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

[Hubac's Historian]

The gussets serve two purposes:

 

For one, I was not confident in the small rabbeted glue joint because I needed to flex these parts quite a bit to get them to seat all the way home.  So, these additional gussets were carefully scribed to the inside reverse curve of the forward bulwarks.  They increased glue surface-area significantly, while helping to ensure that the angle of the bulwarks was consistent and what it needed to be.

 

The second advantage of the gussets is that it provides mounting surfaces for the cambered deck beams that give my forecastle deck shape.

 

Where the forecastle deck overhangs the main deck, I created a pair of hanging knees that would be visible just behind the only visible deck beam.  I just wanted to add a touch of realism with these details.  The same thing is happening at the quarter deck location.

 

The stock Heller deck is perfectly fine on its own, but I have to make a deck from scratch because the stock deck is no longer wide enough.

 

The trip is still going well.  At Rouen for a couple of days, on the far extension of the cruise.  There is a Beaches of Normandy excursion, but that is an all-day affair and Dad will not have the stamina for that.  In fact, it sounds as though he’s coming down with a chest cold.

 

This trip has presented numerous challenges at his present stage of dementia.  He is very limited in what he can process and he is often argumentative and un-reasonable because he hasn’t been sleeping well.

 

It has been great, but it is challenging!

 

[Bill97]

Marc I so so very well understand and commend you for your care and effort!  I did not know you were on a European cruise. I just thought you flew to Paris on a trip with your dad. A really interesting thing one of the counselors we had when my mom went through this said in response to us saying she is not herself today was “Oh no, she is being herself, just herself at a different time and place!”  I have always remembered that. Sometimes it helped, and sometimes not. 
 

Thanks for your reply about the gussets and beams. 
 

Safe and joyful journey my friend. 
 

Bill

[Bill97]

I know this is an artistic decision but I am curious what is more appropriate.  I am painting the rails that go at the edges of the different decks as I proceed verticle. In some builds I see builders have painted the balusters red along with the top and bottom rails (everything red). In other builds I have seen the top and bottom rails red and the balusters gold, are some other color. That combination makes for a nice visual contrast but may be completely inaccurate. 

Edited April 17, 2023 by Bill97

[Bill97]

Finished installing all 12 show cannons on this deck. Got them rigged with the in and out haulers and the breeching rope. As we have all noted 2.5mm blocks are just a tiny bit too big. Would have liked a bit more space between them. But it does illustrate how the hauls work. This was definitely time consuming. I know there are 16 more show smaller cannons on the upper decks. I may venture into maybe looking at some 2mm blocks for them, not sure. 
 

 

[Bill97]

Added the Forecastle deck and the same level deck at the aft of the ship.  Is it also called forecastle, I don’t remember?  Raised the hatch grates just as I did in the deck below. Decided to paint the bottom member of the two railings blue. I think it adds a bit of pop to the decks

[Bill97]

Gentlemen all the decks are in place! At each side of the cabin fronts I added a strip of thin Evergreen as trim to cover the small space between the cabin faces and the bulwark. I think it gives a more finished look. I am pleased with it so far. Looks like I am now moving toward some more tedious work with the small cannons and the gun barrel hatches. Marc I am studying your hatch cover enhancements and considering giving that a try. 

[Baker]

Great work,

Congrats 👍

[Bill97]

Henry can you tell me what these parts are, what they make, and were positioned on the decks?  Heller completely surprised me having these parts clear plastic like window material, but then direct they be painted. The instructions picture I included just shows it being randomly placed on he decks. 

[popeye2sea]

Those are supposed to represent chicken coops.  They were usually placed on the poop deck.  I do not know why they have one placed on the quarter deck. I have not placed mine yet, but I will be placing them next to each other on the poop (uppermost deck).  I will be painting mine to simulate grating, not a solid color top and sides.

 

Regards,

 

Henry

Edited April 25, 2023 by popeye2sea

[Bill97]

Thanks Henry. Never thought about their being chicken coops on the ship, but it does make since. That will be tricky painting them to simulate grating. Now that I know what they are I will try the same. 

[Bill97]

Henry rather than trying to simulate grating on the chicken coops with paint, which I am sure my attempt at it would have looked terrible, I came up with another idea. I have some window screen cloth left over from when I did some repairs. I decided to cover the clear plastic coops with the screen cloth and cut thin strips off .01 Evergreen to resemble a wood frame. I think they came out all right!

[Ferrus Manus]

On a ship, everyone's gotta eat. It wasn't uncommon to house live animals onboard a ship, especially a large one, for consumption by the crew. Those chicken coops are, in reality, chicken coops, housing actual chickens. 

Edited April 25, 2023 by Ferrus Manus

[popeye2sea]

They look great. I might just borrow your method to do mine.

 

Regards,

 

Henry

[Bill97]

Thanks Henry. I knew there was as no way I could as doing to be able to pant the he grating. 

