I’ll just make four points and then shut up. First - the problem with the rigging instructions for the Heller Soleil Royal and Victory is not that they’re so complex, but that the people responsible for writing them (especially the alleged “translations” into English) were incompetent. There’s no need whatever to turn the rigging of a ship model into such an incomprehensible mass of numbers and badly-drawn diagrams. And some of the mistakes in those instructions are downright mind-boggling. How anybody with any interest whatever in sailing ships could think that yards aren’t fastened to masts is beyond my comprehension. That such a person would attempt to tell somebody else how to rig a ship model - and charge money for the information - borders on criminality.
Second - the real ships represented by the two Lindberg kits actually had rigging that was, in most respects, just as complex as those represented by the big Heller kits. The Lindberg “Jolly Roger” is a reissue of the French eighteenth-century frigate La Flore, whose rigging was quite similar in most respects to that of the Victory. The Lindberg “Captain Kidd” is a reissue of the German two-decked warship Wappen von Hamburg, whose rigging looked quite a bit like that of the Soleil Royal. Most modelers vary the amount of rigging they install according to the scale of the model. Those two Lindberg kits are on a relatively small scale, hence most modelers install less rigging on them.
The instructions in the big Revell kits do a reasonably good, intelligent job of simplifying rigging while preserving the basic concepts of it. I don’t think much of Revell’s methods of handling shrouds, ratlines, deadeyes, and lanyards, but their rigging diagrams generally make sense. They don’t, for example, show how lower stays were secured around mastheads, and in general they make things less complicated than an experienced modeler would like them in an ideal world, but the people responsible for those diagrams clearly knew what they were doing. The people responsible for the Heller ones didn’t.
The truth of the matter is that every modeler simplifies rigging to some extent. What varies from model to model, and from modeler to modeler, is the degree of simplification. My little frigate Hancock has every piece of rope on it that I thought I could justify. But the sheaves in its blocks don’t move, the ends of its ratlines are knotted (rather than eye-spliced) to the shrouds, and some of the lines that ought to have three strands actually have two. The model with absolutely complete, absolutely accurate rigging has yet to be built.
In this respect, as in so many others, the plastic kit company that beat them all, in my personal opinion, was the Japanese firm Imai. The Imai 1/125 Cutty Sark, in my opinion, is the best representation of that ship yet to be made available in kit form - plastic, wood, or otherwise. And the rigging diagrams are skillfully conceived to present a simplification of the real ship’s rigging - not an arbitrary collection of threads. Unfortunately, Imai went out of business about twenty years ago. Some of its kits have resurfaced recently under the Academy and Aoshima labels, though - but unfortunately the prices are pretty staggering.
Third - let’s be careful with that word “amateur.” It doesn’t imply anything whatever about the skill, ability, or knowledge of the modeler; it just indicates that he/she doesn’t get paid for building models. Some of the best, and some of the worst, ship models I’ve ever seen have been built by professionals. (Think of those…things…that are sold in discount stores - the ones with spray-painted burlap “sails” and ludicrously oversized “cannon” sticking out of their hulls. The people who built them were professional ship modelers.) I’ve been building ship models for fifty years, and I’m an amateur - and have every intention of remaining one. I’ve done some restoration work on old models for money, but the last time I actually took somebody’s money for building a model was when I was in the sixth grade. I have no desire whatever to build models for money - or to build them to deadlines. I have to contend with enough deadlines in my real job.
Fourth - in confronting a big ship model project planning ahead is always a good idea, but it makes sense to be most concerned with the jobs that have to be tackled in the immediate future. As I’ve said several times already - and I know you’re sick of hearing it - the only way to compensate for those awful instructions in the Heller kits is to get hold of a book or two. Internet forums like this one are great, but there’s just no way anybody can learn how to rig a ship model by means of web posts. The books in question don’t have to be expensive. A used paperback copy of Anderson’s The Rigging of Ships in the Days of the Spritsail Topmast can, as we established in another thread some weeks back, be had for less than $10.00, and contains everything anybody needs to know to rig a model of the Soleil Royal. The Campbell plans of the Cutty Sark, which contain almost enough information to build the ship herself (on three sheets of paper), cost $15.00. The Longridge book on the Victory, unfortunately, is pretty expensive, but it can be obtained through Inter-Library Loan. How any hobbiest spends his money and time is his business - certainly not mine. But if you’re working on the Soleil Royal and cash is scarce (as it is for most of us - certainly for me), wouldn’t it make more sense to spend $10.00 on a copy of the Anderson book, rather than on a massive stock of rigging thread for a model you haven’t started yet?
I guarantee that the rigging of that ship, presented by an author who knows what he’s talking about, will start to make sense almost immediately. Instead of huge, incomprehensible diagrams, Dr. Anderson breaks the subject down into individual spars and lines. He describes, in clear, friendly English, what each rope does, how big it is, and how it leads - and he gives you an individual drawing of it to clear up any questions. He also includes a collection of photos of contemporary models, so you can see how everything fits together. Armed with that information, you can decide for yourself which lines are the most important, and which can reasonably be omitted from your first model and left for your tenth one.
Now, as promised, I’ll shut up. These are your models. It’s not for me or anybody else to tell you how to build them.
