English language instructions?

This is a problem. I've built the Soleil Royal (a long time ago) and, though I haven't built the Victory, I did a review of the kit for a magazine (also a long time ago). I vividly remember one comment I made about both those kits: the English instructions that came with them were lousy. They apparently had been written by somebody who neither understood French nor had tried to build the models. Maybe that situation's changed, but I don't think so. If the English instructions that come with those kits are the same as the ones I used, they're worthless and hunting for them is a waste of time.

Don't despair, though. As you probably know from your other modeling experience, most of what's important in an instruction book is in the pictures. If I were you I'd spend an evening studying the drawings and text, and writing down stuff as you figure it out. You'll probably find it's fairly easy to translate what you need to know. It also wouldn't be a bad idea to get hold of a French-English dictionary. (I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the one I had lying around the house did have most of the nautical terms in it.)

One hint: "le mat de misaine" is the foremast - not the mizzenmast. (The person who wrote the English instructions didn't know that. That's how bad they were. The mizzenmast is "le mat d'artimon.")

If these are your first ship models, you've picked some mighty challenging ones. It would be a good idea to get some additional help in the form of books. The only one in English that will help with Le Soleil Royal, to my knowledge, deals strictly with rigging: The Rigging of Ships In the Days Of the Spritsail Topmast, by R.C. Anderson. There are quite a few books about H.M.S. Victory. The two to start with are The Anatomy of Nelson's Ships, by C. Nepean Longridge, and The 100-Gun Ship Victory, by John McKay. (The latter is a volume in the "Anatomy of the Ship" series, published in England by the Conway Maritime Press and in the U.S. by the Naval Institute Press.)

Any of those books will be invaluable when you get to the rigging. The Heller instructions (English or French) do a lousy job, in my opinion, of explaining rigging. I don't think the designers really understand it, and the diagrams and number systems they use to explain it make it more complicated than it needs to be.

Hope this helps a little. Good luck.

Jtilly gave some good advice, I for one would suggest you try a small ship like the Heller Santa Maria to get your feet damp. This kit was the old Imai kit and has good instructions, but has the Heller feel.

I also would suggest a few models that Revell produces such as the Constitution or Cuttysark. These kits build fast, the instructions are good, have many resources about them, and are good to practice rigging on.

I have built many Heller kits including the Victory, and the ones that were directly from France would have a book with a buch a different languages. The English instructions for the entire Victory was on one 8x11 sheet with .05 size print. Between the bad grammer, super small print, and extremly poor x-referencing between the instruction and part location, the instruction sheet was found to be useless.

One thing for Heller, and that is that the drawings are good (except the rigging and sail plans on most kits are sparse). Study them ,and learn were each part number is to each part and then again, study the line drawings to see where they fit. With this process, you really don't need the written instructions. If your stumped, call here, many of us have built these two kits and can talk you though it.

However, many of us started with the small, easy kits by Lindberg, Aurora, and Revell and have developed a feel to where parts go on a plastic model. The two big Heller kits will be quit a challange.

Best Regards,
Scott