by Mario Grima
1/100 Soleil Royale (Heller)
30 years ago, I was given this kit as a gift. At that time I had never built an age of sail ship before and so back then this was number one for me. During that prehistoric period there was no internet and the kit instructions were mostly in French which I am not. So picked up many books and a french dictionary, but could not find to much built diagrams of the ship with exception of the stern view of the one in the Paris Museum. I learned way later of the errors in the Heller kit; side galleries should have been open, also possibly the ornamentation may have not been gold but actually different colored statues. The bottom water line should be white but I liked the one in the Heller catalog so I left it brown. The Heller plastic hull and body don't take to long to build and were done within a year. The real headache was the mast & rigging. I did the entire rigging from the instruction sheet, highlighting the lines in yellow. With exception of the outer sails construction spanned about 10 years on and off, my free time following a line or two a night The Heller kit comes with vacuformed plastic sails . I discarded them and lucked out by having cloth ones made. Three years ago I added the crew from metal toy soldier/wargaming site. They are very detailed 1/100 scale metal French dutch war figurines. I choose gunners, riflemen & officers. I also picked up some swabby looking 1/100 scale pirates which worked out well for the work crews.
The ship aged well considering I used Testers glue at the time, and now I replace fallen parts with CA. The biggest culprit is as most of you already know dust. I don't know about Heller sailing ships today, but there was a major problem with the kit included rigging lines and thread that is was supplied by the manufacturer. The lines are nice looking and colored but once I nearly lost all the built rigging lines. How? I keep it in a sealed clear case now, but before the case came along I had it on a shelf gathering dust. I went to wash the dust off with clear tap water. It got the dust off ok, but what happened next is the Heller thread lines started snapping one by one. What it is, don't wet those Heller lines. The other house hold threads did not shrink.
The Soleil Royale and other 16 century warships are my favorite of the historic ships because of the way the stern, bow, and side ornamentation adorns them and on this ship the way each is displaced to a work of art. The Soliel Royale (Royal Sun) itself has a very interesting history. Admiral Tourville's flagship met its demise to fireboats after a battering engagement with English Warships at the Cape La Hougue on May 29th 1690.
Well I thought I was done with this ship and the 16 century, but now it is beginning all over again for me, Agh!, only now it is a bigger 1/72 plank and frame Segal Soliel Royale. I can't get that little devil off my shoulder. If you are doing one I hope these pictures help and avoid some errors I made long ago (keep away from wetting those lines), and most important of all; If you want cloth sails for your ships, make sure you get your girlfriend plenty of nice roses! It works all the time!
