Hi
New to the forum, have a question for the lucky owners of Heller Royal Louis (or in fact the one of the 1/150 range sailing ships)
Royal Louis is listed at a scale 1:200, with the length of 48 centimeters (on Heller web site). I have the Airfix “Victory”, scale 1:180, hull length 39 cm - I am actually trying to decide if the two will look comparable together.
Question: is the length listed for “Royal Louis” in fact the hull length, or it’s the length of the finished model, counting the bowsprit?
If the length of the hull is different, then can someone kindly measure it and let me know?
If not, then I am quite confused - how could “Royal Louis” be so much bigger than “Victory” at smaller scale? 
Same for the “Le Superbe” - it’s advertised at 56 cm, is this with or without the bowsprit?
Any info appreciated - I am trying to see if any of these ships can look good alongside Airfix “Victory”
Thanx in advance
dd
well my friend you’re in luck. this is currently on my work bench and would happily take some measurements for you. however i won’t be able to post them until later tonight or tomorrow. but i can pretty much guarantee that the length mentioned is for the completed model with bowspirit.
I had this same issue, and it is an annoying one! That said, yes, ‘Royal Louis’ was a much larger ship (120 guns, as I recall, while Victory was a 100-gunner, eventually reduced to a 98-gun second rate). That said, I aslo think the scale on either the Royal Louis or the Victory was off, as you would have thought 1/180 vs 1/200 would have made both models roughly equivalent in size…
…Which leads me to another issue… It would be a really cool thing if some model producer (like Revell, maybe?) would produce the Victory not only in her oft-repeated 1805 version, but also in her previous version (a’ la Revolutionary War version). I don’t think this would be that big a deal, just cast the hull pieces with separate quarter gallery pieces like Heller does, add an extra set of the older version quarter pieces, an ‘open’ gallery piece and a different figurehead would go a long ways, and both versions could be included in the same box! The rigging and spars wouldn’t change much, though I think the spanker gaff and boom would get replaced with a lateen spar… In this way, Victory could be portrayed as she spent most of her active career, and not just the Trafalgar version (and she was in a number of large battles before Trafalgar!)…
Thank You enemeink, I appreciate it.
I suppose in more general terms my question is: which ships can look reasonable in scale alongside Airfix “Victory” from the Heller range? “Royal Louis”, “Le Superbe”, or perhaps the “Le Phoenix”.
dd
How about Hawke’s and Kempenfelt’s Royal George in 1/144 0r 1/96 ?? (Just dreaming [:-^])
without the bowspirit I measured out 14.75" for just the hull half or roughly 37.5cm. hope that helps.
Thanks a million
So it appears that the ships are very much of the same size: “Victory” is a centimeter longer. I think that will work.
enemeink - are you going to post pictures of your in-progress work? How is the ship coming along?
dd
I have been planning on it. I’ve done one for every ship that I’ve built this year. I haven’t really painted the hull too much because I’ve been waiting to join the two halves and remove the seams. Which I started last night. I’ll snap a picture and start the build thread so everyone can see. So far my only complaint is the guns. On the two larger sized guns you have to glue a small piece on to the tip of each gun. We’re talking 1.5 to 2mm, why they couldn’t incorporate that into the mold is anybodies guess.
p.s. welcome to the forums
Thanks
How are you going to paint yours? All models of “Royal Louis” I have seen so far have the port stripes in a sort of a natural wood color. Most paintings of the French man-of-war (of the slightly later Napoleonic era) that I have seen show French ships with stripes of yellow ochre, or even reddish.
dd
i have been using most of the piants that have come with this kit. i threw out the “oak” color that came with this kit because it was way to thin to use as well as the blue and red. so far I’ve stuck with a more natural tan color. which will get a little darker after i add a slight oil wash of burnt umber to bring out the wood grain. I’ve haven’t seen any paintings that have this part of the ship a reddish color. I think that might just be the age of the paintings showing…
Excellent suggestions, gentlemen! Please, please, please keep writing the manufacturers to let them know our desires and that sailing ship modelers are alive and well!
Bill Morrison
I would kill for a model of HMS Royal George in just about any scale (it’s one of my all-time favorite three-deckers! Which leads me to another proposition and/or question… While I like three-deckers very much, it sure would be nice to see something like a 64-gun ship like ‘HMS Agammenon,’ or a French 80-gun ship like ‘Bucentaure’ in 1/100, or 1/150. To tell you the truth, I am pretty sick of doing 'HMS Victory over and over again (I think I must have built this ship four times, in as many scales!)…
I’ve read that Victory was in fact a somewhat enlarged Royal George. I tought about a conversion project but even thinking the horrendous amount of scratchbuilding scared me.
Ya don’t even want to think about it! And to add to my list, another of my favorite two-deckers is the 50 gun HMS Isis, which seemed to pop up in more battles than just about any other man o’ war you can think of…
when i bought the royal louis i incidentally bought it in french so now all my instructions are all in french. can anyone help me out?
The picturs of my plastic sailing ship models can still be found on “photobucket.com”. My 1/150scale Le Glorieux by Heller is almost finished, and I will be rieturning to my 2nd. Royal Louis next.
the nice thing about these instructions is that there is not very much wording to them. in my instructions there is a page of english that translates the colors for you. but that’s all i can recall. you can also use babelfish or google translator to research the french to english translation.