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

[Bill97]

Deck sections painted. I went with a newer wood look for a change. Did an old wood look in the Victory. 

[Bill97]

Been quiet for a few days. Not a lot to report. A lot has been done. It just doesn’t look like a lot to report. I removed the water line Heller molded into the hull and painted the lower section up to the wale. Decided not to go with the white bottom but instead went with a dark weathered wood grain look. While surface primer and paint layers were drying I used the time to assemble all the cannon barrels. They still need a bit of sanding along the seams then primer and painting. My current plan is to paint them bronze with some aging and highlights. Today I am working on preparing the upper part of the hull for painting. 

[Ian_Grant]

You're getting good at those decks Bill! Nice work.!

[Hubac's Historian]

The decks really do look fantastic!

[Bill Morrison]

1 hour ago, Hubac's Historian said:

The decks really do look fantastic!

To me, I wish that Heller had paid more attention to providing plank detail across the decks and on the inboard side of the bulwarks But, Bill has done a great job on them!  I also love that you raised the waterline to the lowest wale. Lemineur's drawings illustrated this quite well. It goes a long way to giving the appearance of a more balanced design.

 

Bill

Edited November 5, 2022 by Bill Morrison

[Bill97]

Thanks guys. Really appreciate your kind comments.  I consider compliments from you guys as special. I think of you as very accomplished builders. I am just a young Jedi learning from the Obi-wan Kenobe(s) of the model ship would! 😊

Masked the already painted bottom of the hull and primed the upper portion with a white and brown Vellajo surface primer. The second picture is the color scheme I have decided on. I like it a lot and hope I can come close to how nice it looks. If I remember correctly this photo may be one of your’s, not sure. I have so many SR photos saved on my phone. 
 

I also spent a little time today practicing making my own chain plates. Cut some small pieces of .05 mm brass wire and practiced a little soldering and blackening. First time to try it. Opened up a whole new world of stuff I can do!

[Hubac's Historian]

Ultimately, Bill, you’re going to want to make a tighter radiused loop on those chains.  Most builders set up a fixture board with pins driven at a distance you want your chain segments to be.  You then wrap your wire tightly around these pins and snip the wire in the middle of the chain plate.

[Bill97]

Oh sure Marc!  I plan that. I was just practicing my first attempt at soldering my brass wire. Never soldered anything before except copper pipes in a plumbing situation. Daniel has a great tutorial here on MSW showing how to set up the pins. 

[Bill97]

Got some prep and painting done today. After a good bit of color judging I decided on the color for the stripes down the side of the ship. Once I was done spending a ridiculous amount of time masking the hull I was able to airbrush the stripes. I tried to figure out a way to mask the interior of each of the gunports because I will be hand painting them red and did not want to many coats of paint in the gunports. I discovered on my Victory that several coats of paint in the gunports cause me to loose sharpness of the edges. May sand them a little inside before I paint the red. Also worked on the hawser pieces and got them installed. The edges are flush with the surround areas of the hull. I did a light bit of work with a fine file to smooth the edges where the pieces joined. Unfortunately as a result I lost the molded wood grain there at the joint. I took some 60 grit sandpaper and drug it a couple times over the area hoping to recreate a little grain. I thought it looked OK but after I airbrushed the area the grain does not stand out very much. Probably do a little dry brush of a weathering color and hopefully that will blend pretty well. We will see. 
 

Also worked on the first set of cannon barrels. Glued the halves together, smoothed the seams, and airbrushed them a surface primer. I intend to paint all the barrels bronze so I had to test my Vallejo bronze Game Color over several different color surface primers to see which gave me my desired look. Ultimately I went with a white surface primer 

Edited November 6, 2022 by Bill97

[Ian_Grant]

I didn't know you had an airbrush, Bill.  Did you ever use it on Victory?

[Hubac's Historian]

Nice work with the file, Bill - a great result!

[Bill97]

Yes Ian I did on the decks, black and ochre stripes, masts, and several other things. Enjoy using it. In the photo all the black cap paint bottles are for air brush. 

[Bill97]

This is my setup except I don’t have 3 different airbrush’s. 

[Bill97]

Thanks Marc. You think the hawsers look OK with a little more refinement?

[Bill Morrison]

I love my Paasch airbrush!

 

Bill Morrison

 

[Hubac's Historian]

1 hour ago, Bill97 said:

Thanks Marc. You think the hawsers look OK with a little more refinement?

What you have done is above and beyond what most do.  At this early stage of paint, it is not too late to use a little putty to fill the last traces of that joint.  All you have to do, after leveling the filler, is re-scribe the plank seams, and spray a little touch-up paint.  That’s totally above and beyond, but if you are planning to use distress washes - they will show up in that shadow of a crack.

 

While you are it it - just as you scraped away the moulded waterline, you may choose to scrape away the vertical raised line that runs upward from the aft corner of the hawser piece.

 

I suppose it is intended as a marker for where the headrails line up, but it doesn’t really need to be there.

