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

[Bill97]

Thanks Henry. 

[Bill97]

Lower mast sections dry fitted. The sections painted, woolings added, unnecessary groove at the top of the fore and main mast filled prior to painting. Blocks added to the bowsprit per Heller instructions and bowsprit glued in place. Still need to add the gammoning. I always love it when the mast, to include the bowsprit, line up perfectly behind each other as can be seen in one of the photos. Of course this is just the lower mast sections. Will see how they stay aligned as I add the topmast and the topgallant mast along with the shrouds and stays. 

[Hubac's Historian]

On 6/19/2023 at 6:05 PM, popeye2sea said:

My plan is to cut the mast sections flush with the caps. Then drill and re-use the caps, making my new top gallant masts from wood. I will also be making the top gallant cross trees that are very flimsy plastic.

 

Regards,

Henry

Sorry for the late reply.  I am also basically doing the same as Henry, here.  I will replace the topmast tops as well, as their scale and design is not really appropriate for the time period.  As for the cheeks that support the trestletrees, what Heller has moulded on the topmast and t'gallant sections is this weird conical thing.  I will make cheeks that are appropriate.

[Hubac's Historian]

It's only a dry-fit, so no harm, but be mindful that your fore, main and mizzen mast sections will need to rotate 180 degrees for the final glue-in.

[Bill97]

Oh good lord Marc, you are right I do have them in backwards 😀.  Glad I did not glue them yet 😳!  That would have been a mess. I will need to look at what the appropriate cheeks look like. 
 

Thanks Marc. 

[Bill97]

Marc and/or Henry help!  I am dry fitting the masts. I can not remember when constructing the hull and the bottom deck where the anchor point for the bottom of the mizzenmast is. Does it go all the way through the decks to the hull similar to the fore and main mast? Or does it anchor on the bottom deck?  I seem to remember there being a hole in the bottom deck and I can run a thin stick all the way down to the hull at the mizzenmast location. However I am not able to get my mizzenmast to go any further down than the bottom deck. Holding the mizzenmast up to the side of the hull with the bottom at the keel seems likely me a very low mast top. It does seem to anchor somehow at the lower deck. 

[Hubac's Historian]

I believe the mizzen mast locates in a square hole on the lowest battery deck.  It can only go so far.  If the square pin locates properly, you shouldn’t be able to rotate the mast after it is seated.  If you didn’t true-up that square locating hole before closing up the deck, that may be a slight problem.  Either way, the mast can only go so far.

[Ian_Grant]

The main mast is the only one that goes to the keel, for some reason, in this kit.

[Bill97]

Thanks guys. That is what I hoped was the case. 

[Baker]

 

Here you can find a pdf of the 1977 plans

https://www.hismodel.com/soleil-royal-12

 

fore mast

 

main mast

 

mizzen mast

 

[Bill97]

Thanks Baker. This will be extremely helpful!

[Bill97]

Ok guys I know I ask a lot of questions and some are probably dumb. I apologize for that and appreciate your patience. I have looked at this over and over. I am going to do the gammoning today. After that is done I want to add the inner and outer gammon support as shown in the instructions. Nothing I am reading shows how to connect these parts to a he gammoning. How do I attach them? Baker I even looked to the 1977 PDF you sent me, again thank you so much, and it does not say what to do to attach them. 

[Ian_Grant]

Bill, those aren't supports for gammoning, they are a series of sheaves for future rigging threads which pass through them on the way to the fore rail. Make sure you have the openings through the assemblies clear of glue etc.

 

To attach them? I would lash them, along with a little bit of CA to hold them while lashing.

[Baker]

the 70s 80s solution from Heller. 

the modern solution "a la" John  McKay

What an "English" method does on a French ship is not clear to me

[Bill97]

Looking at the pictures of the rigging I knew they were for future rigging similar to the dolphin striker on the Victory. I referred to them as gammon support because I looked up the part #’s name in the ‘77 Heller instructions you sent me baker. My main curiosity is how to attach them to the gammoning?  There is a little tab at the top and bottom I assume I am to lash around the tabs and then all 5 loops of the gammoning pulling them tight behind these pieces like a pony tail?

[Bill97]

I found a picture on Henry’s build that shows a clear example of how he did it. He lashed the top and bottom tabs around what appears to be the inner 3 of the 5 gammon wraps. 

