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Hello, Model Ship World! My name is Marc and I hail from NYC. While I am new to the site, I am not a novice to the hobby. Owing to the early growth of my two children, and the development of my career in woodworking, it has been some time since I built a ship model. About sixteen years, in fact! Most of my hobby time, in the evenings, has been devoted to a series of woodworking and furniture projects, which fall under the umbrella of something I refer to as the Heirloom Furniture Project - a legacy project for my kids to inherit sometime far down the road, I hope! Despite my interest in that, and my role as an active and involved Dad, I never stopped reading and acquiring books about my particular interest in ships and ship modeling: the 17th C. ship-of-the-line, and particularly French naval architecture of that period. My recent discovery of Pinterest has really accelerated my understanding of the unique design differences in the stern architecture of the French first and second rates. For anyone who's curious, my Pinterest page titled French Vaisseaus can be found under my member name Tafferal. The imagery I have been able to compile, there, has made it possible for me to begin designing a build that I have long been grappling with. Here's the link: https://www.pinterest.com/tafferal/french-vaisseaus/ This will not be a fully-framed scratch build, but rather an extensive modification of Heller's Soleil Royal. I plan to test out my "Theory of the Ship," in plastic, so that I might re-create the ship, in wood, with all the scratch-built bells and whistles, when I eventually retire. This will be my second build of the Heller kit. The first was begun at the age of eight; very cautiously, I proceeded to the main deck level where I stopped the build, understandably, until I had developed enough skill to competently complete the upper works. As a teenager, I completed everything up to the masting and rigging. After college, I finally finished the model and had a very nice case made to house it. I have been transporting it from apartment to apartment for the past twenty years. It is, in my opinion, a very carefully fit and assembled model (no injection marks, gaps or flash lines) that is impeccably painted. It is not, however, a realistic depiction of the ship, or of a sailing ship, in general. That notwithstanding, I, like many others before me have become completely captivated by the conjectural splendor of what the actual vessel must have been like. The short-comings of the Heller kit have been thoroughly documented on a number of forums. I'm assuming that most who come to read this thread are already well acquainted with the inherent omissions and short-comings of the plastic kit. Unlike so many others, though, I believe that there lies within the kit, great potential to build an accurate scale model of a French first-rate ship from the 1660s. Now, it bears mentioning that I have read the forum moderator's post on overly ambitious build threads, and I can certainly appreciate and agree with the thinking, there. This is going to be an ambitious build! I expect it to go on for quite a number of years. This is not, however, a passing fancy. I am a devotee of incremental progress: whatever little can be accomplished, most evenings of the week, gradually adds up to a thing taking shape. My main obstacle, until now, had been the difficulty in fully visualizing what I believe the original intent of Jean Berain's well known drafts of the SR's stern and quarter galleries to be. I will expound on my theory of the ship in a moment, however, I'd like to say a word or two about why this project has legs for me. The kit I am using for this build is one of the early pressings from the 70's, by Heller. It, initially, belonged to my next door neighbor who was a kind of mentor to me when I was young. Mark Hansen was an outstanding modeler of all kinds of military craft, but he especially loved the sailing ships. He gave me a pretty solid foundation on what was and was not appropriate to incorporate on a sailing ship model. It was his SR that I first spied on the top shelf of his hobby room. I was instantly captivated, and from that point forward perennially obsessed with this single vessel, in a way that I still don't fully comprehend. Mark helped me build my first SR. He intended to tackle the kit in his retirement, but he never made it. Cancer took him in his late 50s. I have never known a person to be more generous with his time, and his memory remains dear. I'm dedicating this build to him, as it is quite possible I would never have found fulfillment in the trades, if not for his influence. MY THEORY OF THE SHIP Soleil Royal's keel was laid down at Brest shipyards in 1666, as part of Minister to the Navy, Colbert's, aggressive reconstruction and restructuring of Louis XIV's navy. She was launched in 1668, and completed a year later in 1669. Her length on deck is listed as 164.5 antiquated French pieds, with a breadth of 44.5 FP. Using a conversion factor of 1.066, this translates to 175 modern, English feet by 47' 5" in breadth, at the main beam. She displaced 2,400 tons, and her draft measured 23.5 FP, or 25 EF. As a side note, I must mention that I am in the process of establishing a point person at the Musee de la Marine, so that I might ask specific questions about my source material. So far, I have not received any reply to my inquiries. For the moment, though, I'm assuming that these L.O.D. dimensions I am giving are, indeed, the L.O.D., and not some other specific measurement. This will, for the sake of scholarship and my future build in wood, be clarified. However, for the purpose of this build, it doesn't really matter; the kit hull halves are what they are, and in fact, the kit L.O.D. pretty exactly corresponds with 175 EF. In the end, though, the requirements of this particular build will necessitate a certain degree of fudgery to create the impression I am after. There will be small additions and subtractions - all to be explained in the next few posts. Her designer and builder was Laurent Hubac, and her