Soleil Royal by Hubac's Historian - Heller - An Extensive Modification and Partial Scratch-Build

[md1400cs]

Marc,

 

As always - a real pleasure checking in

[Hubac's Historian]

Nice to hear from you, Michael - thank you very much!

 

I present for you now, The Four Seasons:

 

I attempted to modulate their complexion to reflect their time of year.  I also wanted to incorporate silver gilt.  Winter is a natural fit for this treatment.  He has the same grey enamel wash coat that I used for the figurehead, and I then picked out the creases in his robe and his beard with silver.

 

I wanted, though, to experiment with silver gilt as a base-coat for red and green translucent washes.  I did a little experimenting:

I thought the middle selections were pleasing colors that allowed the silver to peak through.  The effect is similar to what you sometimes see with glass Christmas ornaments that are glazed with a metallic base color.  I like this well enough that I will incorporate this treatment selectively into the amortisement, as well as between the main deck guns where there are acanthus branches flanking each royal monogram escutcheon.

 

I am also painting the open-walk bulwark pieces, but these are particularly slow to cut-in, right down to the ground.

 

As always, thank you for stopping by.

Edited May 9, 2021 by Hubac's Historian

[yancovitch]

all i can say is wow....

[Hubac's Historian]

From the very beginning, this project has been an effort to apply context to the fragmentary imagery of Soleil Royal.  One thing that has puzzled me from the moment that I came into possession of Lemineur’s Vaisseaux Du Roi Soleil, is the cover art illustration of Soleil Royal.  Was the ship actually ever painted all blue?

 

As is well established for this project, by now, you all know that I believe this structural representation is of the refit of Soleil Royal in 1689.

 

I also make a strong argument for the likelihood of red vermillion and yellow ocher being prominent features of the refit color palette.  So, then, why might this refit representation be colored all blue?

 

I believe a strong clue may be found in Hyatt’s description of the Royal Louis, in 1677.  Therein, he describes the deadworks, above the waterline, as being painted all white, as a backdrop to the richly gilded ornamentation.

 

If one were to simply see a ship portrait or model of a French ship from this time, painted all white, but without understanding of that historic context (Hyatt’s description), then that might seem very strange.

 

But, then, here’s Soleil Royal, in gouache, represented as all blue.  What are we to make of that?  Well, I have a theory:

 

Perhaps, after Berain created the pen and ink drafts of the stern, quarters and bow - at the time of the refit - Pierre Vary was commissioned to put these drawings into color, according to the original color scheme of the ship between 1670-85.

 

My theory is that, as beacons of the Ponant and Levant fleets, respectively, Sr and the RL were originally painted in representative colors; blue for the Ponant fleet and white for the Levant fleet.  I am searching for a more concrete confirmation of that notion, in the historical record, but I have yet to find it.

 

Whether or not the refit SR was actually painted all blue above the lower main wales, remains an open question.  I suspect that ventre-de-biche had become a fixture on the lower two gun decks by the late 1680’s.  Perhaps in her original incarnation, though, SR really was painted all blue above the lower main wales.

 

It certainly makes for a striking presentation, as evidenced by a modeler calling himself Grymm on FineScale Modeler:

A link to the page:

http://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/7/t/68572.aspx

 

Maybe that is what this vaguely blue seeming portrait of a ship, pierced for 16  on the lower gun deck, is actually all about:

And, although the thumbnail, below, is black and white, the original is almost certainly a full-color portrait.

Also of interest, between these two portraits, is the marked similarity in the style of the wave painting.  Are both of these portraits by the same hand?  Is the color palette of the above portrait representative of the portrait, below?  Do both of these portraits represent the same subject?

 

As my theory currently stands, I believe the subject is either Soleil Royal or the Royal Louis.  So, which is it?  Well, if the actual portrait shows a blue ship or a white ship, we may just have an answer.

 

Edited May 10, 2021 by Hubac's Historian

[John Clements]

Those figures look really good and the whole scheme has a brightness and clarity with the colours you have used which looks far better than the overall red or blue finish. And that painting you found is a real gift and quite a challenge to replicate in the scale of the model sculpture. Really looking forward to seeing the end result on the stern panel.

