La Reale de France by Ferrus Manus - Heller - 1/75 - the Sun King's finest ship

[Ferrus Manus]

I went and looked at multiple other renditions of this model, and no one nailed down the paintwork on these two pieces. 

Anyway...

This subassembly makes no sense to me. 

I am used to making galleons, caravels, and other sailing vessels. It seems to me as though this deck should be flush with the hull, but the instructions clearly show this assembly the way I have it. More than that, there seems to be another deck that goes directly on top of this one. If so, why is this deck textured, or even there in the first place? 

[Ferrus Manus]

Don't let the deep blue and gold ornamentation fool you. You could almost always smell a galley before you saw it. If you ever caught the distinctive scent of human feces on the high seas, there was probably a galley nearby. This was because galley slaves and convict rowers were kept permanently chained to their benches- that includes to use the bathroom. Free crew members simply went over the side of the ship, as there were no heads on a galley. Even a large galley could only go four days without resupply, meaning long voyages were out of the question. A third of all galley rowers died within three years, mostly from disease. 

 

For that reason, I made the midships area of the Reale look especially disgusting. 

If King Louis was ever transported in a galley, which I'm sure he was, he would have been travelling in the disease-ridden maritime equivalent of an outdoor toilet. 

Edited yesterday at 03:54 AM by Ferrus Manus

[Ferrus Manus]

I put in the first quarter of the supports for the outriggers/oar benches. There are about 100 in total. 

They look to be straight, but some of them are not perfectly level with each other at the ends. I guarantee I'll have issues fitting the long strakes onto the supports. 

[Ferrus Manus]

The painting shows one support per oar, but the number of supports on this model suggest almost two supports to an oar. The overall lack of locator pins in such a complex model (where every single step massively affects all subsequent steps) has made me very disappointed in Heller. It wouldn't have taken them much more effort to mold everything in the stronger tan plastic, or design parts like the hundred outrigger supports with two locator pins instead of one.

The supports each have a square pin that goes into the round hole in the deck. Their HMS Victory and Soleil Royal kits, both of whose constructions are far simpler than this, are better designed. 

Edited 21 hours ago by Ferrus Manus

[Baker]

This kit was designed 50 years ago.

back then there were no computers, no 3D printers. everything was designed and drawn manually first with pencil and then with ink.

 

each pin in your model means drilling an extra hole in the mold

each hole in your model is an extra pin or "ejector" in the mold.

 

in those days. And for this model count at least a year to design and build the mold, with a whole team of experts.

[Ferrus Manus]

True, but when I built my Cutty Sark model (1959) I had none of these issues. That being said, the quality of the molding is exquisite, and the wood grain approaches that of Imai standards. The golden parts are detailed very well, and overall, there has not been very much flash to worry about. If you can get around the Hellerisms of this model, you can make something that looks magnificent. What I do appreciate about Heller is that they have designed large-scale kits of subjects that other model companies like Revell have not attempted. 

Edited 20 hours ago by Ferrus Manus

[Ferrus Manus]

The port side supports are complete. 

[Hubac's Historian]

My sense, Ferrus, is that you are a young person.  It is inspiring to the future of the hobby that people like yourself are taking an interest.  I've been paying attention to your builds, and your skills are, indeed, quickly improving.  I think you are off to a great start with this Reale.

 

Given the stated objective of the project - to produce a work worthy of sale - I would offer the following advice: you are correct that the filigree detail of those bulkheads could be a little bit better.  They're not bad by any stretch of reality, but they could be even a little bit better.

 

Please keep in mind that I am aware that MOST people would absolutely struggle to even approach what you have done, here.  It is only because you have EXPRESSED that nagging thought, that I am encouraging you to act on it.  When a young person, myself, this was a pretty gradual realization of what I had to do to achieve the results I wanted.  I have never regretted whatever extra investment of time, thought and effort that I have put into any given project, though.

 

My advice would be to scotch-bright away (the grey pads are great for this) most of the paint on these bulkheads and try again.  On this model.  On the next attempt at painting the bulkheads, maybe consider your brush selection.  Buy a fine-pointed sable brush, and practice your dry-brushing techniques for the raised gold-work.  It just looks to me as though your brush is a little too saturated, and that it's bleeding down into the ground.

Edited 16 hours ago by Hubac's Historian

[Ferrus Manus]

Marc, you are absolutely correct in your assessment on the bulkheads. However, they are glued into place as they are, and I am not aware of a way I could orient/flip/rotate the model (nearly 3 feet) to accommodate repainting. I genuinely appreciate your comment and will repaint if I can figure out a way to do so. Perhaps laying under it like Michelangelo painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel? Hiring a mini-me at 1/75 scale? To repaint, I will probably go over the entire thing again in red and go for round 2. 

Either way, the supports are done. 

The figurehead is the head of a charging golden unicorn. 

 

The rudder is my favorite piece so far in terms of the ornamentation. I learned to come at the raised detail at a more perpendicular angle. 

 

 

Edited 12 hours ago by Ferrus Manus

[Baker]

neatly painted 👍

Take your time and be patiënt. And you will build a great model. 

 

Some examples about mold making old scool.

Drawings.

a airfix spitfire.

a mold , the cutty sark from revell 

The large brush is the extractor plate of the mold. These extractors are sometimes used for the little holes in models. 

and sometimes cause the annoying round holes in the parts that need to be filled in

i went to school to be a mold maker.

and when i graduated in the early 80's there was a global economic crisis and i ended up at GM building Opels.

And so i started making plastic models 😉

[Hubac's Historian]

Admittedly, it would be quite awkward and difficult to repaint these details on-hull.  It is probably best left as it is, which is plenty good enough.  I’m sorry that I wasn’t thinking of that reality when I made the original comment.

Edited 2 hours ago by Hubac's Historian