SEARCH FINESCALE.COM

Enter keywords or a search phrase below:

heller le glorieux 1/150

16819 views
175 replies
1 rating 2 rating 3 rating 4 rating 5 rating
  • Member since
    April 2016
Posted by Staale S on Saturday, September 24, 2016 2:17 PM
If the Heller Soleil Royal is considered as what it really is, a model of a model (the Paris one in the Musee de la Marine), and not a model of an actual ship, it is not half bad :)
  • Member since
    September 2005
  • From: Groton, CT
Posted by warshipguy on Saturday, September 24, 2016 11:55 AM

Please note that David_K is building a masterpiece with his exemplary Le Soleil Royal. That kit can be built into a serious ship model given a dedicated eye towards detail, exquisite painting skills, and the investment of a small fortune in after market products.  Here's to building fine models from beef bones!  ToastToast

Bill

  • Member since
    September 2012
Posted by GMorrison on Saturday, September 24, 2016 10:28 AM

I suspect Imai might also be relatively clean on the issue.

 Modeling is an excuse to buy books.

 

  • Member since
    May 2003
  • From: Greenville, NC
Posted by jtilley on Saturday, September 24, 2016 9:53 AM

I can't claim to have looked at every Heller sailing ship kit, but I've looked at a lot of them. In my opinion, from the standpoint of serious scale ship modeling, 10 of them are worth building: Le Superb, Le Glorieux, Pamir, Passat, Preussen, Gorch Fock, Royal Louis, La Reale, La Belle Poule, Le Pourqois Pas?, and the big Victory. Oh - and I guess the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria are ok, but pretty basic (and the Nina and Pinta share the same hull).

Note that Le Soleil Royal is not on my personal list. I've gotten into lots of arguments about that, but I just can't take it seriously as a scale model.

As I remember, Heller got into the sailing ship game back in the sixties. It started out by reissuing Pyro and Aurora kits under completely fictitious French names. Then it took the tack of picking subjects that looked pretty, and featured lots of "carved" detail. Heller's artisans were always among the best in the plastic kit industry. But they seem to have possessed a bare minimal understanding of how sailing ships are built.

In the very late seventies and early eighties something happened: Heller started making scale sailing ship models. Their kits continued to feature some stupid mistakes and omissions (did the Heller designers really think the Victory's yards weren't fastened to her masts?), but by most reasonable definitions the kits were scale models.

As I understand it, Heller had a lot of highly sophisticated sailing ships on the drawing board when, in the mid-eighties, the company went belly-up. It's interesting, and depressing, to think about sailing ship kits superior to the Heller Victory.

Youth, talent, hard work, and enthusiasm are no match for old age and treachery.

  • Member since
    September 2005
  • From: Groton, CT
Posted by warshipguy on Saturday, September 24, 2016 7:31 AM

Staale is perfectly correct.  The Heller 1/200 Royal Louis is an excellent kit, whereas the Le Gladiateur is seemingly bastardized version made into a ship that never existed.  But, the model looks pretty and can be fun if the builder doesn't take it too seriously.  I wish that the manufacturers would take sailing ship modelers more seriously!

And, John, I will second your comments about Airfix!  I really wish that they would retool most of their ships, and model more sailing ships.  There is an excellent discussion on their website concerning this very topic.

Bill

  • Member since
    April 2016
Posted by Staale S on Saturday, September 24, 2016 7:06 AM

crackers

 

Is this model the same ROYAL LOUIS that the Heller kit LE GLADIATEUR is supposed to represent ? 

Well, yes and no, but mostly no. Heller has a perfectly decent model of Royal Louis in 1:200 scale (I think it is) like the one in the photo. Then they reused the hull, replaced the upperworks, and made something quite improbable that they market as Le Gladiateur. Basically it is the red-headed lovechild of a caricature of a 17 Century first-rate and a late 18th Century one. Not a happy combination at all.

Which reminds me that I really ought to build the Heller Royal Louis that I have got sitting in the stash. Those massive French first-rates really are good-looking subjects.

  • Member since
    July 2013
Posted by steve5 on Saturday, September 24, 2016 2:26 AM

coppered one side , haven't marked it yet with the nails . is there supposed to be a strip at the top of the coppering , ? I would also like to weather the copper with paint , is this possible .