[SJSoane]

Marc,

I have been out of touch lately, just catching up. Nice line of reasoning on the color question. I look forward to hearing if you find some other hints or leads on this!

 

Mark

[Hubac's Historian]

Thank you, John and Mark!

 

There is often a temptation to rush things along, a little, here and there.  I am always happy when I manage to resist.

 

The Four Seasons are secure now, and re-touched.  I used styrene cement, first, for a welded-bond, and then later allowed capillary action to draw-in thin CA for a little added insurance.  As compared with Berain’s drawing - absolutely, these figures are a little too broad.  The overall impression, though, is good and I think the adjusted posture of these figures conforms nicely with the new architecture:

 

Part of me wishes I had thought of the stylized false-window treatment earlier.  If I had, I probably would have done that throughout, as I like the way it looks, and it would have eliminated any concern for dust accumulating on the i side window surfaces.  Anyway, c’est la vie!  I can still get canned air in there to blow away most of the plastic particles.

 

The open-walk bulwarks took a while to paint because I insist on not simply dry-brushing the top surface of the frieze elements, but cutting-in to the ground.  One realization was that I did not need to thin the Vallejo artist acrylic yellow quite so much because I wasn’t painting broad surfaces; so, instead of a 5:2 ratio of paint to water, I could get away with 5:1, or even 6:1.

 

Painting yellow over red is particularly difficult for achieving good color saturation. Nevertheless, by not thinning the paint so much, I was able to get there in two passes, as opposed to five.

 

I discovered, on Kirill’s Spanish Galleon build, a very clever little hack for adding depth to the gold brightwork; He uses two different shades of gold paint.  Once I had that in my head, I couldn’t get it out, so I went to the Warhammer shop over the weekend, and picked up their bright gold.  This gives an idea of the contrast:

In practice, the effect is much more subtle.  Here, the lower bulwark piece has had the highs and edges of the ornaments brightened:

The yellow ocher has a way of muting the gold effect, a little, so whatever enhancements one can make are helpful.  I will gradually go back and add these highlights to all of the other gold ornaments.

 

I decided to leave the nameplates untouched by the walnut ink wash because I wanted them to really pop.  The lattice, here, gives a good impression of what the main frieze will look like.  As I did with the bellflowers flanking the name plate, I will continue to search for opportunities to incorporate silver gilt.

 

Once these bulwark pieces were finally painted, I could do a final fitting and secure them in-place.  It was necessary to pre-bend these bulwark pieces so that they would conform easily to the curve of the gallery.  I found it was easiest and safest to induce these reverse curves with my fingers.  The heat experiments I tried with a hair dryer and open flame on scrap sheet plastic were way to difficult to control.

 

Fingers are also, often, the best glueing clamps.  The forward edge/pilaster is CA-glued to the wooden return, while the bottom edge is weld-bonded with liquid styrene cement.  Inevitably, there will be touchups, but at this stage I declare these quarter galleries a successful marriage to the amortisement:

 

 

Next, I will pattern the back bulwark, in cardboard so that I can design an exact layout of all of the ornamental elements.  I won’t be able to install this back bulwark until after the main deck level of stern lights is in-place and painted, but making this part is a good small-work project.

 

I will probably do a short series on its creation because it will be made from several layers and the process of getting where I want to is a little more involved than other parts I’ve made so far.  I can also make up the bulwark cap railing that will finish this structure, while simultanously re-enforcing the corner join of the bulwark pieces.

 

In the evenings, I will begin finalizing the upper bulwarks and preparing them for paint.  I have to drill new fairleads for the sheets and tacks, and secure all the kevel pieces.  Without the stock stern plate to anchor the aft bulwarks to, construction of the upper stern takes on a few shades of complexity.  I have some ideas for a work-around, there, that should provide for a much more robust construction.

 

She’s a BBG (big beautiful girl) - Soleil Royal!  Little by little, we are getting there.  As always, thank you for your likes, your comments and for looking in.

Edited May 18, 2021 by Hubac's Historian

[Hubac's Historian]

I want to use this post to explore the more artistic considerations of this kind of kit-bash because this particular piece is literally a mid-point in the stern decor, and it ties together everything below to everything above.