initial armament is listed as 120 guns. As a shipwright, Monsieur Hubac was noted for building warships that were considerably wider than those of his contemporaries. This owed to his belief that the added width improved the handling characteristics of these large ships. Soleil Royal was, indeed, said to he a good sailing ship. One year earlier, another ship by M. Hubac was launched at Brest, and initially christened Le Royal Duc. With the establishment of the French rating system, in 1671, the ship was re-named La Reyne. Her listed dimensions are as follows: L.O.D., 155 FP, by 42 FP on the main beam. Using the above metric, this translates to a L.O.D. of 165' 3" in English feet and a maximum beam of a hair under 44' 9". She displaced 2,000 tons and her draft is listed as 22' 10" FP, or 24' 4" EF. Her initial armament was listed as 104 guns. The two ships are of a similar size, displacement and rating. However, unlike SR, there exist two highly detailed Van De Velde portraits of La Reyne, showing her from the starboard stern quarter, as well as, the port bow, broadside. It is immediately apparent that the design of La Reyne's stern and quarter galleries is markedly different from SR. Also, as is to be expected, the arrangement of her gunports is significantly different from what is known about SR, and the arrangement of her guns. The value of these Van De Velde portraits, for me, has to do with the wealth of hull detail that is apparent (and glaringly omitted in the Heller, and vis-a-vis, the incomplete Tanneron model upon which it is directly based), as well as the ship's sheer line and presence on the water. In pen and wash, one can see a significantly more stout vessel, in La Reyne, with a notably lower sheer line, as compared to Tanneron's interpretation of Berain's designs for SR. As a side note, there is a Belgian on another site who has outlined his build plans for converting Heller's SR into La Reyne of 1671. What he is proposing is absolutely attainable, as the VDV drawings are remarkably clear, especially when combined with another period drawing of La Reyne's stern that shows the ornament for what it is - if not, remotely, to scale. Like me, this gentleman sees the potential in Heller's kit for a sound scale model, although his build will necessitate re-configuring the armament. As am I, he is still in the research stage, but I will be following his build and posting links, as appropriate. I want to say, from the outset, that the question of SR's armament - whether 120 guns upon launching, or 104 at the time of her demise - is not one that I plan to resolve with this build. I will be using the moulded kit hull halves and upper bulwarks. I will be making extensive modifications to those parts, and completely scratch-building the entire stern and beakhead bulkhead. Heller's kit, like Tanneron's model, is pierced for 110 guns. I suppose I could omit the two lower bow chase ports, but that would only bring me down to 108. Leaving them out would be a largely arbitrary decision without any clear basis in fact. In the end, my ship will carry 110 guns. There are just certain constraints of working with the pre-established port locations of the plastic hull that I am not willing to overcome. This is the first and most glaring. I am recycling what I can of the kit because the essential lines of the hull and tumblehome are fairly representative of period practice, and of course, it is an enormous time saver to avoid the complete scratch-building of a hull. Ultimately, what I am aiming to achieve, is what I believe to be the correct interpretation of Berain's stern and quarter galleries, as well as the decorative frieze of the upper bulwarks. In the course of the build, I will also add correct period detail - correctly scaled - to the hull, head, decks and guns, while completely re-masting and rigging the ship, according to the guidance of Lees and Anderson. A few gunports, give or take, will not detract from the impression of a ship that sits slightly lower in the water, on a notably broader beam, with noticeably lower sheer; in other words, a ship that won't capsize from the recoil of her own broadside. My ship model will bear a resemblance to the Heller kit, but I hope to far exceed it in ornamental magnificence and correct period detail. What I'm going for is essentially this: This is a work from a twentieth century artist, I believe from the 1950's, who must have been similarly infatuated with SR. I believe that he correctly depicts the configuration of SR's stern. Although, I must say that even if it were the case that she were almost completely painted blue above the lower, main wales - I will not be depicting her, as such. More on that later. In future posts, I will outline what exactly my theory of the ship entails, as well as, my supporting documentary evidence. I will then discuss exactly what I intend to do with the Heller kit, in order to bring all of this about, and then I will share with you the drawings that I have been working on, that will serve as the basis of my modification plan. I've been corresponding with Dan Pariser quite a bit lately, and he has prevailed upon me that I would be much better served digitizing my hand-drawn images so that I could more easily develop them in Corel Draw, for example. He is right, and I will. After not hearing from me for such a long time, I have to credit Dan for being so generous with his knowledge and resources. He and Mark Hansen are two of a kind! So, I must first create a scale "field" - as opposed to a line and body plan (not necessary because I'm not framing) - upon which I can layer all of the new detail. There will be some learning there, naturally, but I will share what I've arrived at, so far, in future posts. Thank you all for taking an interest in this thread and I look forward to hearing whatever you might have to say on the subject. I have also read the moderator's post on forum etiquette, when commenting on a thread or post; I am not nearly as brittle as the plastic I will be working with, so please don't labor too much in your replies. Just tell me what's on your mind. All the best, Marc

