Le Soleil Royal by Kevin-the-lubber - Heller - 1:100 - PLASTIC

[Kevin-the-lubber]

Prelude

 

So, another journey begins. I received the Soleil Royal kit last week after snapping up a reasonably-priced offer on ebay. The kit is one of the older Heller Humbrol pressings dating from 1980's to 2000's. It looks like a very good pressing, I haven't noticed any bad flash and the plastic seems nice and bendy. I've wanted this kit for quite a while but, because it gets mixed views, had planned to leave that for a good few years yet and, perish the thought, try to actually finish one or two other builds first. However, having foolishly opened the box, I'm already on the slippery slope.

 

The plan is to cogitate here for a while before doing any building, drawing on the logs and input those who have built or are in the process of building this kit, particularly Bill's completed log, as that'll be the best step by step going, and Marcs amazing partial scratch build. I have several models on the go, along with a host of other non-model-making projects, and in another 4 or 5 weeks I will retire from career number 3, take the pension and, in theory, have all the time in the world to finish everything off. Famous last words. If the last few months of semi-retirement are anything to go by, I'll be busier post than pre - I seem to be collecting new projects and hobbies at a frightening rate these days.

 

 In passing, about a year or two back I decided to replace our ancient and unreliable digital SLR camera and what I landed on (though not by accident) was something that would allow focus stacking. The camera and lenses also happen to weigh slightly less than a party balloon and, in the event, this has triggered an unexpected return to photography as a major hobby. On any day when the light looks interesting, I'm much more likely to disappear off to somewhere with photos to be had than stay hunched over the workbench. So, as I don't have any pretty Soleil Royal pictures to post today, and probably won't for quite a while, let me take the liberty of including a pretty flower instead.

                                                                                                  

 

The picture of the Iris is not entirely irrelevant. I love the subtleties, nuances of shade and colour contrasts that you see in flowers when you look at them up close. Nature never gets it wrong. What attracted me to the Soleil Royal was not the picture on the box, or sight of a completed build, but Marc's (Hubac's Historian) interpretation based on his extensive research. Such beautiful colours, contrasts and shades. I'm sure I'll be stealing many ideas from his log.

                                                                                                    

 

That's is not at all to suggest I can paint at that level. (Bill, if you're Larry Da Vinci, I'm your younger brother Les: handy to have around if you need a bit of plastering or concreting, but my best ceiling paintings have involved a 7" roller, a tub of magnolia and a steady supply of tea). However... what I love about painting plastic is that, as I have discovered, it comes off oh so easily with a bit of isopropyl alcohol and elbow grease, so you can try as many times as your patience permits!

 

As my other logs demonstrate, I'm not too bothered about historical accuracy and I use 3D printing to remake parts that I think can be improved on (and to circumvent my artistic limitations!). This is both a blessing and a curse. A lot of things seem very simple to remake at first, but turn out to be quite complicated once you get into them. Sometimes that's because 3D printing is not always the best suitable tool for the job. I'd love to have a CNC mill but I can think of many better things to spend £1000 on! A little task I need to pursue is to try resin casting - I bought a starter kit a few months back but haven't had time to mess around yet. Anyway, part of the purpose of the cogitation period is to take stock of the kit and try to decide in advance what I want to remake and what I don't, and how. I bought a laser cutter/engraver last year (long story, one of those go-fund-me type of deals) so I will certainly do veneer decks and a few other things. 

 

Anyway, log started, let's see how we go.

 

[Kevin-the-lubber]

Big, colourful kit... I've put the sails to one side. A couple of other things spring to mind in terms of this perhaps being the time to learn them; photo-etching, or getting stuff etched to suit, as I believe it's not especially expensive, and sculpting in Blender, which I've ducked for the last 2 or 3 years. I'll definitely remake all the blocks, deadeyes and suchlike, noting Marc's comment on Bills log that the deadeyes should be round. Cannons and trucks too - anyone have links to drawings of the real thing?

