Le Soleil Royal by John Clements - Heller - 1/100

[John Clements]

My first attempt at a build log, and only my second sailing ship model, so I hope what I write makes some sense.

 

I've always been a fan of Heller ship kits (I have a collection of their modern French navy ships), so when a friend challenged me to build a sailing ship, one of their's was an obvious choice. That was Le Glorieux, a 74 gun ship in 1/150 scale, which took a couple of years and a lot of new knowledge to complete, using the Boudriot books. Le Soleil Royal seemed the next obvious choice, given my enthusiasm for things French from that era, and J Lemineur's book on the St Philippe a very useful source of information.

 

I soon became aware from looking on the web that this kit is problematic, to say the least, but also that people have made some really beautiful models out of it with some work and imagination, so I decided to make a start and the pictures below show where I am now. I am including some interior detail visible through the stern windows and I am moving to a colour scheme more like that of the St Philippe, so more red ochre and vermilion than French blue. I have just fitted a wooden deck from HisModel which looks a good deal better than  the plastic imitation which I sanded off.

 

I have been really inspired by Mark's build log (Hubac's Historian) to make some attempt to improve the kit, but lacking his skills in carving (and his patience!) I will be adapting more of the kit parts than scratch building. As of now, I'm painting the figurehead, so will post again when that is fitted.

[John Clements]

Here are a couple of pictures of my figurehead just mounted, and the board inserted between the two headrails. I thought I should explain the colour scheme I have chosen, after looking at contemporary paintings of 'the sun and his chariot', and also the standard Bourbon use of colours which I am familiar with from painting military figures. The figure, which is presumably based on the Vary drawing, seems to be dressed in a Greek style tunic and a cloak, the latter of which is usually rendered gold in paintings. I have painted the tunic scarlet, partly because that was the Queen's livery colour and partly because blue might be confused with the Virgin Mary on a female figure. Again, in paintings of the Greek sun god, the horses are invariably a light colour with the mane in contrast. The wreath round the horse's neck is foliage, not jewellery, so painted green. The serpent tail in green is also a common motif. Finally, I replaced the Louis motif in the front-facing shield with the normal Bourbon triple fleur-de-lys, which just made sense to me especially as the moulding was very crude and not really up to scratch.

 

Having said all that, I think it's worth noting that the Heller figurehead is not quite identical to the Vary drawing and the model in Paris does not have a figurehead at all. I don't find the Heller version very convincing but lack the ability to carve a new one. It will at least add a dash of colour.

 

That's taken ages so now I'd really like to get on with building the ship!

[John Clements]

It's been a while since my last post and that's not just because of Christmas. I've realised now that almost every piece of this kit needs careful thought, research and re-working, as has, I guess, everybody else who has attempted it. My latest photo shows the bow platform and cross timber supports which will also hold the rails in place. I haven't gilded the lower part of the cross timbers yet; I'll do that when the rails are in place in case any adjustment is needed.

Deciding on the decoration of the bulkhead took a while, but is broadly based on the St Philippe. I can't do tiny carvings so built up the central image with thick acrylic paint and will most probably use the same technique when decorating the bulwarks - the next step, I think.

 

One thing that did puzzle me was the blocks with the ropes set into the bowsprit, as per the instructions. Surely these would have been lashed onto a bolt. The rigging diagram for the St Philippe is different so one wonders where Heller got their rigging details.

 

k.

[kirill4]

Good day John,

May be there is sence don't use original kit rigging diagramm at all?

But use the rigging diagram for the St Philippe instead of?

I'm planning to do so...🙄

[popeye2sea]

The blocks for the bowsprit would have been stropped with a long strop that had two tails with eyes spliced into the ends. The ends would be passed to either side around the bowsprit and the two eyes would be lashed together to hold the block in place.

 

If you want a good source to get the rigging accurate you should look at The Rigging of Ships in the Days or the Spritsail Topmast 1600-1720 by R.C. Anderson. Another good source is The Art of Rigging by David Steel.

 

Regards,

 

Edited June 22, 2021 by popeye2sea

[John Clements]

Thank you, Kirill and Henry, for your advice. I will certainly look closely at the rigging in the St Philippe book. It was the differences there that raised the question. I am aware that many modellers refer to the Anderson book, but this project is not my main Interest and I won't be building another vessel of this period. This is very much a one-off for me and I'm learning a lot from the build logs already here.