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 cadets´ 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 ...

I just purchased the Heller, come to find out all the instructions are in French! Any way someone could either send me the instructions in English or share with me how to get them?

Just recently started this kit after finally finishing Heller 1/100 Victory. What a change from 18th century rig and cannons. The decks are crammed with manual brace winches and steam-driven winches for halyards and cargo cranes. Kit Summary: Hull halves crammed across the kit box diagonal; I think they must have wanted to use the same box size as Passat kit. The stem and lowermost rudder mount were bent because the diagonal really is slightly too small. Kit includes thermoplastic sails. Kit does not include blocks, or any representation of turnbuckles for shrouds and backstays. Aside from sprues holding the 5 decks (foc'sle deck, fwd well deck, bridge deck, aft well deck, poop deck) and some hatch covers, there are only six parts sprues four of which are identical - a very tiny pile compared to the 21+ sprues for Victory. The instructions are good for assembly, with many fine diagrams showing what goes where, but rigging details are sparse. The good news is that Heller did not scatter the rigging instructions all through the assembly drawings but instead devote several drawings at the end to rigging: stays; shrouds and backstays; lifts and braces; buntlines and halyards. The bad news is that belaying points are in Heller's patented blurred microprint. Also the proper connection of Jarvis brace winches is not shown i.e. leading blocks. At this point I must mention that Heller's engravers depicted the steel hull plates nicely, but they mysteriously disappear below the waterline. It bothered me enough that I bought Evergreen 0.005" sheet and cut it into plates which I glued on individually. It looked like hell at first, but after some caulking (acrylic painter's caulk squeezed out of the tube via a very small hole drilled in the cap end to provide a very small bead) and painting it actually looks pretty good if I do say so. I have joined the hull halves and painted the black/white/red colour scheme. I have painted and washed and varnished the decks and I am busy painting various bits of deck machinery and steel bulkheads. I need to attach it to a stand before gluing in the decks, though. One question for anyone who may have built this kit: there is a little auxiliary bridge off the after storm gangway with a second binnacle. Around two sides of this bridge there are rows of something similar to plant pots (?!) outside the railings. They are hollowed out. They do not appear to be for something to glue into as far as I can see in the instructions. Anyone know what they might be? The only thing I can think of is, possibly, fire buckets? I will try to figure out how to attach some pictures later; it's late now.