[Bill97]

Ok Henry next head scratcher question. There are 3 barrels that come with the kit. Two have stands and valve at the bottom. One would assume they are for water. Then there is this odd barrel with a big hole in the side of it that goes on the forecastle. What in the world is it for?

[Ian_Grant]

According to the English translation page on my old instructions, that barrel is a matchtub ie for lit matches I presume.

Quite why there would be only one is another question.

 

Looking splendid Bill !!!

[popeye2sea]

My set of instructions call your part number 75 a sponge tub and your part number 73 a sand barrel.  That makes more sense to me than a match tub, which would not be enclosed. Presumably there would be a sponge tub, a match tub, and a sand barrel near each division of guns.

 

PS. In my instructions they are assembly J part  #160 and assembly H part #261 and 262

 

Regards,

Henry

[Bill97]

A sponge tub Henry?  Oh no I thought thought the 10 of them were fire buckets. A painted and weathered them to resemble fire buckets. I even added a handle and a few drops of clear resin to resemble water in the bucket. I guess I could still place them as instructions show and call them sponge tubs. Looking at it now I imagine the scale would be a little too big for a crewman to pick up and toss on a fire. Oh well I now have 10 sponge buckets with a handle. 😊

[Bill97]

Worked on various things over the last few days. Most, but not all, from one page of the instructions dealing with items to be added to the decks. The items included the sponge buckets, the match bucket, and a couple stacks of lumber. The instructions show the lumber stacks on the forecastle but when I dry fitted them they would definitely interfere with the cannon in-hauls. So will need to see where to put the stacks later after the cannons in and rigged. Started working on the small cannons for the upper decks and the cannon hatch covers for the two lower decks. Marc I hope to be able to follow your design on the covers with a piece of Evergreen added to the inside and hopefully the enhancements. And last, but I think not least, I painted one of the side galleries just to see how it would look. I painted gold over the blue on the gallery enhancements and will follow up with gold leaf over the dominant characteristics. An item on this page I have not tackled is the boats. I will look at them at some point. 

[Ian_Grant]

Bill, I can't imagine them leaving a pile of wood on deck as a source of flying splinters in an action, given that they towed or abandoned the boats for the same reason. Spare spars yes, lashed near the centreline. I planned to just omit the wood. If I ever get there.

 

As for the sponge tubs, well, they were full of water and probably did double as fire buckets so I wouldn't worry about changing them.

 

Hope my SR looks as nice as yours; again, if I ever get there.

Edited April 27, 2023 by Ian_Grant

[popeye2sea]

Bill, I am omitting the spare wood stock from my kit. I am also debating whether to use the boats as they do not fit in with my chosen display of being rigged for battle.

 

Regards,

Henry

[Bill97]

Henry I like the idea of just eliminating the wood stacks. If you go with your idea about the boats will you just not display them anywhere?

[Hubac's Historian]

I think a set of spare fore and main topmasts make sense, but beyond that it’s just clutter and carnage.  The carpenter’s stores would have been down below on the orlop deck.  Big timber may have been stowed in the hold.

[Bill97]

Thanks Marc. 

[popeye2sea]

18 hours ago, Bill97 said:

Henry I like the idea of just eliminating the wood stacks. If you go with your idea about the boats will you just not display them anywhere?

Well, they would properly be towed astern during battle or be used to communicate between other ships in the battle line.  So, since I am not making a diorama, then I will just eliminate them completely.  Truthfully, I am not pleased with the way they look and I do not want to spend the additional effort to correct them as I am with the rest of the ship. This build has already taken 40 years to get to it's current state.

 

Regards,

 

Henry

 

[Bill97]

Henry I feel the same way about the boats. I did not like them on my HMS Victory so since I had already painted and bashed them with foot boards and other extras I just displayed them off the ship next to the ship biography. 

[Bill97]

Worked on building and painting the 16 cannons that go the upper decks.  As you can see in the photo of the cannons I have removed the molded trunnions and replaced them with a new trunnion more accurately placed on the barrel length. Also positioned the wheels on the carriage more accurately as well. These are the last of the cannons to be built!  Also made many many eyebolts I will use to rig the cannons. Also made enough eyebolts for the cannon hatch covers. 

Edited May 2, 2023 by Bill97

[Snug Harbor Johnny]

6 minutes ago, Bill97 said:

Worked on building and painting the 16 cannons that go the upper decks. These are the last of the cannons to be built!  Also made many many eyebolts I will use to rig the cannons. Also made enough eyebolts for the cannon hatch covers. 

    Eye, eye, Sir!

 

[Bill97]

So that I can show the blocks of the cannon tackles further separated I plan to have these small cannons on the upper decks hauled in showing more space between the front and back block on each out-hauler. I will also place the ring bolt in the deck for in-hauler tackle for enough in board to provide minimal space between the the two blocks. Curious if having these cannons hauled in while all the cannons on the other decks are either fully hauled out, or partially hauled out, is appropriate?

[Baker]

Don't now, 

you may want to do a dry test fit first to see how it looks this way