The fitting you describe, Henry, is what I was expecting but, again, looking at the St Philippe rigging drawing, I can't see any blocks in that area fixed with a strop. There are some that look as if they are fixed to eye bolts driven into the spar, but I need to study the text in more detail to be sure. In any case, rigging is quite a way off yet. I'm now sanding off the moulded detail on the upper parts of the sides to replace it with a pattern more like the St Philippe.

Thanks for your interest.

[Hubac's Historian]

John, she's coming along beautifully, so far.  I really like the additions and upgrades that you have made - particularly the guns; the scale of the Heller stock guns does not capture the heft of the real thing, although their detailing is very nice.  I also like what you have done with the figurehead and appreciate your research into period artistic conventions of the 17th C.  Really beautiful work.  I'm sorry that I can't be much help about the rigging, as I haven't worked through many of those problems yet, myself, beyond the main deck sheet and tack leads.  Popeye2Sea, though, is an excellent resource for really understanding the why and where-for of rigging practice.

 

I will be very interested to see what you do with the upper bulwarks.

 

Happy New Year,

 

Marc

[John Clements]

Thanks very much, Marc. I do appreciate your comments, as your own build is a real inspiration to me. The guns and carriages are from HisModel. The carriages were a bit too high but I cut off the lower half of the wheels which one can't see on the two lower decks. The upper guns and carriages are smaller and should hopefully fit OK. 

When I built my previous, first, sailing ship, the Glorieux, the rigging was the part in which I found most satisfaction, partly because it was challenging and partly because it was all new to me then, so I was learning how the whole system worked. I'm impatient to get to that stage but it will be quite a while yet.

[Hubac's Historian]

Take your time, John.  Straight out of the box, she’s a beast to build.  Once you start modifying things, the time increases exponentially.  You won’t regret the extra care taken, though.

[John Clements]

Rather a long gap, pondering changes and also having to order more paint and supplies online as we are now in total lock down and I can't pop down to my local art shop. I have re-worked the upper sides, sanding off a lot of the detail, added a second gun port on the poop deck and replaced the uppermost solid rail with a perforated railing. The pictures below show these, but still incomplete in some details.

I'm thinking of leaving the lowest strip (with the Heller 'L' motifs) red ochre, the strip above vermilion with fleur-de-lys, and the rest red ochre with some of the larger motif designs shown on other ships. The current dark red is actually red oxide which I now realise is incorrect for the period, so I'm planning to lighten that somewhat to red ochre. I've ordered some acrylic moulding paste so that I can paint the designs onto the sides in relief. I've never used it before so an interesting experiment. 

[Graham TG Sykes]

Dear John

As the friend who challenged you resulting in the build of Le Glorieux (a beautiful model) I am grateful to be made aware of this blog. AS you know I have built real boats and restored real wooden boats but never made a model. I can't imagine how much patience you need to work at such a fine scale. Keep up the good work and I am very please that you have moved from power to sail - its better for the climate! Graham

[John Clements]

Some visible progress at last. I've spent what seems like ages experimenting with different ways of painting motifs in relief. I think the best method I've found so far is to paint the image in a liquid acrylic (thinned Humbrol), add the acrylic paste on top to produce the relief, and then paint over that in the final gold shade (Windsor & Newton Renaissance Gold). I can't pretend the end result is perfect but, given that much of the panel will be behind the shrouds, and most people won't be staring at it from as close up as the picture, I think it is acceptable.

 

What I am puzzling over now is that the layout of the aft side pieces leaves very little space for any larger motifs. I had been toying with adding some of the Bourbon sun images that crop up all over flags and elsewhere, given the name of the ship, but trying to paint the individual rays on an image  no more than 10mm across is a bit beyond me. I don't think printing off a template would work because adding the relief medium would cover up the detail, but it might be worth a try. If not, then I guess more rows of fleur-de-lys would not be out of order.

 

Finally, I was amazed by the extent of the mis-match between the fo'c'sle bulkhead and the side pieces. Quite a bit of material will have to be shaved off the edges of the bulkhead to match the profile of the sides. I can't believe that reflects the original and loose-fitting the fo'c'sle deck shows the sides are in the right place, so it's out with the file and the filler. Then, hopefully in a week or two, I'll be able to fit the after sides and start to think about how I deal with the stern structure (and rigging all those guns, of course)

[Hubac's Historian]

Hi John - your fleurs look very good.  I like the low relief that the gel medium provides.