Greetings to everyone! This kit needs no introductions, as it is an old Heller, with many issues. In fact I have made, and/or attempted to kitbash this kit many times in the past. So basically the simple plan is this: repeat all the methods I used on the bomb ketch, with the experience and skill I got from that kit to the Royal Louis. The main issue this kit has, which had to be addressed is the horrendous wood grain that covers the entire side of the ship. It is off scale, and actually shouldn't exist at all. Plus the over the top wales that had to be trimmed down as well. With these out of the way, some modifications are needed on the bow, like re positioning the holes of the anchor lines to a more conventional place, better staircases, knees to hold the upperdecks up etc. Trying to match the model in the Musee de la Marine perfectly is not my intend, chiefly because I don't like its color scheme. Here you can see the first difficult step: The entire ship has been sanded down, and every surface smoothed down. The wales were reduced as well. When planks need to show up, I'll draw them with pencil just like in the Bomb ketch.

Hi All, Yesterday arrived this nice kit and I thought let make a build log from my progress. I havent seen this kit here on the forum yet so maybe it fun for other to see how much I'll struggle to get this job done. And maybe others will give me some ideas and recommendations. It is my 3rd kit that im going to build and seems pretty difficult. And most probably its going to be more difficult when I will start with the rigging as far as I can see I will have to make some modifications to get that job done. I think I will order a dremel or such thing to drill some holes where needed, but thats for later. In the next couple of days I will start with some primer on the decks and hull and start painting the canons (there are 74). I will try (as I im trying to do with my Revell Bounty kit as well) to make the ship look like its used. The kit the Heller develloped is the Le Glorieux at the time it was still from the French. This ship has been in a war in the Caribean during the time that the French and Spanish tried to conquerer Jamaica. But the English won and took the Le Glorieux in the fleet (so far about the hostory of this ship) He some pictures of the kit: The box The hull The sails, I'm not sure if I will use these. I like to make real sails but this kit is from plastic and I dont know if the masts can handle the weight of real sails. I printed some drawings in A1 format for a nice reference Well I hope everybody will enjoy following this log. I will try to show the first progress soon. Grtz Ray

Hey 1st time here. Hornblower, Master and Commander, Empire total war, Napoleon total war inspired build. I live within 30 mins of the Hms Trincomalee. So here it is my first attempt at a model ship of the line. Comments and crit welcome. Started it on Tuesday.

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:

20th February 2020 I started this build almost exactly 7 years ago (February 2013) but parked it after perhaps 2 or 3 months for a variety of reasons. Every once in a while I’d half-heartedly take another look but, with no end of other calls on my time – a house renovation, a large garden, a family – it was always easier to justify further procrastination. I finally got going again this January 2020 and am enjoying it immensely this time. One of the reasons I parked it, to be honest, was demoralisation - I hadn’t really appreciated what building a 1:100 Victory would entail and there are some very tedious, repetitive tasks from the outset. I think I was probably expecting it to be something like building planes as a child just with more and different parts. Also, the poor Heller instructions had me scouring the web straight away and landing on Pete Coleman’s site, which was both a blessing and a bane. For those who didn’t ever see it, it was like this site, full of examples of truly extraordinary skill and craftsmanship. The trouble was, having seen what I should do, I couldn’t possibly just whack this together straight out of the box, as intended, and that meant hours and hours on small modifications lay ahead. However, it was always parked, not abandoned! I should say from the outset that this is my first go at high quality model-making. Other than helping my progeny with the odd bit of model-based homework I haven’t touched a model kit in perhaps 45 years. I chose the Victory for sentimental reasons, inspired by the books of Patrick O'Brian, not realising that this is probably the Everest of plastic sailing ship models. In fact the intention was that this would be the only kit I’d ever build, it was a project for one wet and miserable winter rather than a hobby. Who knows, that may change by the time I’ve finished the Victory (assuming I ever do). So, the object of this build log is two-fold; it’s partly to share my learning with anyone else in the same position, novice’s taking on this huge challenge; and partly to seek advice, as I go along, from the many experienced, expert modellers on this forum. It may help if I say what I’m aiming for. I’m not too bothered about true historical or nautical accuracy, just want a really nice looking ship at the end of the day. I’m unlikely to spend much if any time adding features below decks that can’t be seen, but I am making the ‘usual’ modifications like hull thickening, the admirals’ entry and altered side steps. It almost goes without saying that I’m constantly looking at the fantastic work of Dafi, Foxy, Bishophobbies and a few others, though I’m expecting my results to be more modest. That's enough of the intro - in a moment I'll start adding build content.

