Soleil Royal 1693 by John Ott - Heller - 1:100 - PLASTIC

[John Ott]

One handy source is HISmodel, https://www.hismodel.com/. They have complete accessory sets for the Heller Soleil Royal, including Amati rope sets. This is a good place to start. Check around the internet for other model ship suppliers. The ropes you need will depend on how many changes and re-dos you decide to make with your rigging.

Edited June 15 by John Ott

[Kevin-the-lubber]

Gorgeous build and mind-blowing log. I haven't even reached the end of page 1 yet but feel like I've just sat through one of the best ever model-making tutorials. I made a silent promise to myself, a few days ago, that I wouldn't do too much reading as I find with model-making I am prone to paralysis by analysis, or worse, to thinking 'oh, that looks like a good idea, I think I'll just throw away the next year of my life trying to copy that'. But I'm certainly glad to have followed the signposting in Marc's log. At the very, very least, it's saved me from doing bolts and trenails 🙂. But it also sounds like there's a heck of a lot of scope for different ornaments etc - music to the ears here.

[Hubac's Historian]

Yes, Kevin - you are in for a treat, here.  I have found John’s research to be on a par with Guy Maher’s, and his info-graphic presentations are second-to-none.  Railroad modelers are also particularly sensitive to nuance and realism.  For all of these reasons, this is one of my absolute favorite builds.

[Kevin-the-lubber]

A treat indeed. Having read it all now I know I'll need to go through again and make notes of so many things. Off the top of my head the choices and application of paints and colouring is so knowledgeable. Very dark brown rather than black, decals over mouldings, I don't think either of these would have ever occurred to me, even though I've dipped a toe in the decals pond (without much success) earlier this year. While I thoroughly enjoy the extraordinarily deep discourse around the detail and history, this if of a considerably higher order than my level and I'll be content to simply steal ideas and learn a bit more.  

[John Ott]

 

Two different ways of visualizing history: Above, "La Hougue" (1692), painted by a contemporary, Adriaen van Diest (1655-1704). And here's ...

 

"La Hougue," by Benjamin West (1738–1820), painted almost a century later. All things considered, give me a good Dutch marine artist any day.
 

The subject is the British attack in which the first Soleil Royal was burnt to charcoal. I think it's a good illustration (pun intended) of how, when reading about historical events, the focus of the narrative changes over time—from what was more or less news reporting soon after the incident, to breathless tales of jingoist heroism in the decades afterward. It makes researching Baroque marine adventures both entertaining and frustrating. 

But we were talking about chains and channels ...

 

 

Being a novice at building large sailing ship models, I was stumped for a long time about how to make chains. Here's how they looked in one of my main references, Jean Boudriot's The Three-decker of the Chevalier de Tourville:



Unfortunately, I had mounted my channels and installed all my shrouds BEFORE worrying about chains.  In hindsight, I should have made the chains and attached them to the strops of the lower shroud deadeyes before tying on the shrouds. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. I was now faced with making the long chain loop (and the lower loop with the mounts) and somehow attaching it to the lower deadeyes. Bending and soldering loops of wire was contemplated, but I thought it was a terrible idea to bring a hot soldering iron anywhere near my styrene model. 

 

I finished the shrouds soon after the start of the year. Another couple months were spent finishing the standing rigging while I wondered how to do the chains. Another couple months went by devoted to another hobby project. I got re-inspired to tackle the chains by reading Marc LaGuardia's (Hubac's Historian) ever-helpful build log and finding out he made his large chains out of thread, tied with surreptitious knots. Now that was an idea to emulate! Or so I thought.  

My model had sat on a high shelf for several months. I took it down and started examining it to make plans for the chains... but something else was immediately apparent and troubling. My starboard main channel had a noticeable bow in it, the center a few scale feet higher than the ends. The channels had been epoxied to brass posts for (I thought) durability, but apparently the tension from the shrouds had popped the epoxy joints in the middle. This was doubleplus ungood. My port-side main channels were bowing too, though not as bad.

I managed to (more or less) level out the main channels again with epoxy and wire-tie reinforcements, but thoughts of using thread for chains went out the window. My chains were not going to be window dressing. They were going to have to be functional. I didn't know if the remaining glue joints were going to pop with age.

This decision cast the die. Each long chain was going to have to be 24-gauge soft steel wire, measured and bent to length. No shortcuts.

I had a package of brass eyes, around the right size for the lower chain loops. Their posts got bent to 45 degrees and fit— sans glue— into holes drilled on the upper edge of the upper middle wale. The chain mounts were assembled from black styrene sheet, small washers I had on hand, and Tichy NBW castings, also on hand. The mounts were painted black and glued up against the bottoms of the brass eyes.

 

I used a pair of dividers and carefully measured the distance between the strap loops on the channel deadeyes and the brass eyes, then bent the big chains to match. Each was open at one end, with the two wire ends overlapping. I took out each brass eye (not yet glued, remember), attached the big loop, then held the open end open enough to fit through the deadeye strop. With the chain complete, I glued the brass eye into its hole. I think I got the large loop right-sized the first time maybe 30% of the time.

With everything painted black, I hoped the open ends of the large loop wouldn't be noticeable. From a foot or more of distance, I was right.

I still don't know what the rings mounted on the plank between the middle wales were used for. There was one for every chain, plus a few extra, spaced out along the ship. I made them with some tiny styrene eyes from Tichy and rings made from stretched sprue. They should be painted black but I'm trying to rationalize leaving them light-colored. 

Before putting on the chains, I figured this was the time to mount the gunport doors. I had them finished and painted for a year, waiting for this opportunity. The shells and fleur-de-lis on the interiors were both brass and leftover castings from the upper decks. The ropes were more soft steel wire.



It took about five or six evenings to do each side. But—chains!

 

 

 

Port and starboard aren't symmetrical. Never read where they had to be. At any rate, only one side at a time can be seen, so pffffft.

 

The mizzen chains are thread. Not much tension from shrouds there. Marc's idea got used after all. 

 

 

Now I can go on to mounting yards and sails. And reading more—trying to put together a good narrative for the battles of Barfleur and La Hougue.

By the way, I really, really hate that Benjamin West painting at the start of this post. 

 

 

In this country it is good to lampoon a marine artist from time to time, in order to encourage the others. ("Dans ce pays là, il est bon se moquer de temps en temps un artiste marin pour encourager les autres.")

De Tourville did not say that.

Stay dry.

JO

Edited August 12 by John Ott

[Hubac's Historian]

Excellent problem-solving and technique, John.  The chains look excellent.  At this scale, one has to do their best to find something that works for them.

 

Now, I could very well be mis-remembering this, but I believe all of those extra rings, interspersed between the chains and along the length of the ship, are there to assist the carpenters as they scale the sides of the ship plugging battle damage.

 

As always, John, it is a pleasure to catch-up on your log.  You always seem to have an innovative approach to vexing problems.