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

[SJSoane]

Hi Marc,

I have been away from the website for what seems like such a long time, with life issues that have arisen in abundance these last couple of years.

Anyway, I recently had a chance to look over your posts in more detail, and I can say you continue to set the very highest standards for research, construction and painting. Truly a work of art emerging! And a thrill to follow you down the paths of research on these very complex 17th C. ships!

 

Mark

[Hubac's Historian]

Thank you so much Mark!  I hope whatever personal challenges you are facing, they have not been overwhelming.  I am quite happy to see the activity in your shipyard, lately.  Yours is among rhe cleanest and most inspiring builds around!

[Hubac's Historian]

It’s been a pretty solid week.  Headrail painting continues in the evenings.  I also finished up the window plate detailing.

I had trouble making the raised panel framing out of a single piece of .020 styrene, as I had done before.  Rather than make myself crazy, I cut out and used the curved lower portion of the frame, and then I pieced-in the straight sides and tops from strip plastic:

I cut raised panels for the doors from the stock stern plate.  For the door handles, I had run out of scroll castings, so I just made a pair from sheet styrene:

Completed window plate:

The acetate windows before greying-in the leading and trimming to size:

I hope everyone enjoys a happy and safe new year!

 

All the best,

 

Marc

Edited December 30, 2022 by Hubac's Historian

[yancovitch]

 hmmm...sometimes it's actually painful to watch 🙂.....such discipline, such patience, such determination, such dedication, such knowledge, such passion,........... poor wife 😄........naaaa.........i'm sure she's very supportive, like my wife..............hmmmm..........but.....maybe she's really the one behind it all .....that should be larger!....the head's too big!.....sharpen your tools!...try a different stain!...make sure you finish that before supper!.............!!.😄.....anyways, my hat's off to her.......and you.....success to you in the new year

Edited December 30, 2022 by yancovitch

[dvm27]

Wonderful update, Marc. Looking forward to many more this year from you. Best wishes for a happy and healthy New Year.

[Hubac's Historian]

Thank you, Greg!  I wish the same for you and your family.

[Hubac's Historian]

I’m a little stalled on the bow, while I await delivery of Liquid Bitumen of Judea, for staining of the hawser cables.  And, so, I have returned to the stern.

 

I’ve made up and fitted the upper stern balcony base:

Relative to the balcony below, you can see to some small degree how the starboard side projects slightly further aft.  It is not so visually disruptive that I absolutely must decrease the starboard depth of this upper balcony to compensate.  If I have to, I will do so later, but in the meantime - I am doing a bit of an experiment.

 

I am trying to see whether I can salvage the ornamental facade of the stock upper balcony, while successfully incorporating the round-up of the stern.  The stock part is flat-faced, but I have two of them to pull from.  As it happens, I can see a path toward filling the center section and the step-back panels to either side:

After cutting out the floor and rough-wasting:

After cleaning up the top scarf and wasting the bottom moulding:

 

If I were to extract the outboard panels from my extra balcony, and splice them-in the same way, then I can perfectly fill the span with what would be a relatively labor-intensive thing to make from scratch.

 

The deck camber is right-on.  The difficulty lies in introducing the round-up.  I had a spare middle balcony, so I cut out the floor and tried to induce a heat-bend over an open flame.  The results were not so good:

 

The variable thicknesses of the part lead to unequal heat distribution of the flame, and when the part becomes malleable, it happens very suddenly.  If you’re a second too late, the thin parts become irreversibly distorted.  I don’t think this is the way.

 

I will cut out and join the additional segments I need, and I will join and glue them together.  I may glue the whole thing to thin backing plastic, and then I will try taping the assembly to my camber form, which is almost identical to the round-up pattern.  I will see whether a natural bend can be induced over a period of time.

 

For a moment of Zen, here’s the Tanneron model on her waterline:

 

 

 

[72Nova]

Marc I've found in most cases such as the part in question is soaking it in hot water, sometimes boiling will give the result you're looking for. I tried the flame method at first on my Victory's balconies, lucky I had two, the hot water did the trick.  . Ship is looking phenomenal by the way!

 

Michael D,

[Hubac's Historian]

This was exactly the sort of practical advice I was hoping for.  Thank you, Michael!  I will give that a try.  I appreciate the compliment, as well.

[FriedClams]

2 hours ago, 72Nova said:

Marc I've found in most cases such as the part in question is soaking it in hot water, sometimes boiling will give the result you're looking for

 

What Michael said.  

 

Looking great Marc.

 

Gary

Edited January 9, 2023 by FriedClams

[t_corret]

Ditto on the hot water, works a treat on Historex parts.

[Hubac's Historian]

Well, like Michael, I had a spare section of the same railing that I was trying to bend, so I prepared it in exactly the same way.  I also kept the plastic floor that I had cut out.

 

Results were mixed.  I had the water at a low boil, and I started with the floor piece first.  There was a distinct moment when the plastic became floppy, so I took it out and had enough time to press it around my camber form:

Not too bad.  When I did the same for the pierced railing, results were not too good.  When the part became malleable, it shrank and distorted in the thinner areas:

This would not be salvageable.  I wonder whether tying the part down to the form and submerging in less than boiling water might induce the bend I’m after, without all of the distortion.

 

The other variable is that my test pieces are made from this brittle gold styrene, which lacks the suppleness of the grey stuff.

 

I could just go for it and try a second experiment on my keeper piece tomorrow.  I glued the center sections together today, and wanted to give them a day to fully harden.

 

Or, I could simply extract the pierced rail stanchions and build up everything around them, as I did for the middle balcony.

 

I’ll mull it over for a day.  Re-making those rail stanchions by hand would be a very time-consuming carving project to do well.