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. .

Hi. New here. I see that any medium of ship can be shown here as a build. Mine will be from the Heller Kit, but with Dafi's etch sets. Will also scratch build most of the deck detail from the lower deck to the poop deck. Materials used will be the plastic, PE and resin. Some of the etch I will be using. Will be altering the hull steps to the later part of Victory's career. Also using evergreen and syrin rope, blocks and other items. Hope you find this Interesting. Foxy

Hi there, I've been working on this for a while - there is a full comprehensive build article here: http://www.bishophobbies.com/category/showcase/hms-victory/ Here are some pictures of where the build is at today:

Hello again! Another tiny and old Heller kit, a small sailing ship representing the Mediterranean "tartane" type. The kit is not actually that bad. The yards were unusable and had to be made anew. The mainmast was also changed a bit. the plastic sails were also no good. Other than that I did very few modifications.

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:

I had a build log on the now apparently defunct "HMS Victory Modeller's Knowledge Repository..." by Pete Coleman, but all this is gone now. I thought I'd just show a handful of progress shots, and the completed project. I never could have built her like she came out without that web site; it's a shame about it. For any readers contemplating a build, know that there are now available seven sheets of brass etch to enhance the kit. Everything from accurate shroud chains to nice stanchions to trigger locks for the cannon. They are superlative, although I only ordered two as this was my first model in decades and I had never seen brass etch to that point in time. You can find the brass etch here: http://www.dafinismus.de/plates_en#anker2 Never served thread before. After reading about serving machines I made one out of my old meccano. Here are the first served shrouds around the foremast head. The deadeye strops are brass etch. I later changed the jeer block lashings to natural colour, just to make them jump. I bought this kit in the early 80's. The decals crumbled to bits when I wet them, so I ordered adhesive vinyl lettering for the figurehead. I painted the false panels blue instead of black because I liked the look with all the other blue trim. The brass etch binnacle, with (barely visible) lantern and compasses. Home-made post and rails at the poop deck ladders. Syren 2mm blocks on the cannon tackle. Larger brass rod belaying pins so my big clumsy hands could tie off to them. Notice the brass etch boarding pikes on the mainmast. Hammock netting from HobbyLobby, on brass etch stanchions. Added brass handrails down the main companionway ladder. First look at masts plunked in dry assembled. Looking like a ship! Lower shrouds complete. Psychedelic mizzen ratline guide from cereal box. Why not the blank side, you ask? I have no idea now. Home-made topsail yard parral. Nearly there! Decided to rig bowlines too, hitched to yards. Copied Blue Ensign's idea to make little Lord Nelson and Captain Hardy figures. Faces aren't very good but ok to naked eye. Had a cast acrylic case made for her, atop a cherry cabinet I made for the purpose. Painting above is Geoff Hunt's "England Expects".

