Heller Fake Ships - But I can fix the La Sirene and L'Indomptable 

Thanks, will do!

Thanks Andrew. I have a few other ships to get off my bench first, but I should be able to get a start on the Sirene next year.

@@HarryHoudiniModels sounds good!

LOL Moooooo

Thanks Gerry.. it was a lot of fun working it all out.

Glad you enjoyed it Scott

Lots to get out of the way first, but I may do a quick how to make the modification on the Sirene video to keep everyone interested.

Thanks Michael. It is the better version… you should enjoy building the Heller Royal Louis just out of the box

Thanks Midnight… the Heller big sailing ship kits are pretty good

Thanks matey… need to get the St Louis, Vespucci and Esmeralda out the way first, plus an Ertl Greek Warship I have plans to build. Only 1 mast two sails and a bunch of oars, same as the little Aoshima one I made years ago, but about 4 times as big. So might tackle the Sirene next year.

Thanks David

Thanks Martin… only approach I have :)

Great to hear! I once role played at a Medieval Tournament as a knight from the middle ages hehe

Touché

Glad you think so!

Thanks Charlemagne

Thanks John… hit that Like button please! I do a variety of light hearted videos, but ships are my main focus. Hope you enjoy my content.

I did hit the like button.I will be watching more of your vids.P.S. No disrespect meant or intended w/ Old Salt😃

None taken… just some light humour.

The English quite often captured French Frigates and repurposed them in the 18th and 19th century. They were a superior design at the time. Bling got to it’s height in the 17th Century then wained towards the Napoleonic era, where that sort of extravagance was considered to be unseemly. Off with their heads!

The size of the canons negate criticism.

Ha ha… wondered if anyone would get that… yep it’s an Aussie colour.

Give me the wind at my back and a star to sail by! Thanks Gary

@@HarryHoudiniModels - Let me try this old chant Harry - ‘May all your travels be downhill, the path be always clear, and may the wind be always at your back’ Not strictly nautical, but sounds OK - needs an Irish accent I think.

That works, to be sure.

They are my Jerrycans ;)

@@HarryHoudiniModels 💙

Hay ho, Tom’s our man, if he can’t do it Jerrycan!

@@HarryHoudiniModels #tomsobsessian

Super Thanks for the Super Thanks Charles.

@@HarryHoudiniModels I really enjoy the ship models. Other stuff too though

Good to hear

Good tips Robert

Which one? I reviewed 2 and discussed 4 different Heller kits.

Yes, simply a bean counting trick to make more money by trying to use an exisiting model, with a small change (in this case absurb), and palm it off as a new kit. Revell have been guilty of this many times.

I see you have done the same research. It did exist but would not have looked like the way Heller has it in this kit. But as I show you can fix the kit and make a much better model from it.

I talked about this while looking at the L’Indomptable sprues, where Heller has both it and the Gladiator name plates in the kit. I also took my Royal Louis hull half and mated it to L’Indomptable’s hull half to show they are the exact same moulding. Maybe you commented before watching the end of my video?

Oh, yes. Exactly

Thank you… I do have the Soleil and the Royal Louis from Heller.

Thanks Steve. PX is usually held each May at the Albany Creek State Primary School Hall. Heaps of kits for sale at mates rates, and anyone can hire a table to sell their own. It’s run by the IPMS guys of North Brisbane.

I would say it was a bean counters idea. The big sailing ship kits never sell in the same volumes as a Spitfire, Mustang or Tiger kit. But they need a lot of work to produce the hull shape, guns and deck details, plus masts and sails etc. This is why so many of the Heller, Airfix, Revell and Imai Sailing ship kits were first moulded half a century ago, but have had little revision. I expect Heller did the Ford trick; Slap a new grille on it and call it a new model, so the drones will update and pay for the same thing again without realising it. Revell has been very guilty of this taking the Bounty kit and just massaging it into the Beagle and a few other pirate ships. Basically the same kit with a new grille.

Was looking for a model of an older sail ship and found Heller's model of the Niña. Decent detail for a very small ship. But the company, for some obscure reason, molded half of the kit, including major hull parts, in dark reddish brown and half in white. Made for a pain to paint, getting colors to match. Did they run out of brown (or white) plastic? Otherwise, a nice model of an often neglected ship.

Yes well they look like sidewalk cafes!

The masts should only have tension on the rigging lines for the tarred standing rigging. The yards have all the running rigging which tends to be a little looser, with some sag in the lines, so won’t need anything too strenuous.

So I keep being told… maybe I should start a fish food company?

Heller has recently run out of new stock, but there are French online suppliers, like Cocktail 2, who may still have some kits. New prices are outrageous into the $hundreds, however if you look on ebay, now and then a bargain pops up. I found the Heller 1:150 Amerigo Vespucci for €50, which retails for $300 normally here down under, if you can find one. Private sales, online groups or model swap meets are even better places. I picked up the Heller 1:200 Royal Louis for just $20 from a Facebook Group. It normally retails for well over 10 times that, but again only if you can find one.

@@HarryHoudiniModels Thank you very much for the information. I will have to look into acquiring a model from Ebay or market place.

I referenced “French Warships in the Age of Sail 1626-1786” by Rif Winfield & Stephen S Roberts. Page 72 reads: “Indomptable was ordered to a 112-gun design by Joseph-Marie-Blaise Coulomb; with one less pair of guns on the LD and similarly one pair less on the MD, she would have carried just 30 guns on the UD but twenty on the gaillards. Toulon planned to begin work on the two in the spring of 1758 and acquired some timber for them. However, in February 1759 Berryer stopped the construction at Toulon, the financial and military situations by then making their construction out of the question, and both orders were cancelled during 1760 due to shortages both of finance and of suitable timber.” So never sailed but was ordered and possibly started.

I have been known to go down with the ship!

Still lovely kits, accurate or not

You are completely right matey

That’s certainly an option, but I can get my mate Mouse Muffins to knock me up some 3D cannons if I need them.

@@HarryHoudiniModels That's great that you have an option like that. I ended up with 2 Royal Louis kits after the first one came with 2 left hand side Hulls and the Company I bought it from and Heller just totally blanked my emails etc.. so had no option to buy a 2nd one from a better Company hence I had a ton of extras which came in very handy.

I have two port side hall halves for the ships launch in my sealed La Superbe kit… no quality control!

How droll… come on dude… the Hobby is supposed to fun and relaxing.

Sure you can have it… just email me off my website and we can work that out.

@@HarryHoudiniModels Will do, thanks Harry!

No mate that is one of my most prized kits… never sell that one, lucky to find it

What scale is it & how old is it ? Do you know of any 650 BSA kits

Just look in Scalemates. www.scalemates.com/kits/airfix-20480-6-norton-commando--183251

Backer has already asked if he can have my mermaid LOL

Mon Diuer c’est non dee poop!

@@HarryHoudiniModels 😀 L'Ex Lax

These two were fighting ships… no tea or cotton, but maybe some wine and cheese.

Now, Now.. you can count your own planks, just not another modellers without permission. I did give a caveat in the video, that if you wanted to build these out of the box that’s fine. I just wondered what the real ships were like, and if I could modify these kits to be more realistic. Turns out I can. No planks were hurt in the making of this video.

I can’t speak I’ve spent four days trying to recreate a T34/85 turret,I found a picture of one that looked like it was cast by farmer and welded by his wife.

That’s how they were all cast… T-34 were spat out the factory. They only had an average life of 3 days in the field.

@@HarryHoudiniModels If you check out out the T34/85 Walkaround by Steve jones modelling channel you’ll see the turret I was inspired by.Impossible to describe or recreate exactly,but an inspirational experience that has to be seen to be believed.I knew they were a bit “Rustic” in design but it looks like they used a metallic “wattle and daub method.Has to be seen to be experienced.

We need the sharks to eat the tourists mate…hehe

@@HarryHoudiniModels yikes!!!!

…and don’t get me started on our carnivorous Drop Bears…

@@HarryHoudiniModels Harry you're the best love your videos thanks for sharing all that talent!

Lovely… I believe it is a much more realistic model. Do you have videos of the build on RU-vid

@@HarryHoudiniModels Not yet. I will do a coverage when I get to the rigging I guess. This kit a story: I bought it in 2019 from an old French fellow. This kit was really old. He or someone started to build it but failed. So I had to fix some parts of it. And you know what this had a smell of the old times. I think it was in the old cabin or room stored for a very long time. I repainted it like several times trying to find the tone I like but stay with the true colors. Remember I asked you about your beautiful Lifecolor washes. Unfortunately they can't be found in Russia (I am totally against what's happening right now just to mention) even at that time when I asked and can't be shipped either. Although I told you that Citadel Sepia filter does a pretty much the same thing as LifeColor does. It is a good kit of a Heller I am with you here. what I added also was I tried to add cannons rigging and I do ask you to do that to this kit. I am sure you might do that better and I would love to see your way. Canons rigging will add more beauty to the model. That's it for now. Really looking forward to see all of your sailing ship models as that is my passion. And I love the way you add so much effort to add more realistic view of the ships. Thank you!

Bask! One order of shark and some kitty litter rissoles.

@@HarryHoudiniModels lol your to funny Harry

I know… so why do the rivet counters hate me so much? hehe

@@HarryHoudiniModels because they live sad miserable lives and they complain about everything and they are jealous of your beard :P

Well yes… my magnificent follicles are the envy of many!

As I said at the start of the video, you can build it out of the box and still have a nice model. I have just tried to show in this video that all the people who say it was a fake ship were wrong. The Sirene did exist and with a few simple modifications you can turn this fanciful model into something close to the real ship. However if you want to do a ‘what if’, mad 17th century Oligarch version, then go for it. If you have watched my other videos you know I often have a lot of fun and take liberties with my builds.

Nice! Thanks so much John. Really appreciate the Super Thanks.

Hi Harry, enjoying all your videos and I have many sailing ships to build if I live long enough. I’m starting the 1/350 scale Eagle and appreciate your tips on the Aoshima/Lee, etc kits you have done. Id like to do photo etch railings but the ones in that scale are too big. Any ideas for the outside rails, which if done correctly would really make these ships look good?

By the way I just visited Eagle in Pensacola and took a bunch of detail pictures. Obviously in this scale one can only do so much. But you have shown how a few details can really make a difference. Also, how to simulate little blocks that aren’t grossly out of scale?

I used some aftermarket 1:350 PE railings on my Nippon Maru and will do the same for the Vespucci. Worked last time

If you want to make blocks, for rigging in 1:350, try a drop of PVA White wood glue. It should form a 1mm blob, which you can paint brown.