Le Soleil Royal by Bill97 - FINISHED - Heller - 1/100

[Hubac's Historian]

I agree with Ian on that one.

 

What we’re referring to with Evergreen and the cap rails is to thicken the inside edge of the caprails so that they don’t look so thin.  It’s the same idea is thickening the gunport openings with Evergreen.

In the picture above, you can see the white Evergreen along the caprail.

 

There it is again on the top bulwark pair.  I did not do this in the waist railing, though.

[popeye2sea]

Following the kit order of build is not bad. The fit of the forward bulwarks against the beakhead bulkhead isn't that great.  It ends up with some heavy overlap of the bulk head from the sides.  You could pare this down and depending on how you think it should go you can scribe the continuation of the side plank strakes across the edge of the beakhead bulkhead.  The head rails hide much of this area later on. Filling the gap between the top rails is also a good idea.

 

I also had to do a lot of filling on the inside seam of the upper bulwarks and the deck.  I did use the gap  to hide the tails of the eyebolts that I put though the bulwarks for the chain anchor points.  The eyebolt tails were bent over into the gap and then the filler putty covers everything up.

 

I do recall having to trim and fill parts of the stern plate to make it fit snugly to the sides. This, again, is a rather slipshod joint.  Nothing substantial to attach to.  I think the addition of a few gussets back there could have helped. If I recall the joint between the stern plate and the transom is just a butt joint also.  Nothing really there to fix the stern plate to.

 

I painted everything prior to assembly.  There was some touch up involved afterwards.

 

Regards,

Henry

[Hubac's Historian]

That’s a pretty thorough accounting of what’s involved.

[Bill97]

All advice is appreciated Ian. I will work with all the different options. 

[Bill97]

Thanks Marc and Kevin. This is the kind of advice I need. 

[Bill97]

So you guys ran Evergreen almost the full length along the tops of the bulwarks?  Mine has a narrow section as I showed in the picture and thicker either side of that section. I was thinking I only needed to do that section to make it uniform. Wonder if yours is molded the same way. Does it make the rail really thick?

[Hubac's Historian]

This middle “narrow” section is what I mean by the waist section.  It would be a mistake to add anything here because what it really represents are the exposed timberheads (that make up for the vertical members of all cap-railings), which then have an external sheer-strake nailed to them.  As far as the kit is concerned, this isn’t exactly perfect proportionally, but it is correctly modeled as a detail, so I would leave that alone.

 

Personally, I was only concerned with the sheer rails of the forecastle deck, the quarter, poop, and poop-royal decks.

[Hubac's Historian]

And, yes, the moulding of the kit has not changed at all from the mid-70’s when it was released.  These parts are interchangeable.

[Bill97]

Ok Marc I am looking at my bulwarks and the pictures of your’s. In the photo I attached I am holding a piece of Evergreen up to the edge of the rail. This Evergreen is the same dimension of the molded rail so it basically doubles the rail thickness. I know I need to fashion it around the circular ports but just to get an idea of Evergreen size. You say not to widen the waist rail. Check. Got that. In your photo it appears you also put smaller dimension Evergreen on each side of the rail baluster?  And framed on the front side?  Is that correct? I see the thin white stripe on each side and at the top. Also in your pictures on the front side of the bulwark I see vertical white stripes next to the hatches in the waist area and a couple horizontal white stripes as well. What am I seeing?  This is where I thoroughly enjoy the assistance you guys give me. I obviously want to get all the bashing done on the bulwarks before I touch a drop of paint. 
 

Thanks

Bill

[Hubac's Historian]

Not to be a total pain in the ***, but the Evergreen strip you are showing next to your caprail is easily twice the thickness you need it to be.  Aim for .032 - .028; I’ve run out of what I used, but that’s a good approximate range.

 

What you are seeing on the verticals (interior bulwarks), and vertically/horizontally on the exterior of the bulwarks is my attempt at visual trickery; on the standard Heller kit, the exposed timber heads, that make up the verticals of the railings, are much “taller” than they should be.  My decision was to widen them, by adding styrene strip to the sides of the timberheads, but also to create a recessed panel that is visible from the outside of the bulwarks - those are the short horizontal strips.  The intended effect is to focus the eye on the much smaller recessed panel, as opposed to the still too tall exposed timberheads.  Making them a little wider enhances the effect.

