Heller 1/100 17th Century ship of the line

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 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.






the molding is as exquisite as it was on the La Reale.

Wow, what a beautiful kit, amazing detail! What a great present

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.

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.

Hi all well the gold leaf has arrived for this but will leave any guilding untill\if the other hull side turns up.

Hi all well the part is coming, so here is 2 nights of guilding run out of gold leaf now, will have to order some more)

Nice work with the gold leaf, going to be a beauty

here's tonight's update

Wow that blue really set off the gold.

Hi all I've finished one of the rear gallerys so I thought a lot of the detail was hidden so added an oil wash to them

So right man what a difference that wash made, the detail is really nice. I would also highlight some salient points on the artwork with small areas of lighter gold or silver. But that is just my opinion. Great work all round.

Hi all here is my first modification

Hi all well all the guilding is done Just waiting on the hull now

Beautiful work, well done so far.
coming on nicely.

Lovely work

Hi all well it's amazing the effect threatening to sue, not just for the cost of the kit but also compensation can have. Special delivery today the hull half arrived(no letter of apology or even a note just the box with the hull in it)
So looks like it's back on then.

Hi all well now the hull half is here I'm like a cat with 2 tails, so my first job to remove the moulded plimsole line (I'm raising it a bit to improve the look) (seen it done elsewhere (davidk's build) and it looks much better)



I must say I think it's worked really well, you cant tell it was there at all




couple of strengthening strips in the bottom


She is huge.

Hi all here is tonights update .

Hi all, I was asked by a few people how I did this wood effect so thought maybe some of you would be interested.
First of all I apologise my the first pics of the procedure are missing as the pics on my phone we're corrupted for some reason, it dosn't really matter as the process it the same throughout I will explain as we go.
First here is the huge list of things required

this is where my phone let me down I have no pics if this part as they were corrupted(sorry)
the pastels wont stick to plastic so you have to use matt paint (I've no idea if this will work with acrylics as I use enamels but I think it would)
I picked the lightest colour of the wood I'm trying to replicate for the base colour (in this case Humbrol m 63)
paint the wood with a thin coat in the direction of the grain if it looks patchy that is good (helps with the effect)as long as it all has some paint on it (look at the pictures of the hull you can see its very patchy)
once that is dry take the darkest wood colour pastel you are using and lightly drag it over the grain in a random manner not everywhere so it all looks the same , then with the brush, again in the direction of the grain brush it in




then with the highlight colour (we have pictures of the rest of the process from now on) do exactly the same



again brush in the direction of the grain





next get some black pastel and dab on details (anywhere that may get stained from water or nooks an crannys where swilling the deck wouldn't get plus a few random areas



now brush across the gain (only very lightly and only a couple of passes)





now brush with the grain as much as you like till you get the desired effect





now comes the important bit (DO NOT VARNISH THIS YET) the varnish stays wet too long and the pastels merge and you just end up with brown blotches. spray with your missus hair spray at a distance of at least 12 inches ( you don't want it to look wet when that is dry then you can spray your varnish.









Just to show the versitility of this here is some wood from my Mefistofeles which I wanted a mahogany effect (its 1/12 so the wood grain effect is much couser)

red base coat



first pastel colour




the genius of this method is if you make a mistake or don't like the effect (untill you varnish it) wash it under the tap dry with a cloth and your missus hair dryer, ten mins and you're ready to go again, you tell me any other method that's that easy to redo.
Hope this is of some help to some one

Hi all here is the next update
some of the many, many cannons, think I will see them in my dreams








Couldn't resist trying the gold up against it

Beautiful work thanks for the detailed 'how to' with the wood finish. You sure got the hang of that. it looks really great.

Hi all these 2 ships are pretty much the same scale (I think it just goes to show how big this ship was)(although the Victory would dwarf the Soliel)

Hi all here is the next update, 12 of the lower deck cannons, not done much detail work on the carriages as they wont be seen, and done some of the deck furniture, next job to drill the holes out for the gun door ropes( that is going to take some time 104 guns X 2 208 holes then I have to try and think of a way to make the rings for the gun port doors for the ropes to go through.

Excellent work!

Hi all here is the next update, I needed to drill the holes for the gun port doors ropes, but I wanted them all in the same place so I made a jig.