[popeye2sea]

Bill, while that did secure the rack block to the gammoning, I was not pleased with the end result.  It did not appear to be secure at all.  My final solution was to drill a small hole through the tabs at the top and bottom of the rack block, then run the lashing through that hole and around the gammoning.  It provided a lashing that is not likely to slip.

 

Regards,

 

Henry

[Bill97]

Thank Henry. I think I understand. I will do mine that same way. Will let you know how it comes out. 

 

Bill

[John Ott]

Bill, these are called rack blocks in Karl Marquardt's book on model ship rigging. I can't tell yet which lines are which on the Heller kit, but here are two prototype diagrams showing the lines that ran through. The first is from the 1690's Royal Louis model described by Admiral Paris. The second is from JC Lemineur's Le Francois plans. 

John O

[Bill97]

Gammoning and Rack Blocks (thank you John for the nautical name) completed. The method I used to attach the rack blocks was to drill a hole in the tap at each end. Then I laced a thread around the center thread of the gammoning and brought the ends through the hole in the rack blocks. Same process for the tip and bottom. Then I simply lashed the two ends around the back of the gammoning threads and tied tight with a touch of white glue. 

[Bill97]

Following Henry’s design I made a mast coat for each mast. I decided to paint them red to match the other deck features. The masts and the coats are still dry fitted at this point while I decide for sure if I like them. At this point I think I do. If I keep them, once I glue the mast and coats in permanently I have a tiny piece of trim to go around the mast atop the coat to close any visible gap. Thoughts/opinions?

[Bill97]

Molding added around the mast coat. A little touch up sanding and painting and will be pleased with how it came out. 

[Bill97]

Remade the bowsprit using metal rods. I reused the building parts of the kit bowsprit just using rods for the vertical lifts. 

Edited June 25, 2023 by Bill97

[popeye2sea]

Spritsail Topmast.

 

Regards,

Henry

[Bill97]

Of course Henry. I know that is not a bowsprit 😊. I really need to proof read my comments and verify my nautical terms. Thanks for the correction. So what I actually did was remake my Spritsail Topmast. That of course is the name of the book I am consuming. 
 

Bill

Edited June 26, 2023 by Bill97

[popeye2sea]

Great book.  It's the bible for ships of this time period.

 

Regards,

Henry

[Bill97]

Yes. Very helpful. On the same level as Longridge’s book when building the HMS Victory. 

[Bill97]

Ok my extremely helpful friends I am studying R.C.Anderson’s book (pg 126), the Heller instructions with my kit, and the Heller 1977 instructions Baker linked me to. I am trying to determine where I anchor the lower deadeyes of the Spritsail Topsail?  There are 6, 3 each side. According to Anderson I think I understand they are attached with rope around the lower deadeye instead of being stropped with steel like all the other deadeyes at the channels. The rope then goes through a hole in the top and then down to……?  Anderson references an iron cross tree before 1650 and to bolts under the bowsprit after that. Neither set of Heller instructions show what to do. Your help on this issue would be great. 

Edited June 27, 2023 by Bill97

[Ian_Grant]

As I read it, after 1650 (and probably before) the deadeyes were stropped in iron, "probably" (he says) with iron "puttocks"/"futtocks" hooked into them (much the usual way for topmast futtocks) and the bottom ends of the puttocks bolted near the bottom of the bowsprit.

 

The first way with deadeyes stropped in rope and puttocks above the bowsprit seems to me like a mechanically inept way of doing it, with all the sprit topmast strain taken by the knee of the top instead of the bowsprit; probably why Mr. Andersen is unsure of the scheme.

Edited June 27, 2023 by Ian_Grant

[Bill97]

Ian I think I follow you most of the way, but not quite all the way. On the Victory we stropped the top mast deadeyes and then a futtock shroud was attached using a tiny hook. The bottom end of the futtock shroud then tied to the topmast shroud. I will this compare to how I do the spritsail topsail shrouds? I found this close up picture, zoomed in is a bit blurry of the bottom of the  SR spritsail topsail. It shows futtock bolted to the side of the bowsprit, three on each side. This looks like a good design. I just can’t figure out what the futtocks are. I assume the deadeye strop drops down through the top then something is connected to it and is bolted to the bowsprit. 

Edited June 27, 2023 by Bill97