 

In truth, all timberhead railings should be shorter like the one I fabricated for the poop-royal rail:

I did the same thing again, on the beakhead bulkhead railing - because it was easy to fill-in and do so:

That’s what they should all look like.  I’ve made compromises all along the way; adjust this to approximate THAT, while creating THIS to represent what it’s supposed to be.

 

Proof of concept:

Edited December 3, 2022 by Hubac's Historian

[Hubac's Historian]

The “vertical white stripes” you are seeing on the exterior of the bulwarks are the continuation of the waist “skids,” or rub-rails that ease the raising or lowering of the ship’s boats past the wales.

 

You can see the skids, here, on the left side of the picture:

Edited December 3, 2022 by Hubac's Historian

[Bill97]

Oh no Marc, you are definitely not being a pain in the xxxx.  I hope I am not being a pain in the xxxx with all my questions. This is the exact information I am looking for. Especially the size of the Evergreen to use. I think the piece I have in the photo is .8. Definitely too big. The skids are an excellent idea as well. Loving this build! 😊

 

Bill

[Bill97]

Marc this picture you added makes it much clearer now. I see exactly what you are explaining, especially how you framed the rail balusters (don’t know the nautical term). That must be really small Evergreen. There is so much in that photo I really like. There is so much in that photo that is causing me to take a pause on my painting and gold leafing plan. I see where you and Henry of molded ornamentation for addition to the model. What product do you use for that. I am really interested in that. 

[Hubac's Historian]

For all of the frieze ornamentation, I carved masters out of styrene and then mounted them to plywood blocks that I could then make casting moulds from with a latex mould medium.  The castings themselves are a 2-part resin - Allumilite - that requires a lot if wasting to eliminate the background material, after casting.  It was not an efficient process.

However, it is the process I knew I could get great results with.  I could never quite see bow to model carvings in Sculpy clay the way some so masterfully do.

 

The frieze lattice was laid out on paper, transferred to .015 sheet plastic and ever so carefully cut out:

 

It was a tremendous labor that was worth it, in the end, but I spent the better part of six months working at it - a lot of hours!

[Bill97]

Thanks Marc. I found the product Kevin used to mold his additional ornaments. Order the mold making product and the resin product to use in the mold. Looking forward to experimenting with this new idea. 
 

I removed all the plastic belay pins on the 4 upper bulwarks (quite a few were broken off already), and drilled holes for new steel pins.  I test inserted all the pins. I will remove them before I start painting and then glue them in adjusting their length to be uniform. This will be great when I start the rigging. 
 

Marc I got .030 Evergreen to widen the rails. 
 

I have also cut out the 3 upper openings on the side galleries. I saved the cut outs to possibly use on the upper bulwarks. 

[Ian_Grant]

So I've seen several people who cut out those panels without damaging them, for re-use.

 

Does it go quite easily?

[Bill97]

It was not to difficult. I used an exacto knife with a new sharp point blade. The he plastic is real thick so it does not take long to cut through it. You have to be extra careful around the molded figures. 

[popeye2sea]

The first pass with a very sharp blade is just to define the cut. Then you follow up with successive deeper passes with the knife until you can separate the panels. The trick is not to try and cut too deep with each pass.

 

Regards,

Henry

[Bill97]

Marc I really like the molded rigols you have above each of the UB cannon hatches. That is an addition I want to try molding for my SR. Did you carve the the shape to cast the mold from or did you find the shape somewhere to make the mold?  That is very precise. 

[Hubac's Historian]

It was the same process as described above; carved a master from styrene, mount to plywood block, make a mould from latex, cast into mould.

[Bill97]

That is pretty impressive carving!

[Bill97]

Finished adding the Evergreen to the top of the Upper Bulwarks based on Marc’s recommendation. I ran into an issue with adding the Evergreen to the highest part of the back Upper Bulwark. The little piece of deck on the stern end comes up very close to the top edge of the end of the upper bulwark and does not leave much room for adding an Eveegreen strip. Will have to give this some thought. 