PART 1 It has been a long time since I worked on any of my boats, and it will be a while before I can continue on them, but I needed to do something, so I picked out my Heller Siganot kit for a quick build. This is a model of a ~42’ French two masted gaff rigged fishing schooner in 1/60th scale. Sorry, I forgot to take a picture of the kit contents. It includes the paint, but I don’t know how old the kit is, quite by the box wear, so I may use my Vallejo Paints. I may have to make new decals, also, the ones provided in the kit are black, and will not stand out well on a black hull. The box art also shows a slightly different pain scheme, with the white trim, not a color provided in the kit. First was gluing the hull halves. The fit was quite good. I’m using Faller glue. Next I built the boat’s tender. As a general note, yes I’m getting a bit too much glue on the joints. My hands shake a bit, and sometimes this affects my glue application. I need to get some liquid glue, in addition to the thicker Faller type. Next I assembled the stand. The pedestals had ejector marks on one side, so I put a piece of 400 grit sandpaper flat on the bench, and sanded that side in a circular and back and forth motion. A figure 8 motion is better, but these parts are small and difficult to hold. There is a supplied name plate, but I’m going to wait until the boat is mostly done to attach it, as the keel sits at an angle, so the pedestal openings are not the same height, and I’m not to the point of setting the hull on the stand, to see which “direction” makes the hull level, nor which side of the boat turns out looking better. Now I found a problem. Heller’s instructions, have you set the tender inside the stern, for display. This would prevent sailing the boat, in real life, and is also not really true to life. If the boat was moored the tender would be used to get to shore. If docked, they might pull in in, I’m not sure. In any case, if sailing the tender would be at best towed behind, or perhaps left at the mooring. I'm still debating displaying the sails as set or stowed. Not a real problem, except, they have a untextured mounting boss on the deck, for positioning the boat for display! It would not look good, if I decide to build her with the sails set. Above is a picture of the boss, with it partially whittled away. Using a curved #22 blade, I carefully carved it off, even with the deck surface. I used a large razor saw blade to cut in the planning grooves. I then dragged the saw lengthwise over the area and the surrounding deck to blend it in with the molded in texture. After some cleanup, it blends in well. The hatch has already been attached. Today when I went in, I had a small shock. There is a small hollow cube that attaches to the deck, near the foremast. I think it is the air pipe for the live well. Last night I glued the two halves together and left them clamped in a clothespin, to setup. This morning the clothespin was sitting where I left it on the bench, but there was no part in it! It has apparently gone to that great part heaven in the sky! I looked, but my shop is a horrible mess, from moving stuff, while I renovate it, and it has fallen in some crack, and disappeared! At least it will not be hard to make another one. The last part today was installing the deck and a forward bulkhead. Hopefully that won’t disappear too!

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.

I'm new to MSW and ship building. I have done a lot of modeling over the years. And I have found out that ship building is the 'meat and potatoes', if you will, of modeling. I have lost a lot of my earlier photos of the cannon being built and the hull construction. I followed pete coleman example and others to get ideas for details. Books are needed to build these ship models if you want to even try to be accurate. I'll be submitting a lot of my photos. Many of which will be rather boring but I want to preserve them somewhere other than Facebook. All comments and tips are welcome!

Hi there, I've started a build log for this ship on my website: www.bishophobbies.com You can find the log on this page: http://www.bishophobbies.com/category/showcase/hms-victory/ I will post here to note my progress. Cheers, Paul

ANOTHER H.M.S. Victory build log! But this one will be different. I’m going to skip all the hull construction and shroud installation and climb right up into the rigging. I haven’t 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. I’m 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 1990’s 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 90’s 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.

