Hi all i received this infamous kit as a present from my missus (note from the title I will only be correcting those errors my megre skills and even megerer knowledge will allow) that said as I’m building just a generic ship of the line it will end up being exactly right.
I have today ordered some gold leaf for this kit as it worked so well on the La Reale and the Royal Sovriegn, I have some copper leaf and brass leaf, wish I could find some bronze leaf for the canons (does anyone know how I could colour brass leaf to look like bronze).
I won’t bother posting the box or sprue shots as they have been done elsewhere, looking at all the sprues is a bit daunting.
I know everyone will be saying get good am blocks and tackle also bin the thread and get some proper stuff, but, the missus has said keep the costs down, also I feel why spend more on am stuff than the kit cost, so will be investing in bees wax and apart from the gold leaf all else will be oob (apart from maybe some scratch building.
Can anyone workout my first problem(It’s a biggie, wont be able to go far with this at the moment )
You would think I would have learnt with heller by now (check everything, then check it again.
Heller blocks and deadeyes are not that bad, and in that scale most can be cleaned up and painted well, so I think using the kit rigging parts will not hurt much. A lot of the final appearance of a ship model is in the stand, so doing some work in this area can pay off. I would do a wood base. If you have no woodworking tools maybe a friend could help. A brass nameplate with decal won’t cost much and adds a lot.
For bronze I first spray a coat of copper, either from an airbrush or spray can. I then put on a very thin, semi-transparent coat of gloss medium or dark brown, either with an airbrush or dry brush. On civil ships I sometimes add a little green patina, but warships usually had enough manpower to keep their guns and metal fittings in pretty good shape, so I would not add patina.
Makes doing a cut away a lot easier…or do a slice down the centerline on eveything else and save some wall space. Got to wonder who has two starboard halves.
Hi all well I cant do much more than this(of course when the gold comes will get more done) I really am peed off though, I know from experience it will be weeks before I get the replacement hull half, stuff like this is really frustrating.
Actually I know that was a bit toung in cheeck but I am considering doing a cutaway as I realise it could be weeks or even months before I get the parts from Heller TBH this is their last chance if the parts dont turn up in a reasonable time this will be the last of their kits I buy, from my personal experience their customer service stinks.
Oh, that’s hilarious (or should I say Heller-ious!)…
Luckily Heller is pretty good at replacing parts. You can contact them from their website to request a starboard hull. Just be very clear in your email (send them the actual part number, and use small words with simple sentences; the CSR I’ve dealt with has had trouble understanding what I needed, and once they sent my parts to Australia by mistake)…
I would recommend going over ALL your other parts to make sure nothing else is missing or damaged, and try to get all such replacements handled at once…especially look at the upper bulwark parts, they have these tiny belaying pins molded into them that break off easily, my kit parts were damaged, and then the replacements they provided were also (slightly less) broken in the same way.
I bet you’ll get your replacement parts in a week or two…and rest assured, there is plenty of other stuff you can get started on while waiting (you can easily spend weeks just planning and assembling your guns)…this certainly isn’t a kit to be impatient with…
That said, it is pretty lame that they packed the parts incorrectly.
I did check all the parts very carefully as I had a terrible experience with the La Reale it took litterally weeks to get the parts (they ignored 4 emails) and even then it still took ages to get the parts (of course I stupidly didnt check for handed parts) I personally dont hold out much hope of getting the part for at least 2 months (assuming they bother to answer the email)
do I sound bitter and twisted, well thats my experience of Heller, as I said I was looking at the victory next, but if the part dont turn up quick smart this will be the last kit of theirs I buy.
Gad, I had a similar experience with a Le Stella Del Notre kit, except instead of two sides being the same, I have one hull half for my kit and another hull half for a different kit of the same scale but the stern section had about 1/8" shortened. I thought something didn’t look right with putting the two halves together. Hope you can get it worked out. I never did because this happened during one of their re-organizations. I also got the kit for about $10 back in the early 90’s when Squadron and Model Expo seemed to practically give Heller kits away so I wasn’t too put off. At the prices they charge now, I hope they make good for you.
