Soleil Royal by AiDi - DeAgostini - 1:70

[AiDi]

Hi everyone in my first building log! 😁 At the moment I'm working on DeAgostini Soleil Royal kit and OcCres Golden Hind - I guess I will start another thread on that one in the future.

I started my work at the end of 2019. I had an idea to do the interiors, but unfortunately the design flaws demotivated me for quite a while. Then Covid pandemic came in, I had a lot of work as a teacher, time flew by and hey - it's 2021! In the meantime I read a lot about modeling, looked through some of the building logs here and on other forums. EJ_Ls thread was a big inspiration for me when it comes to Solei. Also recently I discovered this guy: rjscaleships and his Soleil (plastic Heller model) also had a big influence on my decision what I want to achieve with my work. 

 

Regarding the design flaws - the aft bulkheads are definitely too low! On this scale, a man is about 2.3 cm tall, and a stern bulkhead is 1.8 cm. I can't believe the officers had to stoop so much. So my plan is to lower quarter deck a little bit and raise the other one (I don't know how is it called, the one before poopdeck) to reach at least these 2.3 cm spacing. 

 

Now, let's go with the pictures:

 

1. I like my working space so I'll show it to you 😁I'm glad that I have window so close, daylight is something that really drives me to do my work.

 

2. LEDs - I will put them under the gratings, and there will be some at the stern gallery. I will not be using red/orange candle-like lights, but warm white. I'm not that much interested in lights looking realistic - I just want my model to be lit up. Warm white is a good for highlighting color of the surroundings. I added gratings also on forecastle deck so I decided to add some deck planking underneath it and modified forecastle bulkhead. It will be open. It's still work in progress, I added walls seen on the picture and I will planck them, along with the bulkhead, using sapele strips. 

The beakhead bulkhead has two openings (the upper ones) which in many models are used as gunports. In the DeAgostini model these were supposed to be windows, so I decided to stick with that. I drilled a hole in the frame behind this bulkhead so that the light could come out through these windows. I will make the windows of plexiglass, I just have to find a way to matt it because I don't want this interior to be fully seen.

Strips provided for deck planking were made out of ramin, and were 5mm wide. I replaced them with a 4mm lime strips.

 

3. Forcastle gratings - dry fitted and not finished. I will put a capstan between them.

 

4. I didn't like the gratings provided with the kit so I replaced them and built them differently. I used Amati ones, and added walnut spacings. I didn't glue them in place yet, so the one in the back stick out of the deck a little bit. I will also add stairs under the deck.

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5. Meet Zdzisław 😁 I made this guy so that I could keep track of sizes of things. I know that holes in the gratings are too big, but I decided to stick with that becouse of LEDs underneath. He is named after my friends grandpa, who passed away two weeks ago.

 

 

That's it for now. I don't know why but the quality of my photos is lower than usual, I must check if everything is ok with the settings of my phone's camera...

[AiDi]

Quick update: LEDs are working 😁

 

[AiDi]

Bulkhead under the forecastle finished. It was suposed to be an open space, but I decided to try and make one. I took a terrible path and will never ever do it that way again. I used card as a base because, well, I have a lot of cards and modeling paper so WHY NOT? Now I know why 😅 It does not look as good as I wanted it to, but I learned a lot. I will add doors but after the work on hull planking is finished.

 

Edited November 25, 2021 by AiDi

[Lee J H]

I'm curious about the capacity of the LED used.
It'll be so cool when the production is over.

[AiDi]

On 12/9/2021 at 3:24 PM, Lee J H said:

I'm curious about the capacity of the LED used.

 

I'm using these LEDs: https://www.tme.eu/pl/details/ll-304wc1x-w6-3p/diody-led-tht-3mm/luckylight/

😁

 

As for what I'm currently doing - planking!

[Ensign Smith]

I really love the LED idea.. I have to look into it in one of my future builds...