 

Berain’s intent:

Tanneron’s adaptation:

 

Heller follows Tanneron fairly exactly.  For reasons that became clearer, as I attempted to draw this, Tanneron simplified Berain’s design.  While I understand that I will not be able to copy Berain’s design, exactly, my goal was to arrive at something a little closer than what Tanneron achieved.

 

The first step is to make a cardboard template that exactly fits the opening, while accounting for stern round-up and camber:

From there, I could exactly mark centers for continuation of the ‘tween window pilasters, along the bottom edge of the bulwark piece.

 

From there, I could flesh-out the pilasters and just go ahead and make the styrene foundation for this part:

I made the part a little oversize to account for the back-raking angle that needs to be sanded into the top and bottom edges of this part.

 

Besides the pilaster locations, the other constraining factor is my intense desire to recycle the name plate and the monogram escutcheons from the stock balcony.

 

The stock escutcheons have fleur-de-lis, in relief:

I decided, though, to shave these away and incise the crossed-L monogram emblem:

Because these were so small, it was much easier to do this while they were still attached to the balcony piece.

 

Layout for this bulwark piece necessarily begins at its center.  The main artistic conceit, here, is that I am trying to strike the balance between faithful detail and the interplay between positive and negative space.  This translates to much erasing and redrawing;  this is why I love vellum so much.

 

The nameplate and monogram escutcheons were removed, shaped, and then traced to the drawing;  these parts really define exactly the parameters of everything happening around them.  Of course, they restrict the available space in ways that are less than desirable, but I think I am on-track to a reasonable compromise:

At this point, in a perfect world,  I could stop drawing and just make a mirror photocopy for the port side.  This is not a perfect world, though.

 

The depth of the quarter gallery segments differs from port to starboard.  I’ve drawn the less-deep starboard side.  That won’t, nearly enough, correspond with what’s needed for the port side.  At the least, I’ll have to draw that port QG segment, as well.

 

So, that’s where things stand for now.  I can’t do perfect, but I can do plenty well-enough.

 

Edited May 22, 2021 by Hubac's Historian

[druxey]

Very nice rendering so far, HH. I like the fact that you are trying to balance the artistic with the technical constraints.

[md1400cs]

Marc,

 

Everytime I drop in I get even more amazed Wow! -hardly an in depth post - your write and get those lol 

[wefalck]

This not 'my' period at all, so I never looked at the build log before. But someone pointed me towards your work with styrene and I scrolled through all 53 pages of it. I must say, I am rather impressed ! 

[Bill Morrison]

This has grown into the most impressiveplastic model I have ever seen!  I keep coming back over the years, but I have concluded that I could never achieve or duplicate your outstanding model.

 

Bill

 

[Hubac's Historian]

Michael, Wefalck and Bill - thank you so much for your kind compliments!  I really appreciate your support of the project.

 

In the next week, or so, I will have a good update on the prep for installation of the upper bulwarks.  These have proven to be the most perplexing components of the kit, and I have had to do much fettling and a little engineering to ensure a solid join.

 

Until then, thank you for looking in, and for your likes and comments, as well.

 

All the best,

 

Marc

[Hubac's Historian]

Work on the open-walk aft bulwark, continues at a steady pace.  The piercings are too narrow to work with files, so the entirety is cut to the line with a No. 11 blade:

It is an easy thing to extract these panels, all around their perimeter, but I will leave them intact for the time being.  Next, I will cut the pilasters and the projecting center portion.  Then, assembly can begin from the center, outwards.

 

As I mentioned, prep of the upper bulwarks is proving to be quite intensive.  I decided the best approach for building up the hull was to begin with the forward bulwark pieces.  To that end, I installed the beakhead bulkhead, and glued-in a strip of re-enforcement, where the bulkhead meets the main deck.