Hey all, I have been lurking around here for quite some time. I've posted before but real life and work just kept my bench time at bay. Hopefully now I may have some time for myself - or at least I'm pretty determined to make it so ... Tempus Fugit on many levels in seems! I hadn't meant to open this thread so soon, but I've been struggling to get an answer for the most basic of questions (well I think it is)? My see me out project is that of the HMS Victory, in this instance the Heller 1/100th scale version, lots of reasons, both for the subject and for the medium - non of which I shall bore you with right now. Suffice to say I'm trying to be very grown up about this project? I have in fact had the kit itself for over a year now ............................. As proof of honest intentions.................... and to show those who've never seen the box - it's a whopper!!! Now most importantly, I have procured a bag of those little plastic fellows - just because I think they're great and add a fun twist ... (this is not going to be a museum piece build). It took me over a year but I finally managed to justify the cost and reasoning to purchase a set of Daniels etch sheets - so far telling myself that I'm supposed to be a modeller ergo I resisted the resin - this may have been a mistake ... we'll see? In a fit of excited anticipation I made these ............ as yet unproven and unbloodied - not strictly true as I managed to injure myself during the cutting out of the frames! oopsey .... soz! I didn't think they'd take up so much room in the thread - but you can see 'em? I've just ordered some weird special scissors - "Dental Castroviejo Noyes Spring Suture Scissors Curved". I have it on the best authority these are the dogs when it comes to rigging, plus it was he that told me to buy them (just a fiver). Anyhoo .................... all this brings me to the question!!!? ............. where in the UK ('tis where I am located) is the best place - both price and service are a consideration, .................... to source aftermarket items such as Thread, Ropes, Dead-eyes, Blocks and general model accessories such that I may need?? - Pretty please - and thanks. KBO ... Andi.

Hello folks, as I am still in the reconvalescence hospital I have to reorder my mind and brain after a little stroke. Due to this I decided to add some fast test project in here, due to the fact, that I'll have no possibility to build - I just can draw (analogue on paper). So I bought the book about the recennt exhibition in the Deutsches Technikmuseum (as the German version was not avaible at Amazon) and picked out LE TERRIBLE as a fascinating project. to try my restskills of drawing. The LE TERRIBLE has 14 of the 36pfder gunports and was furnished with 100 - 104 guns. The heller kit is perfect for both - as both have got a 14-gun port 36pounder large gun deck - at the LE TERRIBLE 1670 some more rework onto the hull will have to happen. The half of the other eight ship are present with three drawings - here the little list as we find in where wonderfully enlarged drawings of mostly (T_ransom/G_allion/S_idegallery) and just the very basic facts: POMPEUX 1706/08 (T) AMBITIEUX 1691 (T/G/S) BRILLANT 1690 (T/G/S) PRUDENT 1697 (T/G) TERRIBLE 1692 (G/S) FROUDOYANT 1723 (T/G/S) SOLEIL ROYAL 1669 (T) SAINT LOUIS 1693 (T/G/S) So here we have the side gallery of LE TERRIBLE and the gallion From some distance these both look quite normal but in detail they offer their horrifying character: The anchor bars collumn adding a cerberus, a bizzare monster and snakes converting to leafs. Our beloved Triton is eaten by a horrifyingseamonster thats tails eands in a blind monsters head The figurehead is a monstourous face in a clawended "horror-pancake" guarded by two furies - sa you can see fromout the coin it is a hughe enlagement of these drawings. The LE ROYAL THERESE seems to be a misidentification as the ink seems to picture the 1670 (68-70gun) LE TERRIBLE as Marc @Hubac's Historian told me. So by aid of this I want to reconstruate the transoms courronament. What do we know anout this transom without having the drawing prospect? We will have got to have five tiers - the Upper Dech (UD) is the one under the coronnement with a balcony. I think to add some awning/sunblind (as used to from SAINT PHILIPPE - but as the ship was build at Brest at the Atlantic ocean this feature is questionable, as SP was stationed in the mediteranias sea - so it might be superluous... or authentic baroquelike luxurious?). Then there comes a secomd balcony with collumns (number?) on the Middle deck (MD) followed by the last row of windows on the Lower Deck (LD). Under this there are the two or four gunports aft. Courronament UP (balcony with awning) MD (balcony with columns) LD (windows only) lower transom with gunports (2 or 4) and stern Let's start with the couronnament: Certainly the couronnament will be framed at the sides by the "eaten triton" coming from the side gallery and needs two podestals for the sidelaterns and one for the main laterne - in the middle. So over the courennament there will be a bow up to the stand of the big laterne and on this stand a floral/monstourous mixture mirrowlike on both sides leading up to the foot of the laterne. The 1670th drawing looks like a "structure" surrounded by halbers, pikes, trompets, flags, standarts and other long weapons used contemporary. So my first idea is to sourrounding this copied and horzentalisized face and medusian detail (copied ealiely from the sidegallery) only into a ring of the weapons, flafgs, &ct. Or I do take the figure head and "roll it out" so the monstourouse face is guarded by two furies (in a ring of waepons, flags, &ct.)? I also think about taking the fury in the center of the installation on the couronnament and surround it by these dragonheaded snakes ( these leaving the eye craves of the monster) so the ugly bat wings can overshadow the area of the encouonnament and under this a lot of destroyed war goods can build da layer. It is quite freedesigned - is it thought to modern and not contemporary enough? What do our specialists do say? ( Thanks for our intrest, ( being patient with my shipproject hopping) and I promisse to post more due to the fact that the coloured copy of the side galery is neary ready.) I am happy about any ideas as my brain suffers more than my rest of the body so ceativity has gone into lost - also remembering thinks. So any idea is welcome to me. If you are interested in the exhibition itself it is in the museum till September 2019 - https://sdtb.de/museum-of-technology/exhibitions/architectura-navalis/