 

As for the aft upper bulwarks, you will have much more space to create an ornamental program of your choosing, if you eliminate the continuation of the many drift rails, emanating from the timberhead sheer railings.  This is what I had to do, in order to create my frieze which, nonetheless, is informed by the run of the drift rails that I sanded away - if that makes sense.  What I’m trying to say is that their presence just takes up too much space.

 

The fitting of the beakhead bulkhead (and the stern plate, for that matter) reflect the practicalities of commercial kit manufacture.  They both overlap the edges of the upper bulwark pieces.  This is not reflective of actual practice, whereby the planking of the upper bulwarks would overlap the plank ends of the beakhead bulkhead and stern planking.

 

Heller, I suppose, reasons that this convenience of manufacture, and simplification of construction is mostly obscured by the headrails and the quarter galleries, respectively.  For my part, I went to some trouble to recess the beakhead bulkhead within the upper bulwark pieces, even going so far as to scribe plank ends into the upper bulwark pieces.  I did the same, at the stern, where I am laying individual styrene planks, flush into these hand-cut rebates.

 

The plus-side of doing all of that are joints of better structural integrity with much less need for putty fillers.  On the downside, though, very little of my effort at super-detailing, in this instance, will be visible on my finished model; only a small bit of the lower transom, beneath the transom moulding and whatever one can see above the beakhead roundhouses.  All that considered, I am still happy with the effort because it resulted in more accurately scaled plank-ends, and it is reflective of actual practice.  It is an awful lot of trouble to go to, though, for a minor detail.

 

I certainly would not have done this for the stern upper bulwarks, if I had realized, back then, that the detail would be covered by pilaster mouldings.  I would simply have firred-out glue cleats to the inner surface of the bulwarks for attaching my plank ends.

 

Anyway, the modification process can go on, ad-infinitum, but you must decide what is worth your time and effort, and what is not.

Edited February 4, 2021 by Hubac's Historian

[John Clements]

Latest progress. As you see from the pictures, I have extended the fleur design to fill all the available space, except for two larger areas where I have inserted a sun design, the same sun with a face in the middle that appears on French cavalry flags of the Bourbon era. As you commented, Marc, there is not a lot of room to do much else. I also extended the looped L design to the stern as I plan that area will be visible at the back of the single gallery I intend to mount. I've cut all the panels out of the Heller quarter galleries - the designs they have used don't seem to fit anything very authentic anyway - and will  fill the lower level with false windows, and have cut the floor out of the lower stern gallery so it will fit flush up against the stern bulkhead with a bit of adjustment and filling.

I have some more detail to do on the hull itself and I'm waiting an order for the cannon, and the blocks, hooks and eyebolts for their tackle, to fit on the main deck before going further.

Now that the sides are in place, I've realised what an ugly tub this ship actually is! It might look spectacular when done, but compared to the beautiful lines of Le Glorieux..................well, maybe without the masts the hull looks out of proportion but it does show how the design looks back as much as forward, I think.

[Heinrich der Seefahrer]

Hello John, 

 

I very much appreciate your build and the colouring in particular. 

 

Thank you very much for the sharing of the kit. 

[Heinrich der Seefahrer]

Hello John, 

 

I very much appreciate your build and the colouring in particular. 

 

Thank you very much for the sharing of the kit. 

[72Nova]

Hi John,

Love the work/modifications  you're doing, those fleur -De- lis must of been a real pain to do by hand, well done!. I love the color scheme as well and noticed you filled in the awful space in the knee of the bow, something I wished I had done along with the other mods you did. It does make for nice piece when completed even with all it's shortcomings which I didn't find out until after I completed it, that's when I made a late in the game decision to set her in a waterline dio, made a world of difference and something to consider?. Keep up the fantastic work and looking forward on your progress.

 

Michael D.

[John Clements]

Thanks, Michael. I appreciate your comments.