 

What immediately became apparent, once this piece was secure is that the bulkhead is not square with the centerline:

This mirrors the same problem that I have noticed at the stern.  Essentially, my ship is a parallelogram:

Obviously, this is not ideal.  It is hard to say with any certainty, at this point, but the error must have been introduced at the very  earliest stages, when I glued the lower hull halves to the plinth-base; I must have induced the port side to slide aft, somewhat, or perhaps didn’t realize the geometry that I was creating through some other error or oversight:

This second stern picture seems to show the problem, but this is really a perspective problem of the photograph.  I know that my rounded stern counter started as a squared layout with the centerline.  Whatever the case may be, now the job is to make it all look okay.

 

Among the myriad tasks for the upper bulwark prep, I glued-in the kevels, scraped away the forward-most monogram escutcheon (because there will be a robed figure just aft of the headrails), filled all of the remaining holes and low fairleads for the sheets and tacks.

 

One error of the Heller kit is that the entry points for these lines are all low, where they would run a-foul of the gun carriages.  To correct these errors, I recycled one of the Four Winds carvings to make chess-trees for the fore and main tacks.  I then decided to make a housed double sheave for the fore and spritsail sheet lines:

I based the decision to do this on Puget’s drawing of the Royal Louis, following her refit in 1677:

Frolich’s L’Ambiteaux of 1680 is also a solid reference for this detail.

One other unintended consequence of my hull-widening modifications is that the extreme ends of the beakhead bulkhead now sit about a 1/16” below the top sheer of the forward upper bulwark piece:

This was perplexing to me until it dawned on me that the beakhead bulkhead side-extensions follow the top-rail camber, so that now that arc extends further outboard and intersects with the bulwarks (which are still the same height, naturally) at a lower point.

 

This creates something of an interesting dilemma.  For the time being, I have decided to take a little authorial license, here.  Although I can find no pictorial evidence for this on contemporary models from the 17th C., I have fashioned an entry-point for the cathead line, along the top of this beakhead railing:

I have subsequently filled that small forward gap and refined the shape of this cleat(?), a little.  My argument for plausible deniability, here, is that the intersection of the cathead timber with the beakhead bulkhead is now closed-in with plank, yet the cathead line needs a working contact point for sweating onto the small kevel.

 

In the end, there will also be a horsehead sculpture that rests on top of the bulwark top sheer.  Even if this detail isn’t correct for the period, it’s presence will be minimized from the outside looking-in.

 

The other major consideration for these forward bulwark pieces is that the joint to the lower hull is just garbage.  I had to do quite a lot of fairing to close the gaps along the outside of the joint, and there remains some significant tension as one flexes the part into its place.

 

I may, ultimately, induce a bit of a bend into the part by clamping it into a form and leaving it like that for a few weeks.  That should take tension out of the piece and ease the assembly process.  Regardless, though, I wanted some added insurance, and so I glued an additional re-enforcing strip that will bridge the joint and increase glue surface-area.

Just fore and aft of this strip, I will fashion gusset pieces that lend additional strength, while also providing deck beam mounts for the forecastle deck.  Above, I am fitting card templates that I will use to pattern the 1/16” styrene sheet gussets.  All of this structure will not be visible from the waist, nor will it interfere with the ship’s stoves.

 

In the waist, where this joint would be visible, I will cover the joint with spirketting.  Just as before, the added glue-surface will really solidify the construction.

 

Before I can paint these bulwark pieces, I still need to fashion a supporting knee that will be visible from the waist overhang of the forecastle deck.

 

In a departure from my usual, I will be airbrushing the primary ground colors, as there is too much fine detail that might be obscured by brush-painting.

 

All of this will, of course, take time.  Thank you for stopping-in!

 

 

Edited June 2, 2021 by Hubac's Historian

[Kevin]

what a stunning build, did you and @DORIS come from the same school

[Hubac's Historian]

Thank you very much, Kevin!  The reality is that I am quite slow, but meticulous and committed to the project.  What I am doing is not really magic, but the product of time.

 

Doris, on the other hand, truly is supernatural.  She does what she does while simultaneously working on other equally detailed projects, and she works very quickly.  I hope to gently persuade her to do a French ship, someday, where her sculpture talents will be fully expressed.

[druxey]

I would not be too concerned about that slight hull asymmetry: in the completed model, who is going to measure whether that beakhead bulkhead is exactly at 90 degrees to the centerline? Nice progress, HH.