[popeye2sea]

Perhaps you could ask the moderators to move your build log to the correct sub-forum: Kit build logs for subjects built from 1501 - 1750.

 

Regards,

Henry

[Kevin-the-lubber]

Oh dear, that doesn’t bode well, if I don’t even get get the period right! Thanks for pointing it out, I’ll ask.

[Kevin-the-lubber]

A brief note, that Heller have now made the new assembly instruction booklets for both the Victory and Soleil Royale available for free download. You can get them here;

 

https://www.heller.fr/en/80897-hms-victory-1000808970

https://www.heller.fr/en/80899-soleil-royal-1000808990

 

I've managed to resist the first wave of temptation to start working on this model. It looks to me like this kit is especially suited to a bit of 3D replacement and printing; a flat stern plate, virtually flat upper bulwarks, coupled with a wealth of information and ideas in other people's logs.

[Hubac's Historian]

Aaaah, Kevin - you are here, at last!  I've been patiently waiting.  I understand your methodical approach, and I don't expect you to make any quick in-roads on this one, but I am guaranteed of one thing: whatever you end up doing, it will be interesting and innovative.

 

One thought springs to mind, and that relates to your comment about tumblehome of the upper bulwarks.  The kit's aft bulwarks end up relatively vertical, and more slab-sided, as determined by the stock stern-plate.  I found, however, that because I made the lower hull wider, I could pitch the aft bulwarks at a much more pleasing angle/degree of tumblehome.

 

If you are already considering the possibility of printing a new stern plate to incorporate the stern round-up, then you have the opportunity to incorporate a more pleasing slope of tumblehome.  There would also be the opportunity to re-scale to a six-window stern, as opposed to the stock 5-window stern, vis-a-vis the Tanneron model.

 

What surprised me, by the time I reached the upper tier of stern lights, was that the width of my stern at the very top, was almost exactly that of the stock stern plate +/- 1/16".  I mention the possibility of six windows because the two lower tiers of lights are more vertically in-line, and lay waste to additional space below.  Really take a hard look at the stock stern plate, and you'll see what I mean.  Heller simply followed Tanner, on this detail, but there is room to re-scale - even without widening the lower hull.

 

Anyway, I will be watching with tremendous fascination at what I know will be excellent.  Bon Voyage!

Edited August 19 by Hubac's Historian

[Kevin-the-lubber]

Hi Marc

 

There are things I want to become better at or able to do per se, which I'm trying out at present on the Victory, that will have a bearing on the SR. The main one of these is creating a faithful digital replica of the kit hull, as I think that is key to making complex replacement parts, such as my Vic stern, fit well on a kit hull in a repeatable way. Currently I'm wrestling with a rather poor quality 3D scan of the Victory hull, but if I don't crack this in the next few days I may go back to an earlier idea, plotting points manually using a plotting jig and transcribing these into the software. I know I could just fudge the stern fit as a one-off and that'll be the fall-back; equally, I could make a new hull using line drawings, but from there I might as well go the whole hog of scratch building, which I don't really want to do. I think I'd rather just build the kit out of the box in that case, because it is, after all (like the Vic) a beautiful kit in it's own right. Anyway, I'll plug away for a while longer before resorting to the model-makers equivalent of a manchester screwdriver.

 

I read John Ott's wonderful opening essay on the model being a replica of Tanneron and it registered that the height of the kit stern plate is exaggerated, as per artistic licence of the day (and the draught is all wrong). I think a proportionate stern plate would logically lead to a greater tumblehome angle and probably also require remodelled upper bulwarks, which don't look too hard to do.... and quarter galleries, which do look hard.... so by the time all is said and done, a new stern. Familiar territory, hence wanting to have my 'workflow' and methods clear well in advance. I need to go back through your log as a partner piece, as between you and John, you present a lot of food for thought around the stern.