 

Edited December 6, 2022 by Bill97

[popeye2sea]

I think Marc added an additional rail above the bulwark of the poop deck (poop-royal?).

 

Regards,

Henry

[Ian_Grant]

Boy, Bill, you're not letting any grass grow under your feet.............!

[Hubac's Historian]

8 hours ago, popeye2sea said:

I think Marc added an additional rail above the bulwark of the poop deck (poop-royal?).

 

Regards,

Henry

 

That is correct - I cut away the top-most sheer step and replaced it with a 1/2 height caprail that extended the full-length of the third sheer step.  Ultimately, I am shortening the length of the poop royal deck a bit (maybe about 1/2”) to avoid this problem that Bill has encountered.  Since I’m making all of the decks and bulkheads from scratch, I feel comfortable doing that.

 

All that said, I may slant the poop royal deck so that it follows the sheer of the railing.  I won’t really know for sure until I get there.

[Bill97]

I will tinker with this to get a satisfactory final result. 
Ian I am close to hitting a slow down. I am really not sure where t go next. I want to add additional molded ornamentation to the bulwarks but I need to get my ordered my materials to do that, and practice. I am guessing any additions should be put on before starting my painting?  I still want to make the boat skids. I could work on them. I could also begin working at the bow area. I know the upper bulwarks go on after the beakhead bulkhead so I may begin studying what bashing, if any, I may need to do to it. Along with that I could build my bowsprit and the whole bow section. I know I want to fill in the empty area in the knee as everyone recommends doing, so that is an area I could approach next. Many areas to tinker with. Where to look next?  😊

[Bill97]

Decided to assemble and work on parts in the bow area. According to the instructions that is where I am supposed to go next anyway. Attaching the UB is still down the road a ways. On the previous page I was to put the two sections of the bowsprit together so that is my current mission. I always like to reinforce the bowsprit, and later the masts with wood, with wood rods so I will do that before gluing the halves together. The pieces have some pretty substantial molded waste areas inside I need to remove before I can fit the sanded down rod to taper and fit. I got out my handy dandy nail decorator which is a little more delicate than my Dremel might be in a his area. 
 

For future reference so I won’t need to bug you guys with another question. Do you know if there would be a problem with assembling steps #35-39 off the ship and put on in one piece?  I want to fill the blank space between parts in 35 and 37 with a piece I make similar to the way you guys did. Seems as if that may be easier to do as one piece off the ship.

[Bill97]

One reinforced dry fitted bowsprit. I put the dial rod in my drill and held it in a piece of course sandpaper to taper it to the desired shape. I then added CA glue to the inside of each side of the bowsprit and plastic cement along the edges. Then pressed it together with the dial rod inside. A test fit on the ship and this piece will be ready for further use. 

[Ian_Grant]

Bill, regarding filling the hole in the knee of the head I would think that although filling after gluing these parts to the hull might be slightly awkward, it would otherwise be difficult to cut and glue in whatever you have in mind for the opening while maintaining the upper and lower parts of the stem in the correct position relative to each other.  If your shaped fill was a little off, then the resulting one-piece "complete stem" might not then properly attach to the hull.

 

In other words, you'd need a jig to hold the upper and lower parts of the stem in the correct orientation while you fit the filling.

 

Might as well glue them onto the hull, then they are really and truly "jigged" for you. That's what I'd do.

[popeye2sea]

4 hours ago, Bill97 said:

 

For future reference so I won’t need to bug you guys with another question. Do you know if there would be a problem with assembling steps #35-39 off the ship and put on in one piece?  I want to fill the blank space between parts in 35 and 37 with a piece I make similar to the way you guys did. Seems as if that may be easier to do as one piece off the ship.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The difficulty with doing this operation off the ship is that the upper and lower stem don't connect with each other so that you will constantly be guessing about the proper gap between them and the shape of your filler piece.

 

Regards,

Henry

Edited December 6, 2022 by popeye2sea