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 Gédéon and decorated by François 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... 😉 Have fun and take care. _______ *p = pieds 324,8mm (106,5% of a GB-foot) ** pfd\£[ivre] is 489,5g

during the doldrum that I've been on for the last few weeks, my son gave me this neat little model. he bought it at a flea market for $10.00. the model was untouched....all of the parts were still in the plastic bag inside. looking at the condition of the box, I thought it might be an older kit, so I did a bit of digging. there are no mold dates anywhere, other than the 'Heller' embossment on the inside of one of the hull halfs. to my surprise, the kit may only be about five or so years old.......it wasn't immediately listed on the Heller site, but going in a little deeper, showed it along with several other destroyers and battleships. you have to pardon me here.......I'm kind of a history nut when it comes to plastic kits. there are many kits out there that could be considered collector's items.....not that I care that much {I'd likely build the darn thing anyway}, but it's a nice touch of nostalgia. I've built so many plastic models over the years.......Revell is a walk down memory lane for me. I've not built too many Heller kits....that also goes for French ships. I was going to closet this kit.....I know that I have other 'fish' to fry.......but I've seen some really super builds going on here lately. the arms race between Greg and Carl is really cool to watch {my money's on Greg, BTW}.......and Danny.......well, he's taken to card like fish to water...his latest one is gonna be epic! Kevin's HMS Fife is shaping up to be a super looking model......and shares a sort of similarity to the Jeanne D'Arc. the Jeanne D'Arc is a helicopter cruiser and troop transport, all rolled into one. dominated by a large flight deck aftward, she has the capability of launching two Puma, and two Gazelle helicopters or four Super Frelons. during war time, she could house eight to ten helos. I found a really great article on the vessel: http://navalanalyses.blogspot.com/2016/02/warships-of-past-jeanne-darc-helicopter.html built back in the 50's, she was named La Resolue. she wasn't renamed to the Jeanne D'Arc until 1964, when the cruiser of that name was decommissioned.

I started this about 3 months ago after finishing my Victory of 1765, while not up to par with some of the wooden builds I've seen it looks okay Here's a current picture and the link to my album. Michael D https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipOILn2VCXaodxNscquqLtI5G8q6YXOkR21cmpvKZRI43H-OsgHUANk9p472cH-GsQ?key=OWszVld0a0M4LUZKZnNvTWZ1eC1aSXJDY2FiOF9R