  " />

 

  • Member since
    February 2016
  • From: Western No. Carolina
Posted by gene1 on Friday, September 23, 2016 5:44 PM

Cra ckers, That is a beautiful model & I see a lot of real nice rigging. More pictures would be nice. It is not an Airfix or Heller & it is wood isn't it?

  • Member since
    December 2006
  • From: Jerome, Idaho, U.S.A.
Posted by crackers on Friday, September 23, 2016 3:29 PM

 

Is this model the same ROYAL LOUIS that the Heller kit LE GLADIATEUR is supposed to represent ? If so, the real ROYAL LOUIS is an actual ship, while the LE GLADIATEUR is an impostor substitute for a fictional vessel. I'd rather have the real thing.

Happy modeling   Crackers    Smile

Anthony V. Santos

  • Member since
    May 2003
  • From: Greenville, NC
Posted by jtilley on Friday, September 23, 2016 10:44 AM

I'll go further than that. If I'm not mistaken (and granting an exception for the Bismarck/Tirpitz), Airfix has never released a ship kit under two names. Airfix's ship kits aren't exactly common, and they vary tremendously in quality - largely because they were originally released over several decades.

I'm a big fan of Airfix.

Youth, talent, hard work, and enthusiasm are no match for old age and treachery.

  • Member since
    September 2005
  • From: Groton, CT
Posted by warshipguy on Friday, September 23, 2016 1:45 AM

Gene,

I paid about $35.00 for it. The seller listed it as a "Buy It Now" item, and I happened to get very, very lucky by finding it right after it had been listed. I also bought the Airfix Royal Sovereign and Prince simultaneously from the same seller.  I sent those to John Tilley.  I kept the St. Louis.

As far as I know, Airfix was the only producer of plastic sailing ships that did not release kits of fictional ships.  The kit of the Le Gladiateur is based on that of the Royal Louis, an historic ship of 120 guns.

Bill

  • Member since
    July 2013
Posted by steve5 on Thursday, September 22, 2016 3:59 PM

good for you gene , you have a knack for getting lucky , didn't know they weren't true ship's , pity that .

 

  • Member since
    February 2016
  • From: Western No. Carolina
Posted by gene1 on Thursday, September 22, 2016 1:35 PM

Bill, I  had just heard that the Sirene was ficticious, but it is a pretty thing & will be fun to do the stern, more gold. I thought the other one Gladiateur was real or close to it. Oh well they are still pretty & I didn't pay too much. By the way how much was your Airfix St Louis ?

  • Member since
    September 2005
  • From: Groton, CT
Posted by warshipguy on Thursday, September 22, 2016 11:25 AM

I hate to say it, but neither ship actually existed.  This was a common scam by Heller to make maximum profit off of one set of molds by simply repackaging and slightly altering kits of authentic ships as fictional ones. For example, there never was a French First Rate named Le Gladiateur, although Sirene was a common enough name for French warships. The trouble with the kit is that the figurehead is grossly out of proportion, and those forward towers on the sides of the bows were never a feature of French warships, at least that I can find. However, the models do make nice decorations.

Bill

  • Member since
    February 2016
  • From: Western No. Carolina
Posted by gene1 on Thursday, September 22, 2016 8:53 AM

Steve, I lucked  into 2 big Heller kits the other night. I got the 1/200 La Gladiateur for $17.50 + ship, in a sealed box & the La Sirene for $29.99 + ship. The Sirene is due here this morning. I have never seen a larger Heller kit. By the way they were both listed a $100.

  • Member since
    July 2013
Posted by steve5 on Thursday, September 22, 2016 4:58 AM

having a bit of a play with the boat's

  " />

 

  • Member since
    July 2013
Posted by steve5 on Wednesday, September 21, 2016 6:46 PM

thank's mark ., will definately be there .

 

  • Member since
    March 2009
  • From: brisbane australia
Posted by surfsup on Wednesday, September 21, 2016 6:35 PM

It will be held next Year at Redbank on August 26/27. Check out www.QMHE.com for more info.....Cheers Mark.

If i was your wife, i'd poison your tea! If Iwas your husband, I would drink it! WINSTON CHURCHILL

  • Member since
    July 2013
Posted by steve5 on Wednesday, September 21, 2016 3:36 PM

where and when is that held ?

 

  • Member since
    March 2009
  • From: brisbane australia
Posted by surfsup on Wednesday, September 21, 2016 6:05 AM

Did you go to QMHE this Year.

