post ever, and I thought that was time to show my tries, as the title says, to feed my hunger for details, I think that phrase describes the feelings of some of us. I bought a heller Victory a year ago, and started to get complicate the model, learning a lot about that I like so much, ships. Before this, I made 7 plastic kits, each one has a minor modifications, my goal for now should be to make my first build from scratch, Y think that's because here it's so much difficult find, and buy good models. Ok! so. Stop write boring things and straight to photos!!! Here is the general view, and the way she looks right now. you can see the leds and the interruptor, I bought that one, in a tiny, ancient, dusty, local hardware store o as it's call here, Ferreteria!. Everything started as a normal plastic model ship! And then it's gets more complicated. The first real hardware appeared, and a lot of research was necessary. here you can't find anything to buy and if you imported the most common is that never passes the customs. so the internet was the first information supplier! The new wood pieces started to mix with the plastic. And finaly I knew there no way back!. and the people who watch my progress saing.. so detail, and then it's are gonna hide it with a deck!, and I reply yes! but it just for the sake of practicing. Ok, feel free to criticize everything, I know she looks awfull, but those were my first steps. I shall be posting new progress soon!!! thank for watching! Matias J. Welsh
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