Heller Le Gladiateur?

The Royal Louis isn't too bad, and it certainly is a subject not generally available (a French three-decker).  It is not a bad representation of a Blaise Ollivier design style, and when this model was first introduced, it was considered quite a nice model.  But modelling standards has risen dramatically in the last 20 years or so, but Heller has not kept up with the trends toward hyper-accuracy (see the string about Trumpeter's new CA San Francisco), and most of these molds should have bee re-tooled years ago to reflect that trend.  As far as Royal Louis is  concerned, the biggest issue is the size of the wales along the hull sides, which are about twice the size they really should be.  Also, Heller felt it was important to mold in 'wood grain' on many of their ship kits (an early attempt at creating some 'realism'), but in most cases, it is a bit overdone, and this can impact the overall impression of the ship (and it also makes it tricky to paint straight lines, as tape and masking cannot be used very well, which makes free-handing a requirement).   It is not too bad a problem on the Royal Louis, but it does become a bit of an issue with the 1/150 French 74 kits.   As it appears unlikely that any model company is going to invest the kind of time and effort required to produce any new sailing ship kits any time soon, we are therefore stuck with what is available.  And now that Heller has gone under, and Airfix is only slowly struggling back, even these are becoming rarer.  This is why I started this inquiry in the first place, to see if it would be worthwhile to invest in Le Gladiateur as something I might be able to 'kit-bash,' or give it up as a lost cause.......

I have to admit that I was contemplating building this one and the royal luis kits but know I'm not so sure.

Got it!  I have built the Royal Louis before, so this Gladiateur kit makes sense now as just a bastardization of the Royal Louis mold....And Lord knows the Royal Louis kit has its own scale problems (way overscale wales, among other things...)

if this thing did ever sail it probably would been served the same fate as the Wasa. Or it could have become the worlds first low-rider boat!

This kit is a fantasy/ Disneyland version with a ridiculous high stern and it is based on the hull of the Heller Royal Louis 1772 kit, the latter is REAL and based on real plans, I guess that is a better buy!!

The same for Heller's La Sirene, which is based on the hull of Heller's Le phenix.

searat12 wrote:

Do any of you have any photos of the build?

Here you go:

 

 

This thread could also be useful:

/forums/459710/ShowPost.aspx

 

Hope this helps! 

Yup, I have both of those already, and I have that Boudriot book too.  I just wondered if anyone knew of any basis for reality for this ship!  That stern is just ridiculous for the age this ship purports to be.

In Jean Boudriot's Les Vaisseaux 74 a 120 Canons, there is an alphabetical list of every SOL built from 1650 through 1850. Le Gladiateur isn't on it.

Yes, the stern is rather unique. I picked up the kit, cheap, and might find something usefull to do with it someday, but I wouldn't recommend wasting money on it.

If you want a French SOL, try Superbe or Glorieux instead.