Which Soleil Royal, Sergal or Artesania Latina?

[Ryk]

Morning guys.

 

I need a bit of guidance on choosing between the Sergal and new Artesania Latina Soleil Royal kits. Which would be a better quality kit to purchase, seeing that both are quite pricy?

 

Would appreciate an honest view. 

 

Ryk

 

 

[SiriusVoyager]

You might get more responses posting a new topic. That being said, what is your experience level?  If you are a beginner I wouldn’t start with a complex pricy kit. There are a many unfinished models and former model makers that started with something too difficult. 

[ccoyle]

56 minutes ago, SiriusVoyager said:

You might get more responses posting a new topic.

 

Done!

[AgesOfSail]

I don't have any specific experience building these kits, but since we carry both kits in our shop, this kind of question does come up.

 

Generally speaking, many people do like the classic kits, like the Serial Soleil Royale, and I've seen many beautifully done builds over the years. I think there's a certain mindset that appreciates these classic kits. They use various woods, and brass and wooden parts to affect a certain aesthetic in the final appearance of the model. I think the kit's value this aesthetic over scale and accuracy.

 

The Artesania Latina kit is a modern era kit, and it relies less on using wood varieties for the final finish, and more on painting, or perhaps staining, for a finish, but probably is better in terms of a scale look. 

 

A major difference is that the newer Artesania Latina kits feature very detailed instructions, but don't provide any printed instructions or plan drawings. You need computer to view the instructions, as they're only in digital form. If you really want, you should be able to download them and print them out, if you don't mind printing a few hundred pages, but you'll still lack the nice, big printed plans sheets that many of us rely on.

 

The Sergal instructions are very much "old school", with almost no written instruction. These kits rely on the use of several large, folded sheets of line drawings to guide you through the build. These require more interpretation skills, ability to measure from drawings, and definite a good amount of wooden ship modeling experience.

 

As Eric comments, in either case, make sure you have some ship modeling experience before taken on either of these.

 

 

 

 

 

[Ryk]

Thank you very much for the reply. I have a reasonable amount of experience, having completed the Billings Bluenose 2 in 1998, the Billings 'Meta' in 2003, the Constructo Cutty Sark in 2015 and now busy with the HMS Victory (after visiting her physically in Portsmouth twice), also based on the Constructo 1:94 kit. I also really like working off large printed drawings, and as you know the Constructo kits do provide quite a bit of these plans combined with very simple instructions. I have the good fortune to have the Model Shipyard as a local resource on my doorstep in Mosselbay (South Africa), and they have been abundant in their support. (https://www.stephensandkenau.com/about-us/ 

 

Anyway, I will find my way and thanks for the advice. 

 

Perhaps one more question (it may be a question asked out of ignorance): I have received a ''gift'' from a friend who bought half the issues of the De Agostini version of the Sovereign of the Seas model on an auction. I simply cannot obtain the rest of the issues, as most do not ship to South Africa and if they do, it becomes prohibitively expensive. Is it worth considering construction plans to ''scratch build'' the missing parts? If so, which plans and where can I obtain these?

 

Much appreciated and with warm regards

 

Ryk

[GrandpaPhil]

I have the Sergal plans for Soleil Royale.  The Artesania Latina kit looks a lot nicer.

 

As far as Sovereign of the Seas goes, the John McKay book is very good, and the Amati plans are very nice.

Edited Monday at 06:51 PM by GrandpaPhil

[myxyzptlyk2003]

I am in the midst of building the AL Soleil Royal.  (see the build log)    Having built many kits I can say this is one of the better ones that I have encountered.   Castings are very nice and crisp.   And while there are literally several thousands of pictures in the digital manual, I still would have preferred the usual plan sheets particularly when it will come to the rigging.     Another issue.   Some of the blocks and deadeyes are laser cut on plywood.   They are not the usual ones supplied in almost all kinds of kits and I anticipate replacing them. 

[myxyzptlyk2003]

Also in the past I had received the Sergal Sovereign of the Seas.     To my mind, there is no comparison in the quality of that kit and the AL Soleil Royal.    IMO, the AL kit is vastly superior to a Sergal kit. 

[Ryk]

Thank you, everyone. I appreciate all the comments and advice. I have made my decision and am excited to also start sharing on this forum.