I've bought that kit twice. The first was quite a few years ago; I started it but, for one reason or another, never got far with it. (If I remember, it was the little Bounty project that interrupted me.) I'm not sure what happened to that model; it didn't make it from Ohio to Virginia when I moved out of the family house, in 1980.
I bought another one when I noticed that the local hobby shop here in Greenville had had it sitting on a top shelf for well over a year, and was able to be persuaded to sell it for about $30.00. That one's still in the attic awaiting my attention. One of these days....
Geometrically speaking, the lateen sails of a Reale are simple triangles. I've never been much of a fan of sails (other than furled ones) on models, but even I might make an exception for this one.
My only real criticism of this kit concerns the oars. (I notice the web review that was mentioned earlier makes the same point.) Heller made each oar out of one piece of plastic. In reality those oars are sort of complicated things. They have big, heavy reinforcing boards nailed to their fore and aft sides where to form the fulcrums where they go through the rails, and wood handles (looking somewhat like jackstays) on the tops of their shafts. (A human hand won't reach all the way around one of those oar looms.) Heller represented those components as nondescript blobs. I remember figuring out a way around the handle problem the first time I tackled the kit: I figured out that the spacing of the handles, by coincidence, was the same as the spacing between the "rungs" of the brass "ladder stock" that (in those days at least) was sold by the railroad department of the hobby shop where I worked. My plan was to shave the "handles" off all the oars, slice the ladder stock in half, and drill holes in the oars for the "rungs." I suspect the act of counting how many times I'd have to do that was what made me abandon the model. (If I remember right, the fellow who did that web review of the kit solved the problem by leaving the oars off.) If I ever get around to the one in the attic, I'm not sure what I'll do about the oars. The idea of a galley without oars just doesn't work for me, and those parts are so prominent that they really deserve attention. But there are an awful lot of them....
I agree completely that it's a first-rate kit - one of Heller's best. I'm not sure I'd rank it above the Victory, but I'd certainly rate it higher than the Soleil Royal.
Youth, talent, hard work, and enthusiasm are no match for old age and treachery.