[Hubac's Historian]

All very true, Druxey.  I mention it more for the sake of anyone else attempting a similar waterline-ectomy.  I might have approached things a little differently, if I had a better idea how these large hull parts would behave, after you remove the structure that maintains their shape.  Or, maybe I would still have ended up in the same place.

 

Thank you for checking in!

[72Nova]

I love seeing this take shape and a clever fix for the bulkhead elevation issue Marc👍. I remember my S/R being slightly off as you have shown in post #1573 and my Victory was actually square in that regard, but slightly twisted at the stern, one will never notice it once you complete the build.

 

Michael D.

[Hubac's Historian]

Thank you, Michael!

 

The thing about the Heller Prestige Series is that these kits date back to a time when kits were still prototyped and mastered, more or less, by hand.  Naturally, there is going to be some degree of a-symmetry engineered into the kit.  I am sure that I have exacerbated those issues, though.  To use the most shop-worn cliche - it is what it is, and SR slowly inches forward.

Edited June 3, 2021 by Hubac's Historian

[popeye2sea]

On 6/2/2021 at 3:26 PM, Hubac's Historian said:

The other major consideration for these forward bulwark pieces is that the joint to the lower hull is just garbage.  I had to do quite a lot of fairing to close the gaps along the outside of the joint, and there remains some significant tension as one flexes the part into its place.

 

In the waist, where this joint would be visible, I will cover the joint with spirketting.  Just as before, the added glue-surface will really solidify the construction.

 

 

I used that gap to hide the ends of the eyebolts that I used to secure the chains to the hull. After pushing the eyebolt through holes in the hull I clenched the pins over into that gap. Then I filled the gap with putty and painted.

 

Nice fix with the forward cleat and the housed sheaves for the sheets.

 

Regards,

[John Clements]

It's always so interesting to come back after a few weeks and see how you are progressing.  I agree with all those comments about the bulwarks not fitting and had the same experience of it all appearing not square when glued up. Quite a lot of filing and filling needed. And the bulwarks did keep coming loose until the joint was saturated in plastic weld, though I still try and pick it up by the stand when I have to handle it.

I did like your solution to the sheets being put through the bulwarks in the wrong place. I had been puzzling over that myself and the built-in sheaves just seems the right answer.

[Hubac's Historian]

Thank you, Henry and John.  Henry, I remember that phase of your build, and I thought that was an ingenious use of this awkward gap in the joint.  I would do the same, but for the fact that I have lowered the fore and main channels to this upper main wale, so that my chains will now be secured at the middle deck level.

 

Speaking of that troublesome joint - the lapping-lip of the port side bulwark piece is significantly thicker than the rebate it fits into on the hull.  This creates an awkward landing for my waist spirketting/joint re-enforcement.  In order to create a flush landing, I furred-out the hull side of the joint with .030 styrene strip:

I then sanded away any high spots for a flush mating surface, while protecting the painted deck with painters’ tape.  Weirdly, this problem does not exist on the starboard side.

 

I’ve also been making a pair of hanging knees for each side, that will be visible beneath the break of the forecastle deck:

The top edge of these knees doesn’t have to reflect the deck camber because they will be situated behind the deck beams which are cambered.  In order to include this aft-most knee, without placing it beneath the beam, I am increasing the length of the forecastle deck so that it comes to within about an 1/8” of the waist timberhead railing.

 

This small increase in deck length (say that three times fast 😂) will help with the layout of the forecastle; I need room for the deck railing supporting knees, the stove chimneys, and the capstan drum.  There must be enough clearance for the capstan bars to travel without interfering with the fore bitts.  There is some debate as to whether a forecastle capstan would really have been a feature of a First-Rate from this time, however the Louis Quinze model features a vacant space where the drum should be:

Above, you can see the locking pawls and the hole for the drum barrel.  I have found other evidence on contemporary and near contemporary models to support this detail.  I’m excited about that because I really wanted to scratch-build a capstan.

