Soleil Royal Rigging Threads: PLEASE HELP!!!

The Heller Soleil Royal is an extremely controversial topic in ship modeling circles.  We've had several, sometimes rather emotional discussions of it here in the Forum; the longest is this one:  /forums/679595/ShowPost.aspx

As will quickly become obvious in that thread, I'm among those who have an extremely low opinion of the kit.  But take a look at what others have said about it.  It obviously has its admirers - and it's not for me to say what kits a modeler should and shouldn't build.  I just think the modeler has a right to go into a project with his/her eyes wide open.

Just about everybody who's tackled the kit agrees on one point, though:  the rigging instructions that come with it are a disgrace.  As I've noted in that other thread, the people who designed it apparently were enormously talented artisans whose understanding of real seventeenth-century ships was at best extremely sketchy - and the kit shows it.  The most glaring example:  it provides no means of fastening the yards to the masts.

Fortunately help is available elsewhere.  Anybody undertaking this kit - or any other seventeenth-century warship modeling project - would be extremely well advised to acquire a copy of Dr. R.C. Anderson's book, The Rigging of Ships in the Days of the Spritsail Topmast.  The rather arcane-sounding title notwithstanding, it's a step-by-step guide to rigging a ship model - with notes about the variations in practice from decade to decade and from country to country.  The book was originally published in the 1920s, and the modeling hints in it are sometimes a little dated.  (And Dr. Anderson, obviously, never heard of a plastic kit.)  But the information about how rigging works is just as valid now as it ever was.

The book is available in a very reasonably-priced paperback edition; sources include Model Expo, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble.  I picked up a used copy a year or so ago for about eight dollars.  That's money very well spent.

Hope that helps a little.  Good luck.

Jean_Pierre wrote:

The missing threads are not a major problem, as the quality of the Heller thread is far from being the best available, and it is also quite oversize.   The thickest line on board will be the anchor ropes, of course.  These RIGHT twined line will be some 2mm thick and the colour, of course is natural colour.  The next in thickness will be the main stay (1,5mm) and the fore stay (1 - 1,2 mm) which I recommend to cover with white glue to stiffen them, and then to paint them satin black.  The mizzen stay will be about 0,5mm thick, like the shrouds.  You will also need some black sewing thread to make the ratlines.  For most of the running rigging, I use Gütermann colour sewing yarn, for which I recommend to buy 2 or 3 different colours between beige, light brown and gray.  Alterning these colours will giver the idea of newer and older lines.  I also use some yarn from Mantua, which I bought (in the smaller thicknesses in a good hobby shop. Gütermann is a mix cotton-polyester yarn.  Beware of some American brands like Model Expo, who offer synthetic yarns that are quite glossy and rather stiff.

 THANK YOU so much Jean-Pierre!!! Now I know what to order thanks to you !!! THANK YOU!!!

 Oliver

 PS: your first name is so French ? :)  Are you [French]?

The missing threads are not a major problem, as the quality of the Heller thread is far from being the best available, and it is also quite oversize.

The thickest line on board will be the anchor ropes, of course.  These RIGHT twined line will be some 2mm thick and the colour, of course is natural colour.  The next in thickness will be the main stay (1,5mm) and the fore stay (1 - 1,2 mm) which I recommend to cover with white glue to stiffen them, and then to paint them satin black.  The mizzen stay will be about 0,5mm thick, like the shrouds.  You will also need some black sewing thread to make the ratlines.  For most of the running rigging, I use Gütermann colour sewing yarn, for which I recommend to buy 2 or 3 different colours between beige, light brown and gray.  Alterning these colours will giver the idea of newer and older lines.  I also use some yarn from Mantua, which I bought (in the smaller thicknesses in a good hobby shop.

Gütermann is a mix cotton-polyester yarn.  Beware of some American brands like Model Expo, who offer synthetic yarns that are quite glossy and rather stiff.