Le Soleil Royal 1669 by aurélien wolff - Heller - 1:100 - part speculation/what if

[aurelien wolff]

Hello, my parents paid for the kit today and I decided to prepare the thread here in advance too since I've been in a research phase for a month(since I never did sailing ships before, I prefer to know my subject and where I'm going). I made a short list of modification (bound to change overtime) of my model after seeing builds of both 1669 and 1693 SR (I like seeing builds of the ship for inspiration, no matter the model company, scale or time period choosed by the builder, I can stil lget something useful for my 1669 SR), here it is:

 

-The more I think about it, the more I might do it as a waterline, it'll make correcting the stern easier and I can still use heller stand, no obligation for a diorama

-New figurehead/ornaments/moldings

-Incresed breadth so I can incorporate 6 windows with a door as described in the original royal louis description on gallica

-increase decks size using plastic/styren sheet

-new flags

-1 more chase gun on both sides of the bow

-openning the original heller quarter gallerys (I find it funny they are on the boxart, but not on the kit)

-more detailed and incresed gun breadth, inspired by Hubac build

-ornament (such as fleur de lys) on the opened port lid (I don't think I'll open all of them)

-2 more guns on the stern

 

For the color, I think I'll go for a full white hull with blue stern and forecastle, ocher, touches of gold and red . I got a edition without a new notice, I wonder is it necessary for the build or not?

I like the other boxart too: http://hellerpassionmaquettes.blogspot.com/2007/01/le-soleil-royal-vedette-de-la.html

Thanks for fellowing my build and helping me on my research and getting it right!

 

[aurelien wolff]

I did a test yesterday to see if my old tamiya milliput would still work, it does , even if the exterior of the tubes has dryed over time and the exterior of the gray one is now brown . I did rough molding and fleur de lys shape (first time doing that) and for the stern side, decided to do something based on this drawing of the monarque/royal louis , since we don't know what it loked like, even with dassié description(who put "liston" in plural with, so I can still keep the moldings of the 3rd battery).

[aurelien wolff]

My parents got me floating baroque this morning, now I got paper documentation for the stern

[aurelien wolff]

Floating baroque arrived today. I'm still waiting for my soleil royal kit who got sent back to the seller by mondial relay, we don't know why. My parents got me patrick villier book on the french navy and saint phillipe, it'll have inspirations for the soleil royal too

Floating baroque has a pic of hans bosma soleil royal who seem to be the heller kit, he managed to have a verry good looking model, even if he kept the box stern fassade and quarter galleries, so despite its innacuracies, you can make something good from the box with the kit.

 

[aurelien wolff]

Patrick Villiers book arrived. I started reading it, it's quite interesting, I learn more on the french/english and dutch navies, on the 17th century and french navy history and a lot of inspiration for my soleil royal. The kit arrived today. The box is huge. Some part broke off their sprues but they still seem to be in their bag so it's good, the façade has a small crack, but not a problem since I plan to modfy it. The sails are a bit disformed, the strings a bit tangled and the notice didn't liked the transport(at least the cover).

[aurelien wolff]

After a little absence, here's an update on the SR. I started working on the kit injection pins (there are a lot) at a meeting of the modelism club I'm in and tonight I started cutting the panels of one of the quarter galleries using a xacto knife (didn't cut myself yet). I think I can use that for the 3rd battery gunport to correct their angle without having to use another part.

[aurelien wolff]

This weekend, I worked essentially on the quarter gallery (part 17), opening it. It wasn't so hard and I didn't cut myself yet.

Currently going through Guy M 104 pages document on the ship, the books "floating baroque" and "Les vaisseaux de 1er range, de louis XIII à louis XIV", both being quite itneresting and isntructive with isnpiration for my SR.

[aurelien wolff]

Yesterday, I started making plans o the stern façade. Both will be rough schemes. One showing the original heller part, the other the modifyed part. I started opening the 2nd quarter gallery too while watching the french show "c'est pas sorcier" on the belem

This episode:

 

Edited January 24, 2023 by aurelien wolff

[aurelien wolff]

I did the rough scheme of the heller stern façade yesterday and opened all the panels of the second quarter gallery while watching "c'est pas sorcier" on the french ship of the line. This episode showed the hermione under construction(slight audio issue on sabine parts for some reason, but not jamy)

 

 

[mtaylor]

I moved this to the proper era section.

[aurelien wolff]

A bit of news, I'll go back to the gun cariages tomerow. I started working on the america/africa figures provided by heller. I had to remove the molding lines using a knife and sand paper and I glued both figures arms. Had to use pics from tanneron soleil royal and a soleil royal someone from my modelist club did. 

[aurelien wolff]

Hello, it's been a while since I haven't showed my advance, sorry for my absence! This month, I assembled the decks, continued working on the gun carriages and tonight worked on the part 11. Someone helped me with the dremel to cut through the hull.

 

[Ferrus Manus]

Hey Aurelien, how old are you? It seems like we might have found another young model shipwright here on the forum! 😄

[aurelien wolff]

23 years old. By the way, I might keep going on the gun carriages today (lots of them still to do and I'm sure I lost some parts)

[Ferrus Manus]

Your parents seem really invested in this model! Are you building it for them? I assume they think very highly of your skills. I am 18. I buy and build my own models, and display them in my bedroom.

Edited May 17, 2023 by Ferrus Manus

[aurelien wolff]

Actually, they're not much invested in it, I asked them the kit for my last birthday (I think) and I got it(tho we did had delivery issues with mondial relay, us and the seller thought it could take the kit but it didn't). This week end, I did more gun carriages and removed the "LL" on one of the side panels.