 

I knew before I started that the rear gallery bulwark would be a tremendous amount of work, but it was time well-spent.  As is my practice, I like to build-up a part like this as a series of layers of varying thicknesses, which results in a part that has depth and enhanced detail.  Here is a montage of the progression:

Necessarily, this process begins from the center, and proceeds out, towards the ends.  The critical consideration is that both the bottom and top edges of this railing are beveled to account for the railings back-raking angle.  Each layer has to be optimally placed so that not too much material is removed from the lower edge.  This is especially important for the lattice pieces.  Before moving-on to the next element layer, I make sure to fair these top and bottom bevels, so that I have a reliable reference for placing the next layer.

 

 

 

This fairing step was critically important for these scroll brackets that flank the nameplate.

 

Another consideration is that the outermost pair of pilaster mouldings is just slightly wider than the innermost pair.  They all had to be individually fit.

Just before modeling of the scrolls and central lattice:

Afterwards:

There is still some modeling to do yet, and I still need to add tiny scroll ornaments around the nameplate, but here is the part taped in-place to give an overall impression:

I didn’t set out to make this bulwark railing wider at the center, and more narrow at the corner joint, but it was necessary to taper the ends, in order to come down flush with the side bulwark pieces.

I probably won’t focus on painting this part until I am closer to actually installing it, but I am satisfied with what I think is a rather stark improvement over the stock kit railing:

As ever, thank you for your likes, comments and looking-in!

 

Edited June 12, 2021 by Hubac's Historian

[druxey]

Coming along splendidly, HH!

[GrandpaPhil]

Amazing work!  Your Soleil Royal is coming along beautifully!

[SJSoane]

Marc, Beautiful work. I am super impressed by your piercing work. Much to learn from this for all of us!

Mark

[Hubac's Historian]

Thank you all very much.  I am ever grateful that so many of you have stuck around from the earliest stages, when not much was happening, to now, when the project is finally taking shape.  I take away as much and more from your respective builds as you might here.

 

Happy Fathers’ Day to all!

[kirill4]

Marc,

Just Beautiful work!!!

Allways watch your progress,when have opportunities, with great interest!

ALL THE BEST!

Kirill

 

[Hubac's Historian]

Progress has been a bit slow, lately.  I have continued to be amazed by the amount of prep that is necessary before painting the forward bulwark pieces.

 

I was having trouble making good eyebolts out of 28 gauge annealed wire.  The scale wasn’t quite right, and the eyes were more ovoid than round, before the stems would break from twisting.  So, I switched to 32 gauge galvanized steel wire, and consulted Marsalv’s amazing log for Le Gros Ventre:

 

Somewhere, in there, he shares his particular technique for making these eyes, and it involves twisting the shank through a hole drilled into a clothes pin; doing so ensures a straight shank and a neatly centered eye:

 

I did not happen to have any wooden clothes pins, on hand, so I took a poplar scrap and was able to achieve the same results:

 

I found that I had some difficulty while drilling into the bulwarks for these eyes.  I repeatedly drilled all the way through the bulwarks.  On a wood model, this would be a disaster!  On this model, I could simply plug and fair the holes, on the outside, with .030 styrene rod.

 

I had been debating whether to glue-in the gangway supporting knees, before paint and assembly.  Ultimately, I decided that it would be much easier to locate these accurately before assembly.  As with all of the stock kit parts, I spend a significant amount of time and effort cleaning these parts up and breaking all sharp edges.

 

Lastly, I drilled through the cap rails for the baying pins that I will add later:

 

After masking any surface that I didn’t want to scrape away paint from, later, the parts were ready for a coat of spray primer:

 

The beauty of the primer coat is that it always reveals whatever might need a little additional attention.  I can see that there are a few places where I let the upper port enhancements into the drift rail, above, but was a little overzealous.  A small bit of filler will clean that up.

 

Thank you all for looking in.  More to follow!

 

Edited June 24, 2021 by Hubac's Historian

[Bill Morrison]

Marc,

 

As usual, you are doing spectacular work, but I am confused about one point.  I was looking closely at the starboard quarter and transom in the photos above and I noticed that it appears that you left everything closed.  I had always thought that the walkways should be open, but there has been ongoing discussion on this point. Tanneron shows them open, yet, other builders cite the Berain illustrations showing them closed.  Granted, they are two different ships but it has introduced a level of controversy.  Can you please elaborate?

 

Thanks!

 

Bill