At that size (and price) one really would expect Heller to have done a better job if this was to be their top French sailing navy offering but it does mean we can all use our imagination a bit, and it's really nice to see all the different versions on this site. Putting her afloat is certainly an option but I'm put off by the sheer size of it. We will see.

[Heinrich der Seefahrer]

John the real problem is they never upgrated the kit's mould to a recent standard of detailing after nearly half a century. That's a pitty. but on the other hand - look at Marc, he deals with the kit's shortcomings very well. Certainly it is a plenty of work - but we are model builders  and no kit builders.

 

So I personally look at the Heller's kit as a good fundamental ground to build on top what I can afford to make somewhere between my hands's skills and left eye's limitations. 

 

 

 

 

[Hubac's Historian]

The unfortunate thing, I think, is that the hobby has fallen out of favor with young people.  With today’s tech, kit manufacturers  could put out product that is vastly superior to Heller’s best efforts in 1977.  But, there isn’t a long-term market for it.  My son sees me working on the model, all the time, in the evenings.  We’re slowly building a model plane together, but he has little drive or inclination to work on the thing himself.  It is very difficult to compete with tech for young people’s attention.

Edited March 3, 2021 by Hubac's Historian

[Heinrich der Seefahrer]

Hello John, 

 

I think after talking to some restauratiors about the colouring of baroque ships, that you decision to the baroque

 

"living figure" is right to paint here ascthey were alive. All in all one of them told me we were too uniform ("plaster everything uniformly with leaf gold") and decided our shemes much less colourfull for the baroque era. So when he looks at the pictures of the common build SRkits painted after the Heller's manual that I showed him. The more verdigris the blue gets the more he nodded and was accepting the painting. 

 

So the decission in Paris for a blank wooden model was the one way - Stockholm did the other direction - and both wrre right. Someone may some day go the Paris' way to transform the Helker kit into a blank wooden model. So it will be intersting to follow your build.. 

Can you kindy tell to my what was the reason for the two shades of red on the cornice?

 

That hull absolutely is a great picture and I do like that impression very much. Thank you. 

Edited March 4, 2021 by Heinrich der Seefahrer

[Heinrich der Seefahrer]

18 hours ago, Hubac's Historian said:

The unfortunate thing, I think, is that the hobby has fallen out of favor with young people.  With today’s tech, kit manufacturers  could put out product that is vastly superior to Heller’s best efforts in 1977.  But, there isn’t a long-term market for it.  My son sees me working on the model, all the time, in the evenings.  We’re slowly building a model plane together, but he has little drive or inclination to work on the thing himself.  It is very difficult to compete with tech for young people’s attention.

 

Yes but I told my son:"A highscore isn't something you print out and put into a glass show cabinet..." 

 

So he started to build tanks and planes. And is very good at his Warhammer miniatures. So we have something to communicate about quite technologically but he feels competent to be at the same level as his dad but on an other playground. I get new ideas from him he from me so it does cooperate.

 

I think getting youth interested in the hobby at all is important. Their physical skills are trained and if the do good they start an new kit and do get better and it is an obvious progress pictured in the result and neurological in their brain - you ca not cheat on our hobby just for money payed to win or some pressed caps. 

 

So if the makes progress his brain developes so he will do his way... 

 

All we can do is being authentic to show our intrest in them by praising their work and showing other shorter easier ways to the same or better result:

 

"Education did never work, 

children allways do imitate us." 

unknown

 

 

 

Edited March 4, 2021 by Heinrich der Seefahrer
Ssying added

[John Clements]

Sorry to be so late with my reply to your question, Christian, and to post my latest update, but my PC has been under repair and only just now restored to working order, though I will have to replace it soon.

The reason I chose to paint the main gun deck bulwarks in red ochre rather than vermilion was really aesthetic, rather than trying to be truly authentic. I thought to paint all the area vermilion would look too bright. I was also conscious of the view that vermilion was an expensive shade, and so it proved to be even now. The cadmium red I am using (and I know that cadmium was not available to the 17th century artist but it is the nearest shade to vermilion in the range I am using) is far and away the most expensive tube of acrylic paint I have bought for this project.