Edited November 7, 2022 by Hubac's Historian

[Bill97]

Thanks Marc I will do that. I wondered what those two raised lines were far and why they were there?  Your directions on using the filler and then re-scribing the plank seam is actually what I initially did. I ended up having just the slightest difference in the two levels so that is way I used my fine grit file to get it smooth and level. That caused me to loose the molded wood gran. Now that I have the airbrush painting done I can remove all the masking. After that I will be devoting a lot of time to further hull hand painting. That will give me ample time to fine tune the hawser joint. You are right about the distress wash showing the joint. I may reevaluate that part of my plan. 

Edited November 7, 2022 by Bill97

[Bill97]

Bill, when you do start the cannons be aware that they're a little strange as supplied. The trucks (wheels) are too close together and the trunnions are too far forward on the barrels. Assemble the carriages with the trucks closer to the corners, and if you're up to it cut off the trunnions and drill new holes through the barrels using a jig on your drill press.

 

Dafi had good before and after shots of some cannons he modified.
 

Ian I looked back to this post of your’s. Cannons will be right around the corner for me. Are Dafi’s shots in his Victory build blog or a separate blog? Not sure where to look for them. Moving the 100 and something trunnions would be a major undertaking!  Will have to think about that. It would shake the dust off my drill press! 😊

When you say assemble the carriages with the trucks closer to your he corners, do you mean just move them more forward and more to the rear under the carriage?

[Ian_Grant]

If/when I get to my SR I will move the trucks and trunnions on the visible guns, and leave at least the trunnions as is on the hidden guns.

 

Somewhere or other I saw before and after shots of these cannons modified. Built straight from the box, they look odd with the wheels too close together, and more especially with the breech ends dangling out in space behind the carriage. I'm pretty sure it was Dafi but God knows where in his extensive writings. Suggest you PM him and ask about it.

[Bill97]

Ian I have not cut loose all the carriage and wheel pieces yet. I think I will put together a couple so I can see exactly what you are talking about. I also think I will see how many, and which, cannons will be visible so I can get an idea of what we are talking about. 

Edited November 7, 2022 by Bill97

[popeye2sea]

On 11/6/2022 at 7:35 PM, Hubac's Historian said:

What you have done is above and beyond what most do.  At this early stage of paint, it is not too late to use a little putty to fill the last traces of that joint.  All you have to do, after leveling the filler, is re-scribe the plank seams, and spray a little touch-up paint.  That’s totally above and beyond, but if you are planning to use distress washes - they will show up in that shadow of a crack.

 

While you are it it - just as you scraped away the moulded waterline, you may choose to scrape away the vertical raised line that runs upward from the aft corner of the hawser piece.

 

I suppose it is intended as a marker for where the headrails line up, but it doesn’t really need to be there.

I think those marks are intended to represent the extra planking put on as a sort of fender or rub strake for the anchors. I know they have a name but I do not recall what they are called.

 

Regards,

 

P.S. I just remembered......Anchor Lining. And the Heller instructions call for painting the area forward of those lines black.

 

Regards,

Edited November 8, 2022 by popeye2sea

[Ian_Grant]

As I recall from looking at my SR instructions before stashing it, they want you to paint an area on the bow black. could this line be the dege of the black bit?

[Bill97]

Oh oh 😳!  I  done scraped them off and painted the area. Will look at other builds to see if painting is a must. If so I can will guesstimate where the line was. 

Edited November 8, 2022 by Bill97

[Bill97]

I quickly, with a little panic, checked all the SR  builds I am reading through and have not found any with that area painted black so I am going to live with mine as is. 

[Hubac's Historian]

I think Henry is right, that this line represents the anchor lining.  However, it doesn’t really follow the path or sweep of the anchor flukes during the catting process.  I added an anchor lining because it was a relatively easy modification.  As was pointed out to me, back then, the space between the lower main wales, from the aft edge of the anchor lining to the stem, should also be filled flush.  This is a particularity of French design.

 

[Bill97]

Thanks Marc for the photo and further explanation. I guess filling that area flush helped keep the anchor from hanging up on the lower main wales as it was hauled in?  I obviously notice on yours that you have that area still white. What is your painting plan?

[Hubac's Historian]

Yes, precisely.  That photo was from pretty early in the build.  One of the nice things, before I painted the model, was to see all of the modifications as they were mostly made from white styrene.  Part of me wishes I could see the current status of the model without any paint whatsoever.

[Bill97]

So you made the entire way up flush not just the two lower main wales?  And you used Evergreen or some other styrene as the filler? Brilliant!  Along the edge of the styrene, front and back, did you just leave the edge or putty and blend into the planking?  Hard to tell from your photo. 

[Hubac's Historian]

The anchor lining stands proud of the hull planking, but is flush with the wales, wherever it crosses a wale.  It is only on the lower main wale that the lining extends forward to the stem.

Edited November 8, 2022 by Hubac's Historian

[Bill97]

Needless to say just a very small section complete, but now that I have the hull painted and weathered to my liking I am am starting the process of nail holes in the planking and bolts in the wales. This may take a while. Marc I bypassed the anchor lining since I am pleased with the painting and did not want to risk messing it up.