Heller Royal Louis, Soleil Royale & Couronne

[Emden7]

Has anyone built the Heller 1/200 Royal Louis? Thinking about building it and would like to see a completed model.

[masch3]

I have it in my stash, but the Steel Navy comes first!

[Guest]

Me too but I like to build something new from time to time.

[Edward Pinniger]

I don't have this particular kit, but I've heard it's one of the better kits in Heller's 1/200 sailing ship range. They made a number of other kits using parts from the Royal Louis, such as "Le Gladiateur" which aren't up to much, in some cases representing ships which never existed, but the Royal Louis kit itself is a fairly accurate representation of an 18th century French ship of the line.

IMHO, one of the best Heller sailing ships - after the 1/100 Victory - is the 1/150 Superbe/Glorieux (the two kits are nearly identical). This certainly lives up to its name and is a superbly detailed and accurate kit of a 74-gun "third-rate" ship of the line. A number of these ships were captured by the RN so it could even be converted into a British ship with a bit of work.

[JIM BAUMANN]

A quick scan of the interenet turned up this image:



different kettle of fish here.....

-the 1/100 Soleil Royale-

-however you can do worse than be inspired by a polish or Czech modeller who had a very long thread about how he built his--to a standard almost unimaginable!!!!
maybe some of our other readers can chime in with a link?

anyhow here is a link to another one built by a german modeller

http://www.modellversium.de/galerie/5-s ... royal.html

[Gary Gobel]

Thanks, I started all this by asking the question on Royal Louis under emden7, another user name I use on another model site. Time to learn for me, how do you paste pictures onto this forum? Not seeming to work for me.....please enlighten.
My models are listed in the modeler section of this site under my name. As you can see, I usually do steel ships but have done some sailing ships in the past. I could not seem to find a completed versoin of the Heller Royal Louis?? Thanks for finding it for me, thinking of building it soon.
Interesting stuff everyone, thanks.

[les]

There's a good general reference book on building plastic sailing ships by Les Wilkins. You might be able to find it at ABE Books as it's out of print. It's a bit dated, but will help you through some of the quirks of plastic sailing ship models.

[masch3]

I just started building my Royal Louis.

I have an old issue in the so-called "boite jaune" and the kit is molded in a brittle black plastic. This meant that I had to prime the parts before painting and assembly.

So far I have primed the decks and the hull.

I will have the gun ports closed on the hull in order to save som work. I might do the next ship more detailed, this one is mostly to train rigging (and to have fun!!!).

//M

[Timmy C]

Thanks, I started all this by asking the question on Royal Louis under emden7, another user name I use on another model site. Time to learn for me, how do you paste pictures onto this forum? Not seeming to work for me.....please enlighten.

If your picture is on your computer's harddrive:

Go to the bottom of your "Post Reply" page, and you will see the "Upload attachment" heading. Click "Browse" and navigate to your picture. Click "Add the file". Once the picture has been added, you can then add more pictures using the same method.

When ready to post, click one of the "Submit" buttons, doesn't matter which.

Note you are limited to 3 pictures per post using this method.

[bgire]

I've built one back in 2000 and I'm in process of building another one with a kid from my modelling club.
Heller's Royal Louis is a very good ol'kit which I would class superior to the Sir�ne or Couronne, but largely behind the two tops winners of the list : HMS Victory and Soleil Royal (not the same size, number of parts and price however).

Hull assembly is better than preceding Sir�ne : Sir�ne/ Couronne have complete internal decks which are difficult to insert in the hull : this was a waste of plastic and time as they didn't show through the gun ports after assembly.
Aboard Royal Louis, internal gun decks are replaced with 15mm wide "sponsons", which are enough to handle the guns and don't show from the exterior. Assembly is far easier.

Many many guns to assemble and paint, but keep in mind :
- most of these (except on open decks) will only show their barrel, so no need to paint each individual wheels in black on gun supports.
- Heller doesn't supply enough guns to have ALL portholes occupied, so you'll have to make a choice. About 2/3 to 3/4 of the guns are supplied, depending on their calibre.

On older kits, the two part hull was moulded in black styrene : this was a nightmare to paint a white under bottom on it. I bought my second Royal Louis last year and I discovered a white plastic hull, at last!

The completed hull is a beautiful piece with 18th Century style gilded ornament aft.
The Royal Louis is a very good example of French 18th Century first rank man'o'war. This type could resemble Count De Grasse first rank fleet ships during the American Independence War or the ships from the Louis XV and Louis XVI era.

As with all my preceding Heller ships I replace the plastic masts with wooden ones, as they're more rigid and don't curb under the thread tension. See below pictures of my Couronne.
Heller ratline machine is a must, but the rigging threads supplied is bad. I use those from Micromark.

The Vacuformed sails are horrible and should be replaced with cloth or paper ones, using the plastic ones as a template/mould.

Rigging plan is basic but correct for this scale. Maybe one could improve it using specialized books on the period. Rigging plan for Victory and Soleil Royal is far more complicated... Soleil Royal need more than 70m of thread!

Heller's Victory and Soleil Royal are the best Heller sail ship kits... and their choice is well balanced : Victory won a battle against the French (Trafalgar, 1804) and Soleil Royal, under Amiral Tourville, won a battle against the British (Beveziers/ Beachy Head, 1690)

I found this assembly challenging and I most enjoyed it. I recommend any Heller sail ship of the same series.

Below is the Couronne with cloth sails and wooden masts :

[Gary Gobel]

Thanks for all the great pictures.
Any one been on the Dragon web site and seen the new Kongo kit pictures. Looks like a must purchase for me.

Regards posting an attached picture, I don't see a post attachment at the bottom of my Post Reply page??? Nothing.

[Kym Knight]

Gary,
From what I can see by your posts, your not registered. Once you are, sign in and the picture upload section will be there. Make sure that once the pic is uploaded from your computer, hit the 'place inline' so that the address gets added to your post.

[Gary Gobel]

OK, I think I have this thing figured out. I'll try to send a picture.

[Gary Gobel]

No luck yet

[Gary Gobel]

I'm not seeing a place in line to hit, what are you referring to?

[Timmy C]

Once you've clicked "Add the file" for your picture, and the picture has been uploaded, there is new option under the reply box called "Attachments". Next to that is a drop-down box with the names of each of your pictures. Select the one you wish to put at your cursor in the reply box, then click place inline

So it'll look like that, as opposed to being put all at the end of the post.

Note that if you don't fiddle around with the "Place inline" option, all uploaded pictures will be placed at the end of your message.

[JIM BAUMANN]

Gary--I sent you a PM



Jim Baumann

oh... and to modelwarships.com!!

[Gary Gobel]

Kym Knight,
I checked out your models........very nice. I have the corvette and type VII and have been thinking about a similar display. Just finished Clay Blairs two volume set on Hitler's UBoat war. Great read.

Jim Bauman,
Thanks for your outstanding instructions on attaching pictures. I checked out your models as well..........lots of talent and hard work.

I really enjoy the chance to talk with others who like this hobby!
Gary

[Gary Gobel]

Hey, if you just go to the modeler's section and look up my name
Gary Gobel, you can see the sailing ships I've done.

[Alex]

I bought a kit today, but the assembling instruction is in French. Could someone share English instruction with me, if there is any?