 

So this is where I am up to now:

 

As you see, I have made some modifications to the quarter galleries; opening out the main gallery and putting false windows in the lower part, and blocking up the  (I think) quite erroneous gunport. There is still some tidying up to be done and a bit of new moulding to be made and painted to hide some of the awkward joins. I hope you like the painted main sculpture. I think it works well but it's a pity that Heller couldn't have thought to mould in some reins, which it is obvious Apollo is holding in those outstretched hands and which would accord with Baroque paintings of that scene. After all, they are horses and how else do you control them? I did think of painting them in but in that scale it would be quite difficult painting them on freehand. I did add a bit of shading to bring out the relief.

 

I've just got to the end of making up the 48 gun carriages from HisModel, so my next job is to paint them, add the barrels and make tackles for the visible ones. I think the next step on the stern will be to fit the main sternwalk so that I can see how the four supporting figures can be attached to the cut-down piece which was the lower gallery, but which will now fit flush up against the stern below the lowest set of windows.

So much to think about with this kit!

e

[John Clements]

Well, here is my cheapskate solution to the surplus lower gallery supplied by Heller, which I think doesn't look too bad. It's basically bending, cutting and  filling the original piece, after removing the floor, so that it sits flush against the stern. I didn't want to waste the four supporting figures (despite not being able to find any evidence that there would have been any sculpted figures in that position) but luckily they fit against four of the brackets under the next gallery. Again, one of the pleasures of this vessel is being able to - within reason - make up your own mind about detail.

My real reservation is with the false windows along the side. I made them rectangular to match the upper window in the Heller moulding, but they really don't look right. On the other hand, the stern window pattern looks too small, so some sort of compromise is needed. As I've now got probably quite a long pause whilst fitting up the visible guns and their tackle,  I'll have some time to think about it.

[John Clements]

I can't believe it's two months since I last posted progress but I don't have much to report. I have glued all the main deck guns in place and fitted the recoil tackles, and all the eyebolts in the deck, the bulwarks and the gun carriages. Now my problem is that the distance between the eyebolts is so short that the 3mm blocks I am using for the tackle are touching each other as the photo below shows. It may be that the rear end of the tackle should be fixed further back on the carriage; I used the pre-drilled holes in the carriage but my feeling is that the blocks should be smaller. That size is probably fine on a larger carriage such as on the lower decks but the upper deck guns are appreciably smaller and I believe the blocks should be too. At the end of the day, I think aesthetics has to come into it as well,; if it looks a mess, it's going to spoil the model.

So I'm going to try the 2.5mm blocks, and if it still looks cramped, will use 2mm blocks which I can't say I would be looking forward to, given their size and my eyesight.

[John Clements]

Just to add to the above, Radimir at HisModel, helpful as always, is sending me some 2mm and 2.5mm blocks to try out.

[72Nova]

Hi John,

The 2mm blocks will be the ticket and since a redo is in order remember to use the upper sheave of the blocks when rigging and I second Radimir in his helpfulness 👍. Your S/R is looking wonderful by the way.

Michael D.

 

[popeye2sea]

Since you are going to have a do-over. I would suggest that you only use one train (in haul) tackle and shift it to the lower rear of the carriage. Single train tackles were appropriate for this size gun.  2mm blocks are the perfect size for this scale. 

 

This photo was taken before I shifted the location of the train tackle eyebolt to the center of the carriage and removed the second eyebolt.  I made the same mistake you did.

 

 

Also, it helps to think of the holes in the block as the space above and below a round sheave that the rope must over as it reeves through the block. The way you are reeving your line the rope would be passing under the sheave and jamming in the shell of the block.

 

Regards,

[John Clements]

Thanks, Henry & Michael, for your helpful comments. Actually, the blocks are properly rigged - I've just checked with a bright light. It's an illusion created by the angle of the camera, the rope and block being the same colour, and the slight groove in the block between the two channels into which the rope has sunk. They say the camera never lies but in this case it has! But thanks for being helpful, anyway.

 

I'm not sure about changing the arrangement of the rear tackle. It would certainly be simpler but I have already glued the guns to the deck and glued the eyebolts in (as indicated in documentation given to me by Radimir). As the carriages are quite fragile, I'm afraid of damaging them if I drill more holes in them. I may have to leave these as they are, and try the single tackle on the higher decks. I'll have a think.

[EJ_L]

John, beautiful progress so far on the ship! I'm looking forward to seeing your interpretation of this majestic ship. Each build offers new perspectives that make each unique and worth looking at.