 

 

[Ian_Grant]

I had the same distortion problem trying to fix the bent-up stern railing on "Preussen".  Hot water didn't do it, so I went to boiling and all of a sudden the whole thing just curled into a mess. Of course, it was completely formed of thin cylinders....

 

Marc you can order extra parts from Heller for further experimentation.

[druxey]

The problem may be two fold. One; various plastic formulations will react differently as they have different malleability points and ranges. So what may work nicely on one plastic will be a disaster on another. The other issue that you've already alluded to is the varying thickness of the moldings. If you can determine the malleabilty range of the plastic you are using and apply just that amount of heat to the piece gradually getting it up to temperature with the piece on the curved form, then allowing it to cool, it might do the trick. Good luck!

Edited January 10, 2023 by druxey

[GrandpaPhil]

Maybe using a heat gun with the former?

 

If you heated slowly and applied pressure gently, it might take the new shape.

Edited January 10, 2023 by GrandpaPhil

[shipmodel]

Hi Marc - 

 

I remember from my youth that the optometrist always used to bend the plastic eyeglass frames after heating in a tray of hot sand.

Maybe it would be more controllable than boiling water.

It seems to be available for $1.95 for a 1  pound bag here - https://www.homesciencetools.com/product/sand-fine-white-1-lb 

 

Your work is impressive as always.

 

Dan

[72Nova]

That's a real bummer Marc, there's always risks with these experiments but I still feel bad about it. I think building new rails etc around existing good stanchions would be the option I'd take. 

 

Michael D.

[Hubac's Historian]

Thank you, guys, for all of the ideas and input.  Dan, as a glasses-wearer for most of my life, I had that same thought about bending eyeglass arms in sand.

 

I took a look at Heller’s on-line part order form, and that all seems very straight-forward.  I may, yet, try another more gentle heat approach.  I’m leaning toward securing the straight part into a rounded form and submerging in merely very hot, and not boiling water for a period of time.

 

In the meantime, It was necessary to make new corbels for the upper balcony.  The stock is made up from a piece of .0625 and a piece of .020 styrene laminated together:

Below is the kit’s stock corbel for this balcony level:

I ordered my Bitumen of Judea from an Italian vendor, who subsequently emailed to say that he couldn’t ship this small bottle of combustible material.  So, then, I tried to order from a UK vendor.  We’ll see whether that order sticks.

 

I’ve made the window panes and have begun painting the third-gallery window plate.  There’s a whole bunch of stuff that is very nearly ready to go together.

 

Thank you for your interest, the likes, your comments and suggestions.

Edited January 13, 2023 by Hubac's Historian

[Ian_Grant]

Marc, when I tried to order parts from Heller I first sent the form to their quoted email address; I got an enigmatic error message about their router not being "365" and unable to receive from "my domain". Subsequent efforts resulted in the same.

 

I faxed it in instead and got an immediate reply followed shortly by the part in the mail. Do you have access to a fax machine? I used the one at my wife's vet clinic; only the medical field seems to still use fax.

 

Or maybe Heller's router can connect to your "domain". After all you're in a different country than me.

[Hubac's Historian]

That’s good to know, Ian, thank you.  I think I’ll try email, but failing that I do still have access to working fax machines.  I’m old enough to remember how miraculous the fax machine used to seem.  Now, like so many previous wonders (the Walkman, among them), it is nearly obsolete.

[Kevin-the-lubber]

Liquid bitumen of Judea… another art products lesson! Apparently used to caulk Noah’s ark. It seems to be readily available here in the uk (googling) so if you get stuck, shout out.

[kirill4]

:)))

https://flagma.ua/lak-bitumny-bt-980-o5169654.html

[kirill4]

Marc,  Why You need bitumen? ... it is good stuff for vintage weathering effect , I could say , for almost any material : from wood-plastic-to fabric ... but interesting... why You mentioned it now\ and need to order delivery from other country ... this bitumen is a simple stuff which costs almost nothing... every shop specialized on handcrafts hobby usually has it on stock ?

Edited January 15, 2023 by kirill4

[kirill4]

it is good when  used as solution  in white-spirit ...

concentration You could adjust by your own test...

for light brownish effect - need to add a small drop of this bitumen for 30-50 ml of white -spirit thinner...

Edited January 15, 2023 by kirill4

[Hubac's Historian]

I’ve been seeing in other build logs that I admire that guys use the bitumen to stain their rigging line.  I want to darken my new anchor cable before installing it, hence the order for the product.  Try as I might I could not find it in any of NYC’s better art supply stores.  And, so, I’ll pay three times in shipping what the product costs, but this little  bottle will last a lifetime.

[kirill4]

Oh, I see now...but  it is just strange ...most of the high quality aging efects /chemical  which I have - they all origin USA and came from USA to Russia...and now You need to order this simple bitumen from outside...

Sorry ,it was myvjoke that of 200ltrs burrels with bitumen someone could order if need it :))) 

[kirill4]

But it could be usefull not only for ropes... for everything else You want see aging...hule, paints , exelent for the gold paint and gold leafs as aging/ vintage medium - same effect as we can see on Vic SR...

[druxey]

I  might be concerned about the pH value of bitumen and whether it would have a long term effect on materials. Conservators have a very difficult time with bituminous paints as they never fully polymerize and 'set'.

[yancovitch]

i can see where that might be a sticky problem.....

[kirill4]

There is no trouble with it / that sticking effect ,if only You use it as aging effect stuff- means in very low concentration ,

when bitumen diluted in "white spirit "solvent (W.S. is neutral to acrylic paints as far as I could see on my model) it is ... it dries completely.

When use it as it is, without solvent - it will never dry 100% - this his specific is good for materials conservation purposes but not for ship modelling :)))