 

If i was your wife, i'd poison your tea! If Iwas your husband, I would drink it! WINSTON CHURCHILL

  • Member since
    July 2013
Posted by steve5 on Wednesday, September 21, 2016 5:52 AM

200 k's due west , the other side of toowoomba .

 

  • Member since
    March 2009
  • From: brisbane australia
Posted by surfsup on Wednesday, September 21, 2016 5:47 AM

Certainly am Buddy. I am in Brizvegas so where abouts are you..??

If i was your wife, i'd poison your tea! If Iwas your husband, I would drink it! WINSTON CHURCHILL

  • Member since
    July 2013
Posted by steve5 on Wednesday, September 21, 2016 4:14 AM

thank's mark you have to be an aussie with that emblem LOL

 

  • Member since
    March 2009
  • From: brisbane australia
Posted by surfsup on Wednesday, September 21, 2016 2:19 AM

Love these Heller Kits Steve so will be watching with great interest.....Cheers mark

If i was your wife, i'd poison your tea! If Iwas your husband, I would drink it! WINSTON CHURCHILL

  • Member since
    July 2013
Posted by steve5 on Monday, September 19, 2016 12:57 AM

the other lovely little chore cannons , [they're kidding with that censorship ] .

  " />

gene

I would love to see you do the victory 1/100 , thing's are a lot easier to handle at that scale !!

 

  • Member since
    July 2013
Posted by steve5 on Monday, September 19, 2016 12:52 AM

thank's again prof . do I still call you that now you have retired . I don't I'm up to individual pin ***'s , but your first option might be better , the sanding has started , one side is nearly done  " />

 

  • Member since
    February 2016
  • From: Western No. Carolina
Posted by gene1 on Saturday, September 17, 2016 2:07 PM

Beautiful ship Steve, I just happened on this site & see that you are back in rigged ships. That was a great job on the Robt. E Lee.  I miss a lot of the new posts as I forget to look on the Forum. I just mounted the finished Victory hull on it's oak base and am getting ready for the masts.

   I have really enjoyed the Victory & would love to do a slightly bigger version than 180, but not 100 like the hugh one Heller has.

  • Member since
    May 2003
  • From: Greenville, NC
Posted by jtilley on Saturday, September 17, 2016 1:07 PM

One approach would be to start with a sheet of adhesive-backed copper and slice it into individual plates. If you do want to represent the nail heads, here's a trick. Before you slice up the sheet, lay it on top of a sheet of medium-grit sandpaper and burnish it. Presto - thousands of little dots. Not in any particular pattern, but on that scale who cares?

On my little HMS Bounty ( http://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/7/t/155394.aspx?page=1 ), I cut the plates out of sheets of .001" copper, and stuck them to the hull with old-fashioned, high odor contact cement. (The adhesive-backed stuff wasn't available then - or if it was I didn't know about it. The model is now about 40 years old, and the plates are still firmly stuck.) When all the plates were on, I sat down in front of the stereo system with the model and a dull needle in a pin vise, and made the dents individually. But I was working on a slightly larger scale (1/110) and a considerably smaller ship.

Youth, talent, hard work, and enthusiasm are no match for old age and treachery.

  • Member since
    April 2016
Posted by Staale S on Saturday, September 17, 2016 12:48 PM

Yes, that is the stuff. Just snip off individual plates and glue them on, easy as pie. On a wooden hull you would want the hull to be painted and varnished beforehand so it has a truly glass-smooth surface for better adhesion, on a plastic hull that is a non-issue so just make sure it is sanded smooth and nice with a fine grade of sanding paper and you are good to go. 

Personally, I'd not worry overmuch about putting in any rivet detail, absolutely not in 1:150 scale anyway. Each plate was nailed onto the hull with a _lot_ of small nails, and the individual nail-head would not be very prominent - they wanted a smooth hull, after all. In 1:48 scale, then maybe.

Such tape is available in soft (heat-treated) and springy (non heat-treated) variants, the soft one is preferable I feel.

 

 

  • Member since
    September 2012
Posted by GMorrison on Saturday, September 17, 2016 12:08 PM

 Modeling is an excuse to buy books.

 

JOIN OUR COMMUNITY!

Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.

SEARCH FORUMS
FREE NEWSLETTER
By signing up you may also receive reader surveys and occasional special offers. We do not sell, rent or trade our email lists. View our Privacy Policy.