Heller 1/200 Royal Louis

Good morning everybody! My name is Cathy, this is my first time ever posting here. I’ve browsed through some of the topics here and figured I might make a log of my progress on the Heller Royal Louis. This is the most extensive ship I’ve built and I might find myself needing some help once it really gets going! I’m not at all educated on rigging or anything, I know very little terminology or what is correct/incorrect, so I might need some advice when the time comes, if its not too much of a bother.

I don’t have anything really exciting yet, I’ve just primed the parts so far and gotten started on painting the cannons. Unfortunately the hull did not have the wood grain in the mold, so I decided to etch in the wood grain. I guess it came out okay, I wish it had just been molded into the hull, but it is what it is!






I’ll update some more when more painting gets done. Thanks for looking, I can’t wait to be a part of the community here!

Looking good so far. Those 1:200 Heller sailing vessels are nice kits.

Thanks! And yeah, except for the wood grain thing I’ve been impressed so far!

Great to see a new modeler here cathy. I haven’t done this particular ship myself , so really looking forward to this . If you need help , these guy’s are great . To

Cathy,

I have the kit but barely opened the box so I will be a faith-full follower here.

I love Heller’s Sailing Ships based on the original vessel. Hate having to learn French to follow some of the instructions though.

I’ll be following along. Thanks for starting this Thread.

Jim (Nino)

P.S. Great idea for the grain effect on the lower hull. Heller has a few kits where the wood grain is missing. With the early molding techniques I can understand why they left it off the very bottom of some hulls but I think they could have added it to the lower sides on this kit.

Thank you!

Welcome and great start. Keep up the good work. Patience is the key.

Good Luck!

Bob

Awesome! And yeah, the instructions are a hassle! Google translate has been a lifesaver haha.

And thank you! The grain I etched in isn’t as detailed as the molded grain and it’s definitely out of scale, but hopefully it won’t be too noticeable from a distance!

Thanks everyone for the kind words! I’ve made some progress over the past couple of days, all the painting is finished.










So the base painting is all done! I might go back in with the gold on the transom and fix it up a bit. The next step is the weathering (the most stressful for me, but also my favorite!)

I’m not too crazy about the colors of the ship, but hopefully they’ll come together a bit better once they’re weathered. Thanks for looking, hope everybody has a great weekend!

Impressive!

I especially like the painting on the hull…

Much of the time, I count on weathering to help blend the paint scheme, and sort of bring it all together…it usually does the trick! What type of weathering will you use?

Dave

Thank you!! And yeah that’s exactly what I’m hoping for! I usually do a pretty diluted oil wash and then drybrush with the oils.

I fmemory serves, the vessle was a flagship, so there would have been a lot of effort to eep her pretty clean. Not pristine, per se, but pretty clean. Water line, and hull bottom could be a bit grungy, though.

For the rigging, you will want to arm yourself with references to French rigging (which is different from English rigging). The kit rigging instructions may leave a lot to be desired.

As a first ship, and at the ratehr small scale, I’d recommend not fitting ratlines on the shrouds, not at first. I’d be inclined to not put in jeers or halyards as a general rule I’d skip footropes, too. I’d likely only use three thicknesses of line for rigging in black and tan (ok, so there’d be an anchor line, too). (For perspective, my 1/96 Constitution eas rigged with 7 different sizes of running rigging and 8 for standing.)

Keeping it simple, especially with three masts and an a bowsprit to rig will help you not lose your marbles. Keep in mind that, viewing the model from 12" away is the same as being 200’ away in scale.

You’ve shown excellent skill so far, so I have every confidence that you can see this through.

Thank you for the advice, I’ll definitely keep it in mind! And yeah, the kit rigging instructions aren’t exactly the best!

Alrighty, have another update! All the weathering is done, and cannons have been assembled (phew, that was tiresome)

Some of the pictures came out a little yellow, but I think they do the job well enough.


Cannons all finished up!

Time to get started on assembly now! I think it might take me a bit longer than I’m used to; the instructions are hard to follow and I think leave a little to be desired!

your motoring along nicely cathy , I’m enjoying this .

as captmac said the french do their rigging differently to the english , this guy is great , he demonnstrate’s it fully on a french 74 , 1/150 scale .hope it help’s .

http://www.pete-coleman.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=863&sid=e2492d8e68c96fdd0fb09e8553432f7c

steve5

Wood tones and graining look very good. Nice work! EJ

Just out of curiosity, I just wonder what ship the Heller model is supposed to represent. The fourth French ship of that name was a 106 gun vessel of the Sans-Pareil class constructed from 1757 to 1762. In August 1773, she was so badly deteriorated from dry rot, that she was demolished without seeing any combat action. A 1/8th scale model of this ship is at the Paris Naval Museum. The fifth ROYAL LOUIS, also of 106 guns, was launched in 1780 and elevated to 110 guns in 1784. After the overthrow of the French royalty in 1793, this ROYAL LOUIS was named REPUBLICAN and saw only one naval action under her new name. While entering Brest Harbor, on December 1794, ROYAL LOUIS was accidentally run aground with the loss of 10 crewmen. The next two days, storms demolished the grounded wreck.

Happy modeling Crackers [:D]

Thanks! I’m free over the summer so hopefully things can keep moving along!

And thank you so much for that link, I think it’ll be a huge help and I’ll definitely be consulting it often!!

Thank you!!

Oh wow, that’s fascinating!

I believe this would be the 5th royal Louis, based on what Heller wrote about the ship.

This is what Heller wrote under “history”, translated in Google:

" it is thanks to the kindness of the navy’s historical service in paris that it has opened its doors to the technicians of the heller company, that the reconstruction of the royal louis has been possible.

design of the hull, the distribution of the artillery, the rigging were taken from a statement of forms from the comte d’estaing dated September 25, 1772. the plans of construction were established by monsieur j.b. ollivier, famous for its naval architecture.

The royall Louis is a first rank. It is armed with 120 guns of which 32 of caliber 36 each weigh about 5 tons. its length at the water’s edge is 68 m., with a height of 96 m., the height of the grsnd mast from the keel to the apple [I assume this should be stern haha] is 74 m.

The royal louis in 1779, 1780, the flagship of the blue-white squadron belonging to the squadron of america, known as the count of estaing. this ship is remarkable for its forms and more particularly for the richness and finesse of its castle whose balconies are true masterpieces."

So based on that I think this would be the 5th ship. Although they said they consulted the Navy’s historical service in Paris, so perhaps some of it is based on the 4th ship as well!