Heller's spanish galleon help

1st off... to the forums!! I have this same kit but, I haven't started on it yet. If you look on the last 2 pages you'll find engish instructions & painting info also. If you do not have this, please email me directly and I will scan them for you.

Again, welcome to our whacky world. We are a helpful bunch of folks here & we like pics of  builds in progress.

Eddie 

First of all i wanna say im a noob to models any ways, i recently purchased the 1/200 hellers spanish galleon for a school project, which now i deeply regret buying. Anyways, when it came in the mail the instructions was in spanish which sucked and i have no idea how to build it. The models im use to are the ones u just snap on.  Well i was just wondering who ever built this ship or has exprience building them can they tell me how i would put this thing together?

Having built this kit, I am trying to come up with a way to  help you but it is hard.  This kit is one of Hellers mix match of parts from other kits, has had many different fictitious names other than "Spanish Galleon", and has a very nasty hull and deck fit.  The parts for the stern also require some trimming and filling to get it to fit right.  The instructions, even with the line drawings, are useless unless you have experience with how Heller kits go together and are bilinqual.  I am sorry about tellling you all this negative news about this kit, but it is a challenge for even experienced builders.

If you need a fast, easy build for a school project, I would suggest the Revell Santa Maria, Nina, Pinta, or Mayflower.  Even the big Revell "Spanish Galleon" is a lot more beginner freindly then anything Heller offers.  All of these kits have low parts counts, pretty easy to follow instructions, and although you will be trimming a lot of flash from the parts, the fit is not too bad.

 Scott

Which one do you have? Here in Germany I have never seen a Heller 1/200 kit labelled "Spanish Galleon". In fact there are 4 variations and they are all based on the same hull. There is the one with the oars named "Galion", the one with the 4 side turrets (2 each side)named "Stella" and the one with 8 turrets named "Corona" or "Elizabethan" (same kit, different box, latter suggests an English ship of course).

IMO the "Galion" is quite, well, almost... buildable for a beginner, but "Corona" and especially "Stella" are too fiddly. All three require you to glue a strip of plastic to a recess in the hull -hard to get that properly in place - you might try to slide it in, secure with tape and then glue it from the inside.

The biggest problem with these ships is that there are no alignment tabs or pins for most of the superstructure parts. You actually have to dry-fit (with tape) everything before you can be sure where exactly everything is supposed to be placed.

If you have the Stella, there are those parts to heighten the hull sides (32 and 33) - I´d glue them on before joining the hull halves to get more stability. Another pitfall: the instructions point to a rim on wall 40 where you are supposed to glue the deck part 39 - that´s wrong because the lower deck (made up from 30 and 31)already sits at this height. Then you just glue the stairs 59 and 60 to deck 39 and glue the whoöe thing to wall 40 with no alignment aid... The more I look at this mess of decks and stairs the less I can recommend "Stella" as a beginner´s project.

As other members have said, there are other ships on the market that are MUCH easier to build. Revell Bounty, Mayflower or Golden Hind are far easier (you can even get the Heller Golden Hind because it IS the Revell model), so if you really want to build a neat ship model in a short time without frustration and don´t mind the extra cost, you should consider buying one of these.  

honneamise wrote:

Which one do you have? Here in Germany I have never seen a Heller 1/200 kit labelled "Spanish Galleon". In fact there are 4 variations and they are all based on the same hull. There is the one with the oars named "Galion", the one with the 4 side turrets (2 each side)named "Stella" and the one with 8 turrets named "Corona" or "Elizabethan" (same kit, different box, latter suggests an English ship of course).

I second that. Me too I haven't seen a Heller kit based on Spanish instructions. Probably the original poster confused Spanish with French?

 Btw: Heller instructions are not very good. However, the German translations (in my case) are very good and nearly void of bloopers.

 Btw: the Corona is simply the Le Saint Louis or vice versa. I am building Heller its Saint Louis right now (the spures share also 'Corona' engravings). Building up the hull is not that easy with the Saint Louis because the actual hull consists of 4 parts.

 A good beginners project for any classroom would be the Santa Maria, Pinta, or Nina from Heller. 

Due to its larger dimensions (19") the Santa Maria from Heller will make for a good and impressive ornament in any room.

Regards,Kater Felix 

The Heller / Humbrol Santa Maria is a really good, simple kit.  Mine is in the Humbrol box and the instructions are English and Japanese and are pretty good.  This kit also has zero flash, good fit, and not a lot of parts. 

Scott 

I build Heller’s Spanish galleon a year ago. It is a nice little model. But I am not sure about its historical accuracy. For example, I have never seen any Spanish galleon with oars.

Here are some photos of my model:

I rigged it according to the plans of Mayflower and Golden Hind, because Heller’s rigging instructions (as usually) are totally irrational.

 If this is the kit you have, I can scan and send the instructions to you by email.

That is a great looking diorama Stefan! While some Heller kits are way off in terms of historical accuracy, this one seems to be based on an actual vessel named "Corona Area" and it was indeed a rowed galleon.

 In W. zu Mondfeld´s book on building historically accurate ship models there is a section with stern views of different ships and if the "C.Aurea"´s stern is based on historical documents then Heller is spot on here. I acually like this Heller kit, even the rather shallow draft (compared to Golden Hind or Revenge) makes sense because the ship is far wider and bulkier than those later British galleons (I don´t think the "1600" in Heller´s instructions is correct, judging from the old-type guns and single-piece masts the ship should be more in the 1550s-region) - and it does not have a very high stern. Should have been quite seaworthy but very slow, and it must have been one of the biggest vessels of its time.

BTW there is an Errol Flynn movie from 1938 called "The Seahawk" - Flynn plays a Drake-type privateer who gets captured and is condemned to lifelong rowing service onboard a very similar vessel! 

Hi Eddie or anyone who can help.

I'm knew to the forum so a warm hello to everyone!

I have the Heller Galion 1600 model kit. Sadly due to a flood the box and instructons are pulp. Is there any kind person with this kit that would be prepared to copy and forward the instructions? 

